Page 20 of Born into Sin

Max looks at him and sighs. “Piano hands? Really?”

“I’m sure your hands are super dextrous, Val” Luka says with a laugh. “And we all know why.”

“Gross,” Svetlana growls, giving them both a disgusted look but still laughing while she does it.

I laugh at my family and hook my arm through Svetlana’s. “We’re going to pass on your manly gaming night.”

“Yeah,” Svetlana says, pulling me back towards the hall. “Besides, we’re both on our periods, so we’re going to just eat chocolate and watch girly movies.”

This time it’s the guys’ turn to groan while we laugh. Val points a finger at his sister. “Just because we’re twins doesn’t mean I need to know every damn thing.”

Luka laughs and grabs another coke from the fridge. “Go watch your movies and take your menstruating asses out of here.”

“You know we don’t menstruate out our asses right?” Svetlana turns to me. “Please tell me they at least know that.”

I’m laughing too hard to answer while Val groans and Luka looks at us like he has no idea what to do with us. Max fights a grin and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms across his broad chest. I swear my cousins get bigger every time I see them. They’re already as tall as our dads, and I’m guessing they’re going to pass them by in another couple of months.

Luka shakes his head with a laugh and changes course, steering us away from the menstruation topic. “We’re leaving after lunch if you want to follow us back.”

“Sure thing, cuz.”

He can’t help but smile at the over-the-top, sweet way Svetlana says it.

His green eyes meet mine. “Don’t let her corrupt you, Nat.”

“Too late,” Svetlana and Val say at the same time before she pulls me out of the room. I can still hear them laughing as we race up the stairs to the last bedroom, the one that’s furthest from everyone else and facing the woods on the left.

As soon as she shuts the door, she turns to face me. “Okay, we’ve got a couple of hours to kill, and then it’s showtime.”

“Showtime for what? Your car is blocked in, and we have three guys and two bodyguards to get past.”

“We don’t need the car, and we’re not going to sneak through the house. My period comment means the guys will be giving us a wide berth, and they’re going to be so caught up in their gaming that it won’t matter anyway. Grigori and Feliks will be staying downstairs like they always do. No one’s going to know we’re not in here watching movies.”

“How the hell are we going to get out?”

When her eyes dart to the window, I’m already shaking my head no before the words fall from my lips. “No way in hell, Sveta!”

“It’s perfectly fine.” Her voice is annoyingly calm. “Remember those rose trellises Uncle Roman put in for Aunt Emily?”

“No,” I quickly say, already thinking of all the bones we could break on the fall down.

“They’re very secure.” She says it like she knows all about landscaping and trellis strength and the amount of weight they can handle at any given time.

“Uh-uh,” I tell her, my eyes wide with disbelief. “Your plan is for us to just shimmy our asses down one of them?”

She completely ignores my tone and instead gives me a big, happy grin. “Exactly, and then we’re going to take a short walk through the woods, and when we come out onto the highway about half a mile from the house, an Uber will be waiting for us.”

“Jesus Christ, we’re going to die tonight, if not from breaking our necks, then from being eaten by a wild animal in the dark woods.”

“We’ll be fine. We’re taking one of the dirt bike trails. Plus, I brought a flashlight.” She says it like the flashlight is the deciding factor in why this plan is foolproof instead of doomed to miserably fail.

“Our dads are going to kill us.”

Her lips lift up in her famous smirk. “Only if they catch us.”

I groan and close my eyes. “Oh, they’re definitely catching us.”

She grabs my hand and the bags that she’d already tossed up here at some point and pulls me towards the bathroom. “I told you I’m bringing a flashlight,” she mutters before shutting me in. “Take a shower,” she hollers through the door. “Get yourself all cleaned up for you know who!”

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