Page 268 of Assassin

“No one knows where I am. I went under and I stayed under. I’ve built a life here. Word traveled through the community of Russians here that The Black Butcher was coming. I knew what I had to do.”

His voice was low.

“I need to see you for myself.”

She was honest.

“I’ve had my face done so I could assimilate, but you’ll know my body.”

As soon as she said that, Jax had to leave the room. He walked away, sickened by all of this.

There was no way he could listen to this.

“Do you need my help with your plan?” she asked, when Elizabeth held up a paper that said just that.

Oh, Alyona knew he wouldn’t want her help. She could hear his voice and she knew he was angry. She was the one walking into a trap.

Well, into the trap that would be used to end him.

Once and for all.

His voice was controlled.

“Possibly. I will need to see you first to talk to you and make sure you’re who you say you are. I’ll text you the address. You go in first. I want to make sure I watch and see you before I show up. You’ve gone missing, Alina, and we’ll discuss that.”

She knew they would.

“Da.”

“Come unarmed.”

“Da.”

Then, abruptly, the call came to an end.

When it cut off, she sighed.

“He’s going to be suspicious. I could hear the anger in his voice. This isn’t going to be pretty,” she admitted. “He doesn’t trust me, but Ethan is right. He wants to hurt me more than he wants to be safe.”

They couldn’t hear anything in his voice. He sounded quite tame.

“How do you know?” Maura asked.

She laughed sardonically.

“Because I know him. He’s going to want to see me just to make me pay. He won’t trust me, but he’ll show just so he can hurt me.”

Elizabeth needed to know, so she asked again.

“Can you beat him in a hand-to-hand fight?”

She was honest.

“I don’t know. He’s well trained. He’s in the KGB, and I don’t know what he’s been doing over the last few years. I won’t know until I’m there and we fight. The best part is you have Spiders there. What’s the worst he can do to me?”

Oh, they all knew.

“One of us will walk out alive, and one of us won’t,” she said. “This is where one of the monsters die.”

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