Karys is naïve.
I had been, I could admit as much. Perhaps in many ways, some of which I still didn’t have the insight to fathom, I still was.
But I was striving to become a better version of the girl I’d once been. And I couldn’t help wondering if the new me was a person Zakai would love more . . . or less.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I knocked on the door of the group home where Zakai lived. As I waited, I looked around, my eyes moving from the dirty porch planks, to the piles of leaves and garbage in the corner, up to the cobwebs above the door. The paint on the facade was peeling, and two of the house numbers were hanging upside down. Based on the way Zakai had described his new home, I’d had a much different vision of the place. He’d said it was clean and comfortable, and perhaps the inside fit that description, but the outside certainly did not.
Nevertheless, hope soared as I heard footsteps approaching. Claire had gone over how to use public transportation, and accompanied me several places, but I’d figured out how to find the address to this house where Zakai lived, and I couldn’t wait to tell him I’d made the trip all on my own and see the pride shine in his eyes.
He’d see I wasn’t so naïve anymore.
The door swung open and a tall, beefy man stood there, his gaze dull as he stared at me. I wrinkled my nose as the accompanying smell wafted from the interior, as overwhelming as the sight of the giant before me. “I’m looking for Zakai Klein,” I said, pulling myself straight, attempting to make myself seem bigger than half his size.
The man’s eyes narrowed. “You his sister?”
“No.”
“Huh. Well, he’s gone.” He opened the door wider. “But you’re welcome to come in and stay awhile.” His smile grew, as did a glint in his eye that sent a shiver of unease down my spine. If this man chose to drag me inside and brutalize me, I could do little to stop him.
“Do you know where he went?” My voice had raised in pitch with the desperation ringing in my head.
His expression grew sulky and he very suddenly seemed like an overgrown child. “No, I have no idea. Half the time he doesn’t even sleep here.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “What? Why?”
The man sighed. “I haven’t read his fuckin diary, okay? He stopped sleeping here regularly weeks ago. Figure he’ll get kicked out for good any day now. He doesn’t belong here anyway.” He started to close the door.
Weeks ago? He’d stopped sleeping there regularly weeks ago? So where did he sleep?
“Wait!” I held my hand out, ready to push back, but he halted, pulling the door open once again. “Please. It’s very, very important that I find him.”
He eyed me again and then sighed. “He came back with cups from that coffee shop with the red logo near the campus pretty often, but that’s all I know about anything. Hope it helps.” Then he did shut the door in my face and I heard his lumbering footsteps as he walked back into the depths of the house where Zakai evidently no longer lived.
**********
My feet smacked the pavement, a tumble of desperation picking up speed along with my rushing feet. Where are you? How could he just disappear? Why would he leave his home without telling me? He hadn’t slept there regularly for weeks? I’d seen him in that time and he hadn’t said a word.
Was he sleeping on the streets? My mind traveled to the picture I’d always had of him as a child before Haziq had rescued him—hungry and homeless, scrounging for food in the gutters. I stopped in my tracks, squeezing my eyes shut momentarily. No, not rescued. Victimized. Tears threatened. Had we traveled halfway around the world so he could end up right back where he’d started?
There was only one coffee shop with a red logo in a five-block radius of the campus. I pushed the door open, my eyes scanning the tables of students, some with laptops propped in front of them, looks of focus on their faces, or others huddled together in small groups laughing softly and talking in animated whispers. It all coalesced into a vibrant buzz of human activity that added to the worried static in my mind.
I walked between the tables at the front, craning my neck to peer into the back of the shop, my breath halting when I spotted Zakai sitting at a table with a blonde woman. Exhaling, I moved toward them, Zakai’s head coming up before I was halfway there, his eyes growing wide with surprise. “Karys?” he asked as I approached. “Is everything okay?” The beautiful blonde woman, her hair sleeked back into a neat ponytail, her lips plump and red, looked up at me curiously, but I ignored her, my gaze zeroed in on Zakai.
“Is everything okay with you? I just went by your house.” I couldn’t help the tremor in my voice.
He froze, storm clouds rolling over his expression, lightning flashing through his midnight eyes. “You went there?” His voice was the thunder as he came halfway out of his chair. He glanced at the woman and then back to me, relaxing slowly back into his seat though his expression remained turbulent.
“Yes!” I said. “What choice did I have? You don’t show up for classes. I can’t get in touch with you on the phone!”
The woman cleared her throat, picking up her phone from the table. “Zakai, I really should be going. Call me, okay?” She scooted a card that had been next to her phone closer to him and he picked it up, nodding and sticking the card in his pocket.
I stepped back as the woman stood and she gave me a tight smile, extending her hand. “I’m Giselle Blanchet by the way. Karys, I presume?”
I blinked at her, taking her hand and giving it a short shake before letting go. “Nice to meet you,” I murmured.
She continued to stare at me, her gaze discerning. “You’re stunning too.” She looked down, scanning me from head to toe and back again. Though her words were kind, her expression was not. “Too bad you’re not tall enough.” With that, she breezed past me, giving Zakai a short wave as she left.
I sunk down in the chair across from Zakai. “Who was she?” I asked.
Zakai sat back in his chair. “A friend. She owns a modeling agency. I met her here a few weeks ago.” Something shattered in the kitchen and we both looked in that direction momentarily as laughter erupted, and the server, who’d obviously dropped the item, stepped forward and took a bow. I was in no laughing mood. I returned my gaze to Zakai, his own face devoid of humor.
“A modeling agency?” I asked, picking up the conversation.
Zakai nodded, pointing to a large advertisement on the side of the building across the street featuring a man drinking an alcoholic beverage. “Like that,” he said. “That man in the picture is a model. They use his face to sell products.”
I stared at the smiling man with the glass of amber liquid in his hand. That man wasn’t nearly as beautiful as Zakai, but he was attractive and appeared to be enjoying his drink immensely.
“Just sit and let people take pictures of you,” Zakai murmured. “How hard could it be?” He did smile then, but there was no pleasure behind it. “I’m used to being watched, after all.” I recoiled from his bitterness. I’d known Zakai to be cutting, but I’d never felt like the target. Perhaps I was being overly sensitive, but I sensed the deep wedge building between us, and I didn’t know how to knock it loose, or what to do to keep it from growing.