Page 143 of Dirty Grovel

I follow her into the house and find her pacing in the kitchen like a trapped lioness. “Do you need anything?”

She twists around, eyes blazing. “I need my sister.”

“How about water instead?” I suggest calmly. “You look parched.”

“What I am ispissed.”

“I admire your ferocity, Sutton. I admire your loyalty, too. But in this case, I think you’re misguided.”

“What thefuckis that supposed to mean, Oleg?”

I veer around the chair she’s lodged between us like she thinks that will stop me. “How exactly did Sydney find out about the ambush location? I thought you told me that you kept all the gory details from her.”

“I did!” she swears. “I didn’t tell her anything.”

“And yet she knew exactly where to show up.”

“She probably picked up on a few things along the way. She did spend most of her adult life surrounded by men likeyou.”

“Don’t compare me to that fucking ex of hers,” I say. “I don’t involve women in my schemes. I shouldn’t have broken that rule this time, either.”

Her eyes flare with insult, her cheeks go blotchy with the sting of my words. “You… you’re a misogynistic, heartless monster!” she spits at me, because it’s probably the last leg she has to stand on. “How can you be so calm, so controlled when my sister is behind bars for murdering the manIwas supposed to kill?”

I bite my tongue, keeping the acid-like words from dripping off it.

The truth is, the only thing that’s keeping us above water is the fact that I can stay calm and controlled even through the worst of hurricanes.

My training has prepared me for precisely this eventuality. It’s one thing to be prepared when everything goes your way.

But I’ve been trained to be prepared whennothinggoes according to plan.

My first lesson came on a yacht when I was eighteen years old.

The smell of burning flesh will always be the compass that guides me.

“Hate me all you want. Be pissed all you want. But I don’t have time for this,” I growl, filling a glass with water and slamming it on the table in front of her. “Thanks to your sister, I have a hundred different fires I need to put out.”

“Go then! I don’t need you.”

Again, I have to fight the urge to retort. Because we both know that she does need me. She needs me to save her sister’s ass.

“Drink your water,” I order before turning my back on her.

I stalk out of the kitchen, leaving her to her grief and her stubborn thirst. If there’s one thing I could wish for right now, it would be to put this nightmare of a day to bed once and for all.

As it stands, I’m nowhere close to being done.

45

OLEG

I’m stuck waist-deep in a quagmire of shit and it’s not even nine in the fucking morning.

The headlines have been coming in hot ever since Sydney decided to go all kill-bill on Drew’s ass. Each is worse than the last.

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