Page 75 of Trapping His Assassin

I stood and watched Roman smile. It wasn’t something he did often. It was like I could read his mind, and he was wondering what in the world his nephew and niece were up to now? I could understand that; kids were always doing something crazy.

“Erm, yeah. Anyway, I wanted to inform you, in case Natasha said something when she came home,” Tiffany said.

Sloane’s black stiletto heels clicked against the ground as she paced back and forth on the tarmac. Her sharp tone and clenched fists showed her frustration as she demanded an explanation.

The hired security guards stood in silence, their eyes shifting between Sloane and the men they were protecting. As the call dragged on, Sloane’s patience continued to wear thin, evident in the deepening crease between her brows and the tapping of her foot.

“Well, Rurik wanted to do science experiments in the garden, and Natasha went with him.” She paused.

“Okay, sounds normal enough,” Sloane elongated the first word in aggravation.

“Right, so, according to Rurik, they kidnapped a squirrel using a poison dart–”

“What the fuck?” Sloane interrupted.

“Yeah, and then they dissected it, removed its organs, and sewed it back up after stuffing it with leaves and dirt,” Tiffany said it all in one breath, so the words ran together.

“THEY DID WHAT?” Sloane shouted.

I didn’t see what the big deal was. I’d cut open my first squirrel at five. My stitches weren’t shit, but I was proud of my first solo kill. It was one of the smoothest ones I’d ever had. Humans were much harder to kill.

“Don’t freak out,chiquita.At least Natasha learned about anatomy.” She giggled again.

Sloane frowned at the phone. “This is your fault.”

“What?” Tiffany gasped in shock.

“If your boy wasn’t so much like his father, he wouldn’t teach my angel this kind of stuff. You know I want to keep her as far away from this lifestyle as I can.”

Tiffany sighed as if this was an argument they’d had numerous times. “I know, but you can’t shield her forever.”

“My dad did it for me!” Sloane shouted, smacking her chest with her hand.

“And how did that work out for you?” Tiffany deadpanned.

Sloane’s mouth dropped, and I could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. I needed to intervene, before this catfight caused the men to fuck up the mission. I didn’t know these women, and I wasn’t entrusting my sisters’ lives with distracted men.

“Hey, I couldn’t help but overhear,” I interjected. Sloane turned toward me, her eyes narrowed. “But maybe this isn’t such a bad thing? I mean, at least it was educational, right?”

The tension between the three of us was thick, and could be felt even in the silence. Sloane took a deep breath and seemed to be counting under her breath. Her tone was sharp as she spoke into the phone with Pakhan’s wife. “Make sure your child stays away from mine.”

Fuck, this woman had balls of steel. Couldn’t be me.

“But–”

Sloane hung up the phone before Tiffany could get another word in edgewise.

I opened my mouth to tell her that was going to cause us all sorts of trouble, but the men approached.

“Let’s roll,” Alexie commanded before he swept Sloane up in his arms, and gave her the biggest kiss.

We all waited for his public display to finish. Then he bundled her in the car, and it set off. He was coming with us, but he would never have his woman in the field in her condition. Besides, as a Bratva woman, I doubted they would allow her to come, even if she wasn’t expecting.

Roman stalked toward me with a glint in his eyes. As usual, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he grabbed the back of my neck and steered me toward the plane. I didn’t fight him. I’d grown used to his possessive manhandling at this point.

Damnit. He’d grown on me.

“We are goingto make this quick,” Benedikt said. “There’s no reason to storm the place.”

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