Page 96 of Silent Heart

Thump-thump, thump-thump. His heart beat steadily.

“You’re going to be mad I’m here in the morning. If you wanted us to be together, you would have found a way. But you ran. It’s pretty clear where you stand on this.” I had to stop talking. The feelings I so carefully hid threatened to escape through the fist size crack in my chest.

The silence stretched until my phone buzzed with an incoming message. I rolled over, answered, and then shut off the movie.

Here in the dark, I could pretend. And it felt so damn nice, like coming home.

Chapter 38 – Kolya

The scent of sweat filled my nostrils. Without opening my eyes, I knew I was in the attic. I must have had another episode. I clenched my jaw, fists tightening at the knowledge that yet again my family had had to wrestle me in here. That was why it was easier to stay away. They shouldn’t have to see me like this. They shouldn’t have to deal with this crap.

This was where I belonged. Alone, in the gloom of solitude. The forced air kicked on, sending a stale draft through the space. That kept it from freezing up here, but it didn’t explain the ball of warmth I felt. That was different.

A soft, sleepy sigh of contentment that didn’t come from me had my eyes snapping wide open.

I knew who it was even before my senses calculated the situation. My body recognized her.

Harley snoozed, face soft and lines of worry eased. Saints, she looked so different than when I saw her…days ago? Hours? It was impossible to tell. The last thing I remembered was leaving the meeting with the Cyber Ops woman and going to scout out the university. I scouted the streets where the traffickers keptthe University students they took, the location sent to me by Beth. But I didn’t have to gooncampus before driving back here.

The one and only reason I did that was to catch a glimpse of Harley.

And I had.

She’d been cooped up in the library, tucked away at a wooden computer desk across from Camilla. They’d been there for hours, only moving to stretch or use the bathroom.

Once, I could have sworn Harley caught me watching through the stacks. She’d looked up abruptly, gaze trained in my direction. I didn’t breathe until I was out of that mausoleum of books.

I quit my surveillance after that encounter, coming back to the mansion to—

Fall apart.

I ground my molars. I hadn’t slept a single hour since getting off the plane from Arizona. It had been days of driving myself to find Camilla’s missing friend. If the little barista hadn’t given me the pages—and pages!—of tips, I would have continued aimlessly searching.

But Beth came through.

I’m going to have to talk to her again.The data was just that good. It would be stupid not to form some kind of partnership with the woman.

Rolling my neck to the side, I noticed the dark in the hall beyond. The window was still deep navy. There was no sense of time or knowledge in this place. It was a prison of solitude, a cell for the banishment of the wicked.

An electronic vibration buzzed.

Harley moaned and flopped over. Her palm slapped against the mattress until she found her cell. She opened it, read the message, and typed a four-word response.

If it was any other man texting her, I would have been angry. But this woman was perfectly capable of handling my baby brother as evidenced by her short reply to fuck off, she was sleeping.

Harley must have sensed me watching, because she stilled. She clicked the phone screen off and plunged us back into darkness. But she didn’t relax into my arm where she’d been comfortable moments ago.

Maybe I would kill Luka for disturbing her peace.

“You slept,” she whispered.

“So did you,” I responded.

Harley wriggled away, rolling onto her stomach and propping herself on her elbows. It took everything in my power to hold myself back from grabbing her.

“We have about two more hours before I have to leave, if you wanted to sleep some more?” she offered.

It wasn’t a question of want. I desperately wanted to, so long as she was next to me. But my mind was already firing on full cylinders, and there would be no calming it.

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