Page 1 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part Two
Chapter1
Aviva
In a tiny side street, at the very top of a dead-end road, was a bookstore, no bigger than an inner-city studio. It had two stories, and fairy lights in the windows. It backed onto a park filled with ancient trees that dripped with vines. It was a magical oasis inside the chaos of Hong Kong’s busy streets.
And I hated it on sight.
It was lucky I didn’t have a car, or I might have driven straight into it. I huffed a bitter laugh under my breath, and Evan cast a worried look in my direction. Hendrick would have gotten my internal joke.
“Do you want to go in?”
I did, but I also didn’t. It felt wrong without the guys here. I wasn’t sure when they’d become an integral part of this journey, but I think it was somewhere near the beginning.
“Let’s go.”
Evan stayed at my back, always the bodyguard, even with no one to guard but me. We’d been in Hong Kong for three days, but we didn’t have Otto’s research skills and Nemo’s last message was… crazy.
There, I said it. It sounded crazy. And so lonely.
It had taken us three days to find this bookstore, and I instantly knew it was the one. It screamed Nemo.
I stepped through the open door. Unlike most of the other bookstores, it wasn’t crammed to the brim with books. Shelves lined the walls like all respectable bookstores, but the center of the room was clear except for a woven mat. Unstained wood held greenery, like the vines from outside had slithered into the store. Up a small steep set of stairs was a room with huge windows, a small bench running beneath them so you could sit and read. It was beautiful and calming. Plastering the wall between the window frames were stickers—some protest stickers, some literary, some whimsical. There was one of a cat riding a unicorn.
The owner smiled sweetly at us, but didn’t approach. We looked like tourists, which meant we probably couldn’t speak Cantonese. She waved a hand in the direction of a small shelf of books, and I realized they were in English.
I nodded my head in thanks and walked over. I didn’t expect a Verne book to be here, especially in a bookstore this small. The stock would need to be turned over regularly to ensure that they sold.
We searched the shelf of English books, and then on a whim, the shelf of English to Cantonese translations. But there was no Verne anywhere.
I sighed, slumping down on one of the stools as I watched Evan search the rest of the shelves, like he could speak Cantonese. He looked over his shoulder at me. “Otto would be handy now to translate.”
I smiled through the ache in my chest. “He speaks Mandarin, not Cantonese.”
Evan huffed and finished his scan before coming to sit beside me. “Maybe this is the wrong bookstore?”
I shrugged. “Maybe? But there's hundreds of stores in Hong Kong. We can’t search them all.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and I leaned against him. “Why not?”
I chewed my lip. I didn’t actually know why not. “I don’t want to spend your entire retirement fund on cheap hotels and takeout.”
He kissed my temple. “But it's really good takeout.”
I laughed, because he was right. We were staying at a moderately priced hotel on the tenth floor, and all around it were small, hole-in-the-wall food places. I'd eaten some amazing food over the last three days.
“I have to go back eventually,” I whispered softly.
“Back to them?”
I stiffened. “No, I don’t think so.”
Evan snorted, kissing the top of my head. “Chaos, you are meant to be with those three. It's clear to anyone with eyes. When I watched you in Paris, being young and in love…” He trailed off.
I set my jaw stubbornly. “I’m happy right now.”
He grabbed my chin, tilting my face up. “Liar,” he murmured against my lips, and then kissed me softly.
I was fucking this up as well, but what could I do about it? If I’d met Evan in a bar… Well, no. That was a shit scenario, because we’d never be at the same bars. If I’d sat on a long-haul flight… No, he wasn’t a chatter. There was no way I could have met Evan without the guys, so I was thankful for that, even if it had come with a side of pulverized heart.
