Page 173 of Ace of All Hearts

“Maybe we can look after her, then?”

“What, just you and me?”

She shrugs. “Why not?”

“Like…like she’s our kid or something?”

“I don’t know,” she huffs.

“What about the guys?”

“I don’t know,” she repeats.

“I don’t know if I can take care of her like my own child. I don’t even know if I want kids.”

“No, I know,” she shakes her head. “Me neither. And we’re too young to think about this.Andit would be something to talk about with Sam and Lik. I just…don’t want her in the system, and the Murrays are rarely here. Jake, Chris, and I were old enough when they were traveling all the time and we were in their care. But Juliette is too young, and she’s been through so much already.”

She’s holding the steering wheel with one hand and her right thigh tightly with the other.

“It’s okay,” I say, taking her hand. “We’ll figure it out. For now, she can stay with us when the Murrays are away. Or you and I can stay at the Murrays. It’ll work.”

She nods, and a comfortable silence stretches between us.

“Oh my god,” I realize with horror. “She’s going to go to Stoneview Prep.”

Rose explodes in a laugh and her gaze darts to me. “Come on, it’s not so bad. You met me there.”

I let my head fall against the headrest and watch her. “That’s true. It might be the best school in the U.S. if we go by those standards.”

Half an hour later, we’re walking into the cabin.

“I’m taking a shower,” Lik screams from upstairs, as I’m assuming he hears the door. “Princess, you are required to join.”

We both chuckle, and she kisses me before heading upstairs. I check my phone and reread the text Sam had sent me earlier.

British Prick ??: Come to my office when you’ve got a minute.

Does he think I’m his personal assistant or something? I walk in without knocking and raise an eyebrow at him.

“I must say,” he chuckles low. “I kind of love that walking into my office without knocking is an act of rebellion in your books.”

I laugh before approaching his desk. My stomach recoils when I see the three pictures lying there, but there’s also a particular satisfaction I won’t deny.

“Whoa. I didn’t know you had taken those pictures to print them. Making an album of your best kills? A portfolio for your future employers, maybe?”

I sit down and look at them again. The mutilated body of Aleksei Volkov is staring back at me on the rectangles of printed papers. His eyes are empty. His soul, if he ever had one, had long left his body by the time we were done with him.

First, Sam and Lik took turns beating him up.

Then, we did exactly what we promised. We cut his balls and dick off, and then we fed them to him. Lastly, I stuck my hunting knife in his ass—the blade side.

Sam took pictures while we watched him die slowly. His tears and cries were beautiful.

“I’m sending them to Viktor,” he says in a low growl.

“Sam, we don’t even know if he’s really alive.”

“He is. I know it.”

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