Page 70 of Heathen

I wrap my arms around myself, needing to find some sort of shield from the cold that's rolling off his shoulders.

"DimaTkachenko and Edmon Vasilev are both in jail."

"Oh good," I say, but his head shakes, as if trying to tell me that it's not okay.

I watch as he takes a seat on the edge of the bed, his eyes searching mine.

"Did you find Alena?" I ask, a tremble in my voice as I lift my hand to cover my mouth, thoughts of her coming to a violent end making me shake.

"We found nothing," he answers. "No paperwork of any kind. No proof of other women. We didn't even find your name at the warehouse. He's smart enough to keep it somewhere else. He claimed a fire destroyed it all, but he wouldn't be so lucky."

"What does this mean for me?" I ask, because half of me wants to be free from the threat of danger, but the other half is already scared that there will be retribution from Dima and Edmon when they get a chance to retaliate.

"They're out of commission for a while. We believe Dima is the head of this organization, but it's possible he isn't. It's possible that someone else can step right back into his place and they'll be back up and running by morning."

"So the women were free to go?"

"Kaylee," he whispers, and it makes another wave of unease run up my spine. "They have no documentation. There's a very real chance they'll eventually be deported."

"What?" I ask with a shake of my head. "That's not right. What if they don't want to go back to their home country?"

"If they aren't here legally, they can't stay. That's just how these things work."

I feel sick to my stomach. I don't know what's worse—them staying here and getting married off to men they don't love, or going back to a country they fled from for a reason to begin with.

"Dima claims a fire destroyed his 'employees' paperwork.” He lifts his hands to make quotation marks with his fingers as he says employees. “Although there was a fire at the storage facility that he rents, we can't prove it was actually there."

"When was the fire?"

"Yesterday," he answers.

"Seems convenient," I mutter.

"Exactly, but the fact that there might be a mole in one of the departments who knew we were looking into that crew is a different ball of wax."

"How can Cerberus do any good when there are bad guys disguised as good guys?"

"It's definitely a hindrance," he says, running both hands over the top of his head in frustration. "I can't guarantee thatthings are safe for you now, but Dima is going to be quite busy trying to get himself out of trouble with the EPA. I doubt he'll have time to worry about an American citizen who he already made his money off of."

"What are you saying?"

His eyes look sad when they reach mine, but it's also very possible that I'm trying to read much more into his mood than is actually there. I don't exactly have the best track record for reading men's true emotions. Had I been capable of that, I might've never had to leave Texas in the first place.

"It's your choice whether you want to stay or go."

My choice.

Seems easy enough. I should be jumping for joy.

If he thinks it's safe enough to go back to my regular life, then I should take that at face value and rush out of the door, right?

"How safe is it?" I ask, a larger part of me wishing he'd just ask me to stay. But I know this departure from my regular life won't last forever, and the longer I stay in this world, the harder it's going to be to return to my own.

"Safer than it was yesterday," he says as he stands. "I'll give you time to think about it. I have to debrief with my team."

"How long do I have to decide?"

"Take as long as you need," he says, before stepping in close and pressing his lips to my forehead.

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