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Pride surges through me and I press her to me. I don’t want to let her go.
“The hair! First the lipstick and now the hair!”
I let her go with a teasing smack to the ass. “You’re beautiful. Let them see smeared lipstick and mussed up hair and know you’re mine.”
I like to think we're untouchable, but past experience has taught me well. Still, I spin her around and place her in front of me, so we stand in front of the mirrored doors to the closet. Me, much taller than her, dressed in formal attire that I hate. My queen, dressed in luxurious black satin.
"They will weep with jealousy when they see you." And weep with pain if they so much as give her a dirty look.
The entire way to the gala, Aria chats excitedly about what she discovered today. It turns out being friends with my brother actually comes in handy. "I had no idea there was a potential entry point for exportation with that new software the government installed,” she says, her eyes gleaming, as if someone just told her the best news she's ever heard in her life. "Do you have any idea what this means?"
Yes, of course I do. It means that she's going to be able to hack into more databases than we ever have, securing information for my family that we need. "Do you know what would be the funniest thing in the world? A CTF competition, with me and Aleks and whoever else you have.”
"Aria, what the hell is a CTF competition?"
"Capture the flag. Honestly, Mikhail, do you knownothingabout hacking?"
"Do you know nothing of the Russian language? My knowledge about hacking is about the same."
She gives me a smug little smile. "Zdravstvuyte! Kak dela?I've been practicing."
Sassy little girl.
When we arrive, Nikko’s waiting outside with a joint pressed to his lips. He throws it on the ground and grinds it out with his heel when he sees me coming. While I don't forbid them smoking pot, I don't encourage it. Not when there’s so much at stake. Tonight? I might ask him if he has another.
“Tell me again who that is," she says. "I remember everybody's names, and I do remember their jobs, but I need a refresher."
Is my little hacker wife admitting that there's a flaw to her perfect recall memory? She was under stress the last time she met everybody, when we were all together anyway. It was weeks ago at our wedding.
Nikko is our family assassin, but she doesn't need to know that.
“Nikko,” I say affectionately. "When we were in high school, they joked that he looked like Superman."
“It’s those rugged, boy-next-door good looks. I bet that comes in handy.”
Sharp jawline, piercing eyes, tousled hair. What those girls who swooned over Nikko didn't know was how lethal he is when it comes to a hired hit.
"You know Aleks. And Lev." Lev often helps us because he's our team strategist. My youngest brother is also a trained fighter. With his athletic build, he’s the one we send in to maneuver through tricky situations and defend himself if needed. He's confident, with a magnetic presence that women everywhereswoon over. He never dates, though. He's too occupied with other things.
"Do you member Kolya?”
"Of course I do. Your father's buddy, right? The older guy?"
He would cringe to hear her call him the "older guy." He's only fifty years old, but he's the only one with silver in his hair and beard, and he’s more fit than men half his age. More like an older brother than father figure to any of us, our group mastermind oversees all operations.
"Who’s the one that's always wearing leather, with those green eyes?”
“Ollie." We sometimes call him “The Lone Wolf” because of the wolf tattoo on his shoulder and his propensity for doing things alone. He likes to be alone.
"OK, so far we have Ollie, the lone one in leather, Nikko the scary weapon guy. And then there's the younger one, Lev, who looks like he power lifts on lunch breaks. He's the one that picked us up on our wedding night. Kolya, your dad's war buddy. Aleksandr, Polina, and your mother. What should I call her?”
“Ekaterina.”
"Wow, that's a beautiful name. But you have one more brother, don't you?"
"Viktor. You've only met him once, at the wedding. The one with the scar on his cheek? Shaved head?”
“Ah, yes. I didn't think anybody was scarier than you, Mikhail, but he has you beat."
