Page 1 of Root

CHAPTER ONE

Rush

Age 9

I hate Nikolai Wilder.

Hate him.

He’s not my dad. He’s not even related—

My stomach turns and twists, full of grease and bile, and I puke again, all over the blood-stained, concrete floor.

“Nikolai.”

“Shut the fuck up, Tony.” His voice is cold, savage, alive with hate and anger I can feel. “The boy needs to fucking learn if he’s going to survive in this world.”

“Nikolai…” Tony pauses, but then he must decide it’s better to shift gears. I know what shifting gears is. Dad talked about it a lot. Dad… I miss him. H-He wouldn’t do this. H-He wasn’t mean like dumb Nikolai.

I squeeze my eyes shut against the burning tears.

“You want a cleaning crew for this?” Tony asks.

“Get the fuck out.”

As always, there’s no argument from Tony—just obedience.

I stay on the warehouse floor, near the water. There’s a boat just outside, voices, more footsteps, and everything crushes down on me, and I want…I want…

My mom.

A heat rises over me. I don’t remember her face anymore. The only thing I remember, see when I close my eyes late at night, is her hair, soft and smelling like lemons and sunshine. I have pictures so I know her face, Dad’s too, but it’s just…not…there when I reach out. I only see her hair.

I can’t remember their voices. Just words. Here and there.

“Rush?”

Nikolai. That’s all I have now. And he hates me. He does. I wheeze.

I’m a dumb kid, a bad kid, and Nikolai wants to punish me for my mistakes—

“Rush?”

I don’t answer.

“Don’t make me go to you.”

I hunch lower, stomach twisting.

“For fuck’s sake,” he says, exasperated.

I don’t hear him walk. You never hear Nikolai—he’s just there.

When cookies cooling on the counter are too tempting, he sees me take one. The time Kara refused to get me the toy truck? When it landed in my pocket, he made me put it back. That sweet day the school bully wet his pants? It was because Nikolai appeared and pinned him with a look.

That’s all Nikolai needs to do. Look at you. And the world shatters.

Or worse.

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