Page 6 of Bratva King

The explanation rolled effortlessly off her tongue. Ever since she was a child, she’d taught herself to lie.

"You expect me to believe Alexei Volkov managed to escape an efficient assassin like you?”

"He anticipated the shot,” she said.

"You had every advantage,” he reminded her.

Natalia clenched her jaw, knowing he was right. She had the elevation, the distance to make her shot. "I know,” was all she said.

His patience evaporated. "What happened?"

She stared at the cracked windowpane. "He moved."

"You missed,” he said.

"Yes."

"You—" The word dripped with disbelief. "You never miss."

Not intentionally. The thought remained locked safely inside her head. "I'm human."

"I didn't hire human." His voice hardened further. "I hired perfection."

Natalia accepted the criticism without protest. He wasn't wrong. Her reputation had been built over years. She took out her targets in one shot, made no mistakes, and didn’t leave any witnesses. Clients paid extraordinary amounts because failure simply wasn't part of her vocabulary, until today that was.

"This," her client continued, "is unacceptable and unprofessional.”

“I’m aware,” she said.

"I have already paid half,” he reminded her.

"You'll get your money's worth."

A humorless chuckle. "Will I?"

Natalia closed her eyes briefly. "I had a bad day."

"A bad day,” he said dryly. "You expect me to trust my business to someone having a bad day?"

"No." The admission surprised even her. "I expect you to give me another opportunity, as I’ve worked for your family before and never failed once.” She continued before he could interrupt. "It won't happen again."

The words felt hollow because, privately, she wasn't sure she believed them. Could she really raise a rifle again and place Alexei's face inside her scope?

Could she squeeze the trigger knowing exactly who he was, knowing what he'd once done for her? She didn't know, and that uncertainty frightened her more than any gunfight ever had.

The man on the other end exhaled slowly. "I’m considering hiring someone else."

The words struck harder than she expected. It wasn’t because she'd lose the contract, as Natalia had lost contracts before. She didn’t even care that her reputation would suffer, because she could recover from that.

Something else twisted painfully inside her chest.

Another assassin wouldn’t hesitate, and he or she would place a bullet neatly between Alexei Volkov's eyes without losing a single night's sleep. Natalia swallowed, unsure why the thought bothered her so much.

"I understand,” she finally said.

"You do?"

"Yes." Her voice remained perfectly steady. "If you decide to give me another chance, call me."