Page 47 of Darkest Deeds

Why did you destroy me?

Why did you ruin my one chance at being happy?

“Why do you do it? Why do you sell your body and allow other men to have you like that especially after…” There’s already a sick feeling in my stomach telling me I don’t want to hear the answer, but I can’t stop myself. “You’re not theirs to touch.”

“A lot of things changed after you left, Niko.” I tense at her choice of words, and she quickly corrects herself. “I mean after my father sent you away. I may have been young and innocent once, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew what my father was, but after everything happened, I gave up fighting. Hope didn’t exist for me anymore.”

“You couldn’t have been hopeless with your clothes on?”

Again, Ava tenses, still refusing to look at me. “Did you know my mother was a stripper at Seven? That’s how she met my father. He was a monster even back then, but Mom believed he was her dark knight. You know, the one in the fairy tales who whisks the princess away from whatever pile of shit she’s fallen in?” She tilts her chin my way. “Even though marrying into the Bratva ended up killing her, I thought I’d give it shot. Maybe a dark knight might whisk me away too.” Her teeth catch her bottom lip, and she shakes her head. “Or maybe when you’re treated like a damaged toy your whole life, that’s all you think you are.”

Holy shit.

I expected a response like, “I did it as a giant fuck you to my father,” but her soul wrenching confession is almost more than I can process. I want to take her in my arms and soothe the pain away, but I can’t. That’s not who I am anymore, and the parts of me that used to hate her for it are starting to look inward.

And I don’t like it.

“So, what about you?” she asks, quickly changing the subject. “How’d you end up as a contract assassin?”

I shrug again. “Not much to tell. Once I escaped your father’s medieval accommodations, I hauled my ass out of the States as fast as I could. I had no idea what to do. The only life I knew was Bratva and prison, and the only skill I had was aiming a gun. A few odd jobs led me to Moscow where I met a guy who was a mercenary. He brought me in, and an old friend from my past landed us a contract job from a man in New Orleans.”

“Arthur Calthorpe,” she says quietly.

“It was a hit on a Columbian arms dealer, and it went off without a hitch until my associate and I were captured. We only made it out alive because I took every fucking one of those assholes out by hand. When I returned to Moscow, I found out my friend had orchestrated the whole thing as a test. Dagger was already a Cavalieri and wanted to bring me in. I was pissed, but then Arthur called offering me the deal of a lifetime. A spot at his Tabella Della Morte. The chance to be a knight of death. A man who by definition doesn’t even exist. The contract required a signature in blood, and I couldn’t slice a vein fast enough.”

I pull my empty glass to my mouth to stop any more words from coming out of it. What in the hell just happened? I’ve never told that story to anyone. Arthur is a ruthlessly private man, and spilling information could get me killed.

Damn it, she did it again.

“Storytime is over,” I growl, slamming the glass on the nightstand and rolling over. “Go to sleep.”

I flinch when I feel her bound hands on my back. “You promised you’d tell me who put the hit on me.”

“I said, go to sleep.”

“No! Stop keeping secrets. You owe me the truth.”

The force in her voice alone makes me roll back over, but it’s her words that fuel the fire. “I don’t owe you shit.” I almost turn away, when the texts on her phone pop in my head. “However, as far as secrets go, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

She snorts and flops onto her back. “Yeah, so the minute I do, you can kill me.”

“Ava, I’ve told you, if I wanted you dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

I wait for another smartass comment, maybe an attempt to play me again, or at the very least, some petulant display of defiance. Instead, there’s an awkward silence before she draws her knees up against her naked breasts and lets out an unsure breath.

“I’m being blackmailed.”

Well, fuck me, she did it.

“By who?”

Ava drops her forehead against her knees. “Seven was raided. Not a big deal; we’re used to it. But this time it was the FBI. An agent caught me right after…well, he arrested me, all right?”

“He arrested you for prostitution. It happens.” I keep my voice even, trying like hell not to tip my hand.

“Not to me. The cops around here don’t mess with my father, and in turn, they don’t mess with me. This agent kept saying he could save me, that he could get me out of this life, but I just laughed. I’m not stupid, Niko. No one can hide from Sergei Chernov. No matter what they promise, or how careful they think they are, he’ll find me. So I refused.”

“What changed?”

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