Page 66
Alina, on the other hand, was rotten, so seeing the two women together was a surprise.
“Hello, my name is Polina.” She held out her hand for Keira to shake.
“Nice to meet you.” Unlike her earlier response to Alina, Keira’s voice sounded genuine.
“Isn’t it lovely to see Keira today?” Alina asked in a sugar-laced voice. Too sweet. “I have been dying to get a chance to talk with Severin today. I just love spending time with him.”
She said it so suggestively that even I might have believed we were fucking. A lot.
My hands tensed.
I hadn’t touched another woman since Xeniya… except Keira, and I didn’t appreciate the implication that I was cheating on my fiancée with this airhead.
Polina glared at Alina, then gave Keira a sympathetic look.
Keira, for her part, shrugged and plucked a handful of olives from a passing server’s tray, then took a mimosa from another, seeming to use them as armor against one of the Bratva’s most notorious gossips.
Keira opened her mouth to respond, but Neeve bounced over before she could, her red hair streaming behind her.
“Oh wow, you’ve made so many new friends.” Neeve scrunched her nose playfully.
“Yes, friends,” Keira muttered.
“You know,” Alina began, completely ignoring the Irish mafia princess’s arrival, “you’re nothing like his first love. Do you know about her?”
“Not really.” Keira popped an olive into her mouth.
“Oh, it’s such a tragic story.”
“This is not appropriate,” Polina said under her breath.
“Oh, do tell.” Keira waved off Polina’s concern.
“Well, she died tragically, like, twelve years ago or something, and Severin has never gotten over it.”
Keira stiffened, but her fake smile never faltered.
“I heard he likes to fuck her lookalikes.”
If possible, Keira grew even more rigid.
“Alina.” Polina scolded her and smacked her arm.
“Ouch.” Alina stepped closer to Keira and lowered her voice. “Maybe that’s why he wants to fuck you. You’re just as curvy, just as unremarkable.”
“You are very bold.” Keira cleared her throat, her mouth settling into a flat line as she turned to her cousin. “Neeve, I’m curious. Could you pull someone’s eyeball out without damaging their eyesight?”
“Yes, technically,” Neeve said slowly, her eyebrows rising almost to her hairline.
“But if I wanted to damage their eyesight, would that be easier?”
“Well, of course it would,” Neeve said with the clinical detachment of a doctor.
“Hmm. Interesting.” Keira tilted her head. “Would you be able to walk me through either option?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Great.” Keira fixed Alina with a hard glare. “Flirt with my man again, even look too long in his direction, and I will have Neeve help me pluck out your eyeballs. Okay?”
