AnnaThe sleeping bag at Margaretha’s stinks of weed like the rest of the place. I know they say it’s nature’s herb and all that, but it’s always smelled like crap to me. It’s only ever made me sick and giggly. I don’t really do giggly, so I’m better off without the shitty stuff.Margaretha says it will chill me fucking out, but I do chilled even less than I do giggly. He stays up late with the TV on loud. The room is full of the stench, and when I hunker down under my grotty covers that’s when I come to realise everything smells of it here.I probably smell like it here.He has a couple of cats that he doesn’t let out. Their litter tray stinks even worse than the weed. Some random ex-girlfriend left them here, he told me once. He hardly feeds them, so I share my ham sandwich with them, loving the way they purr as they settle down under the covers with me.Maybe I can take them on the road with me, but they’ll probably run away.I wouldn’t blame them.I’d run away from here too if I d
KennedyThree days and three long nights.I’ve been calling every agency I can think of through my lunch breaks and driving around the streets looking for her every night, despite knowing full well that she’s probably long gone. I wonder how she celebrated becoming an official adult. I wonder if she celebrated at all.I found myself at Rosie and Bill’s front door last night, just to check in person that they hadn’t heard anything. Their eyes said it all. They told me she’s a lost cause and it’s sad I haven’t accepted that yet. But I haven’t.I can’t.We’ve never had Anna Well’s mobile number on her case file, simply because she refused to give it to anyone, me included. It was Rosie’s parting gift to me, followed up with the assurance that there’s no way the madam will answer, but it still felt like I’d been handed the Holy Grail as I left their doorstep and headed back to my car. I pulled over before I was even back in Lydney, my heart thumping as I keyed her number into my mobile.R
AnnaKennedy puts the car heater on and it’s warmth feels amazing on my cold feet. I want to tell him thanks, but the words won’t come. I want to reach out and touch his hand, but I’m scared he’ll pull away.So I sit still, staring straight ahead as he drives us fuck knows where.He’s nervous and it’s obvious. His fingers keep tapping the steering wheel as we head back to Lydney. It’s weird to be in a car again, travelling roads in a flash that would’ve taken me hours on foot. I’m guessing he really must be taking me back to his, no matter what Pam might have to say about it, but he turns right when he should turn left onto his road and Annas on down the High Street.“Where we going?”“A friend’s.”I stiffen in my seat, and even that stupid small movement sets my ankle off hurting worse. “What kind of friend?”He glances in my direction and I feel a weird flutter in my belly. “You met him briefly. The guy in the suit from Drury’s.”“The posh guy? Can’t see him giving me a warm welcome
KennedyAnna devours her soup like a starving person. She dips the bread right into the bowl and I watch with fascination as she dips her fingers right in after it. She cleans the bowl, the spoon squeaking against ceramic as she scrapes up every last drop.I could watch her forever, and it surprises me, because I don’t remember ever feeling like this about Molly – not even back in the early days when things were new.Even with tangles in her hair and an obvious layer of grime on her skin, Anna Josephine is a beautiful creature.I’ve seen plenty of teenagers grow into attractive young women and never considered any of them as anything other than wards in my care, but this girl is different. Everything about her is different.She’s unusually quiet as she places the empty bowl at her side, eyes fluttering as she struggles to stay awake. She shouldn’t be here, and yet having her here feels ridiculously good. Maybe Riven is right and this is a midlife crisis. Maybe I’m just a stupid old id
KennedyI’m in the office early, attempting fruitlessly to bury myself in paperwork to numb the guilt I feel at wanting a girl less than half my age.I know I can’t act on it. I know both my professionalism and my sense of moral judgement won’t go down without one hell of a fight, no matter what my dick has to say about it.None of my colleagues have even arrived for the day when I receive the latest WTF message from Riven. I type out a response and delete it three times straight. What can I possibly say to him?Found Anna. She’s in your house with a bloody lip and a swollen ankle. Hope you don’t mind?He’d be on a plane home before the morning was out.I send him a simple everything’s fine and curse myself for it. I’ve got less than a week to find Anna a more permanent place to stay, and I’m at a brick wall with all the agencies without her cooperation.Riven’s place is the only viable option for now, although the thought of Anna trampling muddy boots all over his living room carpet
AnnaI don’t know why I’m being like this. I don’t know why I’m pushing him away as soon as he’s walked through the fucking door, but bitchy Anna is running the show and I can’t stop myself talking shit at him.I feel a weird satisfaction in the way he looks so confused. Hurt. He looks hurt, and that’s satisfying too.I don’t know why I want him to think I’m a lazy useless bitch. I only put the TV on when I saw his car pull into the street and I don’t even watch this shitty show. I don’t know why I used a different plate for every sandwich and left them piled up around me for maximum mess. I don’t know why I’m being such a terrible cow to a man who’s only ever tried to help me.Because he doesn’t want me.Because he doesn’t love me.Because he’ll never love me.The urge to give him the finger and tell him to fuck off out of my life is strong. I feel it twisting in my belly, the urge to make him leave me and get this over with.I could scream in his face that he’s a useless prick who p
RivenI thought I’d be able to breathe easy when I finally received a reply from the silent sonofabitch back home. I let out a sigh of fucking relief as his name flashed up, until I saw the ridiculous message.Everything’s fine.Just those two measly words after days of nothing.Like fuck everything’s fine. It’s the most bullshit excuse for a text message I think I’ve ever had from him. I’d laugh at how ridiculous it was if I wasn’t already worried sick about the state of his affairs in my absence.I’ve been trying to ignore it – trying to blank out the prospect of that sappy idiot losing his mind over some pretty piece of trouble while I’m in a different time zone.It’s only when I realise I haven’t registered a damn word in my latest conference session that I call up my calendar and check what events I’d be missing if I left for home early. I curse under my breath, because fucking dammit, there’s at least three presentations I’ve marked on my must see list over the next few days. Bu
AnnaKennedy didn’t come back last night. I thought maybe he’d call or text, but he didn’t. I sat by the landline with his business card in my hand, flipping it over and over and wishing my stupid dumb mouth would open up enough to tell him I’m sorry. But it wouldn’t.I hate TV, so the minute Kennedy left I turned it right back off again. I don’t get why people like the stupid thing so much. Almost every house I’ve ever set foot in has a stupid screen blaring somewhere. I’ve spent loads of time watching people stare at moving pictures on a box like big dumb shits, and I just don’t get it.When you’ve been in foster care as much as I have, you come to know it’s an easy option to palm off every kid that ever wants attention. Why don’t you just behave and watch some TV? Why don’t you sit down in front of the TV and be quiet? Why don’t you just watch the kids channel like every other kid we’ve ever taken care of?Because TV is a fucking life-stealer, you dumbfucks. TV is a fucking sedativ
DANEFuck! It had taken longer than I had anticipated dealing with Eric, that I’d lost sight of my goal—to get to Tel’annas. By the time I’d knocked him out and left him for the Feds to deal with, she had been loaded into the back of an ambulance and was being rushed to a hospital. Dread started to pool within my gut thinking the worst as I scanned the chaos around me, looking for the one person responsible for the shit storm we were currently facing.“Did anyone see where Blaze went?” I yelled down the comms, hoping that at least someone in my team had been keeping an eye on him. Maybe it had been the guilt that had stopped me from going straight for her, I couldn’t tell. “We need to find out which hospital they are taking her to, I want feet on the ground there when she arrives, we can’t leave her unprotected.”All day I had been quietly trying to convince myself that everything would be okay after this, we’d be able to go back to what we were, but somewhere deep inside I knew that
TEL’ANNASPain radiated from my shoulder, I knew going into tonight that Blaze had changed the plan, he assured me he’d told the others of the change and after much apprehension I’d agreed to it. But fuck me, even though it was a blank I’d been shot with it fucking hurt like a bitch and I hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.Anarchy had descended over the fight ring. It was enough of a distraction that no one noticed Alexander Ducane had made his way over one of the exits. Playing dead and stuck in this tiny cage, there was nothing I could do.Everyone was out to save themselves, they were running for the exits as the guards and security tried to round them all up. Some were trying to fight their way out, while others were resigned to the fact they’d been caught and put up little resistance.Towards the middle of the ring I could see Dane and Eric going at one another. The look on Dane’s face fucking scared the shit out of me. Max Ducane had disappeared into the chaos and the othe
DANEI’d let my anger get the best of me last night. I saw the hurt briefly flash in Tel’annas’s eyes when I had the club whore grinding all over me. It gave me a small amount of satisfaction knowing that it had affected her, just as much as having to watch the little show she and Blaze put on affected me. The only difference was while mine was out of spite, I had trouble making out whether her little act was done in order to keep up the charade or if there was something little more starting between the two of them.“You’re just lucky you didn’t do anything you couldn’t come back from Dane,” Madden had been giving me shit all morning over the night before, and it was starting to really piss me off. “You didn’t hear the hurt in her voice as she watched man, it fucking killed her.”“Okay I bloody get it Madden, I fucked up,” I snapped at him, I’d had enough at this stage, and I didn’t need this shit right now, not when we were about to head into the final stages of the plan. “Can you j
TEL’ANNASWe’d been here for an hour and already I was ready to get out of here, unfortunately Alexander had other plans. The asshole had spent the last thirty minutes talking to some of his other backers and from the little I could make out, something had them scared. More than a few wanted to pull out, stating they wanted nothing to do with whatever revenge plan he had cooked up.Hearing that, I could only surmise that either my family or Dane had figured out the other parties involved and had applied some pressure. It gave me some hope that all was not lost and a small amount of satisfaction that Eric was full of shit—my family did care. I still hadn’t been able to make contact with Dane, and Blaze had been busy playing his part, schmoozing the others that shared the VIP balcony, always making sure I was within his reach.Security had been beefed up tonight as well, many of whom I didn’t recognise, although that wasn’t hard given I’d barely been allowed to leave the room I’d been
DANEI should have guessed this little party would be held at the Dolls House. I mean why hold it in a classy establishment when you could invite the scourge of society to a place and ply them with alcohol while throwing pussy at them.“No one is to drink,” I turned to my guys, even as the words left my mouth I had doubts about whether I’d be able to stick to the order. I wanted them to be alert at all times tonight, I had no idea what we were walking into. We’d seen the floor plans for this shit hole, and had been inside once or twice since we’d arrived in Claymore but we were not as familiar with it as I'd have liked. “I want eyes on all our targets, if an opportunity should arise, we take who we can.”“Dane, Blaze said not to cause any trouble,” Madden reminded me of the conversation we’d had. And yeah of course I know I was asked not to cause waves, but it won’t stop me if the opportunity comes my way.“Don’t care,” I said as we made our way to the entrance of the club. I had mor
TEL’ANNASMy nerves were frayed, ever since the night of the fucking live stream, even the slightest movements made me jump. Blaze tried everything he could to reassure me there’d be no repeats of that fucking shitshow, I just had trouble believing him. I’d tried numerous times to reach out to Dane, yet Madden always answered and kept saying it wasn’t a good time, then would go on to ask what had happened.No matter how many times he asked, I couldn’t find it in myself to discuss, hell even I was having trouble coming to terms with it. Dane had told me to do what I needed to, and I had to a certain point. I had no idea how far I’d have to go, and when I realized the gravity of it all, it was too late by then. The room was full of people, guards had guns, I had just retreated into myself and tried to block it out.Thankfully Blaze had left me since, having sensed that I was not in the mood to talk to him, at this stage I’d convinced myself I had been stupid to blindly follow along. Ra
DANE“What the fuck happened the other night?” I could hear Madden talking on the phone. The last three days I’d done nothing but train. It was all I could do to keep the images of my Princess on her knees out of my head. “He’s been raging ever since the damn live feed.”It took a full day before I’d been ready to talk to anyone after the crap show. Madden and Ax had really stepped up and taken charge. They’d had to sedate me in order to get me to calm down and in that time they’d found out a whole fuck load of information that we’d been able to use.Jonah had been able to identify almost eighty percent of the other contestants and all of the other partners that Alexander Ducane had gathered on that night. While I’d have liked to have had some say in the planning that followed, Madden had really stepped up as my VP. Liaising with Stryker to have their resources work on taking out the financial backers.I wasn’t quite sure exactly what they had told the Lennox’s about that night but f
TEL’ANNASMy skin crawled as the guards led me back to the room I shared with Blaze. The events of the night were on constant loop inside my head, everything on display for everyone to see. Gripping my robe tightly around my body, I tried to assure myself I’d get through this. I did what I had to do to survive. When I closed my eyes all I could see were the faces of the men who’d jerked off while I was strapped to the table. I heard their moans as they reached their release and smeared it over me as if they were laying claim.When I’d entered the room the first thing I did was run to the waste bin, everything inside me came up. Angry tears ran down my face as I stepped into the bathroom. Making sure the door was locked, I’d trusted Blaze before and that had landed me here. I felt dirty and ashamed. I had no doubt that Dane and some of the others were privy to the deprivation I’d experienced tonight.I rushed to the toilet again, the mere thought that Dane had witnessed tonight's even
DANEMadden, Ax and I had gathered in my room, laptop ready for the Contenders Preview. About an hour ago we’d all received an email from the organizers, with a link to an invitation for a special preview of what we could look forward to. My stomach had been in knots ever since.“You ready for this?” Madden asked. It was a loaded question if I ever heard one. Was I ready? Fuck no, there was no preparing for what was about to unfold. I just shook my head and let out a loaded sigh.“Let's just get this over with,” I answered. Checking my phone one last time, still no answer from Blaze. That didn’t sit well with me, once we’d read the initial email, I’d reached out in order to find out more about the event, but there had been no reply which didn’t help with the angsty feelings I had.Both men just looked at me, a silent message passed between them before Ax clicked on the link. I was thankful that I’d given Jonah one of the links for tonight, because it became evident rather quickly tha