ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 236: Stake your phone

Chapter 236

KATYA POV

My head shook before I even realized I was doing it. "Well—he isn’t," I said quickly, the words tumbling out sharper than I meant them to. My fingers tightened around the phone in my lap. "He’s not using me."

Romeo didn’t interrupt. He didn’t move. He seems to be listening. "He doesn’t even know," I continued, breath uneven now.

"He doesn’t know where I live. He doesn’t know who you are. I never told him anything about you. About this place. About... any of it."

My chest burned as I spoke, fear and urgency tangling together. "I never mentioned your name. Or your work. Or your—" I faltered, then swallowed. "Your deeds. Not once."

Romeo’s eyes stayed on me, unblinking."He thought I was just... someone passing through," I said. "Someone normal until that day." The word felt foolish the moment it left my mouth, but I pressed on anyway. "But! he doesn’t know I’m here. He doesn’t know I live under your roof."

I leaned forward slightly without realizing it, like closing the distance might make him listen more.

"Michael is a former cop. Ex. He’s not serving anymore. He doesn’t have a badge. He doesn’t have access. He doesn’t have power, right?"

My voice softened, almost pleading. "He shouldn’t be a threat." Romeo studied me for a long moment.

Not my face this time—but my posture. The tension in my hands. The way my voice had cracked around Michael’s name.

"You’re certain," he said finally. It wasn’t a question.

"Yes, I am. " I said immediately. His gaze sharpened just a fraction. "You’re willing to stake something on that certainty?"

My breath caught. I hadn’t thought that far. I hadn’t thought past protecting Michael. Past stopping whatever I saw calculating itself behind Romeo’s eyes.

"I—" I hesitated, then forced the words out. "I know him."

A pause. Then, calmly, almost thoughtfully, Romeo said, "Stake your phone." My stomach dropped. "That’s not what—"

"Enough," he cut in quietly. The word landed with finality. He turned away from me, walking back toward the desk, fingertips brushing the edge of it as if grounding himself.

"You knew him enough to forget he was law enforcement. Whether he knows who I am," Romeo continued, voice level, "and whether he is a threat... are two very different things."

He faced me again. "And men like me," he added, "don’t wait to find out which one is true."

The room felt smaller. Tighter.

"Katya," Romeo said, calling my name like a warning, "your concern for him is noted. And the only reason you are still sitting here calmly defending him is because I promised you freedom the moment I put that check in your hand."

My heart swelled because...WHAT? He had given me that check but I hadn’t still made my decision but to think that he was still willing to give me my freedom whenever.

"But understand this," he continued, eyes locking onto mine. "If you so much as breathes in the wrong direction of betraying me, I swear to God" He stopped, not because he lacked words.

But because he didn’t need them. He held my gaze for another second.

Then his eyes dropped to the phone. "Leave," Romeo said calmly.

The word didn’t register at first. My mind was still caught on everything he’d said. On the check. On Michael. On the quiet threat hanging unfinished in the air.

"Drop your phone on the desk and go" he continued. My breath stuttered.

"If I need you again, I’ll call for you" he added, already turning back toward his desk. The room seemed to tilt.

My phone. My fingers tightened instinctively, curling around it as if it could anchor me to something solid.

My pulse spiked, loud in my ears. No.I hadn’t even realized I was still holding it like a shield. Like something fragile. Like something alive.

I stood slowly, the chair scraping softly against the floor. The sound felt too loud. Exposing.

"I—" My voice faltered. I cleared my throat. "I thought—" Romeo didn’t turn around as he said quietly.

"That is what you’re staking."

My chest tightened painfully. "My phone?" I asked, disbelief slipping through despite my effort to stay calm. I thought we had established that Michael wouldn’t be a threat.

"Yes."

I shook my head before I could stop myself. "No," I said.

"I can’t." For the first time that morning, Romeo’s calm expression shifted into something colder.

"You misunderstand me," he said quietly, turning back to face me fully. His voice was steady, controlled. "Me telling you I promised you freedom does not mean I am a nice person."

The words settled into my chest like stones. "It means I am a man who keeps his word," he continued. "Not a man who tolerates tests."

My throat tightened. "Do not test me, Katya." My mind spiraled.

Part of me prayed—desperately, irrationally—that he would change his mind. That he would wave it off.

That he would tell me to keep it, that this was only a warning. Another part of me—quieter, sharper—knew I had expected this.

I had known the phone would be the first thing he’d take. I just hadn’t realized how much it would hurt now that it was real.

I’d barely had it. Barely had time to learn it. To do anything meaningful with it. No messages worth rereading. No memories stored yet. Just the possibility of connection. Of choice.

And now even that was being stripped away. Romeo’s eyes stayed on me the entire time.

Watching. Waiting. I didn’t say anything. There was nothing left to say. If this piece of glass was what would keep Michael alive then he could take it a hundred times.

My fingers loosened slowly, reluctantly, as if they were betraying me. I stepped forward and placed the phone on the desk.

The sound it made was soft. I withdrew my hand at once, like the surface had burned me.

Romeo didn’t reach for it. He didn’t even look at it right away. His gaze remained on me, assessing, weighing, confirming something only he could see.

"Good, you may leave" he said at last. I straightened, my hands empty, my chest tight.

I turned toward the door, my steps stiff, my thoughts still tangled in everything I’d just lost, praying that Michael doesn’t call at all not send a message that could bring implications.

††

Btw bye phone, but would the phone be clean?