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CHAPTER 19

AURORA

I paced back and forth at the entrance to the tube.

Eleanor spotted me as she came up the steps. She held up her arm and waved.

I raced down the remaining steps and grabbed her arm, forcing it down to her side. “Don’t wave. You’ll draw attention to us.”

“Okaaaay,” she responded. She followed my gaze as my head swiveled frantically to the left and right and back again.

“Just act normal.”

“I am acting normal. You are the one acting weird. What’s going on?”

“Not yet.” I hustled her across the street and into the nearest café.

Eleanor turned toward the counter, but I pulled her back. Without saying a word, I steered her past the tables to the back hallway that led to the restrooms. I waited until the hallway was clear and then pushed through the back entrance into an alley.

“Where are we going?”

I didn’t respond as I pulled her down the alley and then turned left onto the next street. I glanced behind us several times to make sure they did not follow us. After several more blocks and two more turns, I stopped outside the entrance to a pawnbroker’s shop.

“Oh, my God! You’re running!”

“Keep your voice down.”

“What happened?”

I shook my head. “He made love to me last night.”

She gasped, “The monster!”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t understand. Roman doesn’t make love. He fucks. Something’s up. He’s planning something.”

“You make him sound like some kind of Moriarty mastermind.”

I marveled at her na?ve innocence. Was I this innocent once? It seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Just trust me on this. He was acting really weird last night. All loving and caring.”

Last night had been wonderful.

Amazing.

And deeply unsettling.

At first, I thought the drama of my refusing his proposal had miraculously passed and somehow brought us closer, that maybe we had entered a new phase of our relationship with a deeper understanding of one another. Then I realized how preposterous that notion was. Men like Roman didn’t change. In the end, I couldn’t take his caring, gentle hand any longer. I had clasped him to me and said the dirtiest thing I could think of to make him snap out of it and fuck me hard like he usually did. Taboo, fucked-up, dirty sex was our thing. It was us. We weren’t the soft and loving type.

He was planning something. I could feel it in my bones. Something had shifted between us, and not for the better. I needed to leave. Now.

I huddled close to her to block the view of any passersby and dug into my purse. I palmed the diamond necklace I had stashed there and lifted it just high enough for her to see.

Her eyes widened. “Holy shit!”

“He gave this to me ages ago. I don’t think he’ll notice it’s gone.”

She blinked. “The man’s given you enough jewelry that looks like that , that he won’t notice it’s missing?”

I grimaced. “Kind of, sort of… yes.”

She felt my forehead with her hand.

I backed away. “What are you doing?”

“Checking to see if you have a fever; you’re clearly delusional.”

“This is serious!”

She grabbed me by the shoulders. “I am being serious. Aurora, this man is crazy in love with you. He gives you everything you want. You don’t just leave a man like that!”

I shook my head. “He’s incapable of love.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes. “Okay, fine. He’s crazy in lust with you. My argument remains the same. Why on Earth are you running from him?”

Because if I didn’t, he’d destroy me.

Because I was in love with him.

Because he terrified me.

Because we were completely wrong for each other.

Because what we had was twisted and dark and toxic and not the kind of thing you built a lifetime on.

I shrugged. “Just because. I have my reasons. Are you going to help me or not?”

She sighed. “Of course I’m going to help you.”

We went into the pawnbroker’s. It took several hours. At first, the pawnbroker didn’t believe the diamonds were real. Then he suspected they were stolen. He insisted on getting a second opinion on the value of the necklace and checking some kind of police database of stolen items before he finally offered an outlandishly low price for the necklace. I took it. I literally couldn’t afford to be choosy. I had no money and would risk being found out by Roman if I tried to shop the necklace around London for a better price.

“I’ll need it in cash,” I stated as the man wrote a check.

That took another hour while he sent an associate to make a withdrawal from his bank since he didn’t keep that amount of cash on hand.

After an eternity, Eleanor and I finally left the shop. I pressed the roll of money into her hands. “Keep this safe for me.”

She nodded. “When are you going to do it?”

“I’m not sure. Soon. Very soon. Tonight at dinner, I’ll try to find out Roman’s schedule next week. Maybe I’ll get lucky, and he’ll have an evening meeting or business event.”

“Where will you go?”

I averted my gaze. “It’s best if I don’t tell you. If Roman guesses at your involvement, I want you to be able to answer honestly that you don’t know where I am.”

She scoffed. “It’s not like I’d tell him! I’m your best friend. I wouldn’t betray you like that.”

I swiped at an errant tear. I seemed to always be crying lately. “You don’t know what he’s like. He has ways of making people give him what he wants, even against their will. Trust me.”

She hugged me tightly. “You’ll reach out and let me know you’re safe, right?”

I nodded. “As soon as I can.” I looked at the clock on my phone. “I have to go. I don’t want Roman wondering where I am.”

She clasped my hand. “Stay safe.”

“I will. I’ll text you in the next couple of days.”

“Remember, the code word is diamonds.”

I nodded. “Diamonds.”

We hugged one last time and parted.

Once again, I crisscrossed the streets of London, making sure they didn’t follow me before sneaking into a side entrance of a music shop I had entered several hours earlier. Taking a deep breath to calm my breathing, I exited out the front and waved to Roman’s driver, who had been patiently waiting for me. It wasn’t unusual for me to spend a few hours looking over sheet music and playing the different instruments.

He opened the back passenger door. “Did you get what you needed, miss?”

I gave him a watery smile, hoping he wouldn’t notice the tears in my eyes. “Yes, thank you, I did.”

I got what I needed. Money to leave Roman.

Whether it was what I truly wanted was another matter…