Chapter 236
KATYA POV
My head shook before I even realized I was doing it. "Well—he isn’t," I said quickly, the words tumbling out sharper than I ant them to. My fingers tightened around the phone in my lap. "He’s not using ."
Roo didn’t interrupt. He didn’t move. He seems to be listening. "He doesn’t even know," I continued, breath uneven now.
"He doesn’t know where I live. He doesn’t know who you are. I never told him anything about you. About this place. About... any of it."
My chest burned as I spoke, fear and urgency tangling together. "I never ntioned your na. Or your work. Or your—" I faltered, then swallowed. "Your deeds. Not once."
Roo’s eyes stayed on , unblinking."He thought I was just... soone passing through," I said. "Soone normal until that day." The word felt foolish the mont it left my mouth, but I pressed on anyway. "But! he doesn’t know I’m here. He doesn’t know I live under your roof."
I leaned forward slightly without realizing it, like closing the distance might make him listen more.
"Michael is a forr cop. Ex. He’s not serving anymore. He doesn’t have a badge. He doesn’t have access. He doesn’t have power, right?"
My voice softened, almost pleading. "He shouldn’t be a threat." Roo studied for a long mont.
Not my face this ti—but my posture. The tension in my hands. The way my voice had cracked around Michael’s na.
"You’re certain," he said finally. It wasn’t a question.
"Yes, I am. " I said imdiately. His gaze sharpened just a fraction. "You’re willing to stake sothing on that certainty?"
My breath caught. I hadn’t thought that far. I hadn’t thought past protecting Michael. Past stopping whatever I saw calculating itself behind Roo’s eyes.
"I—" I hesitated, then forced the words out. "I know him."
A pause. Then, calmly, almost thoughtfully, Roo said, "Stake your phone." My stomach dropped. "That’s not what—"
"Enough," he cut in quietly. The word landed with finality. He turned away from , walking back toward the desk, fingertips brushing the edge of it as if grounding himself.
"You knew him enough to forget he was law enforcent. Whether he knows who I am," Roo continued, voice level, "and whether he is a threat... are two very different things."
He faced again. "And n like ," he added, "don’t wait to find out which one is true."
The room felt smaller. Tighter.
"Katya," Roo said, calling my na like a warning, "your concern for him is noted. And the only reason you are still sitting here calmly defending him is because I promised you freedom the mont I put that check in your hand."
My heart swelled because...WHAT? He had given that check but I hadn’t still made my decision but to think that he was still willing to give my freedom whenever.
"But understand this," he continued, eyes locking onto mine. "If you so much as breathes in the wrong direction of betraying , I swear to God" He stopped, not because he lacked words.
But because he didn’t need them. He held my gaze for another second.
Then his eyes dropped to the phone. "Leave," Roo said calmly.
The word didn’t register at first. My mind was still caught on everything he’d said. On the check. On Michael. On the quiet threat hanging unfinished in the air.
"Drop your phone on the desk and go" he continued. My breath stuttered.
"If I need you again, I’ll call for you" he added, already turning back toward his desk. The room seed to tilt.
My phone. My fingers tightened instinctively, curling around it as if it could anchor to sothing solid.
My pulse spiked, loud in my ears. No.I hadn’t even realized I was still holding it like a shield. Like sothing fragile. Like sothing alive.
I stood slowly, the chair scraping softly against the floor. The sound felt too loud. Exposing.
"I—" My voice faltered. I cleared my throat. "I thought—" Roo didn’t turn around as he said quietly.
"That is what you’re staking."
My chest tightened painfully. "My phone?" I asked, disbelief slipping through despite my effort to stay calm. I thought we had established that Michael wouldn’t be a threat.
"Yes."
I shook my head before I could stop myself. "No," I said.
"I can’t." For the first ti that morning, Roo’s calm expression shifted into sothing colder.
"You misunderstand ," he said quietly, turning back to face fully. His voice was steady, controlled. " telling you I promised you freedom does not an I am a nice person."
The words settled into my chest like stones. "It ans I am a man who keeps his word," he continued. "Not a man who tolerates tests."
My throat tightened. "Do not test , Katya." My mind spiraled.
Part of prayed—desperately, irrationally—that he would change his mind. That he would wave it off.
That he would tell to keep it, that this was only a warning. Another part of —quieter, sharper—knew I had expected this.
I had known the phone would be the first thing he’d take. I just hadn’t realized how much it would hurt now that it was real.
I’d barely had it. Barely had ti to learn it. To do anything aningful with it. No ssages worth rereading. No mories stored yet. Just the possibility of connection. Of choice.
And now even that was being stripped away. Roo’s eyes stayed on the entire ti.
Watching. Waiting. I didn’t say anything. There was nothing left to say. If this piece of glass was what would keep Michael alive then he could take it a hundred tis.
My fingers loosened slowly, reluctantly, as if they were betraying . I stepped forward and placed the phone on the desk.
The sound it made was soft. I withdrew my hand at once, like the surface had burned .
Roo didn’t reach for it. He didn’t even look at it right away. His gaze remained on , assessing, weighing, confirming sothing only he could see.
"Good, you may leave" he said at last. I straightened, my hands empty, my chest tight.
I turned toward the door, my steps stiff, my thoughts still tangled in everything I’d just lost, praying that Michael doesn’t call at all not send a ssage that could bring implications.
††
Btw bye phone, but would the phone be clean?
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