I waved my hands in a circle. I refused to give them answers the night before, but now I knew I had no other choice. “On with it then.”
Grandmother gave me a serious face. “We would like to know your current body count.”
“And we don’t mean it sexually,” Nana interjected.
My eye twitched. “Obviously.”
“So?” They asked in unison.
“Two-hundred and one,” I was probably off a little bit, but I knew it was around there.
They tilted their heads. “Benson gets you the work?”
I shrugged. More or less. I had my own connections for the most part. It didn’t take long after the first fifty to find mypeople.
Grandmother jumped straight into it. “Good, we have a job for you.”
“I’m not going after my father.” Though I would have been lying to say I hadn’t been hunting him in my off-season… Which was now. But they didn’t need to know that. No one needed to know that I was going after him; it would make things complicated, and the last thing I wanted was for my whole family to end up on my doorstep.
They looked at each other. “We want you to go after one of his business partners.”
I could do that. I’d been doing that without pay anyway. It was considered practice.
“We will, of course, pay you handsomely for the task,” Grandmother spread her hands out in front of her as if she had the cash on hand. Knowing them… she probably did.
“Maybe I don’t want to be paid for taking out people already on my list.” It was stupid to admit that out loud, but I was curious. I was curious about why they were here, why they wanted to hire a hit, and if they thought I was hurting for money. They were too complex to figure out on my own. Better yet, no one would ever figure them out. Therewasn’t a smart enough person on this earth, and if there was, they would be figured out and then I would be hired…
Nana tsked. “We don’t care about your list, we just want you to do a job.”
“Okay,” I sighed through my nose. “What do you get out of this?”
Grandmother, very delicately, cleared her throat. “I don’t see why that’s any of your business.”
“But,” Nana cut her eyes at the other woman. “We like to see the bad men punished.”
This time, I rolled my eyes. “This is hardly a punishment. If anything, it’s a mercy.”
Grandmother’s cold smile didn’t meet her eyes. “It’s a warning. We need him gone for…other purposes. It’s a game of chess, my boy. Once he is eliminated, then the others will scatter and get messy. They will get thetruepunishment.”
I swallowed thickly. “Okay, send all the information over, I’ll have it done.”
They both stood at the same time, ever poised. “See to it that it is finishedbeforeAlexei and Audrey get married, will you?”
I didn’t know why that mattered so much, but I nodded my agreement anyway.
“You will be there, won’t you?” Nana stared at me with unamused eyes. This wasn’t a question. If I didn’t show up, they would drag me there kicking and screaming.
I nodded again.
Chapter Three
Ivan
It had beena week and the grannies were still putting up the appearances that they were here to see I was well fed and that I was being taken care of. If I didn’t know any better, this was a spying attempt from either my mother or my brother Dimitri. I just knew they couldn’t stand that I’d disappeared and didn’t call.
I felt mostly guilty about not speaking to my mother. She had always been in my corner growing up and had made sure I was kept unaware of the bloodshed our family was known for. I smiled to myself. Somehow, I still lived up to the legacy of the Cristof clan. It was funny how that worked.
I’d taken care of the mule deer easily, and whatever I couldn’t process on my own, I brought to town. The roads were mostly drivable, and the sun was making a rare appearance. It made me want to remind my grandmothers that they were free to leave at any time, but they would only stay longer if I pushed. So instead, I ate the food they had deliveredand listened to them talk at dinner about whatever it was they were doing back home these days.
