Nothing.

Shivering, I hurried up the stairs and raced to our apartment. We were on the far end of the third floor. It was one of those nondescript buildings where all of the apartments looked the same from the outside. The carpet was gray, the walls dull, and tonight, it seemed too quiet. I could swear I felt eyes on me, but when I checked, nobody was there.

I slotted the key into the lock, cursing when it didn’t immediately open. I jiggled it, and the lock snicked. I shoved the door inward, flipped the lock behind me, and collapsed against it. My heart thudded dangerously.

Oh God.

What was that?

My imagination must have been going haywire. I switched the light on. Sage would already be asleep. She was an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of person.

A shrill squeal rang out, and I jumped in fright, slapping my hand to my chest.

Shit. It was just my phone.

I answered, checking the Caller ID. “Hi, Tom.”

“Has anything strange happened to you today?”

Dread crept up my spine. Perhaps I hadn’t imagined the figure outside. “Strange how?”

He made a dismissive sound. “Just strange. Out of the ordinary.”

“Um.” I swallowed, trying to moisten my dry mouth. I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. “Just now, I thought I saw someone watching me.”

“Huh.” He was quiet for a moment. “That’s it?”

I thought of the man outside. “That’s it. Why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing you need to worry about. Just be careful.”

For a moment, I’d have liked nothing more than to wring his neck. I loved my brother, but he could be patronizing, and he had a misogynistic streak. Sometimes, I wondered how the two of us could have been raised by the same man yet be so different.

“It would help if you explained what I need to be careful of.”

He clucked his tongue. “Who’s the head of the family business?”

“You,” I said with more bite than needed. “But that doesn’t mean you should keep me in the dark.”

“It’s my job to find solutions,” he said, ignoring my remark. “Although, if you were to marry someone like Adrian Petrov, we’d have more money than we’d know what to do with and could kiss our problems goodbye.”

My stomach soured. It wasn’t the first time he’d made a comment like that. I used to think he was joking, but considering the number of men he’d set me up with at society events over the past couple of years, I was pretty sure he was serious. It drove me mad that we still lived in a world where he could even contemplate the possibility of marrying me off to some creepy older man like we were in the nineteenth century.

“Or perhaps you could find a nice heiress,” I said calmly. “And then all our problems would be solved, right?”

I hung up. It felt good.

Chapter Nine

Ronan

I spent the weekend reminding myself of all the reasons why I couldn’t afford to be romantically interested in Willow. I managed to make it until late on Monday morning before I finally gave up and let the need to see her drive me from my office. I told myself it was because I needed to know whether she’d concede that I ran things more smoothly than Tom did, but that didn’t ring true. I stopped short when she was nowhere to be seen.