Demyan & Ana (6 page)

“All right, then.”

Koldan cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “I didn’t take you for the kind to mess around on your girl, Demyan.”

Demyan’s head jerked up, his eyes narrowing. “I didn’t and I’m not. Something bad went down last—”

“Oh, God,” Ana cried from somewhere behind Demyan.

Demyan turned fast on his heel to face his panicking sister. She was looking right at Koldan who had suddenly turned as stiff as a board beside Demyan. There was something about the way Ana stared at Koldan that set Demyan’s nerves on edge. Not in a bad way, but like he somehow missed something important between the two.

Koldan took a step further into the apartment, his gaze snapping back and forth to the marks littering Ana’s face and the box in Demyan’s hand. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. A shuddering exhale escaped Koldan and it sounded almost painful.

“I thought you blew me off,” Koldan said, taking yet another step toward Ana.

“No,” Ana whispered. “I was leaving to meet up with you.”

“Oh,
krasivyy
.”

Demyan watched in stunned silence as his sister broke into pieces all over again. Only this time, it wasn’t him who rushed forward to hold her together and she didn’t flinch away from Koldan’s hands like she had Demyan’s.

Chapter Six

Ana

Ana didn’t want to cry, but telling her mind to cooperate with her wishes was impossible.

Koldan held her tight, absorbing her trembling and shielding her face with his embrace. Ana thought it odd she was okay with him so close, but he hadn’t given her any reason not to trust him. They’d only gone out three times together since the party two weeks earlier, but it had been enough for her to know she was interested in more with Koldan.

“Tell me who did this to you,” Koldan said in her ear. “Tell me,
krasivyy
.”

Memories she had forced back from the night before slammed into her. It hit her like a ton of bricks to the chest. Fingers digging into her jaw to hold her still. Her teeth biting her bottom lip and blood seeping into her mouth. A hand at her thighs … pain.

Cavan
.

Ana gagged at his name alone. The toast and juice she forced down earlier came back up violently. She barely managed to turn out of Koldan’s hold in time to find the small wastebasket beside the couch.

“Shit,” she heard Demyan hiss.

On her knees, Ana shook from the force of her vomiting. Koldan was behind her instantly, his one hand sweeping her hair back to the nape of her neck while his other arm wrapped around her middle.

“He … he called me,” Ana managed to get out, her balled fists vibrating against the floor as her teeth chattered.

“When?” Koldan asked.

Somehow, she calmed her nerves enough to talk.

“Before I was going to leave for the club to meet you.” Ana sobbed brokenly as Koldan shushed a soothing sound in her ear, rocking her gently. She had to keep talking, though. If she didn’t, the fear burning through her veins would keep her silent forever. “I told him to leave me alone unless he figured out where he wanted to go with me. When he called, he said he wanted to come over to my apartment to talk, and I thought …”

Koldan’s thumb rolled softly along her racing pulse point. “What, Ana?”

“I thought I could tell him, then. I didn’t want to date him, or see him or anything. Because you and me, you know. B-but he already knew.”

Koldan stilled. “About me?”

Ana cried harder, nodding frantically. “Said he found me with you. Saturday, the club.”

“Twisted,” Koldan said faintly, naming the club in question.

“He saw us when we …”

Ana didn’t want to finish her sentence, humiliation and shame filling her to the brim. She didn’t have to, anyway. The way Koldan tensed behind her, she knew he understood what she was getting at.

At that club, Koldan pushed Ana into a dark corner and kissed her until she was breathless, wide-eyed, and already half in lust and half in love with him. His hands wandered over her figure with a clear intent to imprint every one of her curves to memory by touch alone. He watched her under dim lighting with a gaze so intense it heated every drop of blood in her body to a boil.

That night, Ana would have tossed out everything she thought she believed in for Koldan had he let her. But, he didn’t. What he did was drop her off at her apartment with a tender kiss and a promise to take her out the next Sunday.

That’s where she was supposed to be last night, not … where she ended up.

Ana shivered even though she wasn’t cold. The memory of Koldan which had kept her grinning a private smile all week seemed tainted, somehow. Her body felt so dirty even though she spent an hour in the shower. She suddenly wanted to jump back into one with the water turned on as hot as it would go.

The panic and disgust welled. She panted out gasps of burning air as the urge to vomit plowed its way up again.

“Ana, it’s okay, take deep breaths.” Koldan’s arm tightened around her midsection, rooting her in place and stopping her from giving in to the need she felt to run and hide. “This … guy, was he the one you were seeing, but it wasn’t anything serious?”

She bobbed her head once to confirm his question. Tears streaked lines down her face, dripping onto the floor. “He was so angry. So, so angry about seeing me doing what I wouldn’t with him. I didn’t … he hadn’t ever before … I never thought to worry or have someone—”

“You shouldn’t have needed to worry at all. I need you to give me a name,” Koldan said so quietly she barely heard him. “Just give me his name, Ana.”

She couldn’t. The words Cavan threatened her with were imprinted into her memory.

Do you think your family scares me, Ana? You should meet mine. There wouldn’t be one of you left when we were done.

Who had she gotten herself mixed up with? Ana didn’t know, but Cavan’s strangeness and secrecy suddenly make a lot more sense if he had his own crime affiliation he needed to hide. How could she be stupid enough to put her family in danger like that?

“Ana,” Koldan said sharply, yanking her out of her thoughts. “Breathe!”

Hadn’t she been?

Apparently not, because she sucked in air like it was water and she was dying of thirst.

“I can’t tell you,” Ana cried. “I
can’t
.”

“Maybe not right now,” Koldan agreed. “But, you are going to tell me eventually.”

Koldan managed to convince Ana to get up and sit on the couch. Demyan and Gia moved around the two in silence, taking away the wastebasket and setting a full glass of water on the coffee table. Koldan stayed kneeled at her feet, his eyes locked on hers while he helped her to sip from the glass as her hands were shaking too hard.

Demyan came to sit on the other end of the couch. This time, she managed not to flinch away from his proximity. The saddened, worried look he sported ratcheted up the shame she still felt.

Ana hadn’t meant to be frightened of her brother the night before. She worried he would think badly of her for what happened. Or worse, not believe her at all. Of course, she knew better than that inside, but the way the terror acted like a poison and her mind went into anxiety overload, it was the only thing she could think of.

Demyan leaned over and set a white box beside Ana’s thigh. “Here, if you need this, you should take it sooner rather than later. I’m … going to go check on Gia. If you want me, just say my name. Okay?”

Ana couldn’t move. Emotions suffocated her. The box resting beside her was taunting, frightening, and horrifying all at once.

For the first time, Koldan looked truly uncomfortable and not just disturbed, concerned, or angry like before. She could tell he was chewing his unspoken question over.

“We like the cards face up,” he said quietly.

Ana blew out a breath, hiding her face from his view by tipping her chin down. “We do.”

“Do you need to take that,
krasivyy
?”

She did.

Koldan helped when she fumbled with the package to get it open and said nothing when she choked the pill down.

• • •

Ana stared at the iPod resting in her lap. Her mind swam in a haze.

She was so lost. A week after her attack, she still felt as raw as the moment Cavan left her crying on her apartment floor. There was nothing that could get the feel of him off her. No amount of water, soap, or scrubbing.

God knew she tried to get him away. She couldn’t. He was inside her fucking
head
.

Debilitated and used. She couldn’t sleep, eat, and her thoughts were plagued with … him. Her own home—her apartment—didn’t have that same safe aura it once did. Even the thought of going back had bile rising in her tightening throat. She skipped classes all week, unable to focus or breathe with strangers around.

Cavan did this to her.

Made her feel ruined, weak, and isolated.

So fucking alone.

In a room full of people, she was still alone.

“Earth to Ana.”

Ana looked at her mother sitting beside her. “Yeah, Ma?”

Viviana frowned, tilting her head to the side as she regarded her daughter. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing, Ma.”

“I said your name five times before you finally noticed.”

“Sorry. I’ve uh … got a lot on my plate with college.”

Her mother leaned back into the couch. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

Ana pleaded in her head for her mother to drop the topic. Viviana was far too observant when it came to her children and was liable to notice something was off if Ana couldn’t somehow divert her attention.

“College, huh?” Viviana asked quietly.

“I just said that, Ma.”

“Well, if you have a lot going on, why did you skip classes today?”

Anton poked his head into the living room, interrupting the conversation. “Vine, where’s that suit jacket you picked up from the cleaners?”

Ana was grateful for her father’s intrusion. She took the chance to shove her earbuds for her iPod into her ears. She didn’t turn the iPod on but hoped her mother wouldn’t notice and leave her alone, anyway. 

“Hanging on the back door of the laundry room,” Viviana said, eyeing Ana from the side.

Ana pretended not to notice.

Her father cleared his throat, making Ana flinch on the inside. “Something going on I need to know about, baby?”

“I don’t know,” Viviana replied. “Maybe.”

Unsettled that her parents noticed her restless nervousness and distraction, Ana stood from the couch without a word. She grabbed the messenger bag she dropped earlier and slung it over her shoulder, tugging the earbuds out in the process before shoving the iPod into her pack.

“Ana, where are you going? I thought we were—”

“I have to go, Ma. Sorry.” 

“But—”

“I have to go,” Ana snapped.

“Ana, don’t talk to your mother like that. Apologize.”

She ignored her father’s chastising, moving to leave.

“Hey, you wait right there just a goddamn minute,” Anton demanded.

When Ana slipped past her father’s large form to get to the hallway, he reached out to grab her arm. Ana jerked back from the touch like she’d been burned. Anton’s spine straightened, his gaze flicking over his daughter’s face. Ana knew she probably looked like a scared cat ready to run.

She needed to get as far away from her parents as she could or else her cracks would keep showing. They’d split and open up until her flaws and mistakes were out there for them to see. If she cried, they would
know
.

Ana didn’t want them to. 

“I’m sorry,” Ana said, holding back tears. “Please let me leave.”

Anton, seeming stunned, stepped aside silently to let her pass.

Her father would never hurt her. Even when she was a bratty little child, he never once put his hands on her in anger. He loved her.

Ana was, and always had been, his princess. She did no wrong in her father’s eyes.

How would he feel about her if he found out what happened?

• • •

“Thank you for meeting me,” Ana said, trying to smile but failing.

Koldan sipped on a to-go cup of coffee, shrugging under the weight of his leather jacket. “Wasn’t doing much, anyway.”

“Liar. When I called, there was so much noise in the background, I couldn’t hear you.”

“Doesn’t mean it was important to me, so it’s better for me to move on to what is,” he replied like it didn’t make a difference.

Ana didn’t miss his unspoken words.

Other things weren’t important to him. She was.

Koldan tipped his head in the direction of her coffee. “Drink before it goes cold,
krasivyy
.”

Ana’s hands were warmed by the coffee. The late October air chilled every other part of her. They could have stayed inside the coffee shop after they purchased their drinks, but the amount of people inside sent Ana’s anxiety swimming thick.

Did they know when they looked at her?

Could they see her invisible damage?

Because sure, the bruises were gone and the ache had left, but inside … she was broken.

“Hey,” Koldan murmured, gazing at her with an intensity that seemed to dig right down into her soul. “I lost you there for a second.”

Ana barked out a laugh. Pulling her legs up to rest her feet on the bench under her backside, she placed the cup to the side and sighed. “You’re not the only one.”

“What’s going on, Ana? Talk to me. You call me in a panic, ask me to meet up with you, and then stare dazed at your hands. I’m fine with doing that, too. Watching you watch nothing, I mean. If that’s what you need, cool shit, but I don’t think it is. Come on, just talk.”

Sucking in another gulp of air, Ana explained her earlier close call with her parents. Koldan stayed silent through her tale, worry and sadness dancing in his gaze while his shoulders grew tense.

“They’re going to pick up on your depression, Ana,” he said when she finished. “They’re your parents and they love you. They raised you, so trust that they know when something’s not right with their kid.”