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The soldier stands down but doesn’t look happy, and we spend the next twenty minutes in uncomfortable silence as they work on the lock. I stay as far away from the door as I can. Jonas is before me, grinning suggestively at me as he blocks my view of everyone and anything but him.
“I bet I could make you shake harder.” He winks.
It’s so out of the blue that a laugh escapes me and a true smile crawls over my lips as I face him. That rat bastard, he’s never going to let me live it down.
He grins, wiggling his eyebrows. “Knew I could make you laugh. How about next I make you choke—”
“Jonas!” Dimitri snaps, making me grin wider.
“How’s it going?” I call out, and he grunts.
“Bad,” he mutters, so I quiet down and leave them to it.
The time passes slowly. Bert silently comes out with drinks, and I smile in thanks but can’t bring myself to drink anything. A phone rings, breaking the silence, and we all turn to the soldier who pulls it from his pocket.
“All phones must remain on silent for the performance,” Jonas jokes.
He ignores us and answers the phone, barking answers. His face twists in displeasure at the conversation before he hangs up. “Move out, men.”
“You’re leaving?” I ask, my eyebrow arched.
He grinds his teeth and looks at Louis. “There’s an emergency back at base, so orders have changed. We are to leave, while you are to remain here and get into that lab. We will be back to help with the collection of the research, understood?”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Jonas jokes.
“Understood,” Louis snaps, unhappy with the order, but when the soldiers leave without another word, we all relax without their presence.
“Thank God, finally.” Dimitri sighs.
We all turn to him as he straightens from the lock, blinking as we gawk.
“What did you do?” Louis sighs.
“I just set off a few alarms and sprinklers at the base with a tiny fake fire to get them to leave.” He grins, and all of us laugh. “Hey, I hated them as much as you. Plus, I don’t like the way they spoke to Nova.”
My heart warms, and I smile at him. “Thank you, Dimitri,” I tell him sweetly.
“No problem. Now let me crack this baby,” he mutters, focusing on the lock as if no one else in the world exists, and to him right now, no one else does. His single-minded focus is sexy as hell. I wonder if he focuses on other things . . .
No, don’t go there.
Not wanting to just stare at him and knowing it might take a while, I push from the wall. “I’m just going for a walk. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay,” I call before they can ask. Instead of going outside, though, I decide to walk upstairs. I feel their gazes on me as I reach the top and turn right. Once out of sight, I allow myself to show a little weakness. My hands drag along the walls as I walk like I did as a child when we were playing.
Flashes of my and Ana’s laughter have me smiling as I stop before a closed door.
My room.
I shouldn’t, but I can’t resist as I reach for it and push the door open. The wood creaks from years of disuse, and my nose crinkles as stale air hits me. I guess they didn’t want to keep this room open. When I step inside, nostalgia fills me.
It’s smaller than I remember.
The single bed with the princess curtains sits to one side, all made and clean. Teddy bears are perched on the seat under the window with the books I read when I got older. The mix of my childish room and collection of stuff as I grew makes me wrap my arms around myself.
There are still boy band posters hung haphazardly on the wall, CDs piled up on one side, and my old iPod too. There is no TV, since Dad said it was bad for the brain before bed. Clothes are also folded in the drawers and hung in the wardrobe. Everything is how I left it.
It’s like I never disappeared.
I wonder if Ana ever came in here and if she missed me as much as I missed her.
