I set my phone down and gave her a small smile. “Just another alert about the snow.”
Misha smiled sleepily. “I can’t wait to go out and play in it when it’s done coming down.”
I was looking forward to it too. It had taken a lot of brainstorming to keep him busy inside today. Roughhousing and playing tag inside had helped to make him this sleepy now.
We were locked in for a while, but we wouldn’t want for anything. The reception was fine here with the extra satellite capacity we’d arranged for. It would enable us to continue Misha’s tutoring, which he handled during the morning hours remotely. It gave him a chance to talk to anyone back home. And it allowed me to still check in with them all.
After the game was over—Misha won—I excused myself to take a call.
“Nothing special. Just checking in with the boss,” I said so Kalina wouldn’t worry.
She didn’t reply, keeping her head low as she carried more plates to the kitchen. Before we went our separate ways, though, she suggested to Misha that she could handle the dishes on her own since he looked so sleepy.
“Are you sure?” he asked, usually part of the effort. Even that reply was broken by yawns.
She nodded. “I’m sure. You look like you’re about to fall asleep standing up.”
It was late. And I marveled at how much she was still opening up and getting comfortable. Thawing out despite the deep freeze outside. Misha was the one who pulled her out of her shell, but I suspected that I wasn’t a small player in that effort.
I couldn’t help but notice more and more that she was watching me. That she seemed to be extra aware of me. She had been since the moment she first woke up under our custody. That scared observance. But now, it was charged, tinged with something like curiosity.
Don’t even think about it.
I had to continually warn myself to forget about it. Now wasn’t the time. No time in the near future would work either. It didn’t matter how her beauty stunned me, the more she filled out and lost the darkness under her eyes. How she glowed, radiant with her health returning. With the surprises of her small smiles and the quiet bursts of laughter, often quickly covered up as if she wasn’t sure if she wasallowedto laugh.
“I won’t be long,” I told her as I went to my room to take my call.
Once I was alone, I called Luka back. He’d called to check on us with the weather, but it was always nice to catch up with him.
“How is she doing?” he asked after I told him that we were fine with the snow.
He hadn’t gotten the latest update from me, personally, yet.
“She’s talking. More and more. She’s not the chatterbox that Misha can be, but she’s warming up to us both.”
“Good. Good.”
“She’s not in any position to be questioned,” I added quickly.
“And I don’t think it would be necessary to do that anymore, anyway.” He went on to update me, too, about the progress back at home. Erik and Yousef were definitely looking for her, but they weren’t having any luck. Men were positioned to track them should they get too close for comfort. Simon had been busy with the assignment of this mission, perhaps bored with Emil still taking a break for now. Hell, with Sadie pregnant again, though, he might be cutting back his workload for longer. If that were the case, he’d spend more time training other assassins employed for us so they could take on more.
“The Riveras do seem to be looking for her, but again, no solid leads on that,” Luka said.
I liked the sound of that. It meant that they were curious and invested, but not in any position to comehere. My only hope was that Kalina would get to the point that she would want to reconnect with Raisa, maybe move back in near her or get more help like therapy. Whatever she needed or wanted, we’d make it happen. That was what family did.
Satisfied with the call, we both disconnected several minutes later.
I stuck to my word about coming back to help Kalina with the dishes. She didn’t need to handle it all, but if she liked having a task or something to do other than reading or games, I was glad to give her a chore or whatever would preoccupy her.
My return was timed well. Because just as I reentered the kitchen, she turned to reach up and set a dish on a higher shelf and slipped. Her shoe coasted over a blob of suds that must have dripped down from the sink.
In a flash, I was there. Sensing her fall as if it were happening in slow motion, I reached out quickly and caught her easily.
Rocking into me with a soft grunt, she flung her arms out too late. Windmilling wouldn’t have broken her fall to the floor.
But I did.
“Whoa,” I said softly.
