Page 98 of Scarred (Russian Sinners 2)

“Oliver, you have access to tapping into all security here. Monitor it while we are gone. Now, let’s get to arranging it all, and we all need to get some sleep. Otherwise, we’ll be no good tomorrow.”

“I got it.” And I knew he did. “My bastard father got picked up today by the feds so he will be paying his price too. There was no chance for him to get away with this.”

“What’s going on?” Olivia’s soft voice had us whipping our heads up. She stood at the top of the stairs, her fiery long hair striking against the white nightgown. She looked like an utterly pleasured woman, her cheeks still slightly flushed.

“Fuck, tell me that’s not my sister,” Oliver spoke through the phone.

She descended the stairs, looking like a queen, but there was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite distinguish.

“Fuck yes, this is your sister,” she answered her brother, her eyes never leaving me. “Now, what is going on?”

Silence stretched, none of us willing to tell her. Damn it, I wanted to keep her safe and ease all her worries. I didn’t want to tell her Malcome was in this country. I didn’t want her to know he was so close to her.

“Don’t all speak at once,” she added sarcastically.

“Malcome is in Russia,” Oliver finally answered his twin.

Another silence. I searched Olivia’s face for any sign of what she was thinking, but for once, she hid it all too well. This was the woman that the world saw; the face she chose to show strangers. All her emotions and scars hidden. I didn’t fucking want her hiding from me.

“I see,” she finally remarked, oddly calm. That should have been my first warning. “And you were not going to tell me. Right?”

I gritted my teeth. Why in the hell would I tell her something that would bring her more nightmares? I would eliminate it, then I’d tell her, and everything would be in the past.

Her eyes shifted to Ilya, and fuck if the damn man didn’t look uncomfortable under her gaze. Then her gaze shifted to Andrey as he shifted from leg to leg. Fucking guy stood stoic when we beat men to death and he was wavering under Olivia’s stare. Although when her eyes returned to me, I could understand it. But I wouldn’t cave. I was trying to protect her from all of this.

“Well, you are supposed to be sleeping,” her brother retorted.

“I’m awake now,” she replied to her brother, her eyes locked with mine. “What is the plan? Because I know there is one.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told her and her eyes flashed in anger.

“Don’t tell me what to worry about, Nikolai,” she hissed. “He is here for me, not you.”

“I got it,” I tried to assure her. “I’ll take care of him. I told you-”

“No.”

Her reaction was not what I expected. I expected her fear, not her anger. “No what?”

“No, you cannot go after him,” she replied, agitation written all over her face.

What the fuck was going on with her? I couldn’t sit here and wait for him to come after her.

“Why not?” Ilya asked.

“Malcome is a lot of things, but he is not stupid, and he is not careless. The fact you found him this easily means he wanted you to find him,” Olivia pointed out.

It did seem too easy.

“Or maybe he is desperate without funds?” her brother replied.

“What makes you think he is without funds?” Olivia argued back. “Did the feds take all the gold bars from his home safe? Or stacks of cash? Because he had stacks of it in several homes, and I’m sure I didn’t see it all.”

“What fucking gold bars?” Oliver spat back and cursed again.

Her eyes darted around the room. “Trust me, he is waiting for you,” she warned. “It’s a trap.”

“We can’t just let him roam around,” Andrey interjected.

---