Not being blindfolded felt… wrong. I wasn’t used to the ability to see the building I was held in. On the street, I wasn’t covered. Two men escorting a blindfolded woman would’ve attracted too much attention.
But here, it was just so different.
No one pushed me to hurry like Yusef did.
Erik wasn’t here to scowl and watch me for any sign of my wanting to rush off.
I wasn’t ordered to look down, to avoid making eye contact with passersby.
I just couldn’t make sense of it, so bewildered with the new experience that I had no way to know how to slot the details in my mind.
Outside, I was brought to a car. Tensing up at the idea of being caged in had me staggering in my steps.
“You want the window?” Misha asked.
He was calm, normal in this real world, whatever part of it this was supposed to be.
“So you can look out?” he asked, glancing at Alexsei when I didn’t reply with anything but a jerky look at the boy.
Alexsei frowned, not in anger but something like sadness. He shook his head and gently put his hand on the boy’s head to urge him into the backset. “You two can hang out in the back.” Instead of sliding in with us, so they’d flank me like when Erik and Yusef hired a ride, Alexsei got in the passenger seat.
He was giving me space. Just like he assumed I wanted.
And I did need it. The mere act of leaving that bedroom and mansion to get into this car was overwhelming me.
The engine revved up as the driver took off, but Misha reached out toward me. “Wait. You gotta put your seatbelt on, Miss Kalina.”
I reared back from his small hand. It was too much, too soon.
“Misha,” Alexsei warned. He watched through the rearview mirror.
Misha frowned, staying still with his hand in the air. “But, Dad, she needs her seat belt on. It’s safer no matter how fast the car’s going. That’s what you always tell me.”
Dad?
Misha is his son?
I should’ve pieced that together sooner, but I hadn’t, too stuck on surviving and trying to get past this shell of defense and quiet that I was locked in.
“Let her do it,” Alexsei said.
“Oh.” Misha sat back and watched me. “Your seatbelt will click in here.” Not reaching out per his father’s request, he only pointed at the boxlike thing.
A seatbelt. Right. That was right. Memories of them came back to me, old ones when my parents expected me to use a seatbelt as a child. Fourteen years was a long time ago, though. I couldn’t recall…
“Want help?” Misha asked.
I furrowed my brow, still stunned that this child would point out the need for me to use a safety measure. Erik and Yusef wanted me intact to sell, but Misha was just being nice. Concerned.
I couldn’t nod, wishing I could just break down and cry at this simple act of kindness.
“Here.” He slowly reached out over me—without being too close to brush against me at all—to pull on the belt and hand it to me. I accepted it, hating how my fingers shook.
“And you push it in here.” He held up the box at the cushion.
I jammed it in there, feeling like I was trying too hard to be normal. In the real world. It felt like another universe I still didn’t have clearance for. Or one that I’d stay in for long.
Misha’s curiosity about me hovered between us. He had to be so confused, why an adult like me was so lost. So quiet. But I was locked, like an outsider looking in. I couldn’t explain how hardthis was for me. He was respectful, though, not badgering me with questions or staring like I was a freak.
