28. Dima

TWENTY-EIGHT

Dima

A na's head is tipped back, her face blank and eyes closed as she does her psycho meditation listening to her book on the drive to whatever the fuck we'll find in the house she and Stasya have found in their online checks. A boot hits my ankle as Vlad raises an eyebrow, childish cunt, he's nearly forty and kicking my ankle, his daughter is a toddler and more mature than the prick is currently acting.

He keep his voice low, so Ana or Stasya don't hear from the front cab as he brings up a topic I'll never fucking discuss with him.

"You love her?"

He's phrasing it as a question but there's a knowing look in his eye. Nodding to himself, he drops his voice to the one that makes people piss themselves.

"I looked after your sister, don't forget that when it comes to mine." Fixing his mask in place, he becomes a void then continues, "And she'll always be a Vartanova. Don't get any ideas that she'll change her name for you."

Dickhead.

I don't give a fuck about his threat, Ana is my family first, not his, I've already told her she's taking my name. As soon as my woman has got everything she needs from the world I'm taking us away from it, there'll be no chasing sick cunts hoping Nina is with them or having to see her face fall when she's not found.

Her chin dramatically drops to her chest as we pull to a stop away from the edge of the property. My hellion is in her element, but she smiles at me over her shoulder before fitting her mask over her face. Searching for my own, the dickhead beside me presses his darker-than-black gloved hand against my chest and orders, "You're driving, Stasya is going in."

I'm about to argue when he waits for the others to get out and his calculating mind comes out.

"You're no good when you're not focused, watch her from here instead of getting yourself killed."

It's the closest Vlad has ever come to caring about someone and I don't argue. This way I'll be able to see exactly where she is, and I'll be in her ear, but my heart is pounding. One on however many restrained victims when she's torturing is fine, Ana isn't at risk. This is a bunch of cunts who sell children, they're not going to bring out a cake and balloons on their arrival.

My leg rocks, fucking with my gait as I climb behind the wheel. She won't get hurt, she's a hellion, and disappears into the dark clad in the darkest material that I can't even make out where she is.

Reminding myself of every single fight or torture I've witnessed at her hands over the years doesn't help. A knife v guns isn't good odds. My mind is working out every single thing they could use to pre-empt what we're doing.

Night-vision goggles, heat detectors, sensors on the property line .

My heart pauses its rhythm as I watch the grainy green and black footage as she moves closer. My ears are fucking with me, no one ever makes a noise but there's a faint hum. Pressing the controls to increase the volume as high as it can go, my lips curve up at the humming. It's coming from Ana's mic pack — my little hellion is humming to herself.

I hate that I can't isolate the earpieces, but Ana is still humming as I give them the timings. It's barely a sound, I wouldn't be able to pick it up without the mic on her. Does she hum to herself all the time? I've never heard her do it before. She's stealthy as fuck and I can breathe again when she takes out the guards before they can turn around. The sound of gunshots shakes my brain through the earpiece, forcing me to put it at a reasonable volume and miss out on her humming.

I can see her from Stasya's cam as they silently move through the house. There's a shuffling noise coming from the side, causing my hellion to freeze. I can't see her features and she disappears from sight as she follows it, and my timings are rougher.

"Four minutes."

Come back.

Get the fuck away from the shadows, send one of the other two cunts.

If they die, I'll bury them and move on .

Moving sooner than I should, I push the van into drive and speed through the private road until I'm outside the property. Those forty-nine seconds without watching anything are the longest of my life. There are only gunshots and scuffles mixing together.

"Three minutes."

Where the fuck is she? Her cam is black, there's nothing in view. She can't get fucking hurt, she's a hellion, stronger than anyone who has ever fucking lived and will ever come.

My knuckles bleach white as I hold the screen with both hands, searching each box for her. I don't give a fuck about the other two, my attention is solely fixed on what Ana can't fucking see. It's night vision, there should be green edges. Outlines of shit or a fucking wall. Anything!

It feels like a lifetime until I hear her anger come out in a hiss, "Where is she, Sofia?"

There's no answer and I recognize the sound of Ana losing control. She's alive. Fuck me, I've lost at least ten years off my life from those ninety seconds of limbo.

"Fuck." Stasya's low curse sounds over Sofia's last breaths and I look at the full screen when I see my hellion starting to move.

We've been doing this for years, never have I seen the children all drugged and chained, they're usually huddling together in the corner, but there are five beds, each with a passed-out child and a metal cuff around their wrist. My reminder is filled with uncertainty knowing they won't get them out.

"113 seconds."

We don't give bullshit half-second reminders, they're fixed points but there's no fucking way they will cut through five metal cuffs without tools in less than a minute and have enough time to get out.

Ana's cam becomes a blur as she bolts through the house. Reaching the others, she pushes Vlad and Stasya out of the way and lifts her mask off her face. Her lips move, whispering an apology before she dislocates five thumbs with surgical precision. Each child is given an apology as the other two follow after her, freeing them and picking them up. The last kid must be three years old, if that, and Ana's chest shakes. I can hear her apologizing over and over again, as she gently removes the cuff and she blocks my view as she picks him up with even more pain in her voice.

"You look like Theo. I won't let them hurt you, okay?"

It's so fucking quiet but the mic is closer to her face.

The sickening shit that they've witnessed or experienced doesn't dampen the sight of seeing my woman cradle a kid. Her cheek is resting on his head, and she hugs him tightly, afraid of letting him go. She'd be an amazing mother, psychotic but amazing. My heart grows too big for my chest when she kisses his head giving her promise again. I'm enraptured in watching my sweet hellion as I press the release for the doors and Stasya hits my shoulder for me to drive once they're inside.

I still have the earpiece in, and her low voice comes through as she strokes his hair and whispers into his unconscious ear as I drive to our meeting point.

"I'm older now, I know what to do."

It's the same promise phrased in different ways the entire drive to where the other cars are hidden. Ana doesn't let him go and the other two even soften watching her. The probability of the two kids being related is high after what she told me, their sick fucking business plan and how they referred to human beings as the perfect product because the usage creates more.

My body goes on alert as Inessa steps out from the warehouse, I'm still not used to seeing anyone else since Vlad has cut out the middleman and delivers the children directly to his wife. She already has her phone to her ear sorting whatever shit is needed to help the kids and Ana doesn't let Theo's lookalike go until Inessa goes to her.

"I'll keep him safe. I promise."

Inessa's coaxing work and she lets him go while mumbling to herself, "Inessa is nice, she won't let him get hurt."

No one else can hear her without their earpieces in.

Fuck anything else, my woman needs me. Her head snaps up when I push through the seats and the small smile is filled with relief. My own doesn't come until I have her in my arms and I'm squeezing too hard as I breathe her in. The low mumbling is still in my ear, Ana repeating that they're safe and no one can hurt them.

Cupping her cheeks, I press my lips to her forehead, it's like a switch and her eyes slowly flutter closed. When they open again my sweet hellion is back, smiling up at me as she laughs, "Why is your heart beating so fast? You only drove."

Because it's attached to hers, every fucking beat belongs to her, and I will never survive her. Not because she's a danger to me, I will never survive losing her. The possibility of it is enough to send me into cardiac shock.

She scrunches her nose up with a twitch as though it's tickling her then sighs and falls against me.

"I'm hungry."

She's never said it before. If there's something in front of her she'll eat it, but this is a sign her appetite is fully back to normal after however many years on the street. She wraps her limbs around me as soon as I pick her up and her smile touches my neck. Ignoring Vlad's attempt at being a protective big brother and Inessa's dopey smile, I take my woman home.

Ana takes her contacts out as soon as we're out of sight from anyone else. She never wears them longer than she feels she needs to anymore, part of me wishes she never shows those eyes to anyone else. That's selfish as fuck when it must fuck with her vision and her eyes are always red from how long she wears them.

Stretching across the car, I hold her nape, massaging the side of her neck with my thumb.I can't risk looking at her or I'll collide into something. Her smile is in my periphery, it's getting wider day by day and it's started to reach her eyes. Reminding myself that she said she's hungry, I keep on hand on my woman and the other chokes the steering wheel.

I'm old as fuck, I've helped raise three little shits into bigger shits as adults, four if I count Viktor. Something about Ana always has me nervous, it's the way she's unbothered by anything, her acceptance of life and everything it brings.She never asks for permission to do anything and roots around the car for something to distract her mind. Finding the rosary my mother gave me when I was ten, she holds it with respect and awe. I've never seen her go to church, she'd probably burst into flames like the rest of her family, but I ask anyway.

"Are you religious?"

She lays the beads on her thigh and gently straightens them out as she ignores me. When she finally speaks, her voice is soft and melodious.

"No, I used to go to a gurdwara, a temple, they give out food to people and there was an older couple who talked about spirituality more than religion." Ending on a sigh she leans back against my hand and turns her head to look at me. "I think I have to believe in something, if I don't then I don't get another chance for a life. I hope it's reincarnation, imagine I die and then I'll get to be something extraordinary."

She already is extraordinary, there's a delicate balance of childish maturity inside her, each side perfectly fitting together so she can go through life and cope.

Her eyes are still locked on my profile as I pull up outside the all-night diner and she talks more to herself than me.

"I have to have faith there's something, anything, when I die. Otherwise, it will be the same as my life."

My sweet lisichka. Tilting her chin up with my knuckles, I press a chaste kiss to her lips and my voice carries enough authority for the Grim Reaper to understand the order.

"You're not going to die, build your life exactly how you want it."

Telling Ana to stay seated so I can get her door, she nods and scrutinizes me as I round the car. This is how it should be, it's my job to protect her and she's spent too long having to do it herself.She pulls her contacts case out before I reach her door and my emotions contradict themselves knowing it hurts her and the pride at being the only who gets to see who she really is.