Page 3 of Twisted Fate

He nods. “Thus why I want you to do the job, Valentina. You’re the only one I can trust with it.

Think about it. The biggest job you’ve ever done, and for me .

Your mentor, your father figure.” He smiles placatingly.

“Your final job. What a way to finish your illustrious career as an assassin, hm? This last job for me… and then one for yourself, when I give you the name you want.”

The name . A prickle runs over my skin. I’m so close to the thing I’ve wanted since I was eight years old. And all I have to do is take a job that, if I put the slightest foot wrong, could kill me.

All assassinations come with danger. But this is walking into a lion’s den.

“Why do you want him dead?” My fingers tap against the leather of the folio, and I see Kane’s smile broaden. He knows I’m considering saying yes.

“Konstantin is Victor Abramov’s heir. By all considerations, he’s a fine specimen. Thirty-eight, so still young enough to marry and provide heirs of his own. Intelligent, ruthless, and brutal when necessary. But unfortunately, he’s forward-thinking as well. Too intelligent for his own good.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Unfortunately?”

Kane taps a finger against his glass. “He has ideas about modernizing the Bratva. Legitimizing their businesses, moving away from the old ways of thinking and running his father’s empire.

Victor disagrees, of course, but he’s old.

He was in the hospital this past winter for pneumonia, and every day since, his health has deteriorated. ”

I don’t bother asking how Kane knows all of this. He has his ways, and there’s no point in questioning them. I just listen, silently.

“He represents a threat to the established order,” Kane continues.

“An order that benefits me. His ideas of legitimization will destabilize the criminal enterprises here in Miami. The other families will see him as weak, and make bids for his territory to undermine him. As a part of the fragile web of crime in this city, I stand to get caught up in all of that.” He sets his glass down, fixing me with his icy stare.

“With Konstantin dead, I can influence Victor’s next choice. ”

I narrow my eyes. “Are you thinking it should be you?”

Kane snorts. “Of course not. I like my life as it is. I have no desire to deal directly with the responsibility and politics of running a crime family. But I could… suggest to Victor who that replacement should be. And with his days running short, he’ll be inclined to listen to good advice.”

I swallow hard. Something feels off about this. I should trust my instincts, I know; they’re what’s kept me alive all this time. But Kane is dangling what I want right in front of me. One job… just one more, and I can have what I want. What I need .

I can be done.

“Alright.” I press my hands down flat against the folio, as if to keep myself from opening it again and looking at that chiseled face, those dangerous blue eyes.

“What’s the approach, then? I can’t just waltz in and kill this man.

A stakeout won’t work, either. He’s going to always have security with him.

Every location he goes to will be checked. This won’t be?—”

“You’re going to marry him.”

I stare at Kane, sure that I’ve heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”

Kane smiles, clearly pleased that he’s caught me off guard.

“Victor Abramov is dying, as I said. I have it on good authority that he’s pressuring Konstantin to marry.

You will be presented as a potential bride, with an impeccable pedigree that Victor won’t be able to ignore.

With your forged background, my talents of persuasion, and your own charms, I have no doubt that you’ll be successful at securing an engagement. ”

My head feels like it’s spinning. Engagement.

Marriage. It’s one thing to go into an assignment with the intention to seduce a man, to get him as far as the bedroom, or even sleep with him for a night to get close enough to finish the job.

I’ve even taken on a couple of missions where I needed to pose as an escort companion for a weekend or spend a week flattering and seducing and pretending to be genuinely interested in a man.

A companion or a temporary girlfriend—those are easy parts to play.

But marriage is different. And even if I’ve never really had aspirations of real marriage for myself, even if I’ve never expected to meet that mythical one that would make me want to say ‘ for better or for worse’ —something in me balks at saying those vows when I won’t mean them.

I’m a killer, not a liar.

“And if I’m not successful?”

Kane shrugs lightly. “You’ve never failed. Why would you start now, when this is the most important mission I’ve ever tasked you with?”

Why indeed? I’m not as confident as Kane seems to be that the Abramov pakhan will choose me for his son. But Kane seems to think it’s certain, and if there’s one thing I do know about him, it’s that he’s not a gambler, either. If he’s setting this up, it’s because he believes it will work.

I could get what I need. The resistance I have to Kane’s idea wars with that bone-deep need, the only thing that’s kept me going through all of these years, through every agonizing hour of training, every discomfort, every unpleasant aspect of this job.

And all I have to do is push myself just a little bit further…

do one more thing that I don’t want to do.

“It’s still not going to be easy to get to him?—”

“You won’t kill him at first,” Kane clarifies.

“You’ll secure an engagement and go through with the wedding.

If you gather any intel on the Abramov family in the meantime—their businesses, their wealth, their connections—all the better.

You will suggest to Konstantin that you want to go on a honeymoon to this location. ”

My stomach twists. I’d hoped that maybe Kane’s plan involved an engagement that would end in an ‘accident’ or murdering Konstantin on our wedding night.

But he wants me to play a longer game. He wants me far, far away from him when I pull the trigger or dig in the knife, and while it makes sense on the surface, I can feel my anxiety about all of this ratcheting higher with every word.

He taps his phone and turns it outward, showing me a picture on the screen. It looks like a luxury resort, something pricey and secluded.

“It’s an exclusive resort in the Serengeti,” Kane explains.

“Very far away, and they don’t allow extensive security to come with their guests, touting their own location and security as sufficient.

You’ll convince Konstantin that you want the privacy for your honeymoon.

While you’re there, you’ll use that proximity to fulfill your mission.

As soon as you’re done, contact me, and I’ll have you extracted. ”

“And you have arrangements for how to cover my tracks?”

“Of course,” Kane confirms. “You’ll be the grieving widow, nothing more. You’ll come home to me, where I’ll give you the information you desire. You might even inherit something from your dead husband, if you’re lucky enough.”

I press my lips together, considering. I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as Kane makes it sound. But the way he describes the job sounds almost plausible. Like it’s possible for me to pull it off, if I can get beyond my own personal hangups on the matter.

I’m not beyond a little arrogance. I know that I’m good—as good as he claims, even if I don’t think I can easily take out the heir to a Bratva crime family. But Kane’s plan might work.

And if it does…

Think about it, Valentina. Everything you’ve worked for. It’s this… or more time working for Kane. Another year—maybe more…

All I have to do is pretend to be married to a man I plan to kill. All of those things that most women get to dream of—a wedding dress, a ceremony, saying vows, a reception, a wedding night… for me, all of those will be fake, the first time that I experience them. Maybe the only time.

But is this really the line I can’t cross? Is something that I’ve never imagined I’d ever really have worth being precious over, when this could give me my freedom?

I know the answer to that, but I feel an ache in my chest all the same.

I look up, meeting his gaze. “This is the last job,” I say firmly. “I mean it, Kane. If I do this, I get the name, and everything that goes along with it. All the information you have at your disposal and anything you can do to help me get what I want.”

Kane nods. “Of course. You’ve more than earned your freedom. But I can’t trust this job to anyone else, Valentina. Surely you understand that.”

It’s flattery meant to disarm me. To make me feel special, instead of trapped. I hate that it works, just a little. That I feel the same warm satisfaction at knowing that I’ve pleased him that I’ve felt since I was a child.

I hate that I want him to be proud of me. That even after all these years, I crave that love and adoration from the man who’s been my father since I was eight.

“I’ll do it. But I’ll need anything you have on him that can help me ensure that he chooses me, anything that will get me closer to him. Routines, likes and dislikes, preferences in women. All of it.”

“Most of that is in there.” Kane gestures to the folio in my hands. “Anything else, you can learn during your courtship. I have faith in you, Valentina. You’ve come so far since you were that frightened girl that I brought home. You won’t fail.”

His words ring with sincerity. But as I stand, the folio clutched in my hands as I turn to leave, I can hear what’s unspoken as well.

You won’t fail. Or else.