Page 80 of No Longer Safe

Her eyes grew wide. “Hard launch? He didn’t talk to you about it?”

I shook my head. “He hasn’t been over in a few days. We spent almost every day with each other last week and now he’s telling me he wants me to come over to his place and that work’s been busy. I don’t even know what he does for work.”

“Maybe he’ll tell you tonight?”

That was the only thing that eased my mind as I walked home alone, in the opposite direction of Lu’s work.

Carina loungedon my bed as I tossed things out of the closet. Nothing seemed right. I didn’t want to seem overdressed but I also didn’t want to seem underdressed either. I’d never been to his house before. He said his driver would be over to pick me up at 6. I was a mess. Carina, thankfully, helped me with my hair and makeup or I wouldn’t have been able to get ready in time. I paced the bedroom floor, my bare feet smacking just a little too loudly.

“What do I do?”

Carina rolled onto her back and hung her head over the side of the bed as she watched me. “What do you mean?”

“What if this isn’t supposed to be something?”

She blinked at me, upside down. “Wear something cute.”

“You shopped for me as if I was going to meet the Queen every day.”

She tumbled, backwards, off of my bed and then marched to my closet. She rifled through my gowns and dresses for a few minutes before she pulled out an ivory, tweed shift dress with little boxy pockets on the front. A Jackie Kennedy dress. The braided collar was high, but the hem of it was short, above my knees. It was classy but could be slightly slutty with the right shoes. I knew Carina, and I knew this was exactly what she was going for. She held out her hand and in the center of her palm was a pair of pearl earrings. She then grabbed a black clutch witha gold clasp on the front. A pair of black strappy heels came out next.

After I was done dressing, she grinned. “Oh yeah, he won’t be able to keep his hands off of you.”

“Is that what we’re going for?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Definitely.”

The ride to Alexei’s building was short and filled with a lot of fidgeting. I didn’t know how much his driver, Will, reported back to him but I didn’t want him to tell Alexei I was a nervous wreck on the way there so I tried to keep my twitching and movements to a minimum.

But then there were the thoughts that came with the stillness.

How many women had Will picked up for Alexei?

Was I as pretty as those women?

Was Will comparing me to those women?

Did he even care?

It was no use thinking anything so I tried to clear my head but as soon as the SUV came to a stop, my thoughts were irrational all over again.

I let out a breath just as Will was opening my door. He tipped his head. “Alexei is waiting for you in his penthouse. The doorman has been instructed to let you in whenever you wish. Have a good night, Miss Wilde.”

“Thank you,” My voice shook as I took my first, wobbly steps toward Alexei’s building. The elevator ride was just as nerve-wracking as the car ride. I couldn’t stop overthinking any of this. Obviously, this was not a date; though I’d dressed like I was going on one. Maybe we would go on one after I met him up in his home?

The elevator dinged to the top floor and the golden doors slowly opened to reveal a long hallway with no other doors but Alexei’s. The carpet sunk under my heels as I hesitantly mademy way to his door. Even though the area was well lit there was something in the pit of my stomach telling me to be cautious.

The door swung open before I could knock and my heart jumped into my throat. I was being silly. I couldn’t believe just how messed up this entire ordeal had me.

My eyes landed on a big map of Manhattan over the back wall. It had little blinking dots covering it and I wondered what it meant. Everything was dark and full of shadows and with the lights dim, I could hardly see anything besides the leather couch and chairs situated around a seating area. Once again, no TV. When Alexei didn’t say anything, my eyes settled on him and my stomach really dropped.

The entire left side of his face was black and blue and his bottom lip was split. A gasp escaped me as I rushed to him. He held his hand out to stop me. His eyes crinkled in pain before I noticed the bandage sticking out from his shirt.

“What happened?” I covered my mouth with my hands. The longer I looked at him, the worse it became.

“This is why I’ve been distant, I didn’t want to scare you and I also didn’t want anyone to target you either. I realized this morning that I couldn’t keep this life from you if I wanted a life with you, eventually.” His lips curled but only slightly as it seemed to cause him pain. He flicked his hand toward the map on the wall. “Someone is trying to move in on my territory.” He closed his eyes for a minute. “And because of that, I’ve had a few skirmishes over the last few months. I thought I’d taken care of all of the threats but the other night a couple of guys jumped me. They were just trying to scare me as I’d done to their men. They roughened me up a bit and then stabbed me in the shoulder.”

Another gasp left my lips as I stared at this cold, calculating man who had a heart deep down under it all. “What can I do?”

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