Page 66 of Eternal
His lips twitched into that stupid almost-smile, my fingers twitched in response, wanting to wipe it off his face.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, his voice casual as he leaned against the doorframe. “I’ll get us some food, wait here.”
Yeah, right. Leave. Get out of my space.
It’s the first time I’m working with someone, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.
Actually, Idoknow. I hate it.
I hate how he moves around me, all quiet and calculating.
Like he’s waiting for something, fucking watching me, even when he thinks I don’t know. It’s not “team bonding,” it’s just him digging for weaknesses.
Pure investigation, plain and simple, every question, every sideways glance…it’s all the same shit.
Why the hell does he care so much?
Damir’s not trying to “bond.” He’s looking for cracks, for anything to worm his way inside my head. That’s whateveryone’s done, always digging for a weak spot, always waiting to break you from the inside.
And it pisses me off how damn good he is at it.
I’ve tried to dig into him, too, but the difference is… he’s covered his tracks. The Bratva, the military, the whole prison thing? It’s all a fucking mystery, like one minute he’s here, the next he’s gone, and I’m supposed to trust that.
His supposed prison stint for the Bratva didn’t add up.
Disappearing to “rebuild himself”? Convenient, way too convenient.
I’m hyper-fixating over this, and I don’t even know why.
Probably because not only will I have to trust him with my life, but also with Vik and Kat’s lives, and anyone else who gets dragged into our mess. Fuck, that’s the part that makes it even worse.
How the hell am I supposed to trust anyone now? I stopped trusting long before my mother died.
She stopped trusting everyone long before she passed, everything and everyone turned into a threat. She became paranoid, lost in it, and I followed her down that path without even realizing. It’s like she left a part of herself behind in me, something that still clings to my bones, and that’s okay, it’s still a piece of her, I’ll carry her pain any day if it means keeping her with me, even in this broken way.
I can almost feel her ghost in the back of my mind, always there, reminding me that trusting people makes you weak, it’s her voice, her fear. Her trauma never really died with her, it stayed with me.
And she was right, you don’t survive by trusting others, you survive by keeping them away, far enough to protect yourself.
We’re our parent’s kids after all.
My phone buzzed, pulling me out of my thoughts. Vik.
“Hey?”
“Kroshka. How’s it going?” His voice was calm, but I could tell he was already worried. “You think you and Damir can handle this, or should I be worried?”
“I could’ve done it alone. Don’t stress.”
“Mm.” I could hear the faint grin in his voice. “Also, the Don got new intel on the thief. He’s got a possible location, and he’ll be calling you in a few minutes.”
I froze for a moment. The Don’s calling me?
I’d never gotten a call from the Don before, always Viktor, always through him. So why now? Why would he bypass Viktor to call me directly?
I pushed the thought aside as Viktor’s voice came through again. “Az?”
“The Don’s calling me?” I asked, keeping my tone neutral.
