Page 29 of Sinful Betrayal

“You’re ouronlycousin.” Danil chuckles, rolling his eyes at me as he looks over from his spot on the couch, dressed in workout gear and wearing a backwards baseball cap.

He’s always been the leanest out of his brothers, but it seems his hard work is finally paying off from the way he’s starting to fill out.

“My brother might be god knows where, but he’s still alive, Danil.”

“Oh shit, yeah.” He laughs. “I forgot about Nikolai.”

Mikhail smacks his younger brother around the head, and Danil curses.

I shake my head. “He’ll be glad to hear how much you miss him.”

Mikhail gets to his feet and slaps me on the shoulder in greeting. “Have you heard from him lately?”

“No. You know how he is.”

“I do.” Mikhail scoffs.

Before he has a chance to say anything else about my waste-of-space brother, I turn to greet Alexei and Dimitri before fixing myself a drink.

“So, what did I miss?” I sink down into one of the leather armchairs, glancing at Alexei, who sits beside Dimitri on the couch to my right.

Alexei swirls his drink around in his glass. “We were waiting for you.”

I glance at Dimitri who’s sitting beside him, covering his mouth to try and stifle his laughter.

“Ah, you must have heard about my little adventure last night.” I sigh. “I was hoping you would hear it directly from me, but I take it Reid mentioned something?”

Alexei smirks. “He did.”

I can’t be mad. Ultimately, Alexei is the head of this family, and Reid is obligated to inform him of any potential threats to our family.

Alexei lifts his glass as if he is clinking mine at a distance. “So, I suggest you fill us in on what happened.”

My cousins all sit in silence as I fill them in on last night, from the moment I saw Nina, minus the detail of her falling in my lap, to beating the guys unconscious in the alley. I show them all the photos of the two guys, and the frown on Alexei’s face only deepens.

“I don’t recognize them.” He zoom in on their faces. “You think they work for Igor?”

Dimitri runs his fingers through his dark hair. “He’s been awfully quiet these past few months.”

Danil nods. “No doubt, he’s busy planning something.”

Mikhail rolls his shirtsleeves up to reveal his tattooed forearms. “I’m surprised he hasn’t retaliated sooner.”

Where Alexei, Dimitri, and Danil are fairly clean cut, Mikhail is a bit rougher around the edges. I was with him when he got the majority of his tattoos done, including his latest one of his daughter’s name down the side of his neck.

Alexei hums. “Igor doesn’t like to rush these things. It’s what makes him so dangerous. There’re very rarely any flaws to hisplans, which makes him that much harder to intercept and take out. I think he wants to make us feel restless.”

Dimitri leans forward. “So, we’ll make the first move out of fear?”

“Exactly, because then he thinks we’ll be more likely to make a mistake.”

Danil shakes his head. “But that contradicts the theory that Igor was behind the attack last night.”

I nod. “That might have been him trying to give us a little nudge. His men likely saw Nina and me drinking together and thought we were dating, so they decided to go after her to get to me. After all, I am the one who took out Maxim.”

Alexei takes a sip. “It’s a likely theory. Where is Nina now?”

“She’s at my place upstate.”

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