“I swear I’m safe and I’m okay. Matvei got me here, he protected me, and he can get me home in one piece.”
Kelly glares at me for a long moment before moving her glare over to Matvei. “Okay,” she finally concedes. “But I’m registering my complaints to you now. You know I don’t like this. You’d better call me when you get home to let me know you’re safe.”
“I will. I promise.”
As I give Kelly a quick hug, I can feel my adopted sister’s fear for me in the strength of her return embrace. Never mind the way her eyes follow us as Matvei guides me to the car waiting on the curb and helps me inside. I wave at her just before the door closes, giving her what I hope is an encouraging smile.
“I thought you were taking me home?” I say as Evgeny stops the car, waiting for the gate in front of Matvei’s mansion to open.
“You’re staying with me where I can keep you safe.”
Matvei says it like it’s a foregone conclusion and there will be no arguments. I’ll have to burst his bubble because there will be arguments.
“Excuse me? You didn’t even ask if that’s what I wanted. And what I want is to go home. It’s been a long, difficult night, and all I want is my bed.”
Evgeny rolls down the driveway and into the garage.
“Absolutely not. You’re staying here.”
I follow him as he gets out of the car, thinking that’s the end of it. But it’s not.
“I don’t recall the part of our contract that states I gave you the right to make decisions for me. I know it doesn’t exist, because, if you remember, I’m the one who wrote it. It’s been a long night, and I want to go home.”
Matvei whirls on me in the hallway. “Did you not just see what happened? Do you not realize that’s the second time someone has tried to take your life?”
“‘My life’ being the operative words. It’s my life, not yours. You have absolutely no right to keep me here.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe. Stop being so stubborn. There are guards everywhere around this house, as well as a state-of-the-art security system. What does your apartment building have? A broken security camera that hasn’t worked in thirty years?”
I had no idea about the guards, and yes, the security camera by the door at my apartment hasn’t worked since before I moved in. But I’m not going to give in now. “You didn’t even ask.”
Matvei clamps his jaw. A full minute goes by before he says, “Will you please stay so I can keep you safe?” It seems to take every ounce of his self-control to force those words between clenched teeth.
I shake my head. “No good. I was very clear about the fact that this was it. One night, that’s what the contract states. You promised me it was just a date for the wedding, then you would be out of my life.”
“This isn’t about the contract anymore. It’s about the fact that someone is trying to kill you.”
“Have you forgotten what I do for a living? That I work with women in abusive relationships? This is how it starts—men who think they can control what a woman does.”
“I cannot keep you safe when you aren’t under my roof, Sonya. I gave you my word that I would.”
“You also gave me your word that as soon as the wedding was over, that would be it. I would be done, and none of your world would leak over into mine. Are you going to go back on your word?”
“You’re being stubborn,” Matvei growls, but I can see my words affected him as he takes a step away.
I soften a bit. “I’m not being stubborn. I just refuse to get caught up in your world. I will not be consumed by who and what you are, or ordered around like I’m some medieval princess.”
Matvei’s expression relents, his eyes narrowing. “Fine. If you’re so intent on getting yourself killed, then so be it.”
“I’m not trying to get myself killed. I’m maintaining my independence. I refuse to be ordered around by anyone, period. I know the road to which that leads, and I’m not going there.”
Matvei continues to glare at me in seething silence.
“Besides, my clients need me. I have to be available to them, not locked in some damn tower like a damsel in distress.”
“You can’t help your clients if you’re dead,” he says bluntly.
“Then I guess we’re at an impasse.”