Becoming Lost - A New Haven Nights Novella by Ophelia Sikes

Author:Ophelia Sikes [Sikes, Ophelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Minerva Webworks LLC
Published: 2018-12-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

I barely saw the structures and vehicles as they streamed past our car. A sunset of crimsons and tangerines eased into darker violets, and yet I curled up in the passenger seat, my hand laced into Alex’s.

His hand was real.

The rest of the world? I wasn’t so sure.

It was almost too much to take in. Mikhaylo was dead. Mikhaylo was dead. He no longer existed in this world. He was gone, and the Earth was still spinning. The moon was still rising, glowing, up into the night sky. Stars were still twinkling.

The car slowed … rumbled … stopped.

I looked up.

It was the house I was renting. The place which, for these two weeks, was my home.

I no longer had to leave.

Mikhaylo was dead.

The thoughts were almost nonsensical. For so long my life had followed a rhythm. Now that rhythm had been disrupted and I barely knew what might happen next.

Alex came around the car to me and opened my door. He helped me out and looped his arm around me.

I groaned. Every single part of me ached.

He murmured, “We’re almost there.”

He helped me across the lawn to my front steps. I glanced around for my purse. Then I realized I didn’t have it. It had been tossed away when I’d been taken.

Alex drew a small black pouch from his pocket. “Mind if I give it a try?”

I nodded. My door was guarded by a solid lock, certainly, but it was hardly impervious to a talented pick.

Alex was good, indeed – it took him barely a minute to get the lock sprung.

I pressed my thumb against the plate, and we stepped in.

His eyes went to the closet without the door. To the cabinets with their open faces. His breath left him.

I looked at those open places. The dark holes. Suddenly I realized they no longer held power over me. I had come out of the box. I had left it under my own free will.

Mikhaylo was dead.

I looked up to Alex. “Thank you.”

He gently swept back my hair. “No, thank you. You risked everything to take him down. Countless women owe their lives to you.”

My legs nearly folded. I was on my last ounce of strength.

He swept me up in his arms. He walked down the hall to the bedroom door and used a hand to turn the knob. He pressed the door open.

His eyes took in the sparse room. The mat with its pillow and thin blanket. The duffle bags to one side holding my clothes.

He brought me over to the mat and tenderly laid me on it. He tucked the pillow beneath my head. He drew over the blanket.

I twined my hand into his. “Can you stay?”

He lay down at my side, his gaze steady on mine.

“Absolutely.”

A sense of deep, soul-filling peace flowed into me. A sense I’d never felt before.

I let myself fill with him.

I closed my eyes.

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