Billion Reasons Why

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I was staring at my reflection in the mirror. I was looking pale. My usually tanned skin was definitely missing the nice warm sun. My dark brown eyes looked too big in my face. I had pulled my long black hair into a messy bun. Even though I had been eating well, the entire deal of being kidnapped was taking a toll on me.

For the past three days, I had been crying every single night. Although I tried, I hadn’t been able to hide it from Blaine. I worried him a lot.

We had been locked in for a whole week and I really missed home.

After the day I dined with Vitaly, I had seen him twice, for short periods of time. Yurik was the one who visited me a few times every day.

Yurik told Blaine that the meeting between Alexander Hale and Demitri Aminev was taking place that day.

I came out of the bathroom to find Blaine pacing the room.

When he noticed me, a smile took over his lips.

“You clean up nicely,” Blaine told me.

I had finally worn one of the dresses Vitaly had sent to me. I was hoping we were getting released, and that it was the reason Blaine had been advised to suit up.

“So do you,” I replied, returning his smile.

He did. Blaine looked absolutely breathtaking. The bruises he’d had were no longer noticeable. After that first day, no one had really touched him. Everyone was aware of who Blaine was. They knew Vitaly planned to let him go once it was all over.

“I talked to my brother,” he quietly told me.

“How did it go?” I already knew Blaine would be talking with his brother.

I heard Yurik tell him right before I locked myself in the bathroom. Although I was happy that Blaine got to talk with his brother, for some reason, it created mixed feelings within me.

I had stopped telling Vitaly and Yurik that Blaine and I never dated. They didn’t believe me, but most importantly, Blaine and I were starting to get along. Although his unique arrogance was still there, he had softened up and I really liked that.

“It was a short talk. I reassured Alex that I’m okay.”

“That’s good,” I said, taking a seat on the couch, where most of my stuff was resting.

Blaine walked over to me looking thoughtful.

“They will release us this afternoon,” he quietly told me.

I looked up to find him frowning. I didn’t understand why, since he should’ve been happy about it.

“It’ll be like this never happened,” I told him.

I smiled when Blaine chuckled at my words.

“I doubt I’ll forget this happened,” Blaine said, his eyes roaming over the room.

I had to admit, at least to myself, that I was surprised with how smooth everything was going. Even though Blaine had mentioned how Vitaly was going to pay for locking us up, everyone was behaving calmly. Even our release seemed to be taken as a business transaction, which Alexander and Vitaly were negotiating.

Blaine didn’t say anything to me for a long while, but his features hardened. I hadn’t even realized that Blaine was holding onto my hand. When I looked down at our interlaced hands, I finally felt that we were both holding onto each other tightly.