Page 51 of The Harbinger

Sitting on the bench, I pulled the stockings over my knees, then slipped on the black, over-the-knee cloth boots with chunky heels.

“Is there any underwear in here that I haven’t found yet?”

She tapped the backs of her fingers against her palm, then walked around me. “Come. Let’s do your hair.”

Katya grabbed a hairbrush from the vanity counter that I’d left out yesterday. “Have a seat, and I’ll brush and braid your hair.”

“Thank you, Katya, but I can do my own hair.”

“But…”

I sighed. “Let me guess… he told you to do it for me?”

Katya nodded, her gaze lowered to the floor.

“Okay.” I sat in front of the vanity, opened the drawers, and blindly searched for a hair tie as she brushed my hair through. “I’m not used to this sort of attention.”

“He likes things a certain way. It would be best not to fight him.”

She ran the brush through my hair—the bristles soothing against my scalp. When she was through, she started from the top of my head and began French braiding my hair.

“That’s not in my nature.”I don’t think I’d be alive if I wasn’t a fighter.“Besides, it seems like he hates me, so why try?”

“I don’t understand.” She shook her head as I watched her in the mirror.

“It just seems like I’m in the way, even though he’s the one who brought me here.”

“I see.” She slid her pinky around the crown of my head on one side, joining the three strands she’d broken up, then did the same on the other side and twisted. “He’s a hard man to please. That’s why we keep our distance.”

I frowned at the contradiction. “But you don’t.”

A tiny grin crept across her lips as she inclined her head slightly. “I know him like no one else. One might say we share the same thoughts.”

A jealous twinge twisted in my heart and squeezed. There was no way I could compete with someone who’d been around him since he was a kid, growing their friendship and loyalty.

What iftheywere together?

Siblings, best friends, and couples shared the same mind, and since she wasn’t his sister, it ruled out that reasoning, leaving her as a really,reallygood friend or his significant other.

I pressed my hand to my chest and rubbed.

If they were together—which I doubted, yet entertained the idea—did she know about Nina? Or was Nina hisgirlfriend?

Who was she, and why was he so pressed to find her?

“Can I ask you something?”

“You can, but it doesn’t mean I’ll answer.” Her fingers worked skillfully through my hair.

I shifted in my seat, then took a stab in the dark. “So, who’s Nina?”

Katya sighed to herself, her eyes avoiding mine in the mirror.

I handed her a hair tie, and she gracefully secured the end of my braid. “Nina was someone who was...” Her hands glided over my shoulders, her fingertips lightly smoothing over my shirt. “She was sweet and quiet... You could say she wasdevoted.”

Katya stepped back and wiped the dampness off her fingers from my hair with a hand towel mounted onto an O-ring near the glass. “He’s waiting for you downstairs.”

“Katya,” I shouted after her retreating figure, which paused in the doorway. “What did she mean to Sacha?”