Page 44 of The Way You Hurt Me

I narrow my eyes, glaring. "I've taken precautions."

"Please. Anyone who knows you would recognize you. Especially after tonight." He turns the screen of his tablet so it faces me.

My own pictures of myself might have disappeared, but on his screen, I can see the video of the horrifying experience from earlier, made even more awful now that I watch, and remember the helplessness, the fear.

He's right. I can see my face clearly.Fuck.

"Willow Brown knows, what, a hundred people? And in the entire world, statistically, the likelihood of those hundred people and the five to ten thousand viewers following Ruby Red Heart interconnecting is rather slim, though not minimal." Dimitri stares at me. "But imagine you become someone, Willow. Imagine if you're a brilliant scientist, or a movie star. Imagine you're the wife of one of the most powerful men in the world, constantly photographed by their side. Do you truly believe no one will know you're also that chick sucking two cocks in a seedy little hotel?"

"Good thing I'm no one," I retort.

I don't even know why I'm arguing.

Except, I kind of do. Ruby Red Heart...I need her. How am I supposed to manage my need to be seen, to be watched, to be loved without her?

After what happened tonight, I probably am insane to insist, but the lesson here is that I have to be more careful, not stop altogether.

"You're done," Dimitri repeats. "Defy me on this, and you won't like the consequences."

"Leave me alone, Dimitri. You've done that for three years just fine. Why stop now?"

"Because I left you alone to keep you safe, and clearly it's not working. We're here." He moves to open the door.

"Wait, we're not done talking." But he's already out of the car. "And where the hell are we?" I ask, shivering as cool air blasts me backward.

It's too dark for me to see much, but we're clearly not in any city. There's space all around us, and fresh, clean air.

While I was too startled to do much more than take in my surroundings, Dimitri took three steps forward. At the third, lights explode around us, paving the way through a long alley surrounded by willow trees, leading up to a fountain, where a sculpted wolf dances with nymphs and mermaids. Beyond, there's a fucking castle. I know it's supposed to be a house, but the word house just couldn't cover it. Manor doesn't work either. The white building has towers,turrets,ramparts, a damn bridge with water running underneath. I didn't even think places like these existed in the states.

"Where are we?"

"The Hamptons," he replies, like that explains how we're in a freaking fortress. "Come on in. There's something you need to see."

21

WILLOW

While the building looked dark and quiet outside, we walk into a fully lit, busy space, with people running up and down the grand stone staircase, not even taking a moment to look at the carved ceilings, the sculptures, the stained glass.

"Are you secretly Prince Charming?" I ask, only half kidding.

It seriously looks like I walked into a fairy tale.

"A little much, huh?" Dimitri places his hand on the small of my back, and I try to ignore how my skin lights up, even through my coat and many layers of clothing, at the simple touch. "The design was my father’s. He liked being extra. And to your question, no, actually, though my father's family does descend from a line of dukes. The Goltzins were closer to the Romanovs than the Volkovs. If you wanted a prince, you should have snatched one of my little cousins."

I shake my head. "I don't know when you're joking."

"That's rather easy. Never."

"Sir," one man says, frowning.He's wearing a knee-length white coat, and holding a tablet. A doctor? "You were not expected. Apologies for the general chaos."

"No apology necessary, Matthew. I expected the chaos. I was rather hoping to show my young friend here to the care room, if you would."

Matthew's eyes widen as they focus on me. "Sir, the newcomers are rather shaken."

Dimitri nods. "Yes, and that's something Willow ought to understand."

Matthew nods, and offers me his hand. "Doctor Matthew Stevens."

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