Page 16 of Defiant Devotion

It wasn’t my nature to share details. I was the one who asked the questions and got answers. Something about this fucker intrigued me, though. Lev was hotheaded, but he didn’t seem to be a petty moron like other Mafia men I dealt with. “Igor Petrov.”

Lev rolled his eyes. “That’s hilarious,” he said, deadpan.

“Wait. So Yusef Ilyin fucked us over with that drug deal…” Vik said.

“Which pissedhimoff to the point that he’d ask me to kill Yusef,” Lev finished for him, gesturing at Oleg on the bed.

“Then Igor hired you”—Vik addressed me—“to kill Yusef…”

“And then later, he’d help the Ilyins capture me in retaliation for my killing Yusef,” Lev said, completing Vik’s observation.

I shrugged. “Sounds about right.”

“Fucking Petrov,” Lev and Vik said in unison.

“If it’s any consolation, I’m confident you’re not the only one with that sentiment.” Igor had quite the reputation for stirring up shit and trying to come out on top.

“But I killed you,” Lev said, narrowing his eyes. “The day I finally got to Yusef, you were ‘guarding’ him and I shot you.”

“Nothing a face mask can’t fix. I had a body double end up as that carcass.” I grinned.

Lev studied me for a long moment. “So, what is it? You’re some kind of ex-military spy? Master of disguise and pain in the ass who had a conscience about whom he kills now?”

“Sort of. You can form your own opinions of me.” Now that I had him talking, I wondered how I could get them back to the person I really wanted to know more about.

Sonya.

There was no way that they could be talking about my one-night stand. There was also no guarantee that Sonya was her real name. Something nagged at me, though. Now that I’d heard“her” name, and I kept dreaming about her every time I fell asleep…

“What were you talking about earlier? About Oleg being so stressed out about looking for Sonya.”

Lev huffed a laugh. “Who the fuck do you think you are? It’s none of your business what we were talking about. Your only business with the Baranov family is whether or not you want us to hire you to kill O’Malley.”

He was right. So far, that was the only connection between us. But I couldn’t give up on this mention of Sonya.

“Who’s Sonya?” I asked again, as if he hadn’t shot my line of questioning down.

“None of your business,” Lev repeated.

“Why do you want to know?” Vik asked.

Dammit.They weren’t going to tell me shit. They were too guarded, and rightly so. If I had to guess, this Sonya woman was a member of their family, and that, again, impressed me. Lev and Vik stood in for Oleg, and with their attitudes, it was clear that they were decent enough to be protective of their women. It cut such a contrast to how Igor and Geoff had spoken about the women in this world—nothing more than disgraces or pawns in their eyes.

It was time for me to cooperate if I wanted more intel about anything else.

“You know what? I’ll do it. I’ll accept the hit on O’Malley.” This way, actively working for them would give me more chances for me to overhear anything else they might say about Sonya.

Come on. There’s no fucking way it’sher, right?

Lev accepted my offered hand and shook it, but he eyed me cautiously. “This stays between us.”

“All my jobs are confidential.”

Lev nodded. “Good. Then maybe after you finish the hit on O’Malley, we could hire you for this one.” He glanced at his sleeping leader. “We all assumed they were killed years ago, but just in case, it wouldn’t hurt to have extra help. So he doesn’t have to stress about it anymore.”

Vik nodded. “It’d be nice to have answers once and for all. And he wouldn’t stress over it ever again.”

“Stress about what?” I asked, volleying my gaze between the two men.

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