Guarded Rebellion (The Baranov Legacy)

5. Lev

5

LEV

“ Y ou’re assigned to lead my security?” Eva demanded.

She stood as tall as she could, but the top of her head just barely reached my chin. With the ferocity of defiance and sass in her eyes, I bet she hated to have to crane her neck just to face me directly.

I didn’t reply. I’d never seen the point in answering something someone else already knew. If she wanted confirmation that I was the soldier expected to be her bodyguard, then my actions would be proof enough in time.

“Dammit,” she muttered, cross when I didn’t play along and speak. She shook her head as she brushed past me. “Of all the damn guards, he had to pick you .”

Now, I was curious. I gave Rurik a slight wave to indicate he was free to go with the other soldier waiting to take him home. I’d come earlier in my own car to once again scope out the penthouse I’d arranged for Eva to stay in. One look at that dorm had convinced me it would never be good enough. Too many halls, too many exits. Fuck, too many people.

Staying on campus would’ve made it easier to spy on any Petrov man there to safeguard Irina Petrov, but I suspected the woman wouldn’t be allowed to reside in any such dormitory either.

Tomorrow morning, I would drive Eva to campus then be her shadow, whether she liked it or not. She did not seem pleased thus far, and I wondered why.

“What’s wrong with me?” I asked, not caring about her answer but intrigued, nevertheless. She’d have to put up with me no matter what.

She turned to glare at me over her shoulder as I followed her to the elevator door. “What’s wrong with having a hulking, incommunicative, glowering asshole tailing me everywhere?” She huffed as she jabbed a finger at the button to open the door. It slid open and she entered. Slumping her back to the wall and crossing her arms, she looked me over with a scathing glare. It seemed she was determined to protest any security guard.

I joined her in the elevator then pushed the button for the top floor. “You’re stupider than I thought if you assumed you wouldn’t have a guard with you.”

“Did you just call me stupid?” she shot back, slitting her eyes.

“Are you?”

She growled, fisting her hands as she lowered them, her arms locked straight. “Just don’t talk.”

I shrugged. Fine by me. We weren’t here to be friends. She was delusional if she thought she could tell me what to do, but she had a point. The less we spoke, the better. All I would need to convey to her was what she could and couldn’t do. This was a job. An assignment. Nothing more.

But this curiosity stirring within me was an odd development.

Why not me , though?

I wasn’t clear on how she knew me and that she’d rather not have me near versus any other Baranov man. Of course, we were familiar with each other. We’d seen each other at the Baranov mansion.

Yet, I hadn’t directly dealt with Eva in my time as a Baranov soldier. She was often aloof and preferred to be private. From what I gathered, she liked to stay in her room. When she wasn’t, she had her nose in a book and seldom spoke to anyone. The little I could gather about her came from the other guards, who all unanimously claimed she was a frigid, bratty bitch.

When we arrived on our floor, I led her to the apartment. She had her own room, and I had mine. A third room was available in case I needed backup. More guards would be working under my supervision here and there, and one would always be patrolling around the premises.

I disobeyed her mandate for silence, giving her a curt rundown of the place. “I have a copy of your schedule. We will prepare to leave for your first class at eight thirty in the morning.”

“My first class isn’t until ten.”

“We’ll accommodate for traffic.”

She smirked. “There wouldn’t be any traffic if I were in my dorm. Like I’m supposed to be.”

I shook my head. “There are too many variables to account for at the dormitory.”

She pressed her lips together and looked away.

“Isn’t this more your style?” I taunted, gesturing at the apartment that resembled a suite in a five-star hotel.

“I don’t give a shit how crappy that dorm room might have been. I’m supposed to be rooming with a woman named Kelly, not a sarcastic jerk like you.”

“You can meet her tomorrow,” I replied coolly. “I don’t trust your rooming with a stranger who has a questionable background.”

“For fuck’s sake.” She flung her arms out. “She’s not questionable.”

“How would you know? You’ve never met her.”

“Neither have you!”

“But I have run a check on her,” I argued. “Too many gaps remain in her background for me to know she’s trustworthy.”

“Not everyone is an enemy,” she retorted. “Innocent until proven guilty. You ever hear of that?”

“In this world,” I said, stepping closer and watching the glittering anger in her blue eyes, “it’s guilty until proven innocent.”

She didn’t flinch, not backing down. “You’re going to be such a buzzkill.”

I watched her turn and sulk to her room, amused and annoyed with her resistance to my presence. She had to have known she’d have a bodyguard, but she was giving the impression that it was a headache she thought she wouldn’t have to face personally.

I narrowed my eyes, anticipating that she’d be the cause of my headaches for the next long while.

You want to go to college, you’re going to do so on the Boss’s terms. On my terms.

With how poorly our first meeting went, I wasn’t surprised when she cloistered herself in her room for the rest of the day and night. Her things were already in there, unpacked for her to sort through. Her only appearance was to go to the kitchen and get some food, taking it straight back to her room without sparing me a glance or a single word.

Suit yourself. The longer she stayed in her room and out of sight, the longer I had to sit back and almost relax.

The next morning, though, I was all business. So was she, dressed in tight jeans and a sweater under a long coat as she gathered things to stow in her bag.

I thought I’d be one step ahead of her, done with my workout, showered, and dressed well before I expected her to exit her room. To my surprise, she appeared ready to go earlier than eight thirty. I’d only just pulled my shirt on when she exited her room.

What the hell?

Between the snug cling of her jeans on her slender legs, the low-cut collar of her white sweater that stretched over her huge tits, and those sexy-as-fuck reading glasses she seemed to prefer over contacts, she resembled an academic and scholarly siren.

Shit.

I wasn’t prepared to be… attracted. I had no right to notice her like this. But there was no point in denying she looked hot as fuck without seeming to even try.

Fuck my life.

I’d have to spend half my time warning college frat boys to look the other way. No man was going to touch her. I didn’t need the Boss to emphasize that she was to remain a virgin for whichever groom he’d choose for her.

“Let’s go,” she said sternly, lifting her face and forcing her long brown waves to tumble over her shoulders. Giving up on looking down at her phone, she peered at me over the top of her glasses.

I glanced at my watch. “I said eight thirty.”

“And I say we go now.”

Keeping my face blank, I walked up to her until I was in her space. Soft hints of lavender hit my nose, but I knew better than to drag in a deeper inhale as if to savor her proximity.

“What you say?” I tilted my head to the side, peering down at her and admiring her smooth, unmarred skin. She was fifteen years younger than me, but her youthfulness didn’t make her seem juvenile. Just… pure. Untouched. “You have no say, Eva.”

Her neck strained as she swallowed. “I want to go early to meet the roommate who texted me worried when I didn’t show up. Kelly is in my first class, and I thought that getting coffee with her before the lecture begins would be an acceptable alternative to whiling away the time here under your guard.” She spoke clearly and levelly, but I caught the sass in her words.

You’re going to be a pain in the ass, aren’t you? The idea didn’t irk me. If anything, I felt excited about the challenge. I held out my arm, gesturing for her to proceed.

Head held high, she exited the apartment. I remained right behind her, texting Rurik about the update. He would be my backup, and in these first few days of settling in and seeing how security could be run on the campus, he would be my eyes and ears I relied on.

Lev: Heading to campus now.

Rurik: Noted. Why now, though?

He was there already, scoping the place out. When he wasn’t doing surveillance like that, he’d be expected to take intel and news back to Oleg.

Lev: She wants to meet the roommate I “deprived” her of living with.

Rurik: Garnet? She’s at the café on the first floor of their lecture hall.

I furrowed my brow. That was… precise. Rurik was there as an extension of security for Eva. Not to notice her would-be roommate.

That’s not unreasonable, though. Keeping an eye on Kelly Garnet was incorporated in the agenda of Eva’s protection.

Eva didn’t speak on the drive. Neither did I. Even in silence, though, she was just as combative. Glowering out the window. Frowning. Likely wishing I weren’t there at all.

Tough shit, brat.

She changed her tune when we arrived.

“Morning,” Rurik greeted, nodding at me as we met him in the parking area.

“Oh, I get two hulking shadows now,” Eva quipped wryly.

“Oh? Hulking, you say?” Rurik teased playfully as he flexed his arm, showing off his bicep.

She smiled slightly, sighing as she walked past us. “God forbid I inflate your ego, Rurik.”

I scowled at them. What the hell is this? Once her back was to me, Rurik frowned and shrugged.

I shook my head, stepping into place behind her. She can refer to him by name? And lighten up to joke around? What gives? I wanted to know why she’d be so bullish and confrontational with me but not him.

Not because I cared.

Nope.

Not because I wanted her to approve of me to the point she’d loosen up and joke with me.

Not at all.

Because this was just another job. Nothing more.