Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Didn’t matter. She was done the moment she stopped being useful.
I stared her down.
“She’s mine. Chase intel like you’ve been told. But realize I’ve claimed Natasha. Lachlan’s out of the way. She just keeps lying to herself about us.”
“You don’t love me even a little?”
Again, my knuckles tapped at her cheek. “No, squirt.”
“But you love her? You don’t know how! What is it you want from her?”
“For her not to leave my side and for her father to cry as he watches.”
She stiffened.
I pulled back, gaze hollow. Smile razor-thin.
“If you do right by me, you’ll breathe longer than Natasha. Then we’ll play this game you instigated, confirm if you can make me fall for you. That’s your aim, right, Corporal Rainita Howard?”
Her gaze dropped, but not before I saw pure hunger.
Yep. Foster care made Rain codependent, while I refused to let abandonment control me.
“Good.” This time, when my knuckles ran feather-soft over Rain’s cheek, I smiled for Natasha. A part of me was drawn to Natasha’s light even when I tried to drown it out because she chose Lach. I shook that thought from my head. “Until I’m done with Natasha, you breathe when I say so. Then we’ll have our time.” If I catch feelings, I suppose.
32
VASSILI
Early morning wind from the San Andreas mountains slapped a sun umbrella across the stone pavers and into the infinity pool. It splashed like a body falling—too loud for morning peace. A maid rushed to fish it out as a text popped up on my phone.
BORYA: She slept over at Lachlan’s. Should I do something? You didn’t respond last night.
A dry, amused chuckle escaped me. As if Cutie Pie were still a girl in pigtails, her shadow dreaded the worst. Suppose that was my fault.
ME: She’s not a child. Tell me if they have an issue.
I pressed send.
“ ‘Kəzn,” Yuri called out as he strode the length of the pool, dark hair mussed from sleep, jaw tight.
My eyes rolled. “Bad news?”
He gave a single nod. “Da. US military database breached. Registered unauthorized access. Surveillance trace pinged nearby too. Marine operations. Triggered an internal alert.”
I raised a brow. “Name?”
“Corporal Rainita Howard. Cyber ops.”
I stared across the Hills while the name hung in the air. The name meant nothing. No red flag. No whispers from my CIA contacts. Not on FSB radar. Not advised by my Interpol friend, who often updated me on the watchlist. It was a ghost name. Unremarkable. That bothered me more than losing my belt years ago. Anatoly had wanted to kill the fighter. I’d wanted to meet him in the cage again. Louis “The Legion” lost my belt to some chump before I could vindicate myself.
“Yuri, you tell Sim?”
My cousin hesitated. “Nyet. Your brat. You call him.”
Smart. “Was she acting alone?”
“Can’t say. Our contact said she’s skilled. The second they identified the breach, the system corrupted. But I’ve been told it was a targeted inquiry. Rainita Howard searched for you. Specifically.”
I narrowed my eyes, squeezed my handgrip strengthening tool, which I’d kept since my days in the octagon. “Howard didn’t target the organization?”
Yuri swallowed hard. “Nyet. Just you.”
Silence coiled around my ribs. That was the problem. The bratva had enemies. But someone just pulled the trigger on surveillance that close to home? To me?
My gaze tracked the edge of my estate again. No security team patrolled the Hills. No rifles glinted under the gray morning. None of that. I prided myself on that.
“Rainita Howard means nothing. She’s a tool.” I sipped tea and set it down with care. “Find the hand.”
I picked up my other cellphone. Ancient. Voice only, no app, no other connections. Limited to family and trusted circles. “Yuri, call Borya. Increase Natasha’s protection. Let it be known she’s safe with our MacKenzie associates.”
Yuri raised an eyebrow. “All of them?”
“Da.” I didn’t blink. “She’s allowed to fall in love. The additional detail is not to engage unless necessary. Borya remains the only visible asset to her.”
Yuri completed a slow nod of understanding. “Da.”
I found the number in my head and dialed Simeon. The phone rang. I muttered, “He better not have done anything stupid again.”
We hadn’t clashed since Moldova. But Sim was Sim. Dangerous. Brilliant. Unpredictable. He acted in absolutes, swathed in ideology, launching cleansing acts of violence.
The call connected, and I spoke in Russian. “I am your left hand …”
“I am your right hand,” Simeon replied without hesitation. The code. The trust. The bond.
“You know a Rainita Howard?”
“Rainita? Howard?” The words floated around. “Nyet.”
“You sure?”
“You doubt me, brat?” Simeon snapped.
I let out a breath. “Just making sure you haven’t pissed off someone who now wants me dead … again.”
He paused. “I’ve been quiet. Focused on family.”
“And Moldova?” I snorted, half-sarcastic.
“Do not start.”
“Then keep it that way. She’s Marine Corps. Cyber. Breached a protected system. Scrubbed it clean after running a targeted inquiry on me. I washed my hands of the bratva as a teenager. Nyet. I never joined. You wanted this. I did not.”