Chapter 31 Sienna
SIENNA
A wolf was sitting outside my bedroom when I opened the door.
“Good morning, Vovchyk.”
He sighed heavily and nudged my stomach, which brought a smile to my lips.
“Are you stressed that I haven’t eaten breakfast yet? I’m sorry. I’m moving a bit slow this morning.” I gave his ears a little scratch, but he wasn’t having it. He continued with the heavy sighs as he herded me towards the stairs.
At least someone in this house cared about my wellbeing.
I took a deep breath and released it out slowly.
That was enough self-pity. I’d woken up a little sore and sad.
Part of me thought Dimitri might have slept in my bed last night…
or that I might have woken up in his. But when I woke at two in the morning, desperately needing to pee, I’d been alone.
Last night had just been about fucking, about both of us taking our pleasure.
I wasn’t so deluded as to think I would ever have a real relationship with my husband, but maybe we could have something as Emma and Declan.
Although I couldn’t fully ignore the sharp ache in my heart that the tenderness we’d had between us in Paris would only ever exist in my memory.
At least last night proved I hadn’t exaggerated how good we were together—the way our bodies fit together perfectly, the feel of him moving inside me, the mastery he held over my pleasure.
If I was smart about this, I could use it to my advantage.
Pregnancy was making me horny as fuck, and if a casual fling with my husband gave me the release I needed without any messy emotions? Sounded good to me.
Maybe if I repeated it to myself enough, I would believe it.
I was almost to the kitchen when a loud shout and crashing noise made me freeze. Vovk immediately jumped in front of me and I dug my fingers into his fur, my heart pounding.
What do I do? Fight or flight?
I looked around as though a banner would appear and instruct me on my next step. Before I could do anything, the shouted words from the kitchen slowly penetrated my panicked haze.
“I swear to god, Leona. Give me one fucking reason I shouldn’t kill you right now!” Maxim’s shout was filled with a rage I’d never heard from him before.
“Oohh,” I said, letting out a relieved breath and patting Vovk on the head. “It’s just Leona. She tends to have this effect on men.”
I walked around to the kitchen’s side entrance and saw Leona sitting at the counter, sipping coffee without a care in the world.
Her bright red hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail and she wore black tactical gear that hugged her curves.
Across from her stood Maxim, Sergey, and Konstantin, another guard I’d briefly met, their guns drawn.
“Good morning,” I said brightly. I opened the patio door for Vovk—he spent most of his days outside—before heading straight to the espresso machine. “It’s a little early for a shootout, don’t you think?”
The men whirled to face me, and Maxim swore and lowered his gun, although the barrel still pointed in Leona’s direction.
“Get out of here, Sienna,” Maxim commanded through gritted teeth. “It’s not safe.”
I measured out the coffee grounds and put them in the filter basket, tamping them down before starting the brewing process.
I leaned my hip against the counter. “No one will be safe if I don’t get my morning coffee.” Leona snorted, and I narrowed my eyes. “Is your meeting here?”
So far, Dimitri had conducted his business meetings outside of the house, but I assumed that was mostly so he could get away from me.
“No. We’re meeting at some office downtown, but I knew you’d have the good espresso.”
“Yes, I’m sure there’s no coffee shop in downtown Chicago with good espresso,” I said dryly. “I’m guessing you didn’t exactly knock on the door.”
Her coffee cup just barely hid her grin. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Maxim let out an impressive string of curses in Russian and English.
I grabbed milk out of the fridge to make my latte.
“Alright, we get it. Leona, you were a very bad girl. Don’t break in again.
Maxim, clearly there are some gaps in the security here so you should probably thank Leona for highlighting them so you can fix them.
Now, did Polina make breakfast? Because if I don’t eat something in the next ten seconds, I will probably throw up. ”
Sergey put his gun away with a grunt and opened the door to the butler’s pantry. He emerged a few seconds later carrying a tray of cinnamon rolls.
I squealed and bounced over to him. “You are officially my favorite.”
Maxim muttered something under his breath and stormed off. Sergey and Konstantin looked at each other like they weren’t sure what to do.
“You good?” Sergey asked me.
I dug a fork into the nearest cinnamon roll. “I’m great.”
Slowly, he and Konstantin scooted out of the kitchen.
“Wow, that was even more fun than I’d thought,” Leona said. “Bring those over here. I’m hungry.”
“No cinnamon rolls for assassins who make the Bratva men lose their minds.”
“What about for an assassin who was completely abandoned by her friend at the club last night?”
“Oh, right.” I put the pan down on the kitchen island between us and handed her a fork. “Call it even?”
“Only if you left because you were getting dicked down.”
“A lady never gets fucked against the wall in an empty office at a club and tells.”
“Attagirl.”
I took a sip of my latte, already sad that my cup would be empty soon. At least there were plenty of cinnamon rolls. They were still warm. I should buy Polina and Sveta diamond necklaces…or yachts or something to say thank you and convince them to never leave me.
“How bad is the security?” I asked. “Do I need to step in?”
“Oh no, the security system is actually really well done. I’m sure I could get through it with enough time and effort, but I just stole the key to the house from Maxim’s pocket last night.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
“Don’t worry, I put it back.” She drank the last bit of her latte. “After I made a copy for myself, that is.” Her attention turned to her watch and she frowned as she scrolled through what I assumed were text messages.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just your husband threatening to kill me, but there’s also a message from Ronan saying he needs me back in Boston tonight.”
My lips twisted in a sad smile that matched my friend’s.
I knew she couldn’t stay forever, but I didn’t want to be alone again in a home where hardly anyone spoke English and the only one who actually wanted to spend time with me was a wolf who was currently scampering around the garden chasing a butterfly.
“You’ll come back to visit me again, right?” I couldn’t hide the vulnerability in my question.
“Just try to get rid of me.” She reached across the island and grabbed my hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “You’re so strong, Sienna. You don’t give yourself enough credit for it, but you are.”
“I hope I’m strong enough for this.”
“I have no doubts.”
“Thank you.”
“Want to make me a latte for the road?”
I scowled at the reminder that she got to have as much coffee as she wanted. You better appreciate my suffering, little Turnip.
“By the way, have you been on the Forum lately?” Leona asked.
I glanced over my shoulder as I started up the espresso machine. “Oh, no. I haven’t.” Huh. It was strange that something that used to consume my day-to-day life had barely crossed my mind lately.
The Forum was where people posted hacking and tracking jobs.
The jobs tended to be high-risk, so I hadn’t taken many of them throughout the years, but occasionally a request would come through that was irresistible.
Last year, I’d taken on a job hunting down a low-level member of the Irish Mob in Dublin named Liam O’Connor, who had kidnapped the daughter of a high-profile businessman the morning of her wedding.
The man she was supposed to marry, a prominent drug-runner in Dublin named Owen Doyle, had posted the job and put out a huge reward for her safe return.
My connection to Leona made it almost too easy to find Liam and his kidnapped bride hiding in a cottage on Ireland’s western coast. I’d hired her team of female assassins to surveil the couple and plan the woman’s extraction, but it quickly became clear that she wanted to be with Liam and that Doyle was the real villain.
I’d set up fake identities for them and arranged travel off the island while Leona’s team did their job.
By the end of the week, the couple was safely tucked away in Greece, Doyle was dead, and all the money he’d ever earned sat in my bank account.
I hadn’t taken on any jobs since Paris, mainly because I’d been so freaking tired my first trimester and because I felt more hesitant to take risks when Turnip was counting on me…but maybe taking on a job would help with the crushing boredom.
“Have you heard of the Souleater?”
I frowned. The name was familiar, but it wasn’t one I’d heard in years. “Was he Bratva?”
“Not officially. He was born in Siberia and there were rumors he had Bratva ties. Either way, he was a cold, cruel man.”
“He died a few years back, right?”
“Well, that’s the thing. Maybe not. A Forum job was posted anonymously by someone who believes he’s still alive. They’re offering one hundred million dollars for his location.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Shit. Just for their location? That has to be personal.”
That sort of payment wasn’t unheard of in our lines of work, but I’d never seen a reward that high for just a location. That kind of money was usually reserved for assassin jobs with confirmed kills.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Leona said. “And if that’s the case, they could have evidence that the Souleater is alive.”
I finished steaming the milk for her latte and realized I didn’t have any travel cups. Eh, the cabinet was filled with an endless amount of identical, boring white mugs. She could just take one with her.
“I’ve also seen a lot of murmurings—people are wondering where the mysterious Hedgehog has been lately,” she continued.
“I bet they are.”
Leona hummed, and I narrowed my eyes. “You want me to take the job?”
She shrugged. “I just thought it sounded like an interesting puzzle. And if you completed the job, you could use part of your earnings to buy me a plane.”
“You use Ronan’s plane all the time,” I said dryly.
“But I want my own,” she said with a pout. “We could share it. I’d even let you paint the whole thing pink.”
I rolled my eyes and handed her the finished latte with its cute blob of foam art. “I’ll see what I can do.”