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I hadn’t noticed the strain until recently, but now that I had, there was something very strange going on between the two of them. Whenever they were together, the pressure in the air seemed to change, grew thicker somehow.
The next time I passed her, I asked, “Are you two fighting or something?”
Anika blinked guilelessly and played dumb. “Who?”
I shot her a look, one that said I wasn’t stupid. “You and Sasha, that’s who.”
Her eyes darkened a notch, and the scoffed response surprised me, even more so when she cussed. “No, we’re not fighting. Sasha doesn’t do that. He is gracious, and polite, and uber respectful. In order for us to fight, he’d have to give a fuck first.”
The bitterness in her tone made me still, and quite suddenly, I thought back to what she said that night at The White Rabbit.
“Trust me. It’s finished. He tried, he fought, and all I did was reject him over and over. And this guy… he isn’t the type to forgive and forget.”
I looked to my brother, who was currently having a heated discussion with Cora, and as he attempted to relocate the stubborn broad into his office, I caught the way his eyes slid over Anika and stayed there.
No way.
My gut tightened with realization.
“Anika?” I asked cautiously, pouring a whisky. “The guy…” She paused beside me a moment. “The guy you were talking about, the one who doesn’t give second chances…”
Immediately, she began to walk away. “It’s busy tonight, huh?”
I caught her arm gently and reeled her back in, and the way she looked around, panicked, it screamed that she was backed into a corner. My brain malfunctioned a moment, and when I finally gained the ability to speak, I uttered in astonishment, “It’s Sasha. The guy. It’s him, isn’t it?”
Anika’s blue eyes darted around, looking everywhere but at me. After a second, she forced an eye roll. “No. That would be crazy.” She tried to hold it in, but her eyes revealed her misery. “I mean, what kind of person would that make me? Jumping from one brother to another.” Her breathing got heavy, and her lips trembled as she endeavored to joke, “I’d have to file myself under T for trash, right?”
Oh my God. It was Sasha. I was 100 percent convinced Sasha was the guy.
I attempted to say something. My mouth opened, and I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I didn’t know what to do with this information. Part of me knew she going through something and wanted to tell her it wasn’t a big deal, but the other part of me knew that it was.
She was right, of course.
Anika lost her virginity to Lev. She spent the majority of her life doing what she could to appeal to him, to make him notice her. When Lev found Mina, Anika loathed her for the mere fact that Lev didn’t. She purposely got between them, tried to assert her dominance over Lev in a way that was partly crazed.
And now she had a thing for Sasha? Since when?
A harsh thought sliced through me.
Since Lev was no longer available?
The assumption made my stomach twist.
Okay. That wasn’t nice. I had no right to judge, but understandably, I had questions.
Why Sasha? Why now?
But as she stood in front of me with her shoulders slumped, her chin dipped, and her expression bleak, I tried in vain to cover up my mixed emotions and released her with a small smile and a casual, “Hey. We can talk about this later.”
Anika’s expression turned grim, and when her eyes met mine, I saw the pain that consumed her. “No, Nas,” she uttered dispassionately, stepping away from me. Her brows marred with the strong pull of her frown, and shaking her head, she muttered, “We can’t.”
My heart panged at the notion that she couldn’t come to me.
But my friend was hurting.
Perhaps now was not the time, but when she was ready, we would talk about this.
We had to.
16
Vik
I was a veteran at this.
While boys my age were out playing sports or picking up chicks at the mall, I was in a warehouse downtown with my brothers. No matter how young we were, we could never have been considered kids. We didn’t have toys. No PlayStation or such. What we did have were Glocks, drugs, and attitudes that often times got us into trouble, because Chaos boys were raised with an arrogance and understanding that, yeah, we were better than most.
Times had changed though. It had been a long time since we’d gone legit. But some things never changed. And the way this guy was looking at me right now made me want to round the table, take out my piece, and put it to his temple.
In that moment, with the cockiness he wore so openly, I wanted to pull the trigger and watch the light fade from his eyes.
