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“Why? Why would you care about what happens to me?” Katya crossed her arms protectively over her chest and then winced when her fingers touched blood from the shot on her arm.
My hand jerked out to cover it, then retreated, dropping lamely at my side.
“Because we’re family,” Andrei said calmly. “And blood protects blood.”
“Family?” She snorted. “My family abandoned my brother and me when we were kids; the news called us the dumpster twins.”
Andrei flinched. “I was too young to save you then. Too late to save Pace today. But I will save you now.”
“Wait,” Katya took a step toward him, releasing my arm. I hated that I wanted to pull her back against my chest, to tell her this was dangerous—he was dangerous, but I knew the truth.
I was the most dangerous man in that room.
The most dangerous person to her.
So I froze and waited.
Again, not my business, not my family.
They were not my brothers.
“I’m your brother.” Andrei’s delivery was complete shit—he didn’t smile, didn’t even move, just said it in that robotic voice of his, the same voice he uses when he kills. Perfect, she was going to run out of this house screaming, and I didn’t want to have to chase her again.
Rescue her again.
Touch her again.
Katya gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as tears slid down her cheeks.
If I had a heart, it would have beat a little harder in that moment, but all I felt was annoyed that she had tears for him and angry words for me.
My anger was soon replaced by amusement when she slapped him across the face and said. “You abandoned us!”
Oh, shit.
This just became very interesting. The last time someone slapped him, they ended up in a field without two fingers and needing an eye patch. It was a story passed down for years.
“You.” Andrei pointed at me. “Smile any bigger, and I’m going to pull out your two front teeth while you hold a mirror and watch.” He reached for Katya, but she jerked away from him and went straight into my arms.
I’d be lying if I said my smile wasn’t bordering on indecent.
I didn’t think delivering a package has ever been more satisfying.
“I didn’t abandon you,” Andrei said in a soft voice. “Our father took you and Pace; I never saw you again.”
“We had a mother. Where was she?” Katya asked.
“Dead.” Andrei cleared his throat. “I was a child when she asked me to kill her; I went to hug her, there was a knife. It’s in the past.”
Alice reached for him and grabbed his hand, squeezing it, probably to comfort him, quell his demons, ones that I’m sure make an appearance daily, just like mine.
Katya used a free hand to wipe her tears. “And now? What? You just hire mercenaries or something?”
The air was so thick with silence and tension that I wanted to leave, but she was still hanging on to me, and I was technically not a mercenary… I was an assassin for the mafia and heir to the Sinacore throne until the dipshit in front of me took it.
Mercenary felt so very tame compared to what I lived, what I did, what I endured in order to take the very place Andrei had. I suffered for it. I nearly died for it. And now, I would be forced to do the same for him. Always a servant. Never a King.
“Mercenary.” Andrei rolled his eyes. “He’s not a mercenary.”
