Everly crossed her arms, ignoring the flakes of dried blood she could feel rubbing between them. “How?”
Luca grinned, eyes shining suddenly with something that Everly didn’t understand, but that made her stomach flip a little on the inside.
(Perhaps it was the sensation of fate, settling into place.)
“I can get you off this floor,” Luca said, crossing his own arms. “Better yet, I can get you out of the building.”
Everly scoffed. “What makes you think I can’t get out of here on my own?”
He raised an eyebrow. “If you could, I’m pretty sure you would have left when you thought a horde of runners was on your heels.”
She scowled. He was right, of course. She had no idea how to get off that floor on her own. Reluctantly, Everly nodded. “Fine. You want to prove yourself? Lead the way.”
Luca beamed at her and then spun on his heel and started walking away. With the same gut feeling that she was headed down the exact wrong path (or possibly the exact right one), Everly sighed deeply and started walking behind him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ten minutes after setting out with Everly behind him, Luca arrived at the door that led to the dark staircase. Everly stared at the door, as though in disbelief, and Luca got the sense that she hadn’t believed he would bring her where she had asked.
Once in the stairwell, Luca started walking up, but Everly stopped short at the base of the stairs. She really doesn’t trust me, Luca thought, and he watched her for a moment before speaking, wondering about this strange woman who had somehow wandered into his life, this building. Even though they were encased in the dark stairwell that hardly anyone else used, Luca still found himself glancing around more than was probably necessary. They shouldn’t be wandering around like this. She shouldn’t have been wandering around like this. He needed to get her upstairs. Fast.
“Scared of heights?” Luca managed from where he stood a few steps above her.
“Hardly,” Everly said. “I can take it from here is all.”
Luca raised an eyebrow, which he knew she wouldn’t be able to see in the already dim light. He walked back down until he was standing on the step right before her, then turned his face down toward hers, holding her eyes with his.
“You won’t get out alone.” He spoke in such a low tone that he could barely hear his own voice and wasn’t sure at all if she caught his words. He said louder, “I know this building inside and out. You couldn’t manage a single floor. Now, I don’t know who you are or what you’ve gotten yourself tangled up in, but right about now you need to be facing the facts. This building is strange. Most people could live here their entire lives without understanding half of what goes on here. You need help, and I’m offering it. So stop fronting empty excuses and follow me.”
Choosing to take Everly’s silence as acceptance, Luca grinned, sensing how much she hated being reliant on him, and he turned back, continuing to climb up the stairs. To his relief, after a moment’s hesitation, Everly trailed behind him.
They trudged up in silence for only a few seconds before Luca halted.
“Why’d you stop?” Everly called up to him.
“Because,” he said back, “we’re here.”
“And where is here, exactly?”
Luca knew she couldn’t see him, but in the dark he shook his head. She truly didn’t know anything about the building, did she? So why was she here? “Why, home sweet home, of course,” Luca said. “Just try to keep it down, okay? I’m not really supposed to have guests.” A severe understatement.
He pulled out his key ring, causing a metallic jingle to resonate around the empty stairwell. Fiddling with the keys until he found the right one, Luca inserted it into the door and twisted, hearing the satisfying click of the lock releasing. Then the door cracked open, and light flooded in around them. Luca beckoned Everly to follow him and started walking off down the hall that emerged beyond the staircase.
Everly fell into step with Luca as he walked down the green-painted hallway. He could see her taking it in—though beyond the brightly colored walls and floor there wasn’t exactly much to see. But her eyes roamed the space around them, and he knew from her bewildered expression that she had not yet been exposed to this portion of the building.
Yet again, he wondered what she was even doing here at all.
Luca tried to speed up his steps, urging Everly along with him. He didn’t want to imagine what might happen to her if a runner caught her down here like this.
At the end of the first green hall, they took a turn, and around it they were presented with a series of identical doors. Luca walked up to one about halfway back, grasping the bronze handle and pushing his way in, with Everly staring in bewilderment after him.
Luca’s room was small and gray, like all the other rooms on his floor, but he found himself wishing for the first time that it was something more. Something other than four walls and a single thin bed.
And, of course, the figure waiting inside.
Caleb was lying across Luca’s bed when they came in, and he raised his eyebrows at Everly as they entered but didn’t speak until the door was closed again.
“Found a stray, I see.” Caleb’s eyes lingered on Everly’s bloody clothes, and Luca frowned. What had happened to her? What had she found that Luca hadn’t been able to see? Before Luca could sink too far into these thoughts, Caleb looked over at him with a question in his eyes. “This is her?”
Luca met his friend’s gaze. Nodded slowly. Then he took a deep breath and turned to look between Caleb and Everly. “Caleb, this is Dr. Dubose’s granddaughter—”
“Everly,” she interrupted him.
Caleb’s eyes widened. “Luca,” he said in a soft voice, “why did you bring her here? And . . .” He trailed off, looking over at Everly again. “What happened to her?” Caleb cast nervous, shifting glances between Luca and Everly. Luca realized he didn’t have an answer for his friend. Why had he brought her here? He didn’t know anything about her. He didn’t even know if she had been telling the truth about who she was. Luca knew, when he saw her, that he should have turned around. Walked away. Left her to be someone else’s problem.
He had too many problems to deal with as it was.
And yet.
And yet when he had found her down there, on the lowest level, cowering on the floor and covered in blood, he hadn’t been able to think of anything else. Help her, his inner thoughts had screamed, and had been screaming since, filling up his mind with a constant monologue of insistent cries.
And then there was the much fainter, less insistent voice that was drowned out by the screaming, the one that he had decided to suppress for now: the one that said run away from her.
But he wasn’t thinking about that voice.
He was thinking about how he felt like he could trust her, even though he had nothing to support that assumption. How he felt like he needed to help her, even knowing what the consequences for both of them could be if they were caught. He just didn’t know how to explain that to Caleb. Or to Everly, for that matter.
“Don’t worry,” Luca decided to say, in an unconcerned voice, as he went over to sit next to his friend on the narrow bed. “She’s harmless. And she claims she’s fine,” he said, referring to the blood. “Anyway, Everly, this is Caleb. Partner in crime and all that.”
