Demyan & Ana: A Russian Guns Novella (The Russian Guns Book 4)

by Bethany-Kris

  “Please don’t tell him. He can’t know. I … I don’t want him to know.”

  “Know what?” Demyan asked. “Just tell me what happened.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ana said, shaking her head.

  “It goddamn well does.”

  “No, just promise me you won’t call anybody, Demyan. I needed a safe place to sleep, that’s all.”

  Demyan’s heart was cracking and anxiety drove through his body like a wrecking ball. None of his sister’s words made any sense and by the way she appeared, something awful had gone down with her. Tears welled in Ana’s gaze as she stared at him, silently begging.

  “Okay,” Demyan agreed quietly. “I won’t call, but you need to tell me what happened.”

  Ana choked on her cries, her hands fisting into her lap. “I just want to sleep. Please let me sleep, Demyan.”

  Over his shoulder, Demyan gave Gia a pleading look. His lover didn’t seem to have an answer for him, either. Not that his mind wasn’t drawing its own conclusions because it was. Unfortunately, the only thing Demyan’s thoughts were coming up with was practically fucking unthinkable.

  Disgusting. Devastating. Horrible.

  Not his sister. Not Ana.

  “I’m so tired,” Ana said, gaining his attention again.

  Demyan’s heart broke a little more. “Okay, you can sleep. You want a blanket or something?”

  Ana nodded and he stood to go find what she needed, but Gia was already making her way to the spare room where the linens were kept. He sat down on the recliner across from his sister, stunned and unsure of his next move. By the time Gia got back, Ana was curled up in the fetal position on the couch using her arm as a pillow.

  Demyan couldn’t stop watching the distant stare his sister sported. She wanted to sleep, but she wasn’t closing her eyes. It was only when Gia gasped quietly and the blanket she held fell over the arm of the couch did his attention focus elsewhere.

  Straight to where Gia was staring.

  Nausea swept Demyan under the current and rage hit him like a punch in the gut. The black dress Ana wore was club-style and popular to her age. Short, slinky material and tight. Demyan hadn’t noticed before because the fabric rode low enough across her thighs to hide it. The marks on Ana’s face were nothing compared to the palm and finger bruises curving around her inner thighs.

  Like someone had forced them open.

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  God, no.

  • • •

  Demyan didn’t sleep. Not a fucking wink. He didn’t leave his sister’s sleeping side. He all but forced Gia to go back to bed well after three in the morning. When she got up at her regular time to get ready for work, he ordered his pregnant fiancée back to sleep. She had tossed a glance at Ana still and somber on the couch and didn’t argue.

  Now, after she slept and could think, Gia stood toe to toe with him, angry.

  “You have to call someone or the proper authorities. It’s your responsibility as her brother, Demyan!”

  Demyan’s lips drew a thin line. “First off, she doesn’t want me to call. Did you see the same thing I did last night, Gia? She’s clearly terrified of my father finding out, for whatever reason. I need to calm her down first and—”

  “And the longer you wait, the less she remembers and evidence gets contaminated. You’re letting her shower, for Christ’s sake!”

  “Because she wants to. It was her choice and I don’t blame her for wanting to.”

  “She shouldn’t shower, Demyan.”

  “I’m sorry, Gia, but even when I do call someone, it will not be to the police. We can’t involve cops. Ever. If past experience is anything to go on, the officials are more interested in what they can get from a victim about the family they’re involved in rather than the attack. I know it sucks, but that’s how it is. I have to keep my family safe. We’ll take care of it just as soon as I get a name from her.”

  “Take care of it,” Gia echoed.

  “Yes. I know you don’t like that.”

  “I don’t, but it’s the only option she has for retribution, so.” Gia shuddered, but her gaze steeled. “Promise me, even if it takes months to find out, you will take care of it, Demyan.”

  Speechless at her demand, Demyan could only nod.

  The knock on the apartment door interrupted their conversation from going further. Demyan knew it was Koldan, as he called the guy earlier in the morning to pick up something for him Ana might need. They worked the docks together. Koldan was solid to Demyan in the way he would keep his mouth shut. Plus, Demyan needed someone uninvolved with his father to do some poking around if Ana wouldn’t talk.

  “Can you go check on her, get her something to wear, and make sure she’s comfortable while I deal with that?” Demyan asked.

  “Sure, babe,” Gia said softly. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

  Gia leaned up and kissed his cheek before leaving him alone. Demyan answered the door with a blank expression, not wanting to show his anger or panic. Koldan stood on the other side, looking inside a pharmacy bag he held and chuckling.

  “Hey,” Demyan said.

  “Morning.” Koldan glanced up with his brow lifted, laughing. “Man, you do know your girl is way too far along to be using this shit, right?”

  Demyan understood Koldan was joking, but it didn’t stop the growl of warning forming in the back of his throat. Immediately, Koldan’s chuckles quieted and his amusement disappeared. “Whoa, Demyan. Chill. What did I miss?”

  Stepping back, Demyan waved at the entranceway behind him. “Get inside.”

  Koldan did, closing the door behind him and handing the pharmacy bag over. He gave Demyan a once over before asking, “Seriously, what the fuck is up? You look ready to kill.”

  So, maybe Demyan still had issues with hiding his emotions.

  Demyan didn’t answer Koldan. Instead, he pulled out the rectangular box from the pharmacy bag and read the fine print on the side.

  Plan B. Christ. It made him sick just having to look at it and consider his sister might need what was in the box.

  “You can just walk in and pick this shit up, huh?”

  Koldan nodded. “Basically. Pharmacist gives you a run down on how to use it properly and the window of time it’s effective.”

  “And how long is that?” Demyan asked.

  “Anywhere from seventy-two hours to one-hundred-twenty, but the sooner it’s taken after unprotected sex, the better.”

  “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 imp
ossible.

  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.