Page 54 of Devious Madness

“I need to take this.” He answers the call, telling the person to wait, then points toward the stairs. “Upstairs, the room at the end of the hall.”

I leave him to his call and go in search of the bathroom that I’m sure is at least the size of my bedroom at my apartment.

It’s even better than I imagined. Though it’s not just a bathroom; the room he sent me to is a bedroom with an en suite. But the shower is huge, and it has one of those three shower head systems.

After I take a hot, soul-soothing shower, I wrap myself in the fluffiest towel I’ve ever touched. When I peek into the bedroom, I find my bag sitting on the dresser. Relief washes over me. I’d forgotten it in the car.

As I dig through to find the pair of sleep shorts, I find my cell phone at the bottom. The burner is gone, but he must have forgotten about this one.

Pressing the side button to turn it on, I say a small prayer that the battery didn’t drain while we made our trip home. Full bars! Score.

I hit Megan’s contact and listen to the rings. She picks up on the second one.

“Mira! Are you okay?” She sounds panicked.

“I’m fine,” I assure her. “I wanted to check in with you—you know, after that big brute shoved me into the car and stole me again.”

She laughs. “He didn’t shove you. I saw. He tossed you.”

“Big difference.” I mutter. “Are you okay?”

“Me?”

“I’m so sorry. For all of this.”

“You already said that, and it’s not needed.” She repeats what she said earlier. “Getting you out of town was the best thing to do.”

“Yeah, but I left you to deal with the crazies, and there were more than we thought.”

She sighs. “True, but we didn’t know that. I mean, seriously, the Russian mafia? Who knew they’d get involved.”

I sink onto a chair. “Still. I shouldn’t let you mother hen me so much. I should have stayed and protected you from the fallout of my fuck up.”

“We made the decision together, right? It was our call.”

Megan and I have been more like sisters than roommates since the first time we met. She’s the closest thing to true love I’ve ever had.

I decide to let it drop. She’s never going to admit this is all my fault. “Was your husband—I can’t believe you’re married—angry when we left?”

She laughs softly. “No, not really. I mean I raged at him for letting Rurik take you, but he didn’t even get mad about that. I told him to stop Rurik. To get you back into the house, but he just said no and went to some meeting.”

“No? His guy was kidnapping me. Again!”

“After you ran out, he told Rurik to leave you with us. That you could stay with us, that Rurik’s job was done.”

My heart hits my ribs. He was given the chance to dump me at their doorstep, and he didn’t take it?

“What…what did Rurik say?” I try my damnedest to sound disinterested, but Megan can practically gauge my blood pressure from the sound of my voice.

“He just looked at Alexander.” She laughs. “I didn’t realize anyone other than Alexander could look so frightening. I thought fireballs were going to shoot from his eyes!”

I know exactly which expression she’s talking about, and more heat runs through my veins at picturing it.

“He pulled out his gun and said he was taking you home. Then he muttered something under his breath that I couldn’t understand, but I got the gist.”

“Yeah, he’s mostly easy to read. At least when it’s about me.” I tuck the edge of the towel deeper to secure the hold as I get to my feet.

“I’d say he wants you.”

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