16. Evelyn
16
EVELYN
I know Dimitri is going to be furious with me for slipping out without telling Gus. And I know, deep down, that I shouldn’t go out without him. After being cornered at the wedding yesterday by that man, who was almost certainly a Crow, I should be more worried about the danger.
And I am . I’m not pretending that everything is fine, or that I don’t need to be careful. I hadn’t really planned on going out without Gus at all. But then Dahlia texted me, asking me if I wanted to get lunch with her and two of her other friends, and I stared at the screen for a long time, not wanting to say no.
I didn’t want to keep hanging around Dimitri’s penthouse, feeling out of place and uncertain what I should do, in a weird sort of limbo because all I have to do right now is unpack or wait on someone to call or email me with questions about the shop. It’s not cleaned up enough yet for me to actually have a hand in the beginning of the remodel, and so I’m stuck right now.
I also didn’t want Val or Bonnie to see Gus with me. Dahlia knows about him, of course, but there’s nothing I keep from Dahlia. She’s also the only person in my life who knows about my marriage to Dimitri. I can hedge around the topic of the shop, but if I show up at lunch with a bodyguard, that’s going to raise a lot of questions. Questions that I don’t know either of the other two women well enough to want to share.
But I desperately want to go. Badly enough that I find myself upstairs after five or so minutes of dithering, texting Dahlia that I’ll meet them at the restaurant as I look through one of my garment bags for something to wear. I settle on a pair of sleek black leather leggings and a long, soft purple sweater, with chunky boots. Nothing that will make me stand out too much, but still stylish.
The only question is whether or not I really can slip out without Gus noticing. He said he wasn’t going to hang around the apartment, and he kept his word on that, leaving to take a loop around the building not long after we talked. Now, the penthouse is empty except for Buttons, who has found a spot on the couch closest to one of the floor-to-ceiling glass walls and is enjoying the view.
Dimitri is probably going to lose his fucking mind when he sees dog hair on the couch, but I’m too annoyed with him right now to care. And, to be honest, that annoyance is also probably part of the reason why I disregard the fact that I know I shouldn’t go out alone.
I slip my ID and credit card into my back pocket, so I have plausible deniability if Gus or one of the other guys catches me. I’ll just say I was looking for one of them, or just stepping outside for a minute. They’ll probably still be upset, but not as upset as they’ll be when they realize I’ve actually left.
I called an Uber, because I can’t wait for a taxi to come around. When I poke my head out into the hall, I see two of Dimitri’s guys at the far end, talking about something, turned partially away from me. The elevator is just ahead, and I grip the black key card that I found in Dimitri’s room—our room now, I suppose—quickly padding out into the hall and pressing the elevator button.
The chime of the elevator makes the two men at the end of the hall turn, but I move so quickly that I have to hope they didn’t realize it was me. Otherwise, someone will catch me as soon as I get down to the main floor. A stab of guilt jabs at me as the doors close and the elevator starts to go down, because I know the only reason I was able to find that keycard so easily in the bedroom is because Dimitri trusts me not to do something like this. After this, he won’t trust me so entirely.
That thought is almost enough to send me back up. But I remember how he acted this morning, and I’m pissed all over again. And I miss Dahlia already. I miss feeling normal. Nothing about the last couple of days—hell, the last couple of weeks has been normal. Lunch with friends is what I need. I need to be myself again, just for an hour or two.
And that means going without a bodyguard.
I hurry through the lobby, glancing around. I hear footsteps, and I feel sure that someone has seen me—Dimitri mentioned that his security here is good at staying out of the way until they’re needed. But my hope was that if anyone did notice me, seeing me leave alone would confuse them just long enough for me to get out of the building. That they’d be too busy trying to figure out if anyone is following behind me, and who is responsible for leaving me alone, that I can slip away.
That seems to be what happens. I hurry towards the front doors, ignoring the echoing footsteps I hear that might be someone trying to figure out what I’m doing, and bolt out into the cold. I see the black Toyota Camry that’s my Uber idling at the curb, and fling myself inside, confirming my name with the driver breathlessly as he pulls away from the curb,
In my periphery, I see the doors to the building open, and I know someone saw me. Dimitri is going to be furious. But he doesn’t know where I’m going, and I’ll have a couple hours of peace before I have to deal with the fallout. I’ll get him to understand, once I talk to him. And he’ll come around. We’ll argue about it, but isn’t that what married couples do?
Leaning back in the seat, I close my eyes and feel myself relax a little as the building fades into the background and we drive further downtown. I just want to be me for a little while—to pretend like all the chaos and worry and fear of the past couple of weeks doesn’t exist. I want to push it all away, and the further we get from Dimitri’s penthouse, the more I feel like I can do that.
My phone buzzes, and I see that it’s Gus. I hit ignore , quickly texting Dahlia and telling her I’ll be there shortly. And then I silence my phone, shoving it into my pocket. I’m sure that it will have blown up by the time I look at it again, but that’s a problem for me sometime in the future.
Right now, I don’t want to think about it.
Dahlia told me to meet her and the other two women at Sakura, a sushi restaurant we’ve been to before. The Uber driver drops me off, and I hurry into the building, glancing around before darting inside. I’m not completely oblivious to the fact that someone might be watching me, or that they might follow me. But as long as I don’t stay outside alone for too long, I’m sure I’ll be fine. And I won’t even be gone all that long—it’s just lunch.
Dahlia, Val, and Bonnie are already sitting at a round table near the back, and Dahlia waves as I get closer, pulling out a seat for me. They’ve ordered appetizers and drinks—Dahlia has a glass of sake, Val has what looks like plum wine, and Bonnie stuck with water. There’s a platter of sashimi and a dish of calamari with a trio of sauces, and my stomach grumbles. I haven’t eaten much today, and I’m suddenly even more glad that I decided to come out.
“How are things with the boutique?” Val asks before I’ve even fully sat down, and though I know she’s just trying to be nice, I can’t help but flinch. Of course that would be the first thing.
“I’m doing a little—restructuring,” I manage, deciding that isn’t exactly a lie. “Reworking the design, that kind of thing. You know, a refresh. It’s good to do from time to time, with how fast the fashion world moves. Especially with social media—” I trail off as the server comes by, grateful for the excuse to order a drink instead.
“That must be expensive,” Bonnie says, sipping at her water. “You must be doing really well these days.”
Dahlia chokes a little on her sake, coughing. Bonnie glances at her. “Are you alright?”
“Fine!” Dahlia manages, clearing her throat. “Just swallowed wrong.”
“I have an investor,” I say quickly. Which, again, isn’t exactly a lie. It’s just leaving out some key details, like the fact that I had to marry said investor. “Things are a bit slow right now, actually. But we’re going to completely redo the boutique.”
“That’s impressive,” Val says, her eyes widening. “Good for you.”
“Right?” Dahlia nudges me under the table. “I’m so proud of her.”
I know she actually is proud of me. She’s proud of me for taking the opportunity I was given and making the most of it, instead of giving up. But I feel bad for telling the white lies about what’s really happening, even though I don’t know the other two women all that well.
“Well, things have been good at the Met,” Dahlia says, quickly changing the subject. “I have a new exhibit opening next month. You should all come. It involves Norse sculpture, and I’m really excited for it.”
With the topic having steered away from me and the boutique, I’m able to relax a little. And I’m genuinely interested in what’s happening with Dahlia’s exhibit. She’s eager to talk about it, and she fills us all in as we order a tower of sushi rolls to share and Bonnie chimes in with the newest gossip in the world of publishing.
It feels good to just sit and talk with my friends, eating sushi and not thinking about anything else other than small talk about work and dating gossip. The latter makes me a little nervous, since I don’t want to say anything about my new marriage, but fortunately, the other three women have enough to go around. Val is seeing some hedge fund manager that she thinks is already cheating on her, and Bonnie tells us about an intern that flirts with her every morning when he comes in. Dahlia laments the fact that she hasn’t had anything other than a one-night stand in months… “and even those have been disappointing,” she adds, rolling her eyes as she tosses back another sip of sake.
I sip at a small cup of cold lychee sake too, nibbling on toro tartare and salmon avocado rolls, and the time passes without my thinking about it. For just a little while, I’m able to stop thinking about everything that’s making me feel uncertain, everything that makes me wonder if I made a huge mistake marrying Dimitri.
Dahlia hangs back at the end of lunch, after we’ve all said our goodbyes and the other two women leave, while I’m looking for an Uber. “Are you alright?” she asks quietly, her voice muted by the bubbling of the bamboo fountain in the restaurant lobby. “I wanted to check on you, since last night was the first night you stayed with him.” She bites her lip. “Did everything get to you okay this morning? And Buttons? He wasn’t happy going with the delivery guy that was sent over, but I gave him lots of treats. Probably too many.”
“He’s fine,” I assure her quickly. “He’s all settled in now. Thank you for watching him.”
“Anytime. Especially now that he’s living in that swanky penthouse I bet Dimitri has.” Dahlia grins. “How’d that go over?”
I wince, remembering Dimitri’s reaction. “Not well,” I admit. “I probably should have warned him, honestly. But what if he’d freaked out?”
“I get it. And he’ll get over it.” Dahlia glances around, her gaze drifting to the window. “Speaking of things Dimitri will be upset about, where’s Gus?”
The look of instant guilt on my face gives it away. Dahlia’s eyes widen instantly. “You slipped out without a bodyguard? Evie, what were you thinking? Dimitri is going to be furious with you.”
I wince, tapping the button to call my Uber. “I haven’t told anyone other than you about any of this,” I hiss, biting my lip. “Not the fire, or Dimitri, or the marriage, or any of it. I didn’t want to have to explain to Val and Bonnie. I don’t know them that well. It was hard enough dodging their questions as it was, imagine if I’d shown up with a bodyguard ?”
“I know, but—” Dahlia frowns. “Evie, you’ve never been threatened by anything like this before. The kind of people you’re dealing with, even the kind of people Dimitri is aligned with—these are dangerous people. If Dimitri thinks you need a bodyguard, I believe him, honestly. And you should, too.”
That guilt worms its way back in. “I’m headed back to the penthouse now,” I promise her. “See?” I hold up my phone, with the Uber a few blocks from us. “I just needed some space from all of this. I’ll be back at Dimitri’s in no time, no harm done.”
Dahlia sighs. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I just want you to be safe. I don’t know this world well either, but I know a little, from the kinds of people my father deals with. This isn’t anything to take lightly. You need to listen to Dimitri.”
I wrinkle my nose. “You, telling me to listen to a man?”
She laughs. “I know. But just for now. You’re my best friend, Evie. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.” She leans in, giving me a tight hug, and I return it just as my phone vibrates, letting me know that my Uber is almost here.
“I gotta go.” I squeeze her once more, and then hurry out into the cold, looking for the gold Nissan that’s supposed to pick me up. I see it coming around the corner, but just as I start to walk that way, a black town car swings out of the side street, pulling up to the curb right next to me.
Fear jolts through me, and I grab my purse, terrified of who it might be and preparing to bolt. But I don’t get a chance, because before the car has even fully rolled to a stop, one of the back doors swings open and Dimitri steps out right in front of me.
I’ve never seen anyone look so angry. His face is tight, jaw clenched, his eyes darkened as he looks at me. A chill runs down my spine, and I realize, in this exact moment, that I’ve made a terrible mistake.
Dimitri isn’t just upset with me. We aren’t just going to argue about this. He’s fucking furious , and I might have just ruined everything.
“Get in the car.” His voice is hard and angry, and I balk at it despite knowing that if there was ever going to be a time for me to listen to him, this is it. I’ve never been the kind of person to just fall in line and obey, and it’s instinctual at this point for me to be independent. To do my own thing, my own way.
This time, that tendency might have gotten me into a lot of trouble.
Dimitri sees my hesitation, and his jaw clenches even tighter. “I will pick you up and throw you in the car myself, Evelyn, if you don’t get in this instant. I am not going to fucking fight with you about this.” His tone is a deep growl, so full of fury that it makes my knees quiver. “Get in the car.”
This time, I obey. And I realize, as I step past him and slide into the warm leather interior, that I’m in over my head.
Not just with the Crows, or the Bratva, or trying to keep my shop from completely falling apart. With Dimitri himself.
I underestimated him. I overestimated my ability to handle him. And now I have no idea what’s going to happen.
He’s dead silent as he gets into the car next to me. The driver pulls away from the curb, and I look at him out of the corner of my eye, knotting my hands in my lap so that my fingers don’t start trembling. “Dimitri?—”
“We’ll talk when we get home.” His voice is flat, emotionless, and it sends a charge of fear through me. At any other time, I might have retorted that his penthouse isn’t really my home, but this time, I press my lips tightly together instead, staying silent.
The tension in the car is thick enough to cut with a knife. I try to breathe, try to push down the fear that clogs my throat, that makes my heart race in my chest, the uncertainty of what’s going to happen now. Dahlia was right—I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into. And what I thought was a tiny act of meaningless rebellion against a life that no longer entirely feels like it’s my own, has turned into something much more.
The car pulls into the parking garage beneath Dimitri’s building, and he steps out without a word. When I follow him, he nudges me in front as we approach the doors, his hand firmly on the small of my back as we step into the lobby. There’s nothing forceful about his touch, not yet, but the firm press of his hand against my spine is a reminder that if I try to run away, he’ll catch me. If I try to go anywhere but straight ahead to the elevator, as I know he wants me to, he’ll stop me.
It’s different from every other time he’s touched me like this, when we’ve danced, when we’ve walked into a party, into this same exact building just last night. There’s a tension in his touch, a stiffness—a warning.
The elevator doors open and Dimitri urges me forward, slipping the black keycard out as the doors close behind us. “I want my other key back,” he says flatly, not looking at me as he slides his into the slot to send us up to the penthouse, and my heart knocks against my ribs. Does he want it back just because he doesn’t trust me? Or because he’s going to annul our marriage, and all of this is over? Did I fuck it up that badly?
I hadn’t thought he’d be so angry that he’d want me gone. That it might be the end of our agreement, and the future of my boutique. I’d thought that surely, he needed me badly enough to stand in as his wife that one little disobedience wouldn’t matter that much.
But now, I’m starting to think I’m wrong. That he’s so angry he’s done with all of this, and that I’ve made a huge mistake in inadvertently calling his bluff.
Dimitri says nothing else as we go up, as the elevator doors chime open, as his hand lands on my back again and he steers me into the penthouse. He keeps nudging me forward, past Buttons who bounds off of the couch and runs towards us, and my stomach drops again when Dimitri barely seems to notice that my dog was on his furniture. He steers me towards the back of the penthouse, towards the smaller rooms off of the main open space of the living room and kitchen. I know one hall leads to the theater room and the downstairs bathroom, but he pushes me towards the right, a door that I hadn’t noticed before and hadn’t bothered to try.
“What’s in there?” I squeak, balking, but Dimitri keeps moving forward, his momentum keeping me stumbling towards the door even as I try to stop.
“My office,” he says in that same flat, toneless voice as he unlocks the door, opening it for me to go in first.
My heart trips in my chest again. He’s going to pull out the contract. Show me where I fucked up. Explain the paperwork for an annulment. I feel tears prick at the corners of my eyes, and I start to try to think of how I can excuse this, what I can say that will make him understand that I wasn’t trying to make him this angry. That I underestimated how big of a deal this is.
Numbly, I step into the office as Dimitri flicks on the light. A warm glow fills the space, illuminating a room filled with dark furniture, from the desk near the large window that overlooks the city beyond, to the tall bookshelves, to the chairs near a bar cart on one side of the room. A thick rug is in the center, stretched over the gleaming wooden floor, and the heels of my boots sink into it as Dimitri closes the door behind us, flicking the lock with a click that makes my heart drop all over again.
The room suddenly feels too hot, and I unbelt my coat, sliding it off and dropping it onto one of the nearby chairs. Dimitri’s eyes track my movement, his jaw still clenched so tight I have half a mind to tell him it might stay that way if he keeps it locked any longer, but I bite back the words. I shouldn’t bait him right now. I shouldn’t say anything except I’m sorry , and I’m not sure even that will be good enough.
Dimitri walks past me, stopping just in front of the desk. He pushes one of the chairs in front of it to one side, then the other, leaving a space just in front of it, the top of the desk almost bare except for a few books and papers neatly stacked to each side. There’s a large expanse of gleaming, bare wood, and I frown, unsure of what’s going on.
“Dimitri?” I venture again, and he gestures to the desk, his hand dropping, for some reason, to the buckle of his belt.
“Bend over the desk,” he says, his voice still flat, and my eyes go so round that I feel like they might pop out of my head.
“What?” I don’t understand what he’s saying. Nothing about the request makes sense, unless…
No. That’s not possible. He can’t mean…
Dimitri tugs his belt free with the sharp sound of leather against wool, and folds it in his hand. “You disobeyed me, Evelyn,” he says evenly. “You knew you shouldn’t go out alone, and you did it anyway. It’s clear to me that explaining the danger you’re in isn’t enough. That my requests for you to take the situation seriously aren’t enough. That everything I’ve done for you so far, isn’t enough. So we’re going to do this differently.” He folds the belt over in his hand, and my mouth goes dry. “You’re going to take down your pants, bend over that desk, and I’m going to punish you. And when I’m finished, hopefully, this lesson will stick.”
I stare at him as if, at any second, he’s going to laugh, astonished that I believed him for even a second. But his face remains impassive, and irritation flickers through his eyes, as if he’s tired of waiting for me to obey him.
“Evelyn.” His voice is a warning, and with a flare of panic, I realize he’s not joking. “Bend over the desk. I won’t ask again.”
“No.” The word flies from my lips, and I shake my head, taking a step back. “No. What the fuck? Absolutely not. I won’t—” I can’t even think of how to finish the sentence, this is all so ludicrous.
Dimitri doesn’t so much as flinch. “Then leave,” he says evenly. “But if you walk out of those doors, Evelyn, we’re done.”