Page 78 of Black Ledger

I almost put her on my kill list for it.

But, of course, I didn’t. I wasn’t a monster… or at least that much of a monster.

“You must find all of this terribly overwhelming, don’t you?” Alina Orlova said, her voice a high, bright soprano that was slightly off-key.

She was the type of person who would sing and think she had perfect pitch, tone, and ability… Meanwhile, she sang a little off-key, almost every note.

“I think I’ll be all right,” I said, my British accent thick as I tapped a fingernail against my glass.

“And where are you from?” Alina asked, her lips in a tight line.

“London.”

“How lovely,” she said back, equally as blunt as I had just been. She looked me up and down for a long moment before lacing venom into her words. “Severin has always had such interesting tastes.”

I was pretty sure Alina was now insulting both the current version of me and the previous one. And I found that too amusing. I snorted and tried to cover it up.

Neeve choked on her drink and turned away to pull herself together. She’d been quite useless so far through all these interactions.

“His tastes haven’t changed much,” Neeve whispered to me, and I wanted to hit her.

“Some men just know quality,” I said, scrunching my nose.

My eyes scanned through the crowd again, looking for any respite from this parade of displeasures.

Severin had completely disappeared, leaving me to fend for myself. Was it a test? To see if I could handle being the Pakhan’s wife, where I would be constantly left alone at parties to entertain guests while the men worked?

Well, I would absolutely hate that. Any version of myself would bristle at being left to the “feminine” jobs.

I was a hacker and brilliant. I was at the very least an advisor, and nowadays, I was the boss. I ran an organization, albeit a small one, that hunted down and destroyed evil men.

I wasn’t going to be a wife whose only job was to smile at misogynistic men.

“Ladies, would you mind if I cut in?” Mikhail Volkov stepped up beside us. “I’d love to get to know my future sister-in-law a little better.”

“Oh, of course,” Alina said, linking her arm around Neeve’s and pulling her away from Mikhail and me.

Neeve’s eyebrows shot up as she was pulled away. I shrugged back at her before turning my attention to probably the second-most handsome man in the room.

His half-brother was the first. Unfortunately, I would always think Severin was the most attractive man in any room.

But this man, his brother, was formed from charm. He always had been. If Prince Charming existed in real life, it would be this man. Everything about him was easy, clean, and comfortable. His presence exuded a strange sense of ease and immediately put me off guard.

I’d watched him schmooze the room, but not just the important Russian bosses. No, he also knew every staff member by name and remembered important parts of their lives.

This man cared deeply about his employees and the Bratva.

“You look like you’re contemplating murder,” he said, handing me a refilled glass of exactly what I’d ordered.

I took the whiskey and looked up at him. “I am.”

“I hope not my murder.”

I smiled—a genuine smile for the first time all night. “But we’ve only just met. Maybe I’ll want to murder you on our second meeting.”

“Now, that’s not true. I saw you at the first gathering of Russians and Irish when you got engaged to my brother, which, by the way, was very disappointing.”

I raised a manicured eyebrow. “Oh, and you’d want to marry me?”