Page 140 of Dmitri

Kaleb might not be home for another five days, but the time bomb I’m straddling is already ticking.Fuck my life. And Fuck Dmitri too, because he showed me what safety and peace felt like and then stripped me of both by taking me back to reality.

The best week of my life will cost me my entire future.

Rubbing my tired eyes, I creep downstairs, so I don’t wake Addie, and head to my laptop. There’s no way I can fall asleep, so I might as well stay busy and get work done and stay distracted. Opening the website to my bank account, I transfer all of it into Addie’s. She doesn’t know I’ve opened this one for her. All the money I get from the state to be her guardian goes into this account, so she’ll have a nice chunk to start college with. If notcollege, then she can invest it or buy a house or something. No matter what, she won’t have to depend on someone else to get ahead in life.

Unlike me.

My heart aches over Kaleb and I don’t even understand why. He’s awful. And yet…

My back sliding glass door creaking open makes me freeze.Dmitri. Relief flows through me, having him come back. I’m sure he’s going to be mad that I forgot to put that wood slab back on it to keep it secure, but in my defense, I have a lot going on and those burnt pancakes kept setting the alarm off earlier.

“I’ve been calling and texting you all fucking night,” I say, getting up from my desk and heading into the dark kitchen.

“I know.”

My heart stops.

Ace stands in front of me, his gaze blazing with fury. He holds up a cell phone that’s not his, and on it are the texts I’ve been sending Dmitri. How on earth does he have D’s cell phone? “You fucked up, Dae.”

I take a step back. “I… listen… I can explain—” I stumble over Addie’s beach bag and crash onto the floor. Ace storms over and grabs me by the hair, his face inches from mine and I see his eyes are bloodshot. He drags me into the living room and shoves me against the wall.

“Dae?” Addie yells from upstairs. “You okay?”

My eyes widen with terror.Oh my god. Oh my god. Ace glowers at me and puts his finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet.

“Dae?” Addie calls out again. We hear her pad across her bedroom and open the door.

“I’ve got this one,” the woman says behind Ace. “You take care of that little bitch upstairs.Permanently.”

“No problem, boss.”

Panic races in my veins when Ace lets go of me to race up the steps. “Addie!Run!”

But it’s too late. I hear her scream. A door slams. There’s a bunch of banging and I try to fight off the person pinning me down so I can get help. But the woman on top of me has a gun to my head and something sharp in her hand that burns when it pricks me.

The last thing I see is that bitch’s face in mine. Her blonde hair. Her piercing blue eyes. Her red mouth. It’sher.

“You were supposed to be dead,” I mumble, just as the drugs take me.

???

Dmitri

I’m cuffed to the wall of a familiar room.

Daelyn said Kaleb was unpredictable, but so far, I find that untrue. I’m right where I suspected he’d take me.

Groaning, I tip my head back, and try to stand so my shoulders are no longer bearing my weight. I was clocked in the head pretty fucking hard in that alley and I had to play sleeping beauty while Kaleb took my phone and my knife out of my pockets before him and his boy hauled my ass into the back of a truck and straight to here.

Now I’m tied to the wall, the same one I fucked Daelyn against that first night, and I feel like I deserve a prize for playing possum so well. It was a test on self-control I nearly failed.

I’ll continue letting Kaleb think he has the upper hand for now. I work best when I’m being underestimated.

“Oh good, you’re finally awake.” Kaleb’s so close to my face I could bite his nose off.

“Your breath wreaks.”

He shoves my head back, slamming it against the wall.

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