Chapter 195: Tell Him I’m Safe

The room went completely silent.

Eve was at the hotel. Safe. Intact. Sitting in a room she’d rented to be alone.

And the relief that flooded through Dimitri was so overwhelming that it almost brought him to his knees.

"Security cameras?" Dimitri asked, his voice steady again now that he knew she was alive.

"Reviewing. Looks like she went straight to her room. No detours. Didn’t interact with anyone except the front desk, and she used a credit card that has no connection to you."

Which meant she’d planned this. Not spontaneously decided to leave during their fight. She’d been prepared. Had a backup plan. Had the foresight to use her own resources instead of anything connected to him.

Of course she had.

Eve was smart. Eve was capable. Eve was exactly what she’d told him she was: a woman who could take care of herself.

The knowledge didn’t make him feel better.

"We don’t approach her," Dimitri said to the room. "Not tonight. She left for a reason. Marco, pull the security detail back to a distance. I want eyes on her location, but I don’t want her to know we’re there."

"Boss, if there’s any threat...."

"If there’s a threat, you handle it," Dimitri cut him off. "But you do it quietly. You do it without her knowing. Because if she finds out we’re tracking her, that we didn’t respect the space she’s asking for..." He didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t need to. Everyone in the room understood the implications.

Mike studied his best friend’s profile and realized something in that moment.

Dimitri deeply loves his sister.

Not in the possessive way he’d claimed her. But in a deeper way. A way that meant he could choose to let her go, even though it was killing him.

"Give her the night," Mike said quietly. "Let her have the space she needs. And then....."

Mike’s phone buzzed.

An incoming call.

Eve was calling him.

Not Dimitri. Him.

She was reaching out, but not to the man she’d just left.

Mike answered immediately, pressing the phone to his ear. "Eve?"

"I’m okay," she said, and her voice sounded small and tired and absolutely wrung out. "Before you lose your mind....I’m okay. I’m safe. I’m at the Peninsula in Brooklyn in room 847."

Mike felt something in his chest loosen. "Jesus Christ, you scared us. When Dimitri woke up and you were gone...."

"I know. I’m sorry. I just...." There was a pause, and Mike could hear her breathing, hear the weight of everything between the words. "I needed to get out of there. I needed to think without him in the same room. I needed space."

"I understand," Mike said, and he did. He understood perfectly. "But Eve, you have to understand what’s happening right now. We didn’t know where you were. For the past forty minutes, we’ve been...."

"I’m sorry," Eve interrupted, her voice stronger now. "But Mike, I need you to listen to me very carefully. I’m not coming back tonight. I need at least one night to myself to process what happened. To figure out what I want. To decide whether I can actually stay with someone who lies to me, no matter how good the reasons sound."

Mike glanced at Dimitri, watching his friend’s expression shift. Watching the understanding settle across his face that Eve wasn’t lost. She was choosing to be gone.

"He knows," Mike said quietly. "About the Covenant. He was going to tell you everything."

"But he didn’t," Eve said. "That’s the point. He decided for me. Again. Even after he promised he wouldn’t. So I’m staying here tonight. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to wake up and have coffee and think about whether this is actually sustainable. Whether I can build a life with someone who will always choose to protect me instead of trusting me."

"Eve...."

"Tell him I’m safe. Tell him I’ll contact him tomorrow. Tell him...." She paused, and in that pause was everything. The love underneath the anger. The care underneath the need for distance. "Tell him I love him, but love isn’t always enough."

The call ended.

Mike lowered the phone slowly, feeling the weight of those words settle between him and his friend.

"She’s at the Peninsula," Mike said. "She’s safe. She just needs a night alone."

Dimitri nodded once, his entire body going very still.

"And she loves you," Mike added quietly. "But she’s right. Love isn’t always enough. Not if you can’t trust each other completely."

"I do trust her," Dimitri said.

"No," Mike said, and his voice was firm. "You don’t. Because if you did, you would have told her about The Covenant the moment you found out about the virus release. You would have trusted her with the truth instead of deciding it would hurt her too much to know. You would have treated her like the partner she’s asking to be instead of the fragile thing you’re afraid will break."

Dimitri was silent for a long moment.

Then: "What do I do?"

"You give her the night," Mike said. "You let her think. You let her process. And tomorrow...." He paused, meeting his friend’s eyes. "Tomorrow, you go to her. And you tell her everything. And you let her decide whether she stays."

"And if she doesn’t?"

"Then you respect that choice," Mike said simply. "Because that’s what love actually looks like, Dimitri. Not possession. Not control. Not deciding what someone else can handle. It’s trust. It’s honesty. It’s letting them walk away if that’s what they need."

***

POV: DIMITRI

The Peninsula Hotel hallway was silent at 6:47 AM.

Dimitri stood outside room 847, his hand raised to knock, his entire body running on adrenaline and the kind of desperate need that came from eighteen hours without the woman who’d become his entire world.

He hadn’t slept. Hadn’t tried to.

Instead, he’d spent the night understanding exactly what Mike had meant about trust. About the difference between protecting someone and trusting them. About the impossibility of love without honesty.

His knuckles connected with the door.

Once.

It took maybe three seconds before the door swung open.