Chapter 86 ADRIAN'S SISTER

Chapter 86 ADRIAN'S SISTER
Adrian's POV

Nadia was sitting in the hotel lobby with a coffee and her phone and a carry-on bag at her feet and when she looked up and saw me she stood immediately and the first thing I noticed was that she looked tired.

"You should have called me before you got on a plane," I said as I reached her.

"You would have told me not to come," she said, and hugged me hard, both arms around my neck, and I held her because she was right and also because she was here, that was better than the alternative.

She pulled back and looked at my face and said, "you look terrible."

"Thank you," I said.

"I'm serious, Adrian. What's going on?"

"Come upstairs," I said, picking up her bag, "I'll explain what I can."

She came without arguing, which told me she was more shaken than she was letting on because Nadia always argued.

I introduced her to everyone and watched her move through the group the way she always did, direct eye contact, firm handshake with Dominic, a warm smile for Ava's mother that was genuine enough that Elena smiled back immediately, and then she got to Ava and something shifted.

She looked at Ava for a moment and then said, "you're the one with the bond."

Ava looked at her. "Adrian told you?"

"Adrian tells me nothing," Nadia said, and glanced at me briefly, "I grew up on the edges of this world, I can see the mark." She tilted her head slightly. "It's completed."

"Yes," Ava said.

Nadia nodded once and looked at me and I could see her updating information behind her eyes and I knew that look and it meant a conversation was coming that I was not going to enjoy.

Maya was on the sofa watching all of this with considerable interest and said nothing which was impressive restraint for Maya.

Nadia pulled me into the corridor twenty minutes later and closed the suite door and crossed her arms and said, "someone called me four days ago and said you were in serious danger and that I needed to get to New York. The voice was filtered, I couldn't identify it. I traced the number this morning."

"I know," I said. "Kade's network."

"So he used me to get to you," she said flatly.

"Yes."

"To distract you," she said.

"Most likely."

She was quiet for a moment and then said, "are you actually in danger or is this just general chaos."

"Both," I said honestly, and she exhaled through her nose and looked at the ceiling and then back at me.

"I'm not leaving," she said.

"I didn't ask you to," I said.

"You were about to," she said.

She wasn't wrong so I didn't argue and she uncrossed her arms and said, "I'll stay out of the way and I won't ask questions you can't answer but I'm not going back to Chicago until this is resolved."

"Fine," I said.

She nodded and we went back inside and she settled herself at the kitchen counter with another coffee and within ten minutes she and Ava's mother were talking about something and I watched from across the room and felt the specific particular relief of having my sister present even when the circumstances were wrong.

Ava found me later at the window on the far side of the suite and she stood next to me and said, "she's something."

"Yes," I said.

"She looked at me and just knew," Ava said. "About the bond."

"She grew up knowing things," I said. "Our parents were connected to this world in small ways. She absorbed more than I realised."

Ava was quiet for a moment and then said, "is she going to be okay here? With all of this?"

"Nadia's tougher than she looks," I said.

"She looks extremely tough," Ava said.

I almost smiled at that and Ava looked at me and I looked at her and there was that thing between us, the thing that had been there since the clothing rack in London, but we both decided to ignore

"She noticed us," Ava said.

"She notices everything," I said.

Ava nodded and looked back at the room and I looked at her profile and thought about the fact that she was standing here in my peripheral vision and had been for months now and how that had become something I arranged my day around without noticing when that started.

Nadia appeared beside me suddenly and I startled slightly which she noticed and found visibly satisfying.

"Stop hovering," she said to me, and then to Ava, "he does this, stands near people he cares about and stares at them hoping they won't notice."

"I've noticed," Ava said.

"Good," Nadia said, and went back to the kitchen.

I looked at Ava and she looked at me and she was trying not to smile and not entirely succeeding and I looked away and said nothing because there was nothing useful to say.

That evening Dominic was on a call about the Roan situation and Elias was with my mother going through documents and Maya had dragged Nadia to her room to watch something on her laptop, which meant Ava and I were alone in the sitting room and the suite was quiet.

She was on the sofa with her feet tucked under her and her phone in her hand and I was in the chair across from her and it was ordinary and domestic and also not at all ordinary.

"She said something to me," Ava said without looking up from her phone.

"Who," I said.

"Nadia." Ava looked up. "When you were talking to Dominic earlier. She pulled me aside and said—" she paused, "she said that you haven't let yourself want anything for yourself in years. That you give everything to other people's situations and keep nothing."

I didn't say anything.

"Is that true," Ava said.

I looked at her and said, "probably."

She looked at me for a long moment and then went back to her phone and didn't say anything else and I sat there and thought about my sister and her particular talent for saying the exact thing nobody was prepared for.

Then Nadia knocked from down the hall and opened the suite door and came in and looked at both of us and said,
"Adrian. Someone contacted me again. Different number this time but same network." She held up her phone.
"And Adrian, this one included a photo of you. Standing outside this hotel. Taken about an hour ago."