Page 60 of Guarded Rebellion

“Did the doctor say if she was…?”

I shook my head. “She was not raped. Not according to that rape kit.”

Her shoulders sank even more, visibly going slack with relief. “Good.”

“Come on. You’re going to fall asleep standing up,” I told her as we got off the elevator. I saw her to her room, but as soon as I left her there to go to the bathroom, she fell asleep. From the looks of it, she was run so ragged that she literally dropped and slept right where she was.

I pulled her shoes off and eased her coat off before pulling the blankets up to cover her. It killed me to walk away from her when all that sounded fair and right was to stay and hold her, but I couldn’t take her exhaustion for granted.

Having sex with her again was a repeat of a mistake I couldn’t afford. If the Boss learned that I’d compromised his virgin niece before she could be engaged, I would be out of a job, cast out from the family.

But also, since having sex with her again, I couldn’t stop this conviction that it wasn’t enough. Not yet. Maybe not ever, but where Eva was concerned, I wanted to go at this one day at a time. For whatever I could get with her, I would meet her in the middle.

The next morning, she was busy in the living room with earbuds in as she seemed to watch and listen to a lecture that had been shared. I didn’t bother her, letting her do her work while I caught up with calls from the men on campus and back home with the Boss. With Irina’s attack, Eva’s almost rape, and now whatever had been done to Kelly, things were moving faster. Too many puzzle pieces were in motion, and I couldn’t go idle now.

All day, she remained in the apartment, studying, going through notes and research, and typing up a report or two.

“I’ve got a couple of big exams coming up,” she explained when I passed through the room.

“Does that mean you won’t need to go to campus?”

She shook her head. “Not without Kelly. I would rather stay in and finish all this stuff until she’s allowed to leave the health clinic.”

Huh.That was different. Her calm attitude was a vast change from the last morning-after when we had sex. She’d avoided me that night, and then we had to go to the Baranov mansion to report in with her uncle. Now, she was facing me with a cool, level head. No avoidance. No histrionics. No… clumsy attempts to hide her attraction to me, either.

“Then I’ll head out.”

She raised her brows.

“More follow-up with the Petrov soldiers on campus. I also want to see if I can see any Ilyin presence there.”

She nodded her head slowly. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me.”

I didn’t. But I wanted to. “Someone will be here on guard.”

She huffed lightly. “Of course.” Already, she lowered her gaze to the books on her lap, back at work.

That was surprisingly easy. I had been prepared for a fight.

I didn’t dwell or linger, though, eager not to be idle with her in the apartment after we’d surrendered to each other. The longer I stayed in her presence, without any clear directive or threat to counter here in the building, the more I wanted to have her again. And again.

Seeing her gorgeous face twisted in an expression of utmost pleasure was a hell of an addiction to curb.

Rurik had another man stationed at the health clinic to watch over Kelly in case anyone tried to bother her there while she recovered. Kelly wasn’t supposed to be included in the umbrella of protection of the family, but it seemed that because Eva had declared her a friend, she had been inserted into our circle. I wasn’t sure that she could ever truly be vetted or vouched for, but so far, I wasn’t planning to dismiss the slim blonde. There was still a very real chance that she could have been an unintentional pawn in something set up to reach Eva.

“I haven’t seen anyone who looks like him,” Marcus reported once I met with him on campus. I didn’t have to use a name for him to know who I was referring to. That guard that I’d assumed to be an Ilyin soldier. He’d acted in defense of Yusuf before I could take him out, but now it was nothing but a big question mark what he had been up to.

He can’t be alive. I killed him.

Maybe he had a twin. Or a doppelganger. Something like that was plausible, but I wasn’t comfortable with someone from thehit on the Ilyin Boss being here on campus where drugs were moving around faster than usual and an influx of rapes were occurring.

With Marcus, I patrolled on campus. For a couple of hours, we searched for signs of the Petrov soldiers. Anyone who could look like someone from the Ilyin group too.

Once he was called to handle something else in the city, though, I made rounds with Rurik. Since he was more versed with how my stake-out and eventual kill had happened on my last assignment, I could talk more in depth with him and get his opinions on the matter. He seemed distracted, though, and a silly thought hit me.

Is he worried about Kelly?

She was nothing more than an accessory to Eva on campus. The blonde wasn’t a Baranov member. She was a stranger at best, despite the familiarity she was gaining by spending time with Eva.

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