Page 45 of Sinful Blaze

“He can go kindly fuck his own ass with his precious guns. Loaded and with the safety off, preferably.”

That makes me smirk. I should kick Vlaski’s ass for even suggesting he’s good enough to touch my sister, but Sofi would take it as an insult. She’s plenty capable of handling her own shit—especially when it comes to men overstepping their bounds.

“I should tell the senator that,” I muse.

Sofi shifts her sharp gaze to me and softens. “Ah. I wondered what crawled up your ass and died. Meeting didn’t go so well?”

“It went as expected, but not as I wanted. Brennan’s bitching out on us.”

“The deal’s not much different from before.”

“Exactly. Which is what pisses me off.”

She takes a moment to consider our options. “Well, if it helps, I do have some potential good news that might light a small fire under his ass.”

“Shoot.”

“Remember that blood test I had my sources slip in during the beginning of the school year?” Sofi pulls her phone out and flicks through the photos until she finds what she wants to show me. “I was right. It’s Brennan’s kid.”

My nose curls with disgust. It’s bad enough the man sleeps around behind his wife’s back with escorts and interns. But to have a child by one of them?

“Does he know?”

“If he does, he sure as hell doesn’t care. There’s been no contact between them since his last appointment with her.”

I resist rolling my eyes. People like Brennan are the real scum of society. No sense of honor, loyalty, or dignity for themselves or the people they swore to love and protect.

“If he’s being that difficult,” Sofi continues, “it might be worth giving him a little ‘congratulations’ nudge. He knows as well as we do how much that’ll make his wife go nuclear.”

“It would. But I don’t know if we should go that nuclear, yet.” I grimace as I weigh my options. I hate treating people like him with such care. He sure as shit doesn’t deserve it. But he’s a government official and the last thing any of us need is for him to suddenly grow a backbone and turn the tables on us. “Keep eyes on the kid, just in case. We’ll hold this in our back pocket for an emergency.”

“Done. Speaking of kids…” A grin suddenly spreads across her face and my grimace deepens. “… how’s Daphne?”

“She hasn’t returned any of my flowers, or trashed them, so that’s something.”

“Have you tried actually talking to her? You know, in person?” She side-eyes me. “Like a normal human being?”

I roll my eyes. “Acting like a ‘normal’ human being is what got us in this mess to begin with.” I open my mouth to say something more, but my phone vibrates in my pocket and saves me from having the obligatory heart-to-heart I’d rather avoid.

“Chekhov.”

“It’s done. She’s moved in as much as can be and will be putting up the rest after work.”

“Perfect. Make sure the codes to her old building are changed before she gets there. Let me know if there’s any trouble.” I hang up on Daphne’s super and try to avoid the scrutinizing gaze of my now very interested sister.

“Care to share with the class?” she purrs.

Not really. “I took your advice. I bought Daphne’s building?—”

“When did I say that?!”

“When you said to bring her to me. To act like a pakhan and make shit happen.”

Sofi stares at me like I’ve just grown three new heads, then bursts into laughter. “Good luck with that, stalker. She is gonna love it when she finds out.”

“Maybe she won’t find out,” I mutter more to myself.

“Right. Maybe she’s blind and deaf and has no sense of smell. There’s literally no way she’ll ever figure out you’re behind her relocating to… Wait, where exactly did you move her?”

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