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“Too old. If we’re using the boyfriend idea, nobody would believe she’d date him.”
“He’s thirty-one.”
“Too old. Next.”
Drago sighed. “Martin.”
“He barely speaks English. Why would she date some asshole she can’t even talk to?”
Drago shot me a deadpan look but listed six more men. None of them were right, so I rejected them all. Drago looked like he wanted to strangle me, but if I wasn’t going to be the one protecting her, I wasn’t going to settle for someone who wasn’t good enough.
Katya came back to the table with most of the party—Emmy, Hannah, Nikolai, Maxim, Will, Callahan and Anya. Ava and Jack, Nikolai’s friends from high school, volunteered to keep Emmy’s mom busy while we strategized about how to handle Orlov.
I threw Katya a dirty look as she guided Emmy to the seat next to me. Emmy’s delicate, citrus scent was sending pulses of heat though my body, making me feel agitated and irritable. Someone sat next to her, which knocked her softly into my side, and my teeth clenched at the press of her soft body against mine.
Drago started talking in a low voice. “Okay, everyone, we have some strong evidence that Orlov might be alive and getting ready to make a reappearance. After gathering some intel, we figured out he has developed something of a fixation on Emmy,” he said, gesturing to Emmy seated to my right. “So, we’ve decided to plant one of our men with her at school, presumably in the role of her boyfriend. If Orlov’s as into her as we think, we figured seeing her with another guy will draw him out, even if it’s only out of anger. He doesn’t know we know he’s still alive, so he won’t be expecting us to be looking for him.”
Drago turned to me, but something in his expression made me wary. “That’s why Ivan’s going to have to make it look good when he’s protecting Emmy and pretending to be her boyfriend.”
That motherfucker.
I heard several gasps, and I could feel Emmy’s body stiffen next to me. I shot him a furious look and opened my mouth but ended up staying silent. While I didn’t want to put myself in the role of Emmy’s boyfriend, I definitely didn’t want any of those other assholes Drago picked to do it either. Will was already giving her speculative looks. He glanced at me, and I shot him a scowl that had him focusing his attention back on Drago.
“With this set up, Emmy will be protected, and we get the opportunity to take Orlov out and bury him next to Yuri,” Drago said with menacing intensity.
There were grunts of approval rolling through the small group.
“You two,” Drago said, gesturing to me and Emmy. “You’ll need to make sure everyone who sees you in public knows you're together. Hopefully, when Orlov sees Ivan all over her, he’ll go after one of you, and when he does, we’ll finally take that crazy bastard out.”
I nodded my head, eager to plant a bullet between that asshole’s eyes.
“Emmy, we might need to put some surveillance equipment in your room. I know it’s an invasion of privacy but—”
Emmy stiffened again. “I don’t—”
“Hell no.” A part of me was trying to rationalize my reaction as concern for Emmy’s privacy, but just the thought of Will stroking his dick while staring at her as she changed her clothes had me grinding my teeth.
“How are we supposed to monitor the place for Orlov? It’s likely he’ll want to access her room.”
“I’ll be there—you don’t need video.” Everyone stared at me as if I’d grown another head, but I wasn’t changing my mind and Drago could see it. Like I’d let them stare at Emmy while she was dressing. Fuck no.
“You planning on moving in there?”
I swallowed heavily—the idea of living with Emmy, any woman, wrapping around my throat like a noose. Being once again confronted with the consequences of my uncharacteristically impulsive behavior, I hesitated.
Fortunately, Drago interpreted my silence as stubbornness and rubbed his chin, nodding reluctantly. “Okay, we’ll put video surveillance on the outside of the door. That okay with you?” Drago asked me sarcastically.
I grunted and gave him a clipped nod, relieved to move on.
“When do you leave for school, Emmy?”
“This Saturday.”
“Okay. Ivan, you’re going to have to come around at least once or twice this week, just for appearances. He obviously knows where she lives, so he might be watching her. In fact, he probably is, but is waiting for her to go to school where she will be less supervised. He might have some surveillance equipment set up. We’ll do a sweep of the dorm’s exterior to make sure nothing is rigged.”
I nodded, but my breathing staggered as invisible ties to her wrapped around me like vines, making me feel trapped and suffocated. Visit her at home? Fuck, I had to act like I was really fucking dating her—spend time with her, kiss her, touch her.
I knew this was a trap. I knew what would happen if I pretended to date her. I wanted to run up to Drago and immediately back out, but then whenever I considered the alternative, some other guy spending time with her, touching her, kissing her…it was fucking intolerable.