Page 76 of No Longer Mine

“Then what does he want from me? Why tell me?”

Cleo patted my hand. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him for yourself.” She straightened and pulled me with her. “But first, you’re taking a shower, and you’re going to wash the despair from your body. After that, we are going to have a real meal and go shopping.”

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to go shopping. I wanted to continue to wallow until I was forced to change my identity and move away. Cleo shoved me down the hall to my bedroom and then through the bathroom. She turned the shower on while I tried to sneak away.

Maybe if she didn’t notice…

She screeched like a wild animal and chased me down the hall. I hardly had time to dive onto the couch before she wrapped her arms around my waist, and we both collapsed on the floor in front of the couch. I would have made it too if she hadn’t tried to stop me.

My chin ached from where it connected with the wood floor, I rubbed it with my hand as I winced. “You didn’t have to tackle me like a wild manic.”

“You didn’t have to stink to the high heavens either, but here we are. If you’d showered like a normal person, we wouldn’t be in this predicament now, would we?”

I groaned underneath her. “Just let me die alone, in peace.”

She pushed me over so I was on my back and grabbed each of my ankles. I tried to kick her off, but her grip was unmatched. She dragged me, on my back, all the way down the hall with my legs on either side of her body like a corpse.

I closed my eyes and just let it happen because Cleo didn’t give up. If I didn’t let her, she would bring the shower to me, and the last thing I wanted was my entire penthouse flooded. At this point, I wouldn’t put it past her.

It wasn’t until I was under the spray of the hot water that I truly realized just how low I’d allowed myself to sink.

A week of takeout and sulking. A week of dodging Oliver’s calls. A week of replaying Dimitri’s voice in my head, over and over, like some kind of masochist.

Dimitri Cristof.

I slammed my eyes shut, letting the water stream down my face. I should hate him. I did hate him. I hated that he knew entirely too much about me, and I hated that I ran scared instead of finding out everything he knew about me. I hated that he had pieces of me that were long buried. I hated that no matter what I did, I couldn’t escape what I’d gone through.

A small voice in the back of my head reminded me that I could break into his house again, but that would require stalking him now that I knew his calendar was not giving true events. But the last thing I wanted was to be de-railed in my plan and instead railed by the impressive cock hanging between his legs. I could not get trapped beneath his body because then I would crave him and I absolutely couldn’t crave a man that was terrible for me.

Cookies are terrible for you, too, but you have an entire stash in the pantry. My brain seemed to whisper.

Ugh.

The lines were getting blurred, and I couldn’t allow them to. I’d already screwed up by him seeing my face and then him taking me to dinner and now he knew bits of my past that were supposed to be gone—erased. I knew what came next, and I was not going to do it. I was not going to do him, no matter how badly I wanted to.

I braced my hands against the cool tile and exhaled.

Cleo was right. I needed to get my shit together. I would need to remind myself over and over again that he couldn’t be trusted. He knew something only the closest people in my life knew, and that was dangerous. I couldn’t risk it.

By the time I stepped out, wrapped in a towel, she was lounging on my bed, flipping through my phone.

“Excuse me?” I snatched it from her hand.

“Relax, I was just making sure you hadn’t blocked Oliver. Which, by the way, you better call him back before he shows up here and drags you out himself.” She pointed at my closet. “Now get dressed. Something hot, because we’re going out.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Shopping does not require me to look hot.”

She grinned as she twirled a platinum blonde wig on her finger. “Who said anything about shopping? I’m taking you somewhere fun.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Dimitri

My fingers curledinto fists as I paced the length of my office. I was getting tired of waiting. It felt like a never-ending game. It felt like no matter what I did, I would never get ahead of him. I also knew that I somewhat no longer cared because Scarlett had wiggled her way under my skin all over again. I shouldn’t have been worried about her or her tear-filled eyes as she ran from me again. I should have thrown everything into the ring in order to get my father.

I didn’t like being patient. I didn’t like waiting, but Alexei kept promising me that he had a plan. I needed to trust him because I couldn’t be caught up in a scandal. I was doing what I could legally. It was just a slow-moving process. The worst part? He’d had two more shipments of girls. Not even women. Most of them looked like they weren’t even old enough to drive.

Even though we weren’t moving against my father physically, we kept tabs on the docks. It turned my stomach to think of but there was nothing that could be done yet.