Page 104 of Assassin: Part 1

Lane turns and locks the door then moves to the staff’s entrance. No one is stupid enough to be there, but I won’t take any chances. She locks that door as well and pulls something out of her pocket. It’s out for a flash of a second before it’s gone.

“Son of a bitch, she jammed all our cameras.” Oleg gapes, looking up from his phone. “It’s like it’s frozen in time. What the fuck is that?” He stares at her, looking like a kid in a candy story, eyes wide.

Lane ignores him, but I make a mental note to find out how the hell she did that. Any jammers we’ve built or encountered don’t do that.

Oleg switches to Spanish. “Ilya, I don’t care what sexual tricks you need to do, but you need to convince her to give me one of those. Fuck, I’ll even suck your dick if I have to.”

I roll my eyes, and they say I’m an idiot.

Lane snickers and replies in perfect Spanish. “I didn’t know you swung that way, but interesting to know.”

“I don’t, but I will if I have to,” Oleg replies back in English. Zakhar slaps him upside the head and rolls his eyes. Mila looks like she’s not sure if she’s ready to hurl or laugh. Thank fuck we put her in French, or Zakhar might actually kill me.

“We’ll discuss it, blowjob optional,” Lane says with a grin before looking at Zakhar and me, and the grin drops instantly.

Why do I feel like we’re about to get scolded?

“And you two, we need to work on how you speak to each other in front of your staff. You’ve successfully let the entire place know that you are no longer a united front. Over a woman. Are you stupid? I might not know shit about how these things run, but I know that is a fucking dangerous divide.” She looks at Zakhar. “And you, you don’t have to like me, but questioning your brother that way is fucking suicide. You do that shit behind closed doors.”

Zakhar’s jaw clenches, and I can practically hear his teeth grinding.

Mila snickers, sits back in her chair, and grins, enjoying the show.

“You’re not out of this either, Mila,” Lane adds, pinning her with a cool stare when the teenager’s eyes widen. “You’re one lucky kid, and despite what you think, the men at this table love you and want you happy. They are not manipulating you, and you will show them respect. Because at some point in your life, you will not have them, and you will be wishing to have them back.”

Mila gapes at her. Zakhar looks like he’s not sure if he should be angry or pleased at that statement.

Lane’s eyes find Oleg. “So far, you haven’t pissed me off, other than you have lazy men you haven’t corrected yet. I’ll send you the list I’ve noticed. Fix it.”

Oleg’s eyes harden and his jaw clenches.

Her gaze moves back to me, unbending. “Your brother is allowed to feel about me however the hell he wants. Do you really expect him, or anyone else, to just accept me willingly?”

“He will if he wishes to remain here. You’re my choice. It’s not up for discussion.”

Her eyes soften the smallest fraction, but her voice doesn’t. “You’re not going to kick out your brother any more than you’ll kick out your niece. If you were in his position and he decided to marry a woman you didn’t trust, you’d be saying the exact same thing.” She looks at Zakhar, ignoring my attempt to argue that would never happen.

I’m the damn Pakhan, for fuck’s sake. Not that it seems to matter right now.

“You want to be pissed at me, fine, I don’t blame you. You want to call me every name you can think of, do it. I’ve heard it and worse. If you’re looking for an apology from me for everything I’ve done, you won’t get it. I don’t regret a single damn thing I’ve done and will probably do in the future. You matter to Ilya and Mila, so that means you get that from me. Everything else, we’ll sort out soon enough. Or we don’t, and we hate each other for the rest of time. That’s up to you.”

“I take it that you mean to stick around then?” Zakhar asks, the animosity lessening.

I hope he’s starting to see what I do. Damn, she’s going to make an excellent Pakhansha.

Damn right she’s going to be sticking around. Like hell am I going to let her walk away again.

44

LANE

Am I going to stay? Possibly, but that mostly depends on Ilya. He and I still have a lot to sort out, and in the end, he could decide I’m not worth it.

His loss, really, because I’m fucking awesome.

“Time will tell,” I say with a shrug, but Ilya’s eyes narrow. “If your brother hadn’t interrupted me, I’d have been here next week anyway.” I smirk. “You’re going to pay for that, of course, pet, but we’ll sort that out later when young eyes and ears aren’t around.”

Mila groans. “Gross, seriously, you guys need to stop that. And don’t look at him like that. We had two teachers that did that shit at school all the time, and our entire class caught them fucking on her desk because they lost track of time. And I’m telling you right now, if I see my uncle’s naked ass anywhere, I’m hurling on the spot. And you’re going to be paying out the nose for therapy bills.”