Page 14 of Sapphire Tears

How, even when we made love, his clothes stayed on.

I always figured he would tell me what was happening when he was ready to. Looking back on it now, though, it’s easy to see how I was making the same mistake I’d made with Adrian. I was attempting to be the good girlfriend again. The kind who kept her mouth shut, who didn’t rock the boat, who looked the other way.

Which just made it easier for them to lie to me. Is that why both brothers are drawn to me? Because they see how much easier their lives are with me in it?

I’ve always been the convenient choice.

Just not the right one.

I hear the door creak open in the front room and I hurriedly shove the ring back into my bra, just before Adrian walks into the room from wherever he goes during the days. He tells me he’s waiting for the right moment where we can finally leave the city, when Kolya’s patrols ease up and give us the opportunity. So far, it shows no signs of coming any time soon.

“I got us some food,” he calls over his shoulder as he drops things on the upside-down crate serving as a nightstand.

Once again, I can smell fried cooking oil and salt. My stomach roils. “I’m not hungry.”

“You have to eat,” he insists. He turns around and offers me a small black phone. “I brought you something else, too. You’ll need one in an emergency. I programmed my number into it already.”

I accept the phone reluctantly. Just a chunk of plastic, warm and sticky to the touch from Adrian’s body heat. “Thanks,” I murmur. “But you really didn’t need to. It’s not like I have anyone to contact.”

I’m trying hard not to be self-pitying, but some days, it’s hard.

“It’s best not to contact anyone anyway,” Adrian says. He shuffles anxiously in place and looks down at his feet. “I didn’t want to say anything, but…”

“But what?” I ask, pushing myself upright with a wince.

He runs a hand through his hair, the mirror image of Kolya. “Word on the street is that the patrols aren’t standing down like I hoped they would. The opposite, actually. According to my sources, he’s mounted a full-scale search for you.”

I feel a lump rise to my throat. “He’s looking for me?”

Adrian nods and grimaces. “If you were to contact someone—your parents or Geneva, for example—he might have a better chance of tracking you down. He’s probably got eyes on all of them.”

“I have no idea where Geneva even is at this point,” I admit. “And as for my parents… they’d probably tell me to go back to Kolya.”

“Huh?”

There it is again—another peek at the lava hiding beneath Adrian’s placid facial expression. Hot and furious, then gone as quick as it came.

“Yeah, they liked him. Loved him, actually.”

Adrian scoffs. “Because he has money.”

I wish I could argue with that, but Adrian has met my parents. He knows exactly what kind of people they are.

He shakes his head like that’ll dislodge the thoughts running through it. “Well, fuck them. If you’re missing Geneva, I could try and track her down for you,” he offers. “If that would make you happy.”

For all that this whole situation is insane and bizarre and I want nothing more to go running to the police—something that Adrian has warned me several times will only end in disaster, because the Uvarov Bratva has half the damn force on their private payroll—he really does seem to be intent on making me happy. Trying to, at least.

But some things are just beyond reach for the time being. “I don’t think so. Geneva and me—well, we’re not exactly on speaking terms right now.”

“Why not?”

I turn away from him. “Long story.”

He sighs. “Okay. Well, anyway, I just want to make sure you have a way of contacting me if one of Kolya’s goons comes knocking.”

“They’re not going to find me in this dump.”

“Which is exactly why it makes sense for us to stay here a little longer,” he says apologetically. “I mean, it’s the perfect cover. Kolya would never think to look here.”

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