Page 115 of One For my Enemy

“What do we need a ‘moonlight glow’ body butter for?” she’d asked her sister once when she was a teenager, skeptically eyeing the tub of skin cream. “Why would anyone want to look like this?”

Marya had shrugged. “You never know, Sashenka,” she’d replied. “Perhaps some people have a very great wish to look like the undead.”

Perhaps they do, Sasha thought now, wiping a small glob of it from her hairline.

She might have overdone it. Possibly.

Then again, probably not.

Where would you begin if you wanted to rid a man of everything?Masha had asked her, and the answer had been simple enough.

Wipe out his army. His other two sons.

Dimitri had been easy. He’d needed almost no convincing to turn on his father.

As for the other Fedorov son…

Sasha smiled to herself, watching Roman disappear from view.

Then she turned and ventured out into the night, satisfied.

V. 5

(Indisposed.)

There was a polite knock at the door as Lev was counting bills, prompting him to glance up with displeasure. He tensed, shoving aside the tablets, and rose to his feet, pulling the door open.

“Yes?” he asked.

A man in a black suit frowned at him. “Where’s Mr. Taylor?”

“Indisposed,” Lev replied. “May I take a message?”

The man glanced suspiciously over Lev’s shoulder, reaching inside the breast pocket of his suit jacket, and Lev paused the man’s hand with a quick motion of his fingers.

“Better not,” Lev advised, as the man frowned.

“Who are you?”

“I’m really not any of your business. But I’m very busy, so if you wouldn’t mind—”

“I’m Mr. Taylor’s security,” the man said.

“He doesn’t have security,” Lev replied, attempting to shut the door, but the man threw out an arm to keep him from succeeding, giving Lev a glare.

“He does,” the man corrected. “And unless you’d like to have a problem—”

He trailed off pointedly.

“Fine,” Lev sighed, rolling his eyes and taking a step back from the threshold. “Come in,” he beckoned, gesturing behind him to the living room. “Eric will be right with you.”

The man cocked a brow warily. “You expect me to wait out here?”

“Well, it’s not your house, is it?”

“It’s not yours either.”

“It’s mine-adjacent,” Lev said blithely, adding, “Just have a seat, would you? Take a load off. Answer some emails. Check your horoscope.”

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