AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alina kept an eye out as she returned to the house, but she didn’t see Luka. Looking for him was pointless if he didn’t want to be seen. He’d slipped out of sight that night he’d rescued her, even while her gaze had been intent on his back.
It was a useful skill. If she was able to talk to him, maybe she could ask him to teach her. Alina had gone unseen before, but not with that kind of intention.
She forced herself to go through the same motions as she had the previous few days. After the large breakfast Meg had given her, she wasn’t hungry for most of the rest of the day. There were no books in the house, but she couldn’t spend money on something so frivolous. As she rubbed the nub of one of the broken pencils in her hand, she knew they wouldn’t last much longer. Plain pencils weren’t the same as paint at all, but at least they were affordable.
That night, she remained awake. Anticipation made her breathing erratic, but she forced them to slow. Deep in, filling her lungs but not to aching—her rib still hadn’t fully healed—followed by a slow exhale that pursed her lips. Soon the rhythm had her squeezed-shut eyes loosening, but she refused to sleep.
There was no sound when he came in—no squeak of hinges or cushioned step on the carpet—but the air pressure in the room shifted, sending tingles over the hair on her arms. She forced herself to wait, focusing on maintaining her slow and steady breathing instead. Her heartbeat hurt in her chest.
When she opened her eyes, he was barely more than a shadow huddled near the wall. She’d been sure he’d been looking at her, but his head was turned away. He stared at the wall she’d drawn on. Most of her drawings had been an attempt to capture his face.
That realization was embarrassing.
Alina sat up beneath the covers, fiddling with the edge of the sheet in her hands.
Luka stood.
“Please wait!” Alina called out, her hands tightening around the blanket.
He paused, continuing to stare at her drawings.
“I didn’t know you were coming here. I’m causing problems for you, aren’t I? By staying here?” She stared down at the comforter, which was gray with thin stripes of blue.
Luka’s voice came, as soft as she remembered. “It’s fine.”
“What?” She was able to raise her head again.
Luka still didn’t look her way. His gloved hand made the slightest motion at his side. “Why?” he asked.
“Why am I staying here?” Alina felt the emptiness in her chest that had become familiar as she’d faced reality again and again that week. “Because I have nowhere to go. They burned my house, the men from before.” She had wanted to say the ones he had killed, but wasn’t certain it was safe to address that Luka was a killer. Not that she minded. No, the memory of the men who had hurt her being covered in their own blood filled her with nothing but satisfaction. It was a warm knot in her belly, even remembering how she’d lost control.
Luka hadn’t moved.
“And I don’t have any money or savings. So I’ve been working.” Alina remembered how Meg had warned her that a man fitting Luka’s description was following her. “But you already knew that, didn’t you? You saw me there?”
His lack of reaction was almost easier to track.
More words soon followed. “Meg has been really kind to me. She lets me cook all the breakfast and always forces me to eat meat. And Frank has taught me all about the different ways to make eggs. He orders his a different way each time so I can learn. Today he—”
Alina found herself telling the silent man all about her experiences at the diner. She had never really had someone to talk to. She’d been worried saying too much to Meg would bring the woman trouble, so even there she said only enough to take orders. With Luka, though, she couldn’t seem to stop talking. Maybe it was because he said nothing to interrupt the flow of her thoughts.
Luka moved back to his crouch, not gazing at her. She paused in her rambling as he pressed his back to the wall.
“Oh, good, so your back doesn’t hurt anymore? I was worried when you left here with that fever.”
For the first time since she’d woken, his face turned toward her. His own face was still cast in shadow, but she was certain his eyes were on her. The tingles along her arms had risen, telling her it was so.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Alina told him.
Luka looked away again, focusing on the drawings. His gloves seemed to twitch. “Why?” he asked.
He’d been looking at her drawings when he’d asked the first time as well. Alina wondered if he’d been asking her about them all along.
“I like art. It’s been my one escape over the years. Drawing like you see, though I actually prefer to paint.”
Moonlight filtered through the window, and Alina took in just how many times she’d drawn the man in front of her. She’d also drawn Meg and Frank and a couple of the customers at the diner, but not dozens of times like she’d drawn Luka. “I mean, I don’t know many people, so I…” She’d just gone on and on about all the people in the diner. Her mouth clamped shut.
Luka shook his head before ducking it closer to his knees. “Not me,” he mumbled.
