Read Keep: Romanian Mob Chronicles for Free Online

living area, more than halfway hoping a fully stocked closet would materialize. When that didn’t happen, I turned my gaze to the drawer from which Vasile had taken the T-shirt. I walked toward it slowly, unsure what to do. I didn’t want to intrude or snoop. There was no way I would ever cross a man like him, but even more, I didn’t want to betray his kindness with invasion.
    Still…as nice as his towels were, they weren’t quite cutting it and left a thigh, hip, and breast mostly uncovered. It probably wasn’t a problem for him. I bet the towels fit around his trim waist with ease, but I had no such luck. I chuckled at the thought and then headed to the dresser. Without looking too closely, I groped at the garments and pulled out another black T-shirt and a pair of underwear.
    I threw on both garments quickly, worried the tight squeeze of the underwear on my hips would call attention to my ass, that the thin material of the T-shirt would put more emphasis on my unrestrained breasts. But then I shrugged and laughed again when my breasts moved. My curves didn’t need attention called to them, so what I wore wouldn’t make a difference. This would have to do, though I didn’t dare look in the mirror.
    Moments later, there was a firm knock at the door and then the click of the lock. I stood in the middle of the floor, feet bare, dressed in his underwear and waited. Vasile didn’t strike me as a person who knocked, especially not in his own home, but I appreciated it, found that something so simple bolstered my belief that maybe, possibly, at least for a little while, I’d be safe here.
    His gaze found me instantly, and he watched, face unreadable. I was struck with the impulse to pat my hair, turn my shoulders in as if that would somehow help me escape his intense gaze. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but being looked at like that, like I was a person and not a possession wasn’t something I was used to.
    Long, commanding strides carried him to the dresser, and I spoke quickly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snoop. I just needed something to wear.”
    His back was to me now, his shoulders impossibly broad, his entire being impossibly formidable, and more importantly in this moment, making it impossible for me to tell what he was doing. The fear that had receded started to come back. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking when he looked at me, but seeing his face comforted me somehow, and with his back turned to me, I could tell nothing, was left to the mercy of my rising fear.
    “Come here,” he said, his back still turned, his voice icy.
    I approached, each step making my heart beat faster until it boomed when I finally reached him.
    “Wear this,” he said, nodding at a pair of black jogging pants and black socks.
    My knees weakened with my relief, and I quickly grabbed them and put them on, the fit poor, but at least they covered me more.
    Then he shoved a stack of bills into my hands. “Natasha will take you to buy clothes. The car is outside.”
    And just that quickly, my relief fled and my heart dropped into my stomach. I looked down at the bills in my hands, bitter disappointment, strong and surprising, stirring in my chest. He’d rid me of David’s costume and now he was going to replace it with his own.
    “Is there something in particular you’d like?” I asked on a quiet whisper.
    I’d learned nothing over the years, had let a few hours of soft treatment erase years of lessons. But I knew what I was good for, all that I was good for, and it was stupid of me to—
    “Did you hear me?”
    His voice broke into my thoughts, and I turned my eyes to him, watching as he watched me.
    I shook my head.
    “Buy whatever you like,” he said.
    And then he walked into the bathroom, leaving me alone.
    I again stared at the wad of bills in my hands, even more confused now than I’d been before.
    And even worse, I wondered if I remembered what I liked. It had been so long since anyone, including myself, had