Page 91 of No Longer Mine

“Who’s Audrey?” I heard Scarlett’s weak voice as I entered the penthouse again.

Nana chuckled like she was thirty, instead of a million years old. “Alexei’s bride-to-be. Sorry, we thought you’d met her already. Good, now I’m no longer offended.”

My eyes inspected the area around her. There was more blood on the couch, some on the floor, and there was a bullet ona white plate next to it all. Scarlett’s face was pale, and there was more sweat rolling down her face than there had been before. “Scarlett and I aren’t dating.”

“We did go on a date, though.” The small curve at the corner of her mouth was enough to confuse me, but I knew better. She just wanted to see Grandmother hit me with her cane again. I tried to keep my eyes to myself and not look over at the work my nana was doing. She was an expert seamstress which she’d proven many times on Alexei and a few times on me growing up.

Grandmother turned her gaze on me while Nana kept her eyes down on the work she was doing. Scarlett’s eyes were squeezed shut with every pull of the needle. As much as I wanted to go to her, I knew I couldn’t.

“A date?” She hummed and shook her head. “I see you didn’t kill her.”

Nana looked up then with a mischievous smile. “That means you?—”

“Nope.” I shut it down quickly.

They both snapped their mouths closed. “When is she going to come to dinner with the rest of the family?”

Besides her being in my parents’ apartment and her stealing from them? “Never.”

“He’s back to wanting to kill me,” Scarlett bit out as Nana pulled the thread tight.

My grandmother’s exchanged looks. “There’s a thin line.”

I covered my face. If this hadn’t been the only option, I would have brought her to a hospital. “Neither one of you can tell anyone about this.” My tone hardened.

Grandmother’s eyes flicked between us. “Is there anything you need to share so we know who we aren’t speaking to about this besides Sinclair?”

My jaw worked as I thought about what she was saying. “You can’t tell anyone. I would even prefer it if you didn’t talk to eachother about this. But, I know you two, so I won’t request the impossible.”

Scarlett smirked. “But you asked the impossible of me.”

Anger flashed through me. “And look at where it landed you!”

She sat up as pain shot across her face. Nana clipped the thread. “You do not understand!”

“I understand perfectly who my father is!” I was yelling now, but I couldn’t stop. She was messing with a monster and didn’t even know it. He would find her. He was too careful.

Sweat poured down her face as she tried to get up from the couch. Nana pushed her back down. “You two can hash this out when I’m done.”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes at me as fire lit in her gaze, but she did what Nana required. Nana pulled gauze and a few bandages out of her bag and began covering her wound.

I frowned. “Where did you get that uniform?”

If she said she worked for my parents, I was going to lose it. I was going to throw something. Probably a tantrum, but it was something.

Scarlett cleared her throat. “Oliver had it made for me.”

She had posed as one of their housekeepers. “You just put a death wish on the woman you pretended to be tonight, I hope you know that.”

Her fiery gaze left mine as she gazed down at the carpet. “He’d do that?”

Nana let out a breath. “He’s done much worse for much smaller a crime.”

“None of you know who he truly is,” Scarlett whispered, and I leaned against the wall. I didn’t want to get into this in front of the only woman that could ever love a man like him. She knew what he was capable of, but she didn’t need to know the dirty details. At the end of this, someone still needed to love him. Atleast that was what I told myself so I could protect two of the hardest women in history.

Chapter Forty

Scarlett