Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Her silence kills me.
It literally rips me to shreds.
“Polly, did he—”
“No!” she shouts, her one word unable to hide the quiver of her lips. “But he would have if you hadn’t narked to Alek.” She stops, exhales, then starts again. “Well, I thought it was you, but after seeing how easy it is to mistake you and Feo, perhaps it was him. I wasn’t in the right head space to determine who was who.” Exhaling again, she moves to the sofa to cradle her head in her hands. “I thought you walked out because you were jealous, and I was so mad, so very, very mad that you had done that. Then Alek arrived, and I was more relieved than anything.” The smile that arrives with her huff is unexpected. “Then I went back to angry.” My expression must show something I didn’t mean to expose. “Not at you. At the men who can’t take no for an answer. My first foster father, the stupid clerk at my high school, then Pavel.” I’d heard stories about her first foster father, but this is the first time she’s mentioned anything about a clerk and Pavel. “No is just a metaphor for some men.”
“Am I included in that statement?”
I realize I am summarizing out loud when Polina’s glistening eyes sling to me. She looks confused until I wave my hand around my apartment.
I made her come here.
I forced her here.
So there isn’t any way in hell she can say she’s here of her own free will.
Fuck!
“Get your bag.”
When I race for my keys, Polina blurts out, “What?”
“Your bag. Get your bag.” As she stares at me in bewilderment, I hunt the entryway drawer for my keys. I could have sworn I tossed them on top upon entry, but they’re nowhere to be found.
“You’re taking me home?” Polina finally clues in.
“Uh-huh.” My reply comes out with a whistle when I find my keys in the entryway table next to my hidden gun safe I’m tempted like fuck to open. “Then I’m going to piss on the shallow grave I fuckin’ hope Alek dumped Pavel in, drive to Lebasraw, then break into your high school so I can find out who the fucking clerk was there a hundred years ago when you attended.” I’m joking so I don’t blow my top. That’s how fucking unhinged I am, but I can’t resort to drugs this time around. I need to use my fists. “Then perhaps I might cruise by the foster care office that organized your first placement. What did she say again? You barely had boobs.” I look her dead set in the eyes. “She won’t either by the time I’m done with her.”
“Yev…”
When Polina remains on the couch, I enter my room, snatch up her bag, then hotfoot it to the door. “You coming?”
“Yev.” She tries again, her tone more commanding this time around.
I give her my eyes. It is a fucking hard feat. Not because she isn’t the epitome of perfection, but because I was jealous that night. The reoccurring image of Alek yanking Pavel off her all those years ago is why I agreed to Alek’s suggestion to follow Ana to Europe with little thought.
Drugs weren’t mentioned.
Spiked drinks weren’t mentioned.
I thought she was with Pavel because he was six years older than me, and that Alek beat into him because he placed a no-touch order on his sister for anyone in his crew—myself included.
I don’t know whether to be relieved or pissed when Polina mutters, “The clerk is dead, as is my foster care placement officer.”
Her reply seems a little shady, so I can’t help but mutter, “Alek?”
I learn why my Spidey senses are tingling when she shakes her head. “My father… the very man I’m dating Vasily Cabanow for.”
16
POLINA
Although his agitation can’t be misplaced, and he continually strays his eyes to his bedroom door, Yev listens without interruption as I explain the reason I’ve been dating Vas for the past three months. I tell him how my father was kicked out of the country with no real explanation, and that I believe part of his extradition is based around the confession I told him when I was dosed up on cold and flu medication not long after my seventeenth birthday.
I’d never told anyone about the clerk or what the foster care lady said to me, so when news of their disappearance started floating around Lebasraw, I confronted my father about them.
He didn’t say anything incriminating, but he didn’t deny that he was responsible for their disappearances, either.
That was the first time I questioned his profession.
The second was when I found a gun cabinet in the back of his walk-in closet.
He didn’t have a single gun for protection. He had many of them.
“I thought I was playing the doting girlfriend role well until earlier tonight at your fight.” When I realize how late it is, I correct, “Last night.” Having no reason to interrupt, Yev continues to listen. “But Vas made it obvious he’s known all along why I’m seeing him. He went along with it because—”