Page 34 of Pretty Little Assassin

DELIVER ASSET 13.

DELIVER HER.

DEAD OR ALIVE.

Disobeying a directive will get you fired. Your reputation destroyed.

DELIVER HER AND YOUR STANDING WILL BE RESTORED.

The message lands like a cinderblock ankle weight.

I could go in there and tell her now.

I don’t.

The offer changes nothing. My reputation belongs to me. The Primacy cannot restore something it never had the power to take. Refusing to complete the contract may make me a defector in their eyes, but I do not belong to them. I never did.

The Primacy’s new head should be careful.

I look out the window for a few minutes before settling into the couch. It’s too small. I’m too big. It’s uncomfortable as hell.

And inside my bedroom, my target is comfortably curled up in my bed with her cat. At least I won’t be sneezing all night.

Before I met her, I would have killed anyone who targeted me for assassination without a reminder message from the Primacy.

Instead, I find myself staring at the safehouse door until my eyes grow heavy. Making sure no one breaches this place. Not with her and the orange allergy asset in my bed.

Stepfather, Director, or simply another abusive alpha with a control complex—wrong move coming after what is mine to protect now.

Wrong move.

12

VALENTINA

I realize I’m humming, a tune my father used to hum, and I stop.

“This isn’t how I do things. I like to surveil from the inside, not from a parked car across the street. This is primitive.”

Viktor mumbles in Russian and turns to look at me.

He looks even more like an ogre inside a sedan. His head is at ceiling capacity. The steering wheel is shoved up against his⁠—

Stop it.

Stop fucking thinking about that accidental brush against his cock right now.

“Primitive?” he asks, one corner of his mouth curling up in amusement. “Is that what you think I am? A primitive, beastly killer?”

I shake my head because only half of that is true.

“Actually, I think you’re a pretty talented beastly killer.”

He doesn’t argue with it.

I stifle a smile.

Staking out the venue for the Valentine’s Day gala is a lot less exciting than I am used to. Viktor might have the obscene amount of patience of a corpse, but I’m bored as hell.