RANK

Chapter 20

Six days later... 8:07 am

Nya woke after another restless night and sat up on her bed. She grabs her phone on the nightstand and calls her sister. "Hey, it's Malina, leave-" She ends the call. She hasn't heard from her since she left, and it was stressing her out. She has called every day multiple times a day and it's been going straight to voicemail. She calls again, and again, and again. She was about to give up when, "Hello,"

"Lee! Thank god, you have me so worried. Where are you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine..."

"Where are you staying?"

"I don't want to say, he might be listening. Look, I have to go."

"Wait... so fast? Are you upset me with or something?"

"What do you think, Nya?"

"But...why?"

"I don't know... The more I think about what's been happening over the last few weeks the more..."

"What?"

"Is there something happening between you and Vince?"

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"Then, why are you still living with him?"

"You know, he won't let me leave."

"I think he realized I'm not coming back. Why is he keeping you there?"

"I don't know. I asked him so much I gave up at this point trying to get the answer."

The phone goes silent for seconds before Malina clears her throat. "Maybe I'm overthinking this, I don't know. It sounds crazy when I say it out loud but... my instincts."

"You know I would never do that to you... and he would never break the rules."

"Yeah... I really do have to go now."

"Don't go ghost on me again, okay."

"I won't... talk to you soon..."

"Bye." Nya sets the phone down. It never occurred to her that Malina could be thinking along these lines. She places her hand over her sudden aching heart, pushes the pain deep, buried it far below, and turns on the numbness. A technique she was forced to learn a long time ago.

She gets off the bed and after brushing her teeth goes downstairs, passes by the kitchen, because who was hungry, and goes straight to the study. The door was shut and she was supposed to ring the bell if she wanted to enter, but who cared at this point? She opens the door and walks straight in not looking or acknowledging Vince, who was standing over the desk seeming to look at something.

She goes to the last pile of books she has been working on. She sits on the floor and opened a dictionary. She found the shelf it belonged to and put it in, then it was on to the next. She was putting her third book on it's shelf when her senses came alive as a hot hand grazed her lower back. She gasps and spins around to see the penetrating stare of Alpha Vince.
Just a second ago she had no feeling where now all were swarming in her at the same time. It was like he had a switch or something.

"How did that happen?"

"What happen?"

"That mark on your back."

It came to her. "Oh, at training yesterday."

"How?"

"They asked for volunteers to try out the weapons developed for ranks 3 and 4... so I..."

"Shay?"

"Yeah, but it was my fault. Beta Bent helped me."

"He touched you?"