Page 135

The corner of my mouth twitches despite everything. “Technically, it’d make you the highest-paid remote employee in the company.”
She stares at me for a long beat. Then slowly, finally, she lets out a breath and shakes her head, a laugh breaking through her frustration.
“You’re out of your damn mind.”
Yeah, maybe.
Sasha shakes her head again, muttering something under her breath as she walks toward the window. “I don’t want to be your prisoner, Damien. Or your secret. Or whatever it is you think this is.”
“I don’t want you to be any of those things,” I say quietly.
She turns back to me, arms still crossed. “Then let me go.”
I don’t answer. I can’t.
She studies me a second longer, eyes blazing. “You say you want to keep me safe, but all this—this house, this isolation, your half-truths—it doesn’t feel safe. It feels like I’m walking into something I’ll never get out of.”
Then she storms past me, brushing against my shoulder without another word, bare feet silent on the marble floor as she disappears down the hall.
I let her go.
Because I don’t have the right words yet. And forcing her to stay with no answers isn’t going to make her trust me—it’ll make her hate me.
I exhale, rubbing my temples just as Oleg’s voice pipes up from the corner.
“Word around the house is you brought a new toy home,” he says, shrugging. “That’s new. Usually you just ruin ’em and leave ’em in the city.”
I stare at him flatly. “You done?”
He smirks. “Just saying. We’ve known each other a long time. But I’ve never seen you look like a kicked puppy after a girl calls you out.”
“I will shoot you,” I deadpan.
Oleg laughs. “Okay, okay. She’s not a toy. Got it. I mean, hell, judging by that vein popping in your forehead…holy shit.” He points, eyes going wide. “You like her.”
I say nothing.
“Like,like-like her.”
I grind my teeth. “Oleg.”
He holds up both hands, backing off like I’ve pulled a gun. “Message received. Lips zipped. I was never here.”
I narrow my eyes. “If you ever call her a toy again?—”
“You’ll shoot me. Got it. Yeah, yeah. No one touches the girl, no one talks about the girl, no one looks at the girl.” He starts walking backward down the hall.
But even after he’s gone, I stand there, jaw tight, staring at the spot where Sasha stood just minutes ago.
He’s not wrong.
And that’s the most dangerous part of all.
22
SASHA
Despite the factthat Iexplicitlytold him not to get me a laptop…