“Duh. Because you’re living here now.”
“Yeah. But only until I can find my feet.” I pop open my purse to hand Lila some cash. Turns out Valerian took my other hundred, too.
I hate him even more than his son.
“I’ll transfer you,” I say, shutting my purse. “When I get paid from the magazine.”
“Don’t stress it,” says Lila. “And there’s no rush to move out. After living alone for so many years, I like the company.” Lila trashes the bags and perks up. “Hey. I’m going to Pilates with your mom this evening if you wanna join. Reformer strength. You know the one? It might take your mind off everything.”
My chest clenches when I think about earlier. The blindfold. The handcuffs. The very hot man.
“Yeah, okay,” I say. “Sounds good.”
I could do with getting Valerian off my mind.
But first, I open my laptop, type his name into the search bar and hit enter.
I need to do some research.
The search results load. And there he is, at the top of the page, suited and booted like he was earlier. Except here, he’s smiling, flashing a full set of white teeth.
I click onto his website, my breath catching as I’m hit with more photos of him standing outside of malls, office buildings, attending ribbon cutting ceremonies with the builders. He wears a helmet and a high- vis vest in one of the photos.
It suits him. Everything does.
He owns a commercial real estate business. I guess Igor wasn’t entirely lying about being a realtor.
This must be their business front. Every organized crime family has one, per the movies.
I scroll down the page, seeing achievement after achievement. A small smile toys with the ends of my lips. He’s in the public eye. I could use this to ruin him if I really needed to.
Only, I don’t have any evidence.
I scroll through a few more photos. Surely, he was bluffing earlier.
Valerian probably just likes to scare people for fun.
Some people in this world just like to make others feel small.
“What are you looking at?” Lila joins me on the couch and gasps. “Valerian Sokolov?”
“Youknowhim?”
“Not personally,” scoffs Lila. “But I wish I did.”
“What?” I slam the laptop lid down and set the device aside. “I’m so confused.”
“He’s in commercial real estate.”
Like the internet keeps telling me.
“You know, sells buildings and shit?” continues Lila. “He has a nice face, right?”
“Right.” I screw up my eyes, trying to make sense of this.
“Did you see him today?”
“No,” I spit. “Someone just… mentioned him.”