Page 1 of Paved in Venom

Prologue

Danil

17 years old

I follow the pair of tourists down the busy street, being careful to stay far enough behind so they won’t see me. Not that it really matters. They’re completely oblivious to their surroundings.

That’s mistake number one.

Mistake number two is when they stop at an outdoor cafe, and the man puts his nice leather messenger bag on the back of his chair. What a fucking dumbass. He’s practically begging me to steal it, so I give the moron what he wants.

Ducking my way through the crowd, I pass by his chair, hooking my finger under the strap and walking off with it right under their goddamn noses. It’s almost too damn easy, but adrenaline still rushes through me, giving me the high I’ve come to crave. It’s the same feeling I get right before I’ve hacked into a system. After hours of work, seeing it open up to me, spilling all its secrets—it’s fucking exhilarating.

Turning the corner, I put the bag’s strap across my chest, admiring the high quality of it. This will be perfect for storing my laptop. I hate leaving it at home, and now I won’t have to. I’m still smiling about it when I enter my apartment building. Instead of going to my floor, I go up to the one above my apartment and knock on Roman’s door. His younger sister opens it with a huge smile on her face.

“Hey, Alina,” I tell her, laughing when I see her smile fade as she looks around me and sees the empty hall.

“Expecting someone else?” I tease her.

She blushes but doesn’t answer, just steps aside so I can come in. When she sees my bag, she reaches out to give it a pet.

“Wow, nice bag.”

“Thanks, I just stole it.”

She laughs as I shut the door.

“Want to see what’s inside it?”

Running after me, she follows me to the couch where we both sit. I’ve just opened the flap when Roman walks in.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Danil just stole this bag, and now we’re gonna look through it,” Alina says with a laugh.

Roman walks over for a better look. I pull out the man’s wallet, a gaudy souvenir T-shirt that only a tourist would wear, a guidebook, and a Russian phrasebook. I smile even bigger when I pull out the iPad. Alina goes through the man’s wallet while I quickly hack into the iPad. I scroll through his files, laughing when I see how much porn he has on it. I hold it up for Roman to see without his ten-year-old sister getting a peek.

Roman laughs and runs a hand through his hair before walking over to Alina. “Who is this guy?” he asks her.

She’s been learning English in school, but she struggles with the name. Roman leans closer and reads, “Adam Thompson.” He sees all the money she pulls out and laughs. “Thanks for the groceries, Adam.” He counts it out and looks over at me. “This is enough for all of us to eat for like two weeks.”

I’ve been stealing us money online, but it’s been fairly small amounts. I’m still working out how to do it like I want. One day I’m going to have an elaborate system that’ll be completely untraceable, and it’s going to have millions in it. We will never be poor again. But for now, we pay for most things like this, the old-fashioned way. We sure as hell can’t depend on our families to do it. My mom can barely pay the bills, and my stepdad is an abusive piece of shit. If I want regular meals, then I need to make it happen on my own.

There’s another knock at the door, and Alina bolts from the couch, running to it before they have time to knock again. I look at Roman. “Let me guess, it’s Matvey’s turn to stay here?”

He smiles and nods. “Yeah, she’s been waiting all damn day for him to show up.”

I look over when he walks in with Vitaly and Lev, Alina trailing closely behind. Ever since the fire that happened almost two years ago, Matvey’s been different. He’s quieter and no longer the carefree boy we all grew up with. He lost his mom and sister in that fire, and I know he blames himself for their deaths, for not getting to them in time. His dad was the cause of the fire, and he died that night, leaving Matvey without any family, so we all stepped up and became one. He rotates living at our apartments, and this week it’s Roman’s turn.

“Hey, what’s all this?” Vitaly asks, walking over to the loot we’ve laid out. He grabs the pile of cash. “Fucking nice, man.”

“Want me to grab some food?” Lev asks. His recently pierced eyebrow still looks like it’s painful, but he doesn’t seem to care. Pain has never bothered Lev. I swear he even enjoys it.

“Hell yeah,” Vitaly says with a laugh. “Let’s hit McDonald’s. I want a cheeseburger, and that really hot girl works there.”

Vitaly’s been trying to get a date with her for a few weeks now. We have a running bet going on. She’s two years older than us, and Matvey and I don’t think he has a chance in hell, but Roman and Lev think it’s going to happen.

They write down what we all want, and I catch Alina watching Matvey to see if he’s going with them. When he comes in and sits down in the chair in the corner, she visibly relaxes. Her crush on him has yet to fade away, not even after the fire when he would barely speak a word to any of us. She kept sneaking out and going to the hospital. The first time it happened, Roman nearly lost his mind. We ran all over looking for her until we finally found her sitting on the edge of Matvey’s hospital bed, reading him a story while he laid there in so much pain he could barely move.

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