Page 15 of Rebellion

She closed her eyes momentarily as the voice she dreaded hearing came from behind her.

“Look at me.”

She couldn’t. She was frozen in fear.

Unable to move.

That voice had ice forming around her. Until she was trapped.

Terrified.

Then she felt him move closer. But it did nothing to melt the ice. The stench of his breath hit her nose as he slid his mouth close to her ear.

She shuddered in revulsion.

Please don’t let him touch her.

He’d caught her in her office at Solynshko. She’d been about to head home. Exhaustion was making everything fuzzy and her back was killing her.

She had to get out of here. The last thing she needed was for Sacha to catch her here. She didn’t need another lecture.It had been three days since he’d caught her and Colm in the storeroom.

Wow. That sounded like they’d been doing something wrong, which they hadn’t.

He’d just been helping her. Like he always did.

Because he was her friend.

That’s all they were. It was all they ever could be.

Friends.

Sofia wasn’t supposed to work tonight, but she’d come in because they were short-staffed. A nasty bug was going around, so she’d helped out behind the bar. And she hadn’t had a chance to sit down all night so her back was on fire, the pain agonizing.

And where had Oleg been?

Not here, anyway.

“Where you going?” he asked in his broken English.

“I’m going home,” she said, hating that she answered him.

It’s not like you have any choice.

“And the cash in your hand? What it for?”

“It’s for Bea and Miller,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Miller. I cannot believe you hire that slut.”

“She’s not a slut!” But she knew that nothing she said would change his opinion.

Miller was someone that Sofia would love to be friends with . . . in another life where she was free to have friends.

“Why you give them money? Is payroll system not working?”

Like he’d know anything about the payroll system. He played a good game at pretending to work when she actually did it all.

“It’s working fine. This is a bonus for their hard work.”

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