Page 20 of Voracious

She relaxes instantly and stops tensing as she drops her head back, going into her creepy meditation.

There’s no sound from her the rest of the drive. She remains in the uncomfortable position with her crown touching the headrest despite the rising sun filtering through her eyelids. They don’t open until we pull up outside a house that’s barely holding it together. The ball of rage looks at it like it’s a mansion. Thankfully there’s no one on the street for her to turn her wrath on and she walks with hurried purpose. For someone so fucking small she’s got speed and I have to quicken my pace to keep up.

I’m on her heels as she pushes through doors of the house-turned-apartment without a care in the fucking world to the people behind them not being in the right frame of mind. Every single time she does this shit, barges in without a single fuck forthe danger that could be lurking. Her face is still bruised, the soreness will be lingering in her body, but it doesn’t slow Ana down.

There are used needles and condoms stuck to the stairs. Empty baggies and wraps that held their means for survival and she ignores it all to take them two at a time. The first room Ana enters is met with a groaned curse.

“Fuck off, we’ll pay you tomorrow.”

She doesn’t respond and her face is set in hard lines as those freakish eyes scan each corner. The groaning gets louder as she storms through the room, rips the thin curtains back and the screech adds to the sound of her boots thudding against the worn floor before she leaves to do the same to the next room.

Each room is checked with the same military precision, and she checks the full floor before bolting up the stairs again. When we reach the second-to-last door it changes, and her scan slows. There’s a woman laid across a stained mattress, other bodies are dotted around the room. Some are laid with needles in their arms that have been recycled, one has vomit on his t-shirt, but his chest is moving. Poor bastard, he wanted to die. They all chase death not a high.It’s the first thing I learnt when I left home, and I made the mistake of trying to help someone choking on their own vomit. When he woke up and found out how close he was to death he sobbed, it was the first time I’d seen a grown man cry, and it was the moment I found out that death can be a mercy of its own.

Ana is fully focused on the woman laid on her side. There’s only one arm in view and she’s not gentle about flipping her onto her back and pulling her sleeve up to reveal her hands. Or hand because there’s nothing below her elbow on her right arm.

The hellion straightens up and her leg cocks back, making me move forward and wrap my arm around her waist to pull heraway. I’m a lot of things but I’m not going to let her beat the shit out of someone who’s fucking unconscious.

She twists, not wincing at the pain in her ribs where my arms will be digging into her bruises as I carry her out of the room.

“Calm the fuck down.” Continuing to rage to herself, my shin takes the brunt force of her boots kicking back at me and she keeps repeating the same thing.

“I said her left arm, that wasn’t her left fucking arm.”

Holding her tighter so her feet don’t trail on the floor, I rest my cheek on her hair. The girl she’s searching for is dead, everyone knows it, but she refuses to accept anything other than her being alive.Setting her down on her feet once we’re outside of the drug den, I hold her shoulders and try to be comforting with a lie.

“You’ll find her.”

In a shallow grave if you’re lucky.

She doesn’t relax and pushes away from me to sit in the car and slams the door on her way. What in the ever living fuck has my life become? And why do I hope Nina, a woman I’ve never met before and who would find mercy in death, is alive?

NINE

Dima

Vitali’s dumbass smirk comes out as heels click behind me from the direction of Vlad’s home office. I turn to see what has his attention, and Inessa stands like a queen with my sister guiltily beside her. All of the formers disappointment is fixed on me, and her daughter stretches her hands out for me. Verena’s face scrunches up as I press the tip of my finger to the tip of her nose. Unfortunately, her mama doesn’t soften.

“Don’t be cute with my daughter when I’m pissed at you.”

I didn’t do shit that would affect her life, but Vlad will be a violent cunt if I upset his wife.She lets Verena down on the floor and she waddles over to me gripping my leg as Ana walks in, increasing the rage being directed at me. Her bruising has turned yellow, she looks like she has jaundice. But her cheeks are getting a little fuller with me dosing her meals. Katya peels the child off me as the only woman who I could see becoming Pakhan orders me into the office.

It’s not down to Inessa’s grandfather holding the position, there’s an authority that she carries as she turns on her heel and softens at the hellion. Ana thinks no one smiles at her but there are three aimed in her direction in this very moment. I don’t know why they don’t count or why she refuses to acknowledge them, but all she has to do is look.

Tag-along Tali marches behind me and Vlad’s head pops up when we enter his office. His wife automatically goes to his side as they both move in sync until he’s got his arm around her hips. I’m confused as fuck until she spits out her accusation.

“He beat the shit out of Ana.”

I swear this fucking place is going to shit, everyone’s turning soft and immature.If there was one person who wouldn’t give a fuck if I did, it’s the one she’s chosen to tattle a lie to. Vlad doesn’t discriminate with his rage. If you’re old enough to know the consequences, you’re old enough to accept them by his standards. He was there in the hospital and my hands were clean, but he enjoys the chaos and doesn’t tell them I’m innocent of this one act as he instructs them to leave.

“I’ll speak to him. Privately.”

Both Vitali and Inessa move as they stare me out. I take the seat opposite Vlad after swiping the decanter with his top-shelf whisky and pouring too much. If he’s being an annoying cunt, so am I. Rather than discuss the topic of me beating the little hellion, he gets a faraway look in his eyes and blinks back into earth before asking, “Are you fucking her?”

The disgust has lowered with seeing the softer side to Ana, but it’s still there and I grimace, knocking back the tumbler.The burn doesn’t warm me enough to counteract the shiver running up my spine. He nods to himself, and the cryptic fuck doesn’t offer any information with his instruction.

“If you do, check her shoulder. I thought I saw something.”

I’m not the only person going crazy with phantom shit on her body. Fucking finally, all these years I’ve been questioning my sanity when I’m in her presence but it’s Ana that’s the problem, not me.

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