Page 42 of Guarded Rebellion

“Yeah, but it’s all over the socials. Irina was attacked at that party.”

I was fully alert now, but I still kept my eyes closed to feign the image of sleep. From the sounds of what Eva was doing, near the sink in the kitchen, my back would be to her.

“Irina? Irina Petrov?”

“Yep. She was attacked at that frat party. One of her friends was raped, too.”

“Oh, fuck,” Eva whispered, concerned and unable to mask the emotion from leaking into her gasp.

“She was raped at that specific party?” Eva cleared her throat, clearly uneasy.

Fuck this.I sat up, not bothering to pretend that I hadn’t been eavesdropping and listening in. That I wasn’t asleep. Eva jumped as I stood and spun to face her so suddenly, but she didn’t try to hide. Her brow remained furrowed with worry as I walked closer.

She jabbed her finger on the screen to mute it. “What if that woman on the floor in that room is the one she’s talking about?”

I shrugged, not commenting on that worry. I had no clue who that naked, unconscious woman was. She likely had been raped, and I didn’t know if she was one of Irina Petrov’s friends. “My priority was getting you out of there,” I replied bluntly. But now, this news of Irina being at the same party and also being attacked, I had to make this my business. The daughter of our rivals being attacked was no passing matter. We could be framed. Or if this was a coordinated strike against another family, we would need to be alert and cautious as bystanders.

I unmuted the phone. “Is Irina all right?” I asked.

Eva frowned at me, perhaps peeved that I was hijacking on her call.

“Oh. Lev. Hi. Um. I think so. The posts and comments I saw this morning seem to imply she isn’t at the health clinic. So maybe her injuries were minor.”

“Eva will talk to you later.” I ended the call and faced her.

“Hey. You can’t just hang up like that. I wasn’t done talking to her.”

“You are now.” I crossed my arms. “Did you see Irina at that party?”

“No.” She didn’t cower, and I fucking loved it. She was bold and strong to stand up to me. I wasn’t sure any man could ever deserve a hard-willed woman like her. “Kelly and I just wanted to go and see what one of those parties were like.” Her expression fell, going deadpan. “You can cross it off as another experience I wanted to have under this ‘fallacy of independence’ you mentioned.”

“You weren’t there for long?” I asked again, ignoring her attitude.

“No. She came here, we evaded Marcus?—”

I pointed at her. “About that.”

“Yeah, yeah. I won’t do it again. As soon as I got to that party, I wanted to leave. Kel did too.”

I frowned.Interesting.She’d gone so far out of her way to sneak out, and then once she was out, she lost interest in this independence she'd insisted on? “Why?”

She shrugged, lowering her gaze. “I don’t know. It all seemed so stupid and petty. Everyone looked so young.”

“You’reyoung.”

She arched a brow. “But legal enough for you to want me.”

I opened and closed my mouth, and she pounced on my hesitation to continue.

“The people at that party seemed so juvenile compared to the people I’ve always associated with. Powerful men. Individuals with power and dignity.”

And capable of violence.

“Maybe you can consider this a lesson, then.”

She huffed. “Oh, I think I’m still reeling from the last lesson you wanted to give me.”

I didn’t stop her as she walked past me. Watching her head back to her room, I sighed and wondered how sore her ass was from all those spankings.

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