what’s going on in front of me. That’s why I stir when I sense someone watching me.
I open my eyes and see her.
Isabella.
She’s standing in front of me looking so beautiful I wonder if I’m still asleep and she’s a dream.
In the bright morning sunlight, the rays light up her hair like a halo and the baggy t-shirt she wears swamps her tiny frame.
She stares at me with those bright eyes and a slight flush in her cheeks. A flush that deepens when I straighten, and she looks over the bare tattooed skin of my chest. When she brings her hands together it snaps me out of the trance, and I reach for my t-shirt.
“You slept in here last night,” she says.
“Yeah. I just… I must have drifted off.” That’s not what’s she’s asking me, though. The question is why I’m in here, but I dodge it and shrug into my shirt.
“The door’s not locked,” she says.
“Doll, you know the doors not locked and you’re telling me?” It’s an attempt at being lighthearted. But there’s nothing lighthearted about us, although the trace of a smile touches her beautiful face.
She looks at the origami flower on the table and reaches for it. Lightly she runs her fingers over the petals then looks at me.
“Is it hard to make?”
“No. Not when you have a few tries. It just comes naturally, and you find yourself doing it with your eyes closed,” I explain.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
She leans forward to put the flower back, but I stop her.
“Keep it. I can make more.”
“Thanks.” She gazes back at me and I run a hand through my hair.
I don’t know what the hell we’re supposed to do now.
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to tell Massimo besides the truth, and the way I see it, we’re back to square one.
I’m standing on square one, but now I have her. And I don’t know what to do with her.
She can’t help me and all I’ve done is wreaked havoc in her life. I’m on a quest for revenge. It’s a mission to gain something to fix a wrong that was done.
And I’m still drawn to her.
“Sacha is okay,” I tell her giving her assurance again.
“Thank you.”
“I am sorry I did that to you. Your father’s guards currently believe you escaped and he helped you. They were going to kill him when we took him. I will see to it that no one will come for him,” I add, and she looks at me with gratitude.
“Thanks. Do you… still believe me?” she asks cautiously.
I nod. “Yes. I believe you. I haven’t known you for long, but your eyes give you away.”
“Do they?”
“They do.”
“Yours give you away too.”
I consider this and know she’s right. I’m curious to know what she sees though. “What do they tell you?”
“Terrible things happened to you.”
“Terrible things happened to you too,” I point out and she nods.
“What now Tristan? I can’t help you,” she says and pulls in a staggered breath. “My father has an elaborate set up so no one can reach him. We meet three times a year now for a few hours. On my birthday, Christmas day and then once in the summer. That’s it. Each time he’s heavily guarded and he takes me to dinner like we’re a normal family. Like he’s just spending time with his daughter. Then he leaves. We talk every month by video call. That is all the contact I have with my father.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it and all it has been for years. Ever since my mother died. Before that I saw him more often. There was a period of time that changed things after she died and that’s when I was sent to live in Rhode Island. We lived in Russia before.”
“When did you speak to him last?”
“Last week.” She gives me a stiff smile. “He’s retiring and he wanted me to know that I’d be marrying Dmitri in six months when it happened.”
My brows pinch at the mention of marriage. “What?”
“Yeah. Married. I guess that’s normal. Fathers make sure their daughters get married to men who can take care of them. Not in my case though. Dmitri isn’t a normal person. It was … him who killed Eric.”
I bite down hard on my back teeth when I hear that. I already knew Dmitri killed Eric from the conversations I’d listened to prior to taking Isabella. Hearing her tell me though is different. It angers me and I feel bad for her knowing she lost someone she loved,