Page 44 of Guarded Rebellion

I sobered. “Even how I found Eva?” Only Rurik could have told him that part.

“No. He’s unaware that she was almost…”

I held my hand up, not wanting to even hear him say it. Especially with Eva stepping out of her room, her hair brushedand her looking more put together. I doubted she could be traumatized about what happened at that party after we’d changed the course of the night together here.

“But the Boss wants you to report in,” Rurik told me, sparing a glance at Eva. “I think he wants to get your opinions about everything happening around here.”

I stared at Eva, unwilling to let her out of my sight so soon. “You’re skipping class today.”

She crossed her arms. “Again?”

“Again. You’re coming back with me to check in.”

The closer I kept her with me, the less I’d worry about an unexpected threat reaching her in my absence.

At least, that was the lie I told myself. In reality, it was nothing more than a matter of wanting her present and within reach—no matter what.

18

EVA

Lev telling me that I would skip another day of classes was annoying. This time, he wasn’t trying to ground me or keep me locked in the apartment as a punishment. No. Now, he wanted to drive me back home.

I stiffened, wondering if what we said earlier was being taken as a sign that I’d give up on this college experience altogether just because I’d admitted that I realized that frat party wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be and wasn’t something I wished to be a participant in.

“You’re not planning to drive me home and leave me there, are you?” I challenged coolly.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered. “No.”

Hmm.I wasn’t sure how to read him with that response. We had sex last night. It was hard and fast, a total surprise and an impulsive reward in my opinion, but it couldn’t have been so earth-shattering for him as it had been for me.

Could it really be enough for him to reconsider how he treated me and viewed me?

“So, let’s go,” he ordered gruffly.

Ah. There he is. Overlord Asshole.

Rurik studied me for a moment longer than I cared for, and I worried that he could be assuming anything that might resemble the truth of what happened in this room last night. All the soldiers knew I was to remain a virgin for my chosen husband, but there was no way he could perceive that Lev had taken that honor for himself. That I’d picked my bodyguard to have that right to my body.

“What?” I asked, uneasy about the idea that anyone could know about me and Lev. It went without saying that we had to keep this on the down-low. Obviously.

“Nothing.” He headed for the front door as Lev returned, tugging a new jacket on over his suit. All black. Dark and brooding. Serious and stern. Suits always helped a man to clean up well, but this man looked far better rough and ready to get dirty.

Stop. Stop thinking about it.

It was easier said than done. Forcing myself not to think back to how good Lev made me feel was impossible. On the drive back to the mansion where my father and uncle lived, the silence hung so heavily between us, it was a wonder I didn’t snap. Tension grew between us, but I resisted the urge to fidget and let him see that I was bothered with the mile-a-minute rate of thoughts in my mind.

I was ill equipped to discuss what happened between us last night, sonotaddressing it seemed safest. Instead of stressing about how badly I wanted to clarify my opinions about how he’d taken me so rottenly but so perfectly, I directed my thoughts to what Kelly had told me. And also what Rurik had shared with Lev. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I’d cracked my door open to listen in to what they said.

If Irina was attacked at the same party I had been to, it wasn’t far-fetched to assume that I had been targeted in a similar manner. Someone clearly had to have picked Irina to attackbecause she represented power. She could be leverage. She was athingthat mattered to the Petrov Family, so if anyone wanted to give the Petrovs a message, harming her was a valid way to go about it. Likewise, I could’ve been selected to be raped because of who I was.

When Kelly asked me if I was in danger to go out without guards, I’d answered vaguely. Of course, I would be in danger anywhere I went. I could be taken or killed as a strike against the Baranov organization. That had never happened before, but now, I had to admit my need for pretended independence at college could be naïve and selfish in that regard.

I refused to think I was making myself vulnerable to be outside my family mansion, but I had to accept that Lev and the other soldiers were the key elements to avoid such blunt vulnerability.

Who would be doing this?I heard Rurik state that my would-be rapist was a soldier connected to the Ilyin Family, but what did it mean in regard to Irina and her friend?

Are the Ilyins trying to attack both Petrov and Baranov units now?

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