[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

home.
 It s not much.
 Is this the first apartment you lived in?
 No. It s the fifth one. We got out of a bad neighborhood, and felt this one was
better for the both of us. She took him toward several large apartment buildings that
looked slightly rundown to him. They were not the worst he d seen, but they were not the
best.
 You might want to, erm, drive around for a little while. I don t know if your car
will be safe.
Russ looked around and shook his head. He wasn t afraid. Parking in an available
spot, he climbed out of the car and rounded the vehicle to help her out. They made their
way into her building, and he was surprised that the elevator actually worked.
Anna looked so comfortable, and he couldn t help but watch her. It was what he
found himself doing regularly, watching her. He couldn t look away. Anna had such an
expressive face that he refused to miss it. Russ was so used to keeping his emotions in
check that seeing her so open drew him to her. He was like a moth, and she the flame.
She opened the door, and turned toward him.  We weren t millionaires.
 I know that, honey.
 Well, this is going to be a bit of a shock to you.
Rolling his eyes, he pushed open the door.  I wasn t born with a silver spoon. I
worked my way to the top.
 Seriously?
 Yes. Seriously. Did you think my business was inherited?
 I don t know what to think, to be honest. You keep everything locked up tight so
I don t know what to make of it. I ve talked so much about myself, and you don t.
 There s not a lot to know about me.
 You re part of an MC, and that s cool.
 Not really. We re a bunch of men who share a couple of interests.
 Those interests brought you to my life.
He sighed.  That s true. I don t have a family. I was found on a shop doorstep,
thrown into foster care from a baby.
 You weren t adopted?
 I was adopted, but it would seem that the people who wanted me, didn t want my
bad attitude. I was a kid that had issues. Russ kept his gaze on hers.  I didn t let foster
care shape who I am now. I m a fighter, and I can see you are as well.
 Karen, too. She fought the system just like us. She gave him a smile, and his gut
tightened.
Did she have any idea how beautiful she looked?
 So, this is my and Karen s home, or it s mine, now, I guess.
He looked around the living space, and noticed how clean it was. There was very
little furniture. They had bean bags around a small table, and small patches of carpet
made up the floor.
The floor that wasn t carpeted had been painted, and looked nice. The walls were
washed and painted, and he moved toward the windows to see they were also painted.
 Sorry about the lack of furniture. We wanted to save every cent we earned for a
shop, or a small business.
 A small business?
 When we were taken, we had been to see a property that we thought could be the
future for us.
 Did you know what you were going to do?
 No. We had ideas. We always had a lot of ideas, but we didn t exactly know how
we were going to implement them.
 You can still do that now, he said. He wanted her to have her dream.
Anna shook her head.
 The money that we had saved up for our venture I put into her funeral. Will you
be coming to the funeral?
 Yes. I wouldn t miss it. He spotted several pictures across the walls. They
weren t in picture frames, and they were printed on paper.  What s this?
 We had a cell phone that took pictures. The library a few blocks away printed
them for a small fee.
 You were always saving money.
 Nothing wrong with that. We loved our little life. We were both happy.
Russ looked at a picture of Anna on her own. In every other photograph Karen
was there with Anna, or on her own. There was a single picture of Anna alone, and she
was sitting on a wall. Her hair was shorter and fell around her body. The sun was setting
behind her, and she looked blissfully happy.
The shot captured so much, just like the woman.
Anna was a mixture of innocence, pleasure, pain, knowledge that was beyond her
years. She had paved a way of life for herself, and her friend.
The woman who was invading his entire world was a strong woman.
 Can I take some of the pictures with me? she asked.
 Yes, you can take all of them.
He watched as she started to take them down from the walls. The way she took
care had a lump forming in his throat. In a week they were going to be putting her friend
to rest, and she wasn t ready. He knew that.
Russ went to the kitchen and checked inside the refrigerator. He wasn t surprised
to see processed cheese and spoiled milk waiting for them. Opening a cupboard, he
found a stash of their noodles.
He d not lived a day to day life for so long.
His billion dollar company guaranteed his luxurious lifestyle. In that moment he
thought about Tina, the club whore at the club. Did she ever live like this?
Knowing Anna lived like this made him so damn angry, and yet when he thought [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]