Page 116 of Inked in Devotion

She looked away.

“I’m sorry, it’s none of my business.”

“This bitch,” Bianca muttered, staring at a card. The envelope it came in was elaborate, black and gold. Both Sloane and Lucy read over her shoulders.

“The hoe,” Sloane agreed.

Lucy expressed outrage.

“Okay, you all have to let us in on what you’re reading,” I said.

“I’m not sure you should know,” Bianca said.

But the eagerness to tell me was written all over her face.

“I think I can be objective.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Sloane deadpanned.

“All right, ladies,” I said. “Lay it on me.”

“You asked for it,” Bianca muttered. “Dear Nikolai, I’m appalled at your choice of woman to become the mother of your son. She is impure—oh my God, this sounds worse read out loud⁠—”

“Continue,” I ordered.

“—Her mother is a whore who went after a married man. I am your match. I am still waiting—huh, look, a P.O. box.”

“Do you get the idea that this person is knowledgeable about background information? ‘I am your match’ sounds telling.”

“Give me that,” Lucy said. “I’ll put it in a pile for Ilya to look into.”

“There’s a pile already for suspicious ones?”

“Here’s a recent one, but it’s a weird one.”

Lucy slipped a plain piece of paper attached to a plainer envelope and handed it to me. “Wow, talk about a serial killer. They used magazine cutouts.”

You think I don’t know you killed my husband? My people will come after you. You don’t know who you fucked with.

“This sounds more bratva than anything to do with Kolya’s infamy as the Mistress Strangler,” I said.

“I’ll have Ilya trace it,” Lucy said. “Although I think I need to loop in Kirill if we’re going to look into Kolya’s past jobs.”

Aralina signed, brief and emphatic.

“Yup.” Lucy exhaled a resigned sigh.

“That’s going to be a mountain to get through, won’t it?” Sloane asked. “Who keeps track of bratva business?”

Aralina pointed at Lucy.

“Please. I’m not Kirill’s secretary. He does like his calendars. I’ll check with him.”

When the other women went back to sifting through the mail, Aralina switched chairs and sat beside me.

“I was fond of Jeremiah,” she typed in. “He’s handsome and charming.”

“Well, I only knew his psychopathic side.”