And then she walks out of the room clutching the pictures in her trembling hands.
Wraith and I exchange a look, and I can tell there's more to this story. "What did you not tell her?"
"Her sister had a reputation in the town they lived in for being a criminal. She was a thief, ruthless."
He slides a frame from a surveillance video of Senga towards me. It looks like she's robbing a grocery store at gunpoint.
"She's not as innocent as she looks, but I don't want to burst Katya's bubble. Yet," he adds.
I stare at the girl who looks like a younger version of Katya but with shorter hair. They're almost identical except for the age difference, of course. And she does look innocent. It's hard to believe the information that Wraith is telling me, but I wholeheartedly agree that we should keep the rest of it from Katya. She's dealing with the fact that her family is missing, perhaps even dead.
I don't want to taint the perfect image she has of her sister. I want to let her hold onto the dream for just a little while longer.
CHAPTER 26
KATYA
MY FAMILY IS missing.
How is that even possible that they fell completely off the radar? Where did they go if they left our hometown in Russia where they built a life, a home?
I stare at the picture of Senga, memorizing her beautiful face. She looks so much like me at that age, except she still has hope and life in her eyes. I felt dead even back then. Hell, I wanted to be dead. Death was better than the horrible life I was stuck in.
She doesn't look broken, which can only mean one thing. My father didn't sell her like he did me.
That was always my worst fear over the years — that she would suffer the same fate as me and that I wouldn't be there to help save her.
Wiping away the tears on my cheeks, I see movement out of the corner of my eye. Jackson enters my room with a sad smile on his face. He looks exhausted, as usual. He's barely slept since we first arrived on this island. He's always taking care of something or someone — the house, the staff, Wraith, Lucien…me.
He has no idea how truly amazing he is. He forgoes sleep, food, whatever just to make sure everyone else around him is happy. And he just does it automatically. He doesn't even think twice about it.
I've never been around such a selfless human being.
Patting the bed beside me, he hesitates only a moment before walking over and sinking down onto the soft mattress. "Hey, are you okay?" he asks, while tucking a piece of stray hair behind my ear.
And that little gesture means the world to me, because it's exactly what I need right now. I need his kindness. I need him close to me. Over the past couple of weeks, Jax has wormed his way into that dark place in my chest that I kept so tightly locked up.
He alone holds the key to my heart.
And even though I know I'll only get hurt in the end, I decide to forget about the consequences for one night. I just want to get lost in him and forget about my family and the fact that they're missing and I may never see my sister again.
Setting the pictures down on the nightstand, I tell him, "Take your shirt off and lie down on your stomach."
He gives me a confused look before asking, "Why?"
"I want to give you a massage."
"I have to go check on Luc -."
But I don't let him finish. I lean forward and hush him up with a kiss. Pulling back, I begin to unbutton his shirt and slip it off his broad shoulders. "You can check on him later. I just want to take care of you right now."
"Well, I guess I can't argue with that," he tells me with a crooked grin.
Once his shirt is off, he lays face down on the bed. His pants ride low on his hips, giving me just a hint of that muscular ass of his. I've never been attracted to a man this much before…or at all, for that matter.
Pavel's evil ways turned me off towards all men. But I'm starting to make an exception for Jackson. Especially since he looks like he was carved out of marble by some master artist, a Greek god to be looked upon for eternity, perfect in every way.
Straddling the back of his thighs, I begin to work his tight back muscles in my hands. "You're so tense," I tell him, stating the obvious. Jackson can appear to have a laid-back demeanor, but he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
