Being alive was easy. Living, on the other hand…well, that was a little harder. Courage rose from deep within me, and my heart pounded. I didn’t have a thing to lose, so I went for it. “You’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, Lev. Hands down.”

He blinked at me for a long moment, and then turned his head, looking out into the open greenery. His face was stuck on a frown. Then he muttered, “Okay.”

It came out in a way that nearly sounded as if he was reassuring himself, and it hurt my heart. I waited a while, but it seemed he was done questioning me. I took advantage. “Tell me about your family.”

He took in a long breath and started to speak as he exhaled. “Sasha is an asshole. That’s all he wants people to know about him. He was twenty-one when my father died, and took over raising us. He lost much of his youth so suddenly that I don’t think he ever recovered from the loss. My mother ran off when I was eight. We never saw her again. That hit Nastasia relatively hard. She was Mom’s favorite.” A dull throb worked in my chest. I ached for this family. “Nastasia may come off as rough, but she is one of the most generous people I know. When she loves, she loves so much it hurts. And I’m grateful for that.”

I smiled at hearing him speak about his sister. “Why doesn’t she have a boyfriend?”

“Like I said, she loves so much it hurts. And Nastasia has loved Viktor from the time we were children.”

I sat up at that point, mouth gaping. “What? Vik Viktor? That Viktor?”

“The very one.” He was enjoying my astonishment. I could tell.

I was stunned by this information. I sputtered, “But they don’t even like each other!”

“On the contrary,” Lev revealed. “Viktor loves Nastasia very much. In fact, he spends every night in her bed.”

I wheezed out in disbelief. “No way!”

He shrugged, his eyes alight with mirth. “She thinks no one knows, but often, when I can’t sleep, I walk around the complex and his car is parked in front of her house. Every single night.”

Oh, my God. That was who she was with the night before. The god who kept her awake with his tongue skills was Vik. But then…

“But Nas makes out like he’s a womanizer.” I was baffled.

Lev nodded. “He is.”

My head was starting to hurt. “I don’t understand. Why would she put up with that? I wouldn’t. He’d be out on his ass.”

“Love,” he advised gently, “is a doing word. And sometimes the people who least deserve it are the ones who need it most.”

He was right, of course. This conversation we were having was easy. Almost too easy. I was coming to recognize that Lev Leokov was an open book. I only needed to discover the language in which his pages were written.

Chapter Sixteen

Mina

The impromptu picnic Lev and I had been on came to an end soon after Lidiya had fallen asleep. The poor thing started to sweat in the mild heat, so we took her home to finish her nap in the comfort of her own bed.

I left Lev to do whatever it was he did in the afternoons, and went upstairs to shower and change for work. I decided on comfort over class and wore a plain black tee over my blue jeans, finishing off with the black pumps that were clearly going to be the death of me—that is, if I couldn’t learn to walk in them.

It was like walking on stilts, for crying out loud!

I zhuzhed my long, wavy hair, taking it into my hands and scrunching it as I lightly sprayed it with hairspray, and then I washed my face and reapplied my makeup, thickening the eyeliner a little for that dramatic cat’s eye effect. I lightly glossed with something that was pink and smelled of cake, and the scent was so delicious that I wanted to eat it.

Don’t worry. I didn’t. Licking your lips didn’t count.

My feet bare, I took the stairs two at a time, being as quiet as I could as I made my way to the kitchen. I was hungry and remembered there being leftover brownie bites from our lunch. I opened the fridge, held onto the door, and peered inside, leaning in to get a closer look.

The brownies had disappeared.

Hmmm.

I looked harder.

So had the apple slices, the cheese, and Ada’s muffins.

My brow bunched. I wasn’t going crazy. I know I put them in there when we got back to the house. I even hid the brownies behind the juice so no one would touch them.

I checked again, looking deeper into the fridge than was necessary.

Nope. They were gone.

The fruit bowl sat on the kitchen counter, and although it had ripe bananas, shiny apples, and bright green pears in it, I wanted those damn brownies. So I started to search for them.

While I was downstairs, I went to check on Lidiya, and smiled when I saw Mirella sitting on the chair by her bed, reading. She spotted me and lifted her hand in a wave. I returned it, my eyes sweeping over the little princess sleeping soundly in her toddler bed.

That only left one place.

I made my way back up the stairs, but turned right and walked the length of the hall toward Lev’s office. He told me he went up there to work, but I had the sneaking suspicion he might also have another reason to go up there.

The door was open a crack, less than an inch, and I peeked inside.

I knew it!

I swung open the door and uttered a victorious, “Gotcha.”

Lev paused, a brownie bite halfway to his mouth.

My feet carried me over to his desk, where his laptop sat open. I took the brownie out of his hand, threw it into my mouth, groaned with pleasure as the bitter sweetness hit my tongue, and then straightened and garbled, “Oh, I’m sorry. Were you going to eat that strategically hidden brownie?”

His lips thinned and he glared at me. “Yes, I was.”

I had to cover my mouth and laugh by how put out he sounded. “I’m sorry. I know better than to take food from someone. On the streets, that kind of thing could get a person killed.”

His expression grew somber at the mention of my time without a home. “It’s okay.”

Without waiting for an invitation, mostly because I didn’t think I’d get one, I pulled out the guest chair and sat opposite him. I know it had only been a few days since I asked him, but I wanted to know if any progress had been made. “Any luck finding the Petersons yet?”

His jaw set, he pulled his laptop close and began typing. “No.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Suddenly, he shut the lid of the laptop and asked, “Why do you want to find them? Nastasia told me what they did, that they’re the reason you were homeless.” He paused. “They aren’t good people, Mina.”

Well, someone was a little judgey today. “You don’t even know them, Lev. They took me in when I was twelve years old, hating on the world, and they gave me a home.” I stressed, “One mistake doesn’t undo all the good they did. And, by the way, they didn’t force me into the street. I did that on my own.”

He leaned over the desk, his golden eyes hard. “Because they made you feel unsafe.”

True enough, but I wasn’t about to admit that. I shrugged, feeling helpless. “If you don’t want to help me find them, that’s fine. I’ll find someone else to help.” I stood, turning toward the door.

His voice had me stopping mid-step. “I can’t control the report, Mina. It might not be all good news. Do you understand that?”

Holding the doorframe, I kept my back to him and reiterated, “I just want them to know I’m okay.”

I didn’t listen for a response. My feet took me back to our room, where I spent the remainder of the afternoon lying on my back in the giant bed I had fallen in love with.

***

Mina

The night started off well. Learning that my shift behind the bar would be shared with the tall, African-American beauty with the crazy-beautiful afro, Birdie, rather than Anika, made me mentally cheer and do cartwheels.