Four
Elsie
We hadn’t made it to the kitchen yet when Calvin called out my name.I spun around to see him hurrying after me.Relief at the sight of him and hope that he’d changed his mind about my staying here were instant.I was sure that the woman I had been following was very nice.She appeared to be.Her smile was genuine, and her brown eyes were kind.But she wasn’t enough to make me want to stay here.I’d already been apprehensive about things when the one they called Forge came staggering into the room.
Calvin smiled at Winslet, looking over my shoulder.“I, uh, need to talk to Elsie,” he explained with that charming smile of his.
“Of course,” she replied, and I heard her footsteps continue on as Calvin’s gaze came back to meet mine.
“It won’t always be like that,” he said in a whisper.“He’s just drunk.Oz is the oldest, and he will handle him.”Calvin reached out to take my hand in both his and squeezed it.“This is the safest place for you.The security when we entered the gate?You saw that.No one is getting in here that they don’t allow.And Winslet seems nice, doesn’t she?There are two other females who live here.Kash’s girlfriend and Bane’s wife.Bane owns the house, and they have a little boy.You’re gonna be okay here.I swear it.”
That sounded reassuring, but what about Forge?Did he live here too?
“I’d stay with you if I could.But I’ve got that internship, and filming starts next week.You know I have to be there,” he continued.
I nodded.I understood, but the scared little girl inside of me who had become an orphan overnight wanted to beg him not to leave me.I wouldn’t though.
“I’ve got to go meet with Bane in his office,” Calvin continued.“He was on his way home.They need more information about things so that they can help keep you from danger.”
Again, I just nodded.What else did I say?He was doing all he could for me.I should be thankful he had a connection like this.Otherwise, I’d be hidden from everyone—including him—isolated from the world, and I didn’t want that either.
“I’m sorry you’re not even getting a chance to grieve,” he said, pulling me to him and wrapping his arms around me.“I can’t imagine what you’re feeling.I wish I could ease it, but there aren’t any words to make that better.”
I sniffled and clung to him, needing the comfort.He was right.I’d been told my parents were murdered, and I would be, too, if I wasn’t hidden.There had been no time to fall apart.To cry.I’d had to go into flight mode.It still seemed like a nightmare I was stuck inside.That it wasn’t real.
“Would you like to be alone?I can ask them where your room is and take you there,” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied in a cracked whisper.I didn’t want to be expected to talk or respond to anyone.
“Come with me,” he said, then pressed a kiss to my temple before releasing me and heading in the direction that Winslet had gone.
He was looking in doors as we passed them until there was an arched entrance to a bright, large kitchen.Winslet was heading back toward us, carrying plates and napkins.
“Is there any chance you could show Elsie to the room she will be staying in?”Calvin asked her.
Winslet’s gaze turned to me, and there was sorrow there.It wasn’t forced, and it wasn’t pity, just what seemed like genuine pain for me.“Of course,” she replied.“I’m sure you could use some time alone.”
“Thank you,” I told her, and she held out the items in her hand to Calvin.
I glanced at Calvin, and he gave me a small, reassuring nod before I followed her down a new hallway that led to a staircase.I’d been in big homes before, but this one might be the largest.There was a chance I would get lost if I ventured out on my own.
“The en suite is fully stocked with everything I thought you might need.But if there is anything I didn’t put in there, let me know,” Winslet told me.“Halo will be here later today.She had a doctor’s appointment and then went to lunch with her mother-in-law.But you will love her.Oz and I don’t live here, but we are on the property.Halo is Bane’s wife and a sweetheart.”
I listened as she spoke, but said nothing.I hadn’t realized Oz didn’t live in this house.Did Forge?Thinking about him made me … uncomfortable.I wasn’t sure what the name for my reaction to him was, but I didn’t like it.
Winslet stopped at the last door on the right of the wide-open hallway she had taken me down once we reached the top of the stairs.“I tried not to put you in a hard-to-find room.This place can be intimidating at first.Or that’s just me because I have no directional sense,” she quipped and gave me a small smile, then opened the door.
“Who … all lives here?”I asked, glancing back at the other doors.
There were four total in this hallway, and there had been another hallway further down.
Winslet turned and pointed at the door across from me.“That one is just another guest room.”She then pointed at the one up from it.“That is Kash and Cressida’s room.”She then pointed at the other door on my side.“That is Forge’s room.”
I tried to hide my reaction and was thankful she headed inside the room she had said was mine.“Kash, Cressida, and Forge haven’t been here much lately, so this hallway will be quieter.The other one has Bane and Halo’s master suite, Hawkins’s room, and Ransom and Noa’s room, but their house is almost finished, and they’ll be moving out soon.Noa you will love, and if you’re a romance reader, then you are really gonna love her.”
I followed her into the bedroom to find a much larger space than I’d imagined for a guest room.Were the other rooms bigger than this?Wouldn’t one of the couples who lived here want this one?
“The bathroom is through that door, and that’s the closet there.Calvin gave Oz your size in clothes and shoes, and luckily, my things will all fit you, so I brought you some items since you had to leave yours behind.”
