Hi, y'all! Thank you for your patience while I worked on editing this story and then writing this chapter. I apologize for the delay with this chapter. I spent the little writing time that I had over the past few months focusing on editing this story before adding to it so that I didn't end up contradicting myself with an edit or having a plot hole. Mentioning the edits, I highly recommend going back and rereading if you haven't been following along with the updates on AO3 since I did add in some dialogue and changed a couple of things. All of the chapters here are completely edited and reuploaded even as I finish posting them on AO3. With that being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Can we talk?" Haley said, a pleading note in her voice.

I didn't turn around and pretended to try to find something from inside my locker. I could still feel Haley staring at me, and I eventually turned away from my locker to look at her.

"I don't think there's anything we need to talk about," I said.

I slammed my locker shut and made my way to first period. I didn't see Haley again throughout the day but knew that I would almost certainly run into her tomorrow during English. When I reached my locker again at the end of the day, I was only half-surprised to see Haley waiting at my locker again.

"What?" I said, jumping in before she could say anything.

"Rose, please," Haley said. "I heard what happened."

"I don't want to talk about that."

"Okay!" she said quickly. "We don't have to talk about that."

I glared at her. "I don't want to talk at all."

Haley looked down. "I'm sorry. I keep thinking that if I wasn't being a coward, then maybe I could have helped."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"I know you found the pictures," Haley said. "In September."

I slammed my locker shut again. "If you really want to talk, then let's talk. Because I have so many questions."

She grimaced. "I figured that you would."

"Where did the pictures come from, and why did you have them?"

"I don't know where they came from. Or at least I didn't know when I got them. Now I know that they probably came from Lis—"

"Don't say that name," I said.

She nodded. "Sorry, I won't say it. I know what it sounds like, but I'm telling the truth. The pictures showed up at my doorstep a couple of days after classes started. There was a note that threatened to hurt the people I love if I told you about it. I tried to hide them in my room, but you still somehow found them. I figured now that that was her plan. If you were to find them, you would think that I was the one after you and not her."

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

Haley looked down. "I was afraid. I didn't tell anyone, even though the note only specified not telling you. I should have taken them to the police as soon as I saw them, and I'm sorry that I didn't."

Part of me wanted to stay angry at Haley, but the other part of me couldn't fault her for choosing her safety and her family's safety. I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing in another timeline.

"I can understand your fear," I said.

Relief spread across Haley's face. "I really am sorry, Rose. I wish I could go back and do something different."

"There's no point in dwelling on things that you maybe could've changed after the fact," I said. "And even if you did say something before, there's no guarantee that anything would have changed."

"Thank you for understanding," Haley said.

"I am curious about Thea, though," I said, leaning against my locker. "I saw a picture of the two of you in your room."

Haley paled. "Thea was one of my best friends when I was younger. We grew up together but started drifting apart in high school. The picture is from the summer before 11th grade. We weren't as close, but we were still friends. And then her accident happened, and she pretty much cut everybody off after her family moved.

"I don't blame you for the accident," Haley added, "if that's what you're thinking. I don't know exactly what happened that day, I don't think anybody does, but I know it wasn't your fault."

"How?" I asked, quickly adding, "It wasn't my fault, but how do you know it wasn't?"

Haley shrugged. "I was at the game that day. You were benched, and while I'm sure you weren't happy about it, you still cheered on the rest of your squad. You obviously cared about them and wouldn't do something as petty as making someone else fall just because you weren't allowed to cheer that day. When you disappeared a couple of weeks after that, I knew it wasn't you that sabotaged Thea or the squad. It didn't make sense."

I stared at her for a moment and then shook my head. "That statement is more logical than the rest of other shit people came up with."

Haley smiled a little. "When there are asshole FBI agents presiding over the case, people will believe anything they say."

Especially when one of them is in on it, I thought.

I smiled back. "That's why I got an FBI agent of my own to protect me."

Haley arched an eyebrow. "Oh really? Mr. Belikov is taking good care of you?"

I laughed. "We take care of each other. How'd you figure out it was him?"

"It wasn't exactly hard. After you went missing again, he quit teaching at the school and never came back. There were already rumors that someone was undercover in the school, so it made the most sense that it was him."

"Huh," I said. "Interesting."

My phone started ringing before Haley could respond, and I glanced at it. Dimitri's name was lighting up the screen, and I smiled.

"Speak of the devil," I told Haley, flashing the phone towards her.

She smiled. "I'll catch up with you later?"

I nodded and answered the phone as she walked away. "Hi."

I could hear the warmth in his voice when he responded. "Roza. How was school?"

I rolled my eyes. "It was a pain in the ass."

"You can tell me all about it over dinner," Dimitri said. "But first, Detective Byrne wants to question you at the precinct. I got him to hold off on physically coming to the school, but you have to come down here."

I sighed. "I'll be there soon, I guess."

"I'll be waiting for you," he said. "I love you."

I smiled. "I love you too."

We said goodbye, and I walked out to my car. The drive to the precinct was nearly mindless, and I pulled up in front of the small building fifteen minutes later. Dimitri was waiting out front for me and quickly pulled me into a hug once I was out of the car.

I laughed. "I missed you too."

He pressed a kiss to my forehead before leading me towards the door. "C'mon, Detective Byrne is waiting."

I gripped Dimitri's hand as we walked into the building. He was right; Detective Byrne was waiting in the lobby for us.

"Miss Hathaway, thank you for coming," he said.

I bit back a retort about not having a choice and simply smiled instead.

"If you'll follow me," Detective Byrne said, gesturing towards the back. "Agent Belikov, you can wait in the lobby for Miss Hathaway."

Dimitri squeezed my hand before letting go. "I'll be right out here," he said.

I nodded and followed Detective Byrne back. We passed a few rooms marked Interrogation before Detective Byrne opened the door of one and gestured me inside.

I took a seat at the metal table and waited for Detective Byrne to close the door and take a seat across from me. He read off my rights quickly and looked up at me.

"So, Miss Hathaway, I asked you to come in today so that we could get a written statement about what happened with Miss Dragomir as well as follow up on some loose ends that we have."

I nodded. "Okay."

Detective Byrne pulled out some paper and handed me a pen. "You can use this to write your statement. I'll give you a few minutes."

He left the room, but I knew that I was still being watched. I spent the next ten minutes writing down everything that I could remember about the first kidnapping and followed it up with everything that had happened leading up to the second kidnapping. I also added in everything about Lissa texting me to lure me to the high school since I knew that that was what the detectives were particularly interested in. I finished my statement by concluding what had happened at the school and then what had happened in the hospital during my surgery and recovery.

I set the pen down and stretched out my hands, trying to uncramp them. Detective Byrne walked back into the room less than a minute later.

"All finished? Or do you need more time?" he asked.

I again bit back a retort, knowing that it would get me nowhere. "I'm finished with the statement."

He pulled the papers close to him and read over what I had written.

"So, Miss Hathaway, what made you go to the high school when Miss Dragomir texted you?"

"Well, it didn't exactly seem like she was giving me a choice. Her text very clearly stated that they were still watching me, and I didn't want something else to happen," I said. "And she was my best friend since we were in diapers. Part of me wanted to believe that she wasn't really the one doing this."

"And did you tell anyone where you were going?"

"No. The text said not to. That's all in my statement."

He ignored the jab about the statement. "But yet Agent Belikov found you?"

"We have each other's location shared," I said. "I had told him that I was going to get pizza, and he clearly didn't believe me."

"It sounds like there's a lack of trust—"

"We're not here to talk about my relationship with Dimitri," I said. "If you don't have any more questions, I'm going to leave."

Detective Byrne's lip quirked up at the corners a bit. "Only a few more questions."

He flipped through a few other pages in front of him before glancing back up at me. "Miss Hathaway, we have a report from a witness who stated that you said quote "I never want to see her again, or else I'm going kill her with my bare hands" end quote, with the aforementioned 'her' being Miss Dragomir."

"What's your question?" I asked, knowing better than to play into his trap.

"Did you say that?"

"I might have said something like that in the hospital, but I don't remember the exact wording," I said. I also knew better than to confirm that I had said that, especially now that it was coming back to bite me in the ass. "But if I did say something like that, it was merely an exaggeration following the kidnapping when I was angry and also on pain medication."

"So, then it was merely a coincidence that Miss Dragomir was killed two weeks later, and you were present at the scene?"

"You mean when she tried to kill me again? No, I wouldn't say it was a coincidence that we were both there, but I would say it was a coincidence that she ended up dead that day," I said. "That is also all covered in my statement. And I believe it's also covered in Dimitri's statement since he was there at the end to see what happened."

"We're just double checking all of our information," Detective Byrne said. "We want to make sure that we have all of the accurate facts and details."

"I'm sure," I said with mock sweetness. "Are there any other questions, or am I free to go?"

Detective Byrne made a note on the papers in front of him. "You're free to go, Miss Hathaway. We'll let you know if we have any further questions."

He led me back out to the lobby, where Dimitri was sitting in one of the chairs. He stood when we walked into the lobby and placed his arm around my shoulders.

"Have a good rest of your day," Detective Byrne said. "As I just told Miss Hathaway, we'll let you know if we have any other questions."

Dimitri nodded and guided me out of the building. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "The worst thing that they have is someone overheard me in the hospital when I said that I never wanted to see her again or else I'd kill her."

Dimitri grimaced. "Yeah, they asked me about that too. If we had had time, I would have warned you. But it's going to be fine. With our statements, they don't have enough to charge you with murder."

I nodded. "Let's go get dinner," I said, my stomach rumbling as if to prove how hungry I was.

Dimitri laughed. "I know just the place."

After dinner, we went back to Dimitri's apartment. I hadn't officially moved in, but I might as well have since I was spending every night there, not wanting to go back to the apartment that I had shared with Lissa.

We sat on the couch, with Dimitri flipping through television channels while I leaned against him and played a game on my phone.

"Roza," he murmured, distracting me from the game I was playing.

I sat up so that I could look at him properly.

"I want you to move in, officially," Dimitri said. "I want us to take that next step."

"I'll move in," I said softly, before leaning in to kiss him. "On one condition."

He arched an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"That you make love to me for real," I said, tossing my leg over the other side of his lap so that I was straddling him.

Even though it had been weeks since my surgery, we still hadn't had penetrative sex. And it was time to change that.

Dimitri captured my lips in a kiss, his hands resting on my hips.

"Deal," he whispered.

I arched myself against his body at his confirmation, and he groaned. "Dimitri. Please."

He stood, picking me up with him, and carried me to the bedroom. He set me on the bed before pulling his shirt over his head in a swift movement and joining me on the bed. Dimitri dragged me on top of him again and leaned up to kiss me again. His hands were on my hips again, but it didn't take long for them to start wondering. He pulled my shirt over my head, leaving me in my scarlet red bra and jeans.

"Roza, you're so beautiful."

Dimitri sat up, still keeping me on his lap. He pressed kisses to the exposed part of my breast above my bra while his wondering hands unhooked it from the back. I helped him take the bra off and flung it somewhere across the room.

"Every inch of you is beautiful," Dimitri murmured, kissing me again as his hand continued to wonder.

I felt one of his hands briefly brush over my scar from the surgery, and a shiver went through me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me so that our chests were touching, skin to skin.

"Take your jeans off, Roza," he growled.

I got off the bed, standing so that I could remove my jeans. I didn't try to be sexy; my only focus was getting back in bed with Dimitri. I sat astride Dimitri again, clearly feeling his erection pressing into me. I leaned down to kiss him again as I started working on getting his jeans off. He lifted so that I could get them over his ass, and I continued tugging them down. Dimitri kicked the remainder of the jeans off, and I resumed my position of sitting on top of him. My hips moved against his, almost involuntary, drawing a groan from both of us.

While our hips kept grinding against each other's, I reached up, pushing my hair away from my shoulders so that it flowed down my back and so that Dimitri could see everything clearly.

I trailed my hands down my body, pausing at my breasts to play with my nipples, giving Dimitri a show. I heard his breath catch as he realized what I was doing, and I tossed my head back, overwhelmed by the pleasure that was heightened by knowing that Dimitri was watching my every movement.

"Roza, please," he groaned. "I want you. No, I need you."

My name breathily whispered on his lips made my heart soar. I leaned down and started kissing his chest, traveling south, making sure to keep my body pressed as close to his as possible. I continued to kiss his chest, running my hands over his abs, my tongue lightly tracing his nipple on the way. I reached down to pull his boxer briefs off as I continued to kiss down his stomach, leaving marks. I quickly moved on, wrapping my lips around the head of his dick. His hips thrust upwards of their own volition, and I used my hands to pin his hips to the bed as I sucked more of him into my mouth. I heard Dimitri groaning and felt one of his hands find its way into my hair, getting tangled. I glanced up at him and couldn't miss the look of love and desire on his face.

"Roza, I'm going to come," Dimitri said, the words rushing out of his mouth. "I want to be inside of you when I come."

I pulled off his dick and trailed kisses back up his body until I reached his mouth. We battled for dominance in the kiss. Dimitri quickly flipped us over so that he was on top, never once breaking our kiss.

"God, I love you, Roza," he whispered, pulling away from the kiss.

He didn't give me time to respond as he kissed me again, before pulling away to trail kisses down my body. I threw my head back into the pillows as he sucked a nipple into his mouth, switching to the other side after a few moments. Dimitri continued his trail of kisses, dragging my underwear off with his teeth. His mouth didn't return there, instead coming back up to capture my lips in a kiss again as his fingers spread me open. His lips contained my moans as he moved his fingers inside of me. My body is on fire as I felt everything tenfold.

Dimitri removed his fingers and broke our kiss. He was hovering over me, his eyes dark with desire. He interlocked our hands, pinning me to the bed.

"Are you ready?" he whispered.

"Yes," I whispered back. "Please."

I felt him at my entrance a moment before he slowly pushed into me. I cried out, my back arching. Dimitri paused, letting me adjust.

"Please," I groaned again.

He pulled back and thrust back in. Dimitri kissed me again, swallowing my moans.

"Please, Dimitri," I cried.

Dimitri picked up the pace, and my hips started meeting him thrust for thrust. He released my hands and wrapped one arm around his neck, my nails biting into his back, while the other tangled in his hair, keeping him close to me.

"Roza," he groaned. Dimitri trailed one of his hands down the side of my body before reaching between us to rub my clitoris.

"Fuck!"

It didn't take long for the clenching in my stomach to start, signaling that my orgasm wasn't far off.

Dimitri shifted, causing him to go deeper as he picked up the pace again.

"Dimitri," I whined as I felt the first waves of my orgasm. I cried out as it washed over me, clinging to Dimitri as he still moved inside of me.

"Come on, Roza, come for me again," Dimitri whispered. "I know you can. I want to make you scream my name once more."

He grazed my shoulder with his teeth, licking, biting, and sucking on my skin as he continued using his thumb to circle my clit while still thrusting into me. My body was hypersensitive, still riding the waves of my first orgasm as I felt the second one starting to build. I dug my fingers into Dimitri's back and tossed my head back again.

"Dimitri!" I screamed as my second orgasm rushed through me.

"Fuck," Dimitri grunted as he continued thrusting through my orgasm. "Roza!"

He continued to thrust through his orgasm and continued to play with my clitoris, prolonging my orgasm as spasms of pleasure ran through me. Dimitri pulled out of me and kissed me again before collapsing beside me on the bed. I caught my breath and could hear Dimitri doing the same beside me.

"God, I love you," I said.

Dimitri laughed softly. "I love you too, Roza."

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! I'm predicting one more chapter (maybe two) left before this story is finished and it'll hopefully be up soon!