Guarded Rebellion (The Baranov Legacy)

28. Eva

28

EVA

F or most of the day after that ill-fated trip to Kelly’s dorm room, Lev did damage control. His body did damage control, too. Between the cuts I stitched up or bandaged and the ice I applied to his wounds, his body was recovering with the slight rest.

But he was made for this. He was a killer. A trained fighter. One fight, no matter how challenging it seemed, wouldn’t set him back for long.

It was with a bizarre yet natural confidence that I’d been able to shut my mouth, not scream, and stay out of the way while Lev killed that man.

Violence was an element to the Mafia life, but what happened in that dorm room was the first time I’d experienced a first-row seat to it.

“Yes, gather her papers and whatever looks necessary,” Lev told Marcus on the phone.

He was still seated on the couch, busy on the phone as Marcus and the cleanup crew reported in to him and also while he checked in with my uncle.

Glancing at me, he raised a brow. “Will she need any biology books?” he asked, running interference.

I cringed and shook my head. “No. I think she studies with the online material.”

Honestly, thinking about any of my classes—or Kelly’s—wasn’t something I had the time or energy for. School wasn’t on my mind right now. This danger was.

Another push notification came through on my phone, and I looked at it. Reminder to submit. I sighed and swiped to dismiss it. If I didn’t turn this paper in on time, whatever. I’d catch up. Or take the hit on my grade.

In this moment, I felt like I was lying to myself. To the world. I wasn’t just another college student. With this episode of violence, of a man waiting to attack in the dorm room I was supposed to be living in, my real life was creeping in. I couldn’t change the fact that I was a Baranov. I couldn’t run from who I was. And with a heart-wrenching sense of defeat, I hated to think I was wasting my time trying to experience a so-called normal life for as long as I have here.

Before I lowered my phone, a text popped up.

Kelly: Is this for real? I’m moving in with you?

Eva: Yes. Rurik is bringing you over as soon as you are discharged from the clinic.

Now, that, I could smile about. After Lev’s protests about having Kelly as a friend, never letting her visit, he changed his tune to insist that she stay here. I wanted to believe he was extending that invite—or making that demand—because he knew I’d feel better about having her close and seeing that she was safe and well. But I bet it was more because she could be a clue to why there was any danger on campus at all. Because he assumed her drugging incident was a decoy or attempt at getting to me.

“Are you all right?” Lev asked.

I blinked up at him, nodding. “Yeah. Why?”

“You’re pensive.”

“Well, you did say I seemed to be an intellectual woman.”

He didn’t take the bait to my sly smile. “Kelly will be protected here.”

I nodded. “But I know what else it means for her to stay here.”

“What?” he prompted.

“That she’s… getting involved with family business.” She hadn’t intended to get in it or be a participant in anything affecting the Baranov organization, but by being my friend, this seemed to be the price to pay.

“And you’ll be there to help her with that adjustment,” he explained plainly.

Within the hour, she was there. Even though she walked on her own and didn’t cringe in pain with every moment, I saw the signs of the drugs taking a toll on her body. She looked tired. Worried. And when she saw Lev seated on the couch with his face beaten and ice within reach, her expression shifted to outright concern.

“What the hell is going on?” she asked quietly.

“Sit,” I instructed first, patting the chair in the living room as Rurik took her things to the spare bedroom.

Careful not to divulge anything incriminating and sticking with vague details, I brought her up to speed about what happened when I went to retrieve her papers earlier.

Lev added some things as well, but overall, she sat there without a word and seemed to struggle letting this news sink in.

“My—our—room was broken into,” she said after a bit of silence. She stated it as a request for confirmation, but not as a question itself.

“Yes,” I replied.

“And a man was in there, getting a message from someone on the phone to capture you.” She opened her eyes wide with alarm as she faced me.

“Correct,” I said.

“And you’re calm about that?” She huffed a rough laugh and shook her head. “Never mind answering that. Of course, you are.”

I glanced at Lev and Rurik, who’d stood behind Lev while we explained this all to Kelly. They shared impassive but patient expressions, likely thinking what I did. It is what it is. Kelly would either adapt to this or not.

“A man was killed—where I live—because he planned to get to you there?” This time, she intoned it as a question.

I nodded, but she furrowed her brow and shook her head.

“No. That can’t be right.”

“How wouldn’t it be right?” I asked.

“Because you’ve never been there. You don’t live on campus. Yeah, anyone could figure out that was where you were assigned, but the fact of the matter is until today, you never set foot in that room.”

“Are you trying to suggest that man was there to get you ?” Lev asked.

“Because I know her?” Kelly gestured at me. “I don’t know.”

“I see what you mean, though,” I said. “People can see me befriending her, but if they’ve been watching me that much, they’d see that I never go to the dorm.”

Kelly nodded.

“Why would someone want you?” Rurik asked, not sounding happy about this idea at all.

“To use as leverage to get her,” Lev replied, pointing at me.

“But why?” I shook my head. “For what?” When Lev gave me a duh look, I clarified. “Other than the general idea that I could be used in some sort of war or power play, why?”

“Because you’re the target,” Kelly said.

“Huh?”

She looked at each of us in turn before she faced me. “When I was in the health clinic, I was moved for a few hours to the room next to Irina’s friend who was raped at that frat party. I heard them talking, and they mentioned you a few times.”

“What did they say?” Lev demanded.

“I can’t recall all of it, word for word, but the gist of what I heard was that Eva was a target. That ‘the Baranov’ was the target.”

Well, that’s me. I’m the only Baranov here on campus.

Rurik and Lev both grilled her to explain all that she heard, but her limited story remained the same. Just that Irina—or the Petrovs—saw me as a target and that my presence here implied an uptick in drugs being circulated.

“So the rumor is that I’m the reason for more drugs on campus?” I rolled my eyes. “I’m not buying that. Yes, we deal with drugs. So do the Petrovs. It’s a fact of life.” I stared down Lev, who seemed to be analyzing all that Kelly said the same as I was. “But I’m not peddling anything. If I were here and trying to befriend users and dealers, if I were actively seeking out ways to further distribute, then I’d be a player in that game. But I’m not.” I was a homebody, only befriending Kelly and minding my own business to study. I had gone to that frat party, but not to party or meet up with anyone. Just to see what they were like as a social observation.

“I agree,” Rurik said. “Tying you specifically to this increase in drugs makes no sense.”

Lev nodded. “It sounds like Irina can’t claim the same. Our men have noticed her at more parties and being more social.”

“Then what’s the connection they’re trying to make?” Kelly asked. As soon as she said it, she froze, wide-eyed. “Uh, forget I asked. I’m not trying to butt into, um, official ‘family’ business.”

I huffed. “You’re not part of the ‘family’ business, Kel. You were drugged, maybe even attacked in that shower room. Because of your association with me, that implicates you in whatever is going on.”

She hung her head, seeming upset about my explanation, and I hated that just meeting me and befriending me could be such a curse.

“And because of that, you will be protected,” I told her firmly.

“Absolutely,” Lev added.

Kelly smirked at him. “Because I’m a liability now? Thanks.”

“No.” I got up to sit next to her. “Because you’re my friend. And I care. And I hate that you were ever hurt, or could ever be hurt, because you took a chance to be my friend.”

She set her hand on mine and squeezed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound so combative and rude. It’s just…” She sighed. “This is a lot.”

“I know. But you can rest with the knowledge that you’re not alone in this. In any of this. We will figure out who’s attacking women, who’s trying to distribute more drugs here.”

“Well, who was the… uh, man in my room?” She looked at Lev, then Rurik. “Wouldn’t you guys just know who he is and be able to go fight those guys?”

Lev cleared his throat. “No one has claimed him. No one knows who he is, and he has not been identified as belonging to any of our known enemies.”

I frowned.

“He could be an independent contractor,” Rurik said.

“A hitman?” Kelly asked, incredulous.

“An independent contractor,” Lev repeated for his friend. “When some families want to make a stand or strike out ambiguously, they sometimes hire outside of their organization to further throw everyone else off.”

They were throwing us off. I felt lost, confused to figure out how to manage this semester in school.

All I’d hoped for was a chance to live and study, to pretend I was a normal, independent person.

And too quickly, I had to be reminded that my family, my past, my life, would always preclude me from anything that could constitute as normalcy.