To make Vasov suffer for his crime.
“I’ll make him pay,” I vowed, my tone cold, but my eyes heated as I burned her with a look filled with a promise for redemption.
Her smile was small, soft, but I liked the look of it on her. “I knew you would.”
The beast that had been stirred at the sight of her throat relaxed at her words. Knowing she was aware I would avenge her injury calmed me enough to ask, without a hint of anger, “Your phone?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t have your number, and when I realized Father could follow me, I smashed it.”
“He put a trace on you?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He was in the first store we went to.” Inessa cleared her throat, and it was almost cute how she moved her toe inwards and buckled her knee as she looked down at the ground. “I can take the stuff back if you don’t like it.”
“It looks comfortable.”
That was all I could say.
It didn’t offend me.
Which was probably more of a compliment than anything else.
She stared up at me at that, then a chuckle escaped her. “It is. I also bent over backwards to get this stuff here in time.”
What she meant was it had cost me a fortune to get the items here, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“I appreciate the effort you spent bent over—next time, I’d like to be in the vicinity when that happens.”
Heat shimmered in her eyes, and it washed over her cheeks too. Watching her come into herself, blossoming into a sexual creature, actually made me happy.
Especially when I was the only one who would ever get to see her like this.
I didn’t let her blush surge too high before I muttered, “Tell me your new number.”
She blinked, recited it.
“Did you cancel the old contract?”
That had her tipping her head to the side. “Not yet.”
“Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Do you have the old phone?”
“Yes. It’s in the kitchen. Smashed up, doesn’t have much functionality, or I’d have grabbed your number from it and sent you a message, but it turns on and off.”
“Good. Keep it charged and turned on. Let him think you’re here most of the time.”
She rolled her eyes. “Iamhere most of the time.”
“Apparently not.” A thought occurred to me. “I didn’t hear about this from Limerick.”
When she averted her gaze from mine, I knew what had happened, goddamnit, and I spat, “You’re not to leave the house without him again, do you hear me? Christ, Inessa. Do you think I give a shit if you go shopping all day or if you spend half your afternoon with friends? I set him on you for your protection. Which you evidently need.”
For a second, she looked mutinous, like she wanted to argue, but how could she? I was right. And she wore the marks to prove it.
“I just wanted to do something normal with my friend,” she whispered, her defiance shriveling into dust. “That’s all.”