Page 2 of Savage Little Secret

Maybe there’s a lot that I’ve missed.

“Dmitri,” Cara speaks again as she steps closer to me. “With everything that’s going on, I want you to promise me that you’ll be careful. Especially in public.”

I peer at her, split between a range of emotions. Confusion. Suspicion. Relief. If she were behind everything, would she really say something like that to me? Or is she trying to come off as more innocent?

“I’m trying to be,” I assure her. “Things are…tense right now.”

“Your family shouldn’t be so angry with you about the Suyunov situation,” Cara tells me. “Sometimes, you need to break away from what’s expected of you. If you can.”

“I don’t think that I can,” I say. “It’s not that simple.”

Cara’s frown deepens. “Nothing is simple.”

“Is something wrong?” I ask her. She seems as tormented as me.

Cara chews on her bottom lip for a moment. Usually, when she bites her lip, it drives me crazy. But this is an anxious bite.

“I’m just worried about you,” Cara admits.

When she says things like that, it confuses me even more. I want to believe her. Her voice sounds so genuine.

“Why?” I ask her.

Cara’s brows furrow. “Because I…I care about you. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“It’s only a matter of time,” I reply.

Cara nudges my chest. “Why are you being so pessimistic?”

“Because things aren’t okay right now,” I tell her. “I have everyone breathing down my neck telling me shit that I don’t want to hear.”

Cara crosses her arms, but it almost looks like she’s holding herself instead. “Like what?”

“Nothing,” I say. “I’m going to be out of the office today. There’s nothing to do here.”

Before I can walk back out, Cara grabs my arm, keeping me from leaving. She pulls on me, making me turn back to her.

“What?” I ask her.

Cara places her other hand on my other arm, holding me like she’s grounding me. In a way, she is. “I’m sorry.”

I narrow my eyes in confusion. And apprehension. “For what?”

“For everything that you’re going through,” Cara says. “I know what it’s like to disappoint everyone.”

“I don’t know how,” I reply, my eyes searching hers.

“I feel trapped in every decision I make,” she whispers.

A faint ache radiates through my chest. I didn’t think that I would end up being the family disappointment.

Yet here I am.

“I don’t see how you could disappoint anyone. You’re probably the most disciplined, hardworking person I know,” I tell her.

Cara cracks a bittersweet smile. “That’s still not good enough.”

It never is for some people, is it?