Page 32 of Pain and Possession

"Little doll, eat." Noè's warm deep voice, fills my ears shaking me from the memory. His voice, his overwhelming presence doesn't feel awful right now. Welcome even.

That's not going to work.

I pick up my fork, my appetite completely gone even though it tastes amazing.

"Where did you go? That look on your face... I hate it." His voice takes on a dangerous tone, as if he can tell the nature of my ill-timed memory.

Ugly girl.

I shift making my long dark hair fall into my face, shielding me. Hiding me. It's been years since I left the foster system, I know that but sometimes it's like I've been there all along. That the little girl died there, my formative adult years have been spent trying to cling to a ghost.When I don't answer Noè stops eating, shifting on his stool to face me. I do my best to ignore it. To ignore him.

He brushes my hair away from my face so gently his fingertips might as well be feathers.

"Don't hide from me Olive."

I take a deep breath, sipping the warm coffee.

How long did I zone out?

"Baby." He mutters sternly, his hand caressing my cheek before turning my face towards his. His hazel eyes filled with concern… and something else. Something that injects ice in my veins.Reminding me where I am. What kind of man I'm with.

"Hiding is the only thing I will ever do where you are concerned." My voice comes out every bit as cold and chipped as I feel. My chest aches as his hands leave my face. Nona throws him a sympathetic glance as if he's the victim here and it only angers me more. I remain silent for the rest of the meal. Listening to different people walk in and out, talking to the sweet monster beside me. Even Hock makes an appearance reaching over and stealing a slice of bacon from Noè's plate.He's friendly towards me but gives up quickly when his greeting is met with more silence.

I just want to go home.

My eyes rarely leave the clock as the day passes, the hands moving slower than they ever have before. We have a quiet lunch in his office, I spend the day reading the books that line his shelves as he works, nothing alarmingly criminal occurs. I even manage to fall asleep for a while nested in the corner. Waking to Noè slipping a blanket over me, which I scowled at him for. Much to my surprise he never asks me to step out, never tells me to leave. So confident I won't use anything I heard against him, not that I've retained any of it. I could go to the police, memorize the halls, the information I could gather if I paid enough attention but no.

I know all too well how that works.

My body would probably never be found, the only rats tolerated in New York are the animal kind.

And that's only because we don't have much of a choice.

R U Mine? by The Artic Monkeys

"Olive, let's get you home."

Finally.

I stand up placing the book I had been skimming through back on the shelf.

"You're welcome to take some if you'd like, I've read most anyway." He offers, removing his reading glasses from his face.

I shake my head; I'll be dammed if I give him even more reason to come around. Not that he apparently needs one to show up and fuck up my life. Noè places his palm on the small of my back, his thumb drawing soft circles making my skin come to life under his touch.

We're almost to what I assume is the parking garage when a tall blonde woman steps in our way.

"Noè my darling it's been too long." She coos, and he clenches his fist behind my back. I don't need to see him digging his nails into his palm to know that he is.

"Camilla what are you doing here?"

She frowns as a tall man steps up beside her, screaming authority just the way Noè does. Their presence overwhelming and suffocating in the small dimly lit hallway.

"You requested a meeting Mr. Arcuri." The man's cold blue eyes meet mine, my anxiety twisting my stomach.

"Distractions are no good for a man in your position."The way he looks at my chest makes my skin crawl.

The woman scoffs, her overdrawn lips peeling back in disgust. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out its directed at me. She's gorgeous, her pale blue eyes roam over me. The same way you'd study a suspicious bag of trash on the sidewalk.

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