Page 9 of Then We Shatter

I’d seen first-hand how her half-brother, Ilya treated women when we’d taken him down at the secret base he’d built in the Nevada desert. Oleg and the other deserters were part of his human-trafficking network. If he touched Katarina…

My trigger finger twitches as I aim at the fucker’s head, but I hold fire as Ash starts talking.

“I’m surprised you didn’t learn from Ilya’s mistakes,” he says. “You really shouldn’t mess with us. And at least Ilya was a worthy opponent. You’re just…” He looks Oleg up and down. “An idiot.”

As I take a step closer, Katarina nudges ahead of me. I give her a ‘get out of my way,” look and she glowers in response. My eyes widen in rebuff, but she points to her chest. She wants the kill? Sweat beads my brow. Whatever he did to her makes me all the more determined to shoot him myself. I shake my head and point to my chest. I got here first. She glowers some more.

“Ilya was the idiot,” Oleg is saying. “He let himself be gutted by a woman for fuck’s sake.”

I stop gesturing and tilt my head towards Oleg. It’s like he’s just made his last request. I shrug. Katarina wins.

Her high heels make no sound on the carpet tiles, but I’m surprised Oleg can’t hear the sway of Katarina’s undulating hips as she comes up behind him. I’m distracted by her arse again and almost miss how she withdraws a knife, and in one swift movement, presses it against his neck. He stills immediately, but a thin line of blood is already trickling down Katarina’s blade. He swallows a gasp as I appear in his peripheral vision.

Katarina leans over his shoulder. “Ilya wasn’t gutted,” she whispers in his ear. “I have it on good authority that Quinn sliced his wrist before her lover put a bullet in his head.” Quinn is Reid Griffin’s woman and I wish I’d been in the room to see the couple in action. That’s true love.

“Kotenok…” Oleg gasps in Russian while keeping a tight hold of a trembling Barrett. I’d almost forgotten about Oleg’s redundant human shield.

Katerina’s blade presses deeper and the trickle of blood becomes a stream. “I’m not your kitten.”

She emphasizes the word. Is that what he called her when…?

“But I’ve been waiting for you to join me,” Oleg insists. “We can have so much fun together.”

“Oh, Oleg, the only place I’ll be joining you is in hell,” she purrs. “Keep a seat warm for me.”

“Kata–”

Katarina severs Oleg’s vocal cords as well as an artery, and blood spurts over Barrett before he can stumble out of the way. Oleg drops and when his head hits the carpet, I shoot him in the back of the skull. Pleased with my reenactment of Ilya’s death, I turn to wink at Katarina. My romantic gesture earns me a scowl.

Leaving Ash to deal with family matters, I open up comms to check in with my brothers. What’s left of Oleg’s cohort are either attempting to surrender or fleeing. They’ll succeed at neither. They don’t deserve our mercy.

It’s only after I’ve checked over the dead and wounded that I go in search of Katarina. Search is the wrong word. I’ve been aware of her every move. She disappeared into one of the bedrooms while the mission was winding down, and she hasn’t come back out.

Chapter 4

Killian

The bedroom door opens with a gentle push, and as I step inside, the splintered remains of the lock crunch underfoot. I wedge a chair against the door to keep it closed, then test it to make sure no one can enter. The shredded handle rattles, but holds.

My arrival isn’t quiet, but Katarina doesn’t react. She stands in darkness with her back to me, staring out of a window that brings in light from the fires marking our assault on the compound. This place will all be ash by morning.

Talking to Vasili’s niece on her own is an opportunity too good to miss. I’m a good talker. Listening not so much, but it’s in my family’s interests to know what’s brewing between the Barkovs and the Moncriefs. Ash might tell me when things have calmed down, but then again, he might not. He and I share business interests, but we’re not partners. He’s not obliged to tell me everything and vice versa.

Catching Katarina on her own is just a fact-finding mission. That’s why I’ve barricaded us in. That’s why I take out my earpiece. That’s… OK, that’s a load of bollocks. After the adrenaline rush of the raid, I want to celebrate being alive, and a nice chat isn’t going to cut it. Malachy knows me too fucking well. I want to do exactly what he told me not to. I’m getting hard just staring at Katarina’s arse.

“This was my room,” she says without turning around.

I like that she knows it’s me. What I don’t like is the hollowness in her voice.

“I spent six months here when I was eighteen. My uncle wanted us to absorb some American culture and expand our skill sets.”

“Us?”

“Me and my sestras. My sisters,” she explains. “We were bound by circumstance rather than blood, and Oleg was one of our instructors.”

“Did he touch you?”

“No, not me,” she replies, but before I can relax, she adds, “I only had to satisfy the camp commander.”