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“What going on, honey? Everything all right?” I ask.
She’s hyperventilating. “I… I was up front at the guard’s shack just talking, and I saw something. I saw something awful, Niko.”
Leave it to the kid to make friends with the security team. I make a mental note to talk to them about not falling for her teenage charms. She may be cute, but she’s not someone they ought to get close to.
“Evie, are you back in the house now?” I ask.
First things first.
“Yeah. The guards brought me back. I think they are out front checking it out. But I wanted to call you.”
“Okay. Okay, good. Where is your sister, Evie?”
“Um, she’s in the shower. I haven’t told her yet.”
“Okay. Now tell me what you saw,” I say.
Her breath is still coming hard. I hope like hell she says she saw a dead squirrel or something.
“Well, I… think it was a hand. It was kind of hard to tell. It was so messed up and bloody.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
I have a feeling I know what she saw.
“Okay, look Evie. I’ll call the security guards. But do me a favor and stay in the house until we get home, okay?” I ask.
“Y… yeah. Okay, Niko.”
“All right, sweetie. Bye.”
I find my brothers. “Guys. We have a situation. Another goddamn situation.”
I fill my brothers in.
“Do you think it’s our guy? The one we sent after Arseny, in the hospital?”
I nod. “I’m pretty sure. What we know is that the operation was bungled. Not only did they not get through to Arseny, but they gave chase and I guess the guy whose body parts are in front of our house is the one who didn’t manage to get away.”
Vadik drops his face into his hands. “Good God. We go to take out the asshole Charleigh shot in the hold up and we couldn’t even get close to the punk? Guys, are our people falling down on the job or what?”
I hate to admit it, I mean really, really hate to goddamn admit it, but Dimitri may be turning out to be a bigger foe than we ever gave him credit for. I’m surprised. But I’ve also always loved a challenge.
“Does Charleigh know yet?” Kir asks.
“Evie told me she’s in the shower. But I’m sure she’ll tell her when she gets out.”
Shit. We didn’t want Charleigh to know about this latest strike. Not that she has any say, but she’s not going to like our going after Arseny. She doesn’t understand our world, and certainly doesn’t understand why we’d go after someone she’s already shot when Dimitri is the person we want.
I look at my phone, which I know will ring momentarily. She’s going to have questions. I’ll be honest with her. I always am. She’s not going to like what she hears.
As long as she’s part of our world, she’s going to witness—both see and hear—a lot of things she doesn’t like.
* * *
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
Charleigh
