October 17th, 1907
You putrid excuse for a human being. You've had weeks to look for what I asked and still you dig your heels in. If you won't do it, I'll hire someone else. Are you really going to let her treat you like a piece of shit? You are not the man I thought you were. You're just as pathetic as she thinks.
Get me that box. Before the end of the month. Or I'll break your feet and you'll never dance again.
-G
For a week, Nina had been throwing herself into her dancing. It was better to exhaust herself and perfect her role as Columbine, the love interest of Harlequin played by Sergei, then think about how lonely she was. Natalia was an excellent friend, but she also had other friends in the company that she spent time with and despite all of Nina's efforts, she couldn't seem to get the others to see her for anything more than the Prima ballerina.
If she had known when she began dancing how isolated she would feel at the top, Nina wasn't sure she would have continued ballet. No one had warned her or prepared her for the solitude she would have to endure. Growing up, she had been the only child of her parent's and it had left for a lonely childhood. She thought when she went to join the company that she wouldn't ever feel like this again.
She gave a frustrated sigh as she messed up a triple pirouette. Sighing, she reset her form and glanced at her reflection in the mirror, checking to make sure her back was ramrod stiff, that her arms were parallel to the ground, and then she caught a glimpse of the window behind her. The moon, full and bright, was just visible and she realized just how many hours she had spent dancing. She hadn't even realized how dark the room had gotten as the sun slowly fell and her eyes gradually adjusted accordingly. Her feet were probably bleeding in her shoes; her stomach was empty and to top it off…no one even cared that she had been dancing all day with barely a break. No one had even peaked in and asked her if she was ready to go back to the hotel.
Slowly, she came off her toes and moved over to the window to look at the moon rather than just the reflection. It was stunning and accompanied by stars that twinkled merrily. Below, only a few people walked along the sidewalk and she felt a stab of anxiety at having to catch a carriage back to the Benjamin alone.
At least, there was a chance she could go to the restaurant tomorrow evening and catch a glimpse of David again. If that was a regular thing he did on Mondays. She wasn't entirely sure, but she suspected he was a man who liked to follow a set schedule.
Idly, she wondered why she was so drawn to the surly hotel owner. She had seen him only a few times from afar since he paid for her dinner, hadn't spoken or been within five feet of each other. But, she felt such a keen curiosity about him. It was as if she recognized another lonely, lost soul. Although, he hadn't seemed lonely surrounded by those friends last week. Maybe she had read everything wrong and he was as happy as a clam and held no interest in her.
Moving away from the window, she went to her bag and quickly changed out of her dance tunic and into a simple, respectable skirt, blouse, and coat before leaving the practice room. Outside, the autumn breeze had a bitter bite of winter two it and she pulled her coat closer as she went to a nearby carriage.
She gave the man the hotel address and looked longingly out the window as it started down the cobblestoned street. Practicing so much had left for little time to go to the places on her map, which she had placed in her nightstand drawer on Monday and had only pulled out long enough to transfer it to her new nightstand drawer in the middle of the week when Natalia had asked to switch rooms.
"Nina, you sleep like the dead. I, however, sleep light as a feather and that dratted man next door makes all kinds of ruckus in the middle of the night." Natalia had informed her, "Can we switch rooms? Mine has a better view."
The view was better. Rather than looking at the ugly fire escape, Nina now had a nice sixth floor view of Manhattan. In the early morning, when she was forced to get out of bed at the crack of dawn for rehearsal, the sunrise was always beautiful enough that she found she didn't mind being up so early.
The carriage halted in front of the grand hotel and she barely noticed the handful of people sitting in the lounge off to the right of the lobby, or the police officers taking statements. Instead, she went right for the elevator, and up to the sixth floor.
Alarm didn't jump through her until she found her hotel room door ajar, footsteps and mutterings could be heard inside. Slowly, hesitantly, she entered the main foyer. Drawers opening and closing could be heard from Natalia's room, but so could she hear it from her own. Nina nervously adjusted the bag on her shoulder and wondered if she should call out for Natalia, or find the closest hotel worker and seek help. Instead, curiosity won over and she peeked into her room.
David Jacobs was opening her bottom nightstand drawer and nosily opening her Russian Lacquer box. Furious, she stepped fully into the room, "What are you doing in my room?!"
Her exclamation startled him and he pulled away, stepped back, and turned to meet her gaze. For a moment, she was startled by the frozen, blue intensity of his eyes. She hadn't read him wrong-there most definitely was a deep-seated loneliness there. It haunted the edges of his mouth, which was often turned down, and in the way he stood stiffly and perpetually apart from all those around him.
"Are you just getting back from rehearsal?" He asked, instead of answering her question. As if it were normal for him to be in her room.
She wished it was normal. His presence there soothed her like a balm, causing her to feel safe…She pushed those thoughts away. She would not let loneliness drive her into the arms of another man who would break her heart. "Yes, but that doesn't answer why you're in my room."
A sound from behind her caused her to jump and she whirled around to see the vaguely familiar face of the man from Monday night. The Spaniard who had never given her a name but had known exactly who she was. Her feet carried her backwards, away from the stranger, until she collided into David.
"It's alright." He whispered soothingly, his hands going up to rest on her shoulders, "This is Carlos Fuentes. He's a private investigator I hired for a break-in."
"Break-in?" She whispered, half turning to look up at him, her thoughts whirling around in her mind, "Where's Natalia? Is she alright?"
She would have moved to go look for her friend, but David's hand tightened just a touch, "She's fine. The police are downstairs taking her statement. A man broke into her room earlier while she was asleep. He was looking for something, but he bolted up the fire escape as soon as she woke up." His voice continued to be soothing, as if he knew all of this would be a lot of new information. "Carlos and I were looking for any clues to what he was looking for or who it could have been."
"Do you have any enemies, Ms. Teleshova?" Carlos asked, still in the doorway.
Nina felt a bubble of nervous laughter climb out of her throat as she moved to sit on the bed. "Just about every girl in the company." She told him offhandedly, "And I don't get along with Nikolai or Sergei. Arrogant, preening…" She trailed off and glanced between the two men who were listening intently and felt another burst of nervous laughter, "I suppose I'm not entirely easy to get along with, either." She felt uncomfortable as the two pairs of blue eyes, though as different in shade as night and day, exchanged a look and turned back to look at her. They were both so disconcertingly astute that she felt as though she were naked. "What?" She asked, looking back and forth.
Carlos merely stared at her, as if she were a strange creature from another world as David gently replied, "I am going to move you guys to another suite. We'll keep it confidential and guard your privacy so this won't happen again. I am also going to assign Carlos here to keep an eye on you and Natalia until we figure out if this was random or if one of you were targeted."
Another nervous chuckle and Nina felt an embarrassed blush rise up her neck, "Sure, third time's the charm, yes?"
"Third time?" Carlos and David both zeroed in on her comment but Carlos was quicker with the question, and she found herself once more the sole focus of both of those gazes.
"Natalia and I switched room on Thursday." She told them slowly, "She's a light sleeper and the person next door to this room makes a lot of noise at night."
The two men exchanged another look before David took her arm and gently pulled her to her feet, "Start packing up your things and I'll get a new room ready."
Nina found herself looking sadly towards the window, "But, I just got the room with the view." She half muttered, turning to pull her suitcase out of the closet and setting it on the settee at the end of the bed to start packing.
She felt David's eyes on her as Carlos left the room, but she ignored him. Until he spoke and she looked up to meet his eyes, "I'll get you a better view."
It sounded like a promise and she felt a strange thrill shoot up her spine at his words. Many men had made promises to her. None followed through.
Would David be the first to keep one? She could hardly let herself hope.
A/N: Two updates in one day, yay! I couldn't stop writing this so here you guys go! Drop me a review!
Truly,
Joker is Poker with a J~
