Page 4 of Defiant Devotion

Finally, after having no control, I’d wrested a little of it back to me.

I wouldn’t be somethingto barter with. I wouldn’t be a pure virgin anymore.

And it would all be worth it.

A small smile teased my lips as the stranger opened the door and led me out into the cold once more.

2

BEN

Current day…

As far as weddings went, this one was fancy. It should’ve been the wedding of the decade, a marriage for the powerful Baranov family.

All the prominent members of society were here as guests at Oleg Baranov’s mansion. The family considered this their “home”, and it seemed fitting that they’d host the ceremony uniting Eva Baranov and Lev Kvashnin here. The Mafia princess and her elite bodyguard, married under the big boss’s approval.

They’d spared no expenses, of course, and the entire scene was one straight out of a fairytale. Champagne flowed. Live music carried through the ornately decorated ballroom, competing with the din of lively conversations among the Baranov family members and their guests.

Some of those conversations were to do with business. Of course, they were. A gathering of the Baranov Mafia Family would result in discussions about business, particularly with how recently someone had taken a potshot at the top manhimself. Oleg Baranov had been shot at, but it seemed like Eva’s uncle had not a care in the world as he sat back and celebrated this union.

I knew better. Oleg Baranov hadn’t become the Baranov boss idly. He had to be curious about who’d tried to kill him.

Iwas curious, enough that I snuck in to spy on this event.

Once more, I subtly glanced in the direction of where Rurik Baranov sat at the head table. He was one of the groomsmen, naturally, because he was a cousin to Eva. Yet, I had extra interest in him because he had been the guard who’d saved Oleg’s life. When someone shot Oleg Baranov, Rurik had taken the bullet for him.

Who did it, though? Who hired those men to shoot that day?

I wasn’t passionate about Oleg living or dying. But since Oleg was the Boss and I had been previously approached by the head of the Baranovs’ rival, Igor Petrov, with a hit he wanted to place on his competition, I had to be intrigued.

Ever since I left the military and moved stateside, I’d been known as a hitman with no loyalties. If the price was decent, if I was interested in the challenge, I’d take the assignment. When Igor had come to me back in the beginning of March, asking me to kill Oleg Baranov, I didn’t get a good vibe from him about it. Money was money. Sure, it made the world go round. I had more money than I’d ever be able to spend, though, so I could afford this extra consideration. Taking jobs from the three main Mafia Families in this area gave me a unique position of independence, and I wanted to choose wisely when I accepted such a big hit. Killing a Boss was no small murder.

“I’m telling you, Ben’s the one to do it.”

I tore my gaze away from the direction of the head table where Rurik sat with the new couple. Eva and Lev were the stars of this night, no doubt, but I’d snuck in here undercover and in a disguise forthesekinds of conversations. The whispered discussions where business was dealt with.

Vik, another Baranov, stood next to me at the bar where I blended in as just another guest among the many. I wasn’t sure which soldier he was speaking to, but I was very aware of the matter of their quiet conversation off to the side.

Because they were talking aboutme.

“I’m not arguing that,” the Baranov soldier said. “I’ve heard the same shit about Ben Warner that everyone else has. He’s an elite assassin. The best of the best.”

I bit back the urge to smile. Pride filled me at this praise I’d eavesdropped on. Being proud of a career was one matter, but taking glee in my ability to always claim a kill was something better that appeased the darkness in my soul.

“But he’s also hard to get ahold of,” the man added. “And picky about what jobs he takes.”

I could’ve nodded right along.Damn straight, I’m picky.I saw no reason not to be when I was playing God, deciding who lived or died. When it came to accepting contracts from the Mafia, I wanted to be careful of whom I was aligning with. Igor Petrov irritated me. The Ilyins were getting on my nerves too. That was why I’d come here tonight, to spy on the Baranovs and really get a better feeling for what kind of men they were.

Lev Kvashnin had started the process of reaching out to me. He’d gone through the proper channels of seeking me out. Likethe others, he wanted to hire me for a hit—one placed on the next governor to be sworn in.

It wouldn’t be an impossible job, but I needed more details first. I wanted to know more background information so I could determine whether killing someone for the Baranovs was a good use of my time.

A good use of my time?

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Working wasn’t that much fun anymore. It was harder and harder to achieve that thrill of a difficult kill. The last time I felt like I’d had fun was three months ago when that sexy young woman hit me up at the bar and asked me to help her lose her virginity. I still couldn’t get her out of my mind.

“Lev will reach out to him again once the wedding celebrations die down,” Vik said. “It’s not like we can sit on it for long.”

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