‘He’s good at what he does,’ Lachlan says.‘All three of them are.’
‘They’re notoursthough, are they?’
‘Meaning what?’
‘They’re Sorrenko’s.’
‘I vetted them.’
‘Zaitsev is a Paranatural.He could manipulate—’
‘We don’t know that heis,’ Lachlan interrupts, ‘just that he was held as one.’
‘I don’t like him,’ she admits, sitting back.‘Yashin.’
‘Fair enough, but he’s right.Security before ceremony always.’
Carrigan makes a face.‘Is that what I do, then?Pander toceremony?’
‘In a way, yeah,’ he answers fairly.
‘I make more money than you do now.’
‘I should hope so, but the priority is safety and safety is achieved by security.You know that.’
‘Whose efforts do you think allow you to create safety?’
‘If you don’t like him, that’s fine, but the chain of command—’
‘Is where I sit higher than you,’ she reminds him.
‘—isfickle.The kids come first.We’re in agreement there, right?’
‘Of course,’ she says, inclining her head, focused on her paperwork, sitting rigid.‘But they’rehischildren, Tanner, and I report to him, not you.’
It gives Lachlan a bad feeling all day.
One he can only work out with controlled violence.
Danya is his new favourite to spar with, so in the twilight hours, they train in the gym together.
When Lachlan asks what he thinks about Carrigan, Danya’s mouth twists, he spits blood, switching to Russian.‘She ishis,’ he simply tells Lachlan as if that says it all.‘Not yours.’
After the sparring session, Lachlan feels lighter, wrung out in the best way.Violence has always been the quickest route to quiet for him, especially the controlled kind.Bruises blooming beneath skin, lungs burning, blood humming hard through his veins, it sands the sharp edges off everything else for a while.He and Danya head for the showers together afterwards.Side by side beneath hot water, shoulders loose from the fight, conversation comes easier after exertion.
Lachlan asks about Danya’s life, something he’s never done with anyone else he works with barring Blaire.It’s not idle.He genuinely wants to know.
Danya tells him about the girl he loved who died of cancer two years after they met and fell in love.Her name was Roxanne Bellitane.
‘She was my whole world,’ he tells Lachlan with a wistful sigh.‘She was so fucking funny and mean and sexy.After my mother died, I had no one left in Russia, so she became my whole world.Her and her little brother, Lucas.She was British.’Danya grins ruefully.‘They’re so fuckingsarcastic.My God, I miss her.But before she died, she made me promise to take care of him so.’Danya shrugs, rinsing his hair.‘He’s my reason right now.’
‘How old is he?’
‘Around Julian’s age.He’s in private school right now.Expensive, but good.Few more years then I’m out.’
‘You have siblings?’
Danya shrugs.‘Who knows?What about you?Family?’
