Page 34 of The Sinner's Touch

“Why don’t you want them to know?”

“It’s complicated.” He ran a hand through his hair, aware he’d nearly killed it as much as he’d done that today. “Please, Viktor. I’ll explain later, I promise. Do you have some men who can keep her safe?”

“Da. I’ll get them there within the next few hours. And Kade?”

“Yeah?”

“Congratulations. I’m happy for you, man. And Angel, she is there with you now?”

“She is.” Wariness crept back into Kade’s voice, and he glanced at her. As mad as she was with him, God only knew what she’d tell Viktor. He’d rather explain this fiasco to his brother in person and not over the phone.

“Dobro pozhalovat' v sem'yu mladshey sestry.”

“I have no idea what that means.” Angel looked up at him, confused.

Kade smiled at her. “It means welcome to the family, little sister.”

“I will get you the Rosetta Stone for Russian,” Viktor promised, chuckling. “Otherwise you will forever be confused when we are all together. Did you get Lily the program, Nik?”

“Uh, no, not yet. She’s got enough on her plate with finals coming up. And I think she said something about Babbel.”

“What?” Viktor asked, confused. “Why would she want to babble?”

“No, not babble. She wants to use the online language program called Babbel.”

“Oh.”

Poor guy sounded as confused as ever. She had a feeling he’d be googling Babbel as soon as he hung up the phone.

“I must go. I have a lot of work to catch up on, as well as finding you some guards. We’ll talk soon.”

“Vik?”

“Yeah, Kade?”

“Thanks.”

“She’s our family now,brat. We take care of family. I got shit to do now, motherfuckers. Aw, hell, I shouldn’t have said that with Angel there. Damn, I did it again.”

Kade laughed, imagining the disgusted look on his brother’s face. The man tried hard to watch his mouth around women; he just wasn’t used to doing it when taking to his brothers.

Nikoli disconnected the call before Viktor said anything to embarrass himself further.

“Why didn’t you tell him the truth?” She looked between them both, and Kade shrugged. He honestly didn’t know.

“I wanted to watch him squirm.” Nikoli grinned. “Besides, Viktor’s services are expensive as fuck. He’ll either give me a discount or do it for free if he thinks it’s for Kade’s wife.”

“Swear to me, Nikoli, not a word to Mama orBabushka.”

“Hey, man, I only wanted to see you squirm a bit, not get you thrown into the fires of hell.” Nikoli held up his hands. “They’d be on the next flight out of Russia.Babushkais terrified of flying, but if she thought Angel was in danger, she’d brave the plane.”

They would. That was how much family meant to them all. They’d drop everything to help each other. He glanced over at Angel and saw a single tear fall from the corner of her eye.

And that was when it struck him.

What he’d really done to her.

She had no one. He’d taken everything from her, stripped her of her home, her family, her pride, and broken her heart to seal the deal. He was the villain in her story.

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