Page 274 of Assassin

“You did change your face.”

She was close enough to know that if he wanted, he could kill her without much effort. The man always carried knives, and now, he had a gun with a laser scope.

Yeah, the fear was there.

There was no way to forget that this man tried to destroy her.

“Da.”

He moved closer.

“Let me see your eyes, Alina. They were my favorite part of you,” he said, as she took off her sunglasses and stared into his.

In them, he saw defiance.

That was always what he loved most about Alina. She was so hard to break.

At one point, he’d been sorry he’d been able to do that to her. If it had been up to him, he would have loved her to death.

At least, no one would ever have her but him.

“Ah, there is my broken doll.”

She said nothing.

Why?

He’d trained all of them to only speak when asked a question, and that meant staying in role. He’d not trust her if she deviated from her ‘training’.

“It is you, is it not?”

She broke her silence when he tucked the gun away to deal with her.

“It’s me,” she said. “I’m glad to see you, My love,” she began, but didn’t get to say any more.

Why?

Those words triggered his rage, and he was unable to keep it bottled up any longer.

Instead, he grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her into the building. His broken doll would pay for disappearing.

“We’re going to talk, Alina, and I’m going to make sure you know how angry I am.”

Oh, and there was no doubt he was.

And she was about to pay for it.

* * * H U N T E R – C R O F T * * *

Not Far Away

Doing What Spiders Do

Friday Noon

They could have intervened, but Elizabeth said to let Alyona handle it unless it looked like she didn’t have it under control.

This had to be her fight.

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