I opened one of the containers and gave it to him. “It might be cold…”
He pulled it toward himself and immediately started to eat, like he didn’t care if it was frozen solid.
I drank my coffee, the cream and spices an explosion of flavor on my tongue, the pumpkin reminding me of holiday parties and celebrations. It was something I’d thought I would never have again. Now I wanted it every single day until it was no longer on the menu.
He ate in silence, his hair still messy, the dark patch of hair between his pecs a little darker than the hair on the top of his head. He took bites and chewed, his eyes on me all the while.
I realized it was one of the few times I’d ever seen him eat.
I was always the one eating.
Silence passed and we didn’t speak.
Sometimes it was tense between us, but there was always this underlying comfort, like we didn’t need to speak to feel connected. We could enjoy the silence and eye contact without filling it with pointless conversation.
I waited until he was finished eating before I got down to business. “How are we going to do this?”
He brought the coffee to his lips and took another drink, the empty tray in front of him. “Be more specific.”
“My sister. What else could I be talking about?”
He regarded me for a moment, taking another drink, his elbows on the counter, his muscular arms in full visibility. “Let me figure it out.”
“No.” My sister’s life was in the balance. I wasn’t going to let him execute this plan without telling me the details. “I’m a part of this.”
He set his cup on the counter and stared at the surface.
“Do you know where she is?”
He nodded.
“So, can we just go there and grab her?”
He shook his head. “Not exactly.” He lifted his gaze and looked at me. “I’ll go to his residence and talk to him. There’s no guarantee this will work. I told you I would help you. I didn’t guarantee I would be successful.”
“You have to be successful.” I kept my voice controlled, but I wanted to burst into a scream because failure was not an option in this.
He sighed before he straightened, sitting fully upright. “This is a lot more complicated than your life at the camp. Believe it or not, but the outside world is far worse than that place.”
I couldn’t believe that. “You’ve never been a prisoner, so you have no idea.”
“You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’ve survived.” He didn’t raise his voice, but his cold calmness was somehow more ominous. “I will do my best, but I can’t make him do whatever he doesn’t want to do. Honestly, I can’t think of a sound argument for getting him to comply. I’m gonna have to wing it.”
“Can you just steal—”
“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t rescue her from that place the way I rescued you. Going behind his back and betraying him is not an option. A conversation, man-to-man, is the only chance we have.”
“But what can you possibly say to convince him to let her go?”
He dropped his gaze and was quiet for a while. “Right now…I’m not sure.”
I looked down and started to breathe hard, terrified that I’d have to live the rest of my life without her, knowing she was out there and I couldn’t help her. “If you can’t do this, I’m just going to do it myself.”
“You’ll be killed.”
“Then I’ll be killed…”
He studied me, his brown eyes the same color as his coffee. “Your sister would want you to live your life. She wouldn’t want you to die for her. I will do my best to give you what you want, but if it doesn’t work, you’re going to have to learn to let this go.”
“Would you let it go?” I snapped. “What if this was your sister?”
His eyes burned into mine, turning slightly hostile, like something I’d said struck a nerve. When he spoke, his voice was shaky, as if he used all his energy to control his rage. “I don’t have a sister…”
I didn’t understand what happened, what I said to provoke this reaction from him, but I knew to steer clear…because I’d triggered something.
“I said I would do my best, and you should appreciate that I’m willing to try at all. You have no idea what I’m putting on the line by going to his place and making a request like this. You have no idea how pathetic, how weak it will make me look. But I’m doing it anyway—for you.”
He was in his black jeans, boots, and his black t-shirt.
He looked good in black, especially with that dark hair and those brown eyes. He had a wallet in his pocket, and the outline of the front of his jeans showed his phone. He never took it out around me, and it was crazy to actually see one again.
He moved to the front door.
I followed him.
He turned around and looked at me, his eyebrow raised.
It was seven in the evening, so it was dark outside, and there were more raindrops on the window. “What?”
“What are you doing?”
“Coming with you.”
He turned to face me head on. “I go alone.”
“No.”
His eyes darkened in anger.
“That’s where my sister is, and I’m going.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“I need to come. Because if you get her out, I need to see her then and there. And if you can’t, then I want to make my own argument—”
“You do not speak.”
I couldn’t stay in that apartment and just wait. “Please…”
“You have a lot of nerve—”
“Please.” I moved into him and gripped his arm. “I can’t just sit on the couch and wait. I’m
