Page 109 of The Darkness is Calling

This time, her face hardens. My brothers pretend to be busy with their phones, but I see them watching us cautiously from the corners of their eyes.

“You didn’t eat last night,” the plump woman explodes. Her anger almost takes me by surprise, especially since it has never been directed at me before. “You went through hell, and now you ask me for a banana? Are you a monkey, and am I a banana tree? Tell me what you want me to cook! Something warm and substantial, something to put you back on your feet, or I’ll put sleeping pills in your coffee and send you right back to bed!”

I blink only once, but the corners of my mouth slowly rise.

Something in her attitude reminds me of Ekaterina. She loves confronting me and striking me with sharp replies.

“Then an omelet, please. And then a banana.”

“You’ll be the death of me...” she mutters, then immediately gets to work.

That gives me the chance to turn my attention to my phone and call Dima, who answers on the first ring.

“Pakhan.”

“Report. What is she doing?”

“They haven’t left the house so far. The man who infiltrated their laptops confirmed that they canceled all the meetings they had scheduled for today.”

“Perfect. Keep me informed of everything they do.”

“Of course, Pakhan.”

I end the call and turn my attention to the two men at the table.

“Anything new?”

Sasha is the first to speak. “Clean and with flawless skin, ready to work on it. We managed to make one of them scream in rage about an hour ago when we shoved ice down his pants.”

“They still have clothes on?” I ask, lifting one eyebrow.

“I wanted to handle that, but Yar wouldn’t let me.”

“If we stripped them, they would have become even more alert, and neither of them would have had the tendency to relax even a little. The idea with the ice was to play with their minds, wasn’t it?”

“Correct,” I confirm. “To give them the impression that when they think we have calmed down, we are actually destabilizing their inner peace.”

The two of them smile with delight.

Sasha more than Yar, since Yar is as restrained with that gesture as I am.

Or as I used to be, before having Katya beside me, who always had the power to draw that reaction out of me.

A beam of light in my darkness-ruled life.

A calm melody in a sea of cold, furious voices.

I cannot help being devoted to her or deny my desire to have her beside me for the rest of my life.

But for now, I look at the other woman who torments my days when she sets an enormous omelet in front of me, along with a platter full of cheeses and vegetables. On top of that, a plate of pancakes beside maple syrup, chocolate, strawberries, and, of course, a banana.

“Eat as much as you can,” she says in a rush, as if excusing the fact that she has served me far more than I asked for.

I glance at her from beneath my brows. Normally, I would not appreciate someone failing to do what I say, but in her case, I tend to hold back, precisely because she has earned my trust and respect over so many years.

“Thank you, Polina” I say and begin to eat, eager to get to my toys as soon as possible.

Our nest is not a classic one, despite what the word might suggest. In fact, everything happens in the basement of a rather modern building, which also houses an enormous supermarket, meant to give us the perfect cover whenever we want to remove... damaged goods from this place.