Page 21 of Voracious

I try to remember her shoulders from the hospital, but there’s nothing that stands out. Her tattoos go up from her wrist and spread onto the ball of her shoulder and the other is free of any ink. He taps against the desk three times as I offer that information.

“She has tattoos on one of them.”

He shakes his head before I’ve even finished speaking and his brows slowly come together.

“It wasn’t a tattoo. It will be a faint mark about the length of my thumb. Or a burn in the shape of a curly E.”

Fuck the riddle, it’s no use to me when he can just ask her, and she’ll tell him.Leaving the office while he plots whatever scheme he’s come up with, I discreetly pull Katya away from the others. We’re far enough away that no one will overhear but I hesitate then lower my voice.

“You know that salon you go to and they put that shit on your hair?”

She bugs her eyes out and speaks slowly, being a sarcastic shit.

“Yes, Dima, I put fecal matter on my hair.”

I swear she’s not fucking grown up from thirteen, with everyone else she can act mature but she’s still a teenager every time I ask her to do something.

She’s hated her hair color ever since we were kids, the one thing she got of our father’s, and she always colors it. I’m about to walk away when she grabs my arm and turns into the good kid who would listen.

“What do you need?”

A lobotomy.

Not giving her my first answer, I focus on the topic I had in mind and my voice is rough as fuck.

“Take Ana, she might like it.”

I’d have less hair around the house if I bought a dog, it would be more peaceful too. But I hate seeing her pick them up and the sadness weighing her features down as she tries to hide them.I thought she was collecting them at first, to make a voodoo doll or for some other sorcery, but she hides them and mourns each fallen strand.

My sister is a certified little shit and pinches my cheek with a coo. “Do you have a crush?” I pull my face out of her reach, and she turns serious. “Don’t hurt her, okay? She’s had a shit life. She deserves the best for the rest of it.”

I’m not going to do shit to the hellion, I’m not even interested in her beyond basic human interaction. I hand Katya my card before she can demand it, and she walks away with a spring in her step and calls the hellion forward.

My pocket will be lighter when she returns but so will my shoulders if it stops Ana’s lips pulling down. There’s something about her sadness that irks me, probably because she’s a psycho and shouldn’t be able to express the emotion. It’s uncomfortable, even her silence is. Everything about her is disconcerting and it doesn’t change now as she goes on guard at Katya’s innocent request.

“I’ve got an appointment. Can you keep me company?”

Dani and Inessa are roped into the scheme, and they drag a reluctant Ana with them to go do whatever the fuck it is that they do. Her lips twitch, practicing a warm smile instead of a nutty one. Fuck me, I’m like an obsessed fucking creep analyzing her every move.

I can’t linger in the hallway like a butler, so I go back to lounge and watch the fight to see how to make the next venue bigger. Valentin strolls in with Verena in his arms. She’sa grumpy kid unless she’s locked on someone’s attention and trying to have a conversation. Sitting his dumbass next to me, he opens his mouth.

“She’s fucking crazy, did she just bite the guy’s ear off?”

He mumbles psycho under his breath as he watches Ana’s rage and I restrain myself because he’s holding a child. I change the tape to something suitable for a toddler, and I become a hypocrite as I defend the hellion when I call her worse.

“Stop giving her shit, she’s not even here.”

The last part is tacked on, so my defensiveness makes sense.

Vitali freezes in his seat and stares at me. The entire room falls silent other than Verena struggling to escape Val’s hold as she reaches for me murmuring, “Mwah.”

I lift her out of his statuesque arms and kiss her cheek. She stands with one foot on each of my thighs just above my knees and I lift them individually, so it looks like she’s walking as she holds my thumbs. She leans up on her toes, letting go of one of my thumbs to slap Valentin’s shoulder. “Mwah!”

He leans forward, kissing her cheek and being a dick as he says, “You like me more than him,” he nods his head towards me, “don’t you?”

She looks off to the side, her lips twisting in the same direction and the other asshole comes alive as I ask, “Who’s your favorite uncle, Veroushka?”

I know it will be me since she always runs to me first, but she scrunches her nose up, looking between the three of us as Val and Tali sit taller, ready to be inspected. She’s too intelligent and refuses to answer by screaming for her dad with her eyes closed.

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