Letting Off Steam

[Oriena]

“Something like that.” Gus poured for them both and then left them to it. He didn’t need to ask Ori’s poison: the vodka was neat, the way all good Russians drank it, and he left the bottle within reach. She took a long draw, the chill of the glass against her fingers at odds with the burn as the alcohol slipped down her throat. Her thoughts turned to the packet in her pocket: the one Sasha had left in payment. It’d speed the process to something numb, but the memory only twitched a sneer to her lips. Turned out, even after getting knocked senseless by her new friend, she was still fucking angry about that.

After a moment her attention veered to her companion, just the slide of her eyes really; she didn’t move on her stool. Oriena wasn’t in a particularly friendly mood, and Mia looked hard as nails but not particularly fun. “So what’s your deal?”