Page 73 of Pretty Little Assassin

It’s from my stepfather.

Hello, Asset 13. My girl.

It’s a Treasure Hunt!

In two hours, a message will go out to all operatives to kill every omega on your little protection list. The operatives are on their way now, awaiting the order.

UNLESS YOU COME HOME, ALONE.

Happy post-Valentine’s Day.

The phone drops from my hand. I start hyperventilating. I can’t hear Donnie. I barely register Viktor coming over, his whole body looming and blocking everything out as he bends down and then reads the message. He’s talking to Donnie, but everything is far away.

My omegas. Every vulnerable and abused omega I rescued.

Viktor puts his hand on my shoulder, and the buzzing in my ears recedes a little.

I gulp some air.

Viktor puts two large hands on my shoulders. The weight is comforting, solid. But I don’t want any comfort. “He has the list,” he says.

“Yeah, I heard. Do you have some realism for me, or are you just going to continue pointing out the obvious?” I pace. I need a plan. I need a plan quickly. My omegas, my life’s work. Everything is at risk from my fuck of a stepfather.

Viktor spins me around midstride, and I am suddenly standing against the wall with my hands pinned above my head. His black gaze is serious. He must think I’ll deck him when I hear what he is about to say.

“Look at me,” he says. His grip is iron around my wrists as he pins me to the wall. “We are going to make him pay. And when we do, I need you thinking clearly. Not drowning.”

I sag, and he lets my hands drop.

“He’s spreading operatives across the entire city, Viktor. Forty-three names are on that list. Forty-three omegas, and I can’t be in forty-three places at once.”

“No,” he agrees. “You can’t.”

“Viktor,” I whisper. “I miscalculated. I stopped counting. I wasn’t fast enough⁠—”

He cuts me off with a kiss.

“Little Assassin. Be smarter. Be faster this time. Use it,” he says against my mouth. “How do you think I became the Wraith after what happened to my sister?”

He lifts his tattooed wrist to my lips.

I kiss it.

I see warmth and understanding in his black eyes.

“There’s the second-best assassin in town, back to kick ass,” he says.

I punch him in the stomach.

His abs are so tight he doesn’t flinch.

“You must be talking about yourself,” I say.

“I must be.”

“Donnie,” I say. “Get Zero.”

“Already on it.”