Page 120 of Dirty Damage

“He’s…” I shake my head. “Today, I saw him laugh, Mara. Really, actually laugh.”

“I had no idea robots were capable,” she teases.

“I thought he was this emotionless monster when we met, but…”

I take a slow perusal through the last three nights of Oleg’s hands on my body, his ragged commands and breathy praise in my ear. The flash of raw heartache on his face when I said his sister’s name. Elise’s name.

“He has a heart, Mara. And I think it’s broken.”

“Is this your way of telling me you’re his rebound? ‘Cause I’ll castrate the man if he hurts you. I really will.”

I almost laugh, which, given the day I’ve had, is a testament to Mara. “No, it’s not like that. It’s— His sister. She died. In the same fire that gave him his scars, but he won’t talk about it.”

“Damn.” Mara’s eyes go soft with sympathy. “That’s heavy.”

“Yeah. And I get it, I do. Some wounds never heal. But how am I supposed to build a life with someone who won’t let me in?”

“Maybe he just needs time?”

I think about the contract tucked away in my dresser drawer. Time isn’t exactly on our side.

“You make it sound so real,” Mara remarks, studying me through the screen.

My heart launches into my throat. “What is that supposed to mean?”

She can’t know the truth. She doesn’t know about the contract.

“Come on, Sut. Rich, damaged guy sweeps you off your feet after one meeting? I know you have a romantic heart under all those hoodies you wear, but it sounds like he flashed some dollar signs under your nose.”

I gasp. “Hey?—”

“No offense, no offense!” she practically shrieks. “Believe me, I get it, girl. It’s tough out here in these minimum wage streets. You gotta do what you gotta do… especially if what you ‘gotta do’ is a smoking hot billionaire. All I’m saying is, no judgment.”

“I won’t lie—it’s partly about money,” I admit. “He can give me security and stability and the kind of life Sydney and I only ever dreamed of. But there’s more to him than that. He has another side to him.”

“You ain’t no gold-digger,” she declares with a quick head bob. “Got it. But speaking of gold-diggers—how is Syd?”

My stomach twists, both from the mention of my sister and the dangerously close comparison Mara just drew.Am I a golddigger?

“Radio silence. You know how she gets when she’s… dealing with stuff.”

The burner phone Drew gave me has been burning a hole in the back of my mind since the night he cornered me. I shoved it in the back of one of my drawers and tried to forget about it. I should throw it away—melt it down, strap it to a rocket, and send it into orbit.

But if I get rid of it, how will I know what’s going on with my sister? She isn’t taking my calls, so for now, Drew keeping his promise to give me weekly updates is my only hope of staying in touch with her.

“Dealing with stuff being code for ‘letting some asshole treat her like garbage’?”

“Pretty much.” I massage my temples. “I’ve tried calling, but…”

“But she won’t pick up because she knows you’ll tell her to leave him,” Mara finishes for me. We’ve both been here with Syd enough times to know this tale by heart. “Which she should, obviously.”

“Obviously,” I repeat. “But getting engaged to Oleg doesn’t exactly help my case. She thinks he’s my sugar daddy.”

Mara shrugs. “I mean…”

“He isn’t!” I insist. “Oleg is nothing like Paul.”

And I’m nothing like Sydney.

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