Page 4 of Destined for the Devil
"What are you going to do with her now?" Denis finally spoke when the rest left, dragging the filth out. Like Sergei, Denis was my right-hand man. We’d all grown up together until Sergei went back home to serve in the army, where he studied to become a field doctor. I was grateful to him for tending to our stab wounds and bullet grazes throughout the years.
But about the girl…I genuinely had no idea what to do with her. I didn't know her name, how she ended up in that wretched house, or where to even send her now. She had no home. She’d lost everything in the fire.
"I don't know. I'll kick her out when I get back." I answered with the first thing that came to my mind as I shuffled a few files on my desk.
"Just on the street? That's risky as fuck. If she remembers anything, you have to get rid of her." Denis gave me stupid unsolicited advice.
"You're such a fucking moron, D." Sergei shook his head. "Rape her senseless and then kick her out. She won't dare to ever come back after that, and her life will be spared. She's hot; you'll have a good time." He spoke so simply about it that I choked on my own saliva from his words.
Vile disgust and anger accosted all my senses. I didn't fucking do that. How fuckingdarehe talk about her like that?!
"Shut thefuckup." I glared at him. "I will fucking decide. If I ever hear you fucking propose something like that again, I'll cement you at one of our next projects. Fucking test me." My rage was threatening to turn physical. His proposition was so repulsive and inhumane that I was ready to fucking kill him. “What the actualfuckare you talking about?!” I seethed, but he remained silent.
Instead of giving me any coherent answer, Sergei rose from his chair and walked out the door, leaving me with a confused Denis.
"You know Sergei is rough, man, but ease up. Don't put some stranger above your own brothers.” He spoke sternly, giving me a lecture I didn’t need. Was I? Putting a random stranger above my own men?
Sergei had been through a lot. He had absolutely no mercy, no pity, just raw rage in him all the time. His parents divorced as soon as he arrived here, and his mom was barely making ends meet to feed him, while his dad went back home. We all had similar fates. He struggled with everything, but in middle school he already had the connections and the dealers, and we began selling pot together. Our first step outside the law.
Surprisingly, he didn't get expelled once, charming his way through middle and high school. But once he left to go back to the Russian army, that’s where he saw and did someshit.I heard rumors of his conduct back home, but I had always refused to believe them. Until now.
Although, I always thought he was a bit of a psychopath after he returned. He lived a more or less normal life, but on the inside, he was rotten to the core.
Sergei had a wife and fucking kids! Kids whom he took to soccer practice and weekend birthday parties, and they had no idea their daddy was a cold-blooded murderer. And now, after his calm words, maybe a fucking rapist too?! I never clarified the last part, and I blindly lied to myself and denied that he was capable of committing that act.
Sergei didn't forget, and he didn't forgive. He held grudges from way back when, and sometimes, when he felt like life was dying inside him, he brought himself back by taking out those who pissed him off. Like a fucking serial killer.
Our friendship had become complicated in the last few years. We had grown too far apart to mend it; we had turned into different people, nothing like the boys we were at the beginning of our friendship. And neither him nor I wanted to act on breaking our fucked-up bond.
Denis was a soft puppy. Life of the party, he just liked girls, drugs,and money. A perfect antidote to Sergei. And me? Well, I guess I was somewhere in between. That balance helped me stay at the top.
I did my best to silence the jingle of keys at the front door, but the smell of brewed coffee in the foyer told me the girl was awake. I’d left her some of my clothes and instructions if she wanted to eat or drink something, and it seemed that she’d just woken up.
Silently, I made my way to the kitchen in slow strides, where I saw her leaning against the kitchen counter, her long hair splayed all overmyblack t-shirt, a coffee cup at her lips.
"Jesus!” She jumped when she caught sight of me. “You should really let people know that you're here!" She accused me and then licked hot coffee off her wrist while I watched her tongue slowly make its way on her skin.
Damn it. She looked good wearing my shit. My t-shirt drowned her completely, and my gaze remained stuck on her toned and bloody legs.
"I made coffee. As per your instructions. Thank you. For leaving instructions." Timidly, she paused every few words.
I just stood there and watched her feel uncomfortable in my kitchen.
"You're welcome. How are your legs?" I asked and looked away. What the fuck was wrong with me today? I didn't have the confidence to hold a stranger's gaze?
"Well...it took me a very long time to hobble over here, so it's all feeling pretty raw. Thanks for helping me." She started confident but then finished off as if embarrassed again. A slight blush overtook her cheeks, and she looked down at her cup.
"You're welcome. You can stay here until you feel better." Alright. Clearly, I went fucking insane overnight or something. What the actual fuck was I telling her?
"Oh, um, I appreciate it, but I—I can't impose. I’ll leave tonight, but...I do need some sort of pants orshorts."
And then it dawned on me again; she had nowhere to go. I took a few steps toward the counter and grabbed a seat at the kitchen island, noticing that she took a step back to be further away from me, her eyes studying my actions. That made sense. She looked like an angel, and I looked like I just climbed out of hell.
"You have family here?" Alarmed by my question, she stared at me, not moving a muscle. "That place yesterday, was that your apartment?" She confirmed it with a nod, still glued to one spot on the floor. "Mm. Well, it burned down, so where are you going to go?"
She bit her plump bottom lip at my question, and her face immediately blazed up in worry. Guilt lightly knocked on my conscience just from the look on her face.
"It all—it all burned down? Everything?!"
