Page 78 of Assassin: Part 1

Any joy in her face vanishes. “I’m going to ignore that insult because I know you’re dealing with a lot, Ilya, but don’t fucking push it.”

Push it? Push it? Clenching my hands at my sides, I open my mouth to blast her, to tell her exactly what I think of that, when Rori snaps, “Start at the beginning, Tatiana.”

Tatiana? That’s her name? Of course it’s fucking Russian.

Tatiana rolls her eyes. “We both know that’s not my name.”

Why am I not surprised? But her name is the least of my concern right now. What is, is the rest of what she says. She doesn’t look at me right away, but when she does, it’s a punch to the gut.

She tells Rori about how she met Mila and the rest of us, before she gets to the stuff I need to know. And I’m not ready for it.

“I’ve already been planning on taking him down when the time was right, but well, this just sealed it.” She glances at Mishka. “Mishka was smart, fast, and hungry enough to help me make it happen. The problem was we could never get close. Until you called me.” She looks at Rori.

“And that was the moment you realized that I could bring him out into the open.” Rori’s tone is accusatory.

“Mishka didn’t want to involve you, but, well, I do what I know will work. Personal feelings aside. He never wanted you to know he was alive.” She shoots him a pointed look. His expression never changes, but his gaze goes to Rori. Regret and apology, but he says nothing.

“So you concocted this plan to bring her here so you could kill him?” Zakhar demands, unable to stay silent any longer. I know the feeling. There are too many questions that don’t make sense. We’re missing something. Something very important. “You deliberately put my daughter in danger because⁠—”

“She was never in danger,” Tatiana, or whatever her name is, interjects, pinning him with a cold glare. “Who do you think kept all these fuckers away from her? Do you really think that no one ever tried to take her from that school? How many deaths she’s narrowly avoided thanks to my oversight?”

Zakhar is silent, but I can feel the confusion rolling off him, and I’m right there with him. What is her obsession with Mila? Why is she so intent on keeping her alive? Sure, she saved her, but she walked away and never talked to her again. She only ever came to see me.

“I kept my fingers and ears to the ground as we waited to see just what was going to happen, because you, my darling, were in his way of total control of this part of the world, and the only way he could peddle his flesh market into this coast was through Belov’s territory, with some help from a certain Italian Don. It wasn’t enough.” She looks at Alonzo.

“I knew that fucker was involved,” Alonzo huffs.

I ignore them. She did all of that for Mila? A girl she rescued? That’s why she got so involved with me?

“How did you convince Simeon to talk his father into this plan?” Rori asks, narrowing her eyes.

Simeon? Was this woman working with Simeon too? No, that can’t be right.

“I let it slip to your father that you were in New York, and he told me to figure out how to get you back to California. From there, I used my connections and networks to get him to hire me and come up with the story to work with Ilya.”

Story to work with me? Talking with Simeon?

The only person that Simeon was working with was…

Holy shit. No. That can’t be.

She can’t possibly be…

Shock overwhelms me.

“No fucking way,” Oleg rasps. “You? You’re… you…”

“I really do love when they do that.” Tatiana giggles, but her intense gaze never leaves me despite the amusement.

Her? This woman? She’s the one who’s been running this show from the very beginning? She’s been the one I’ve been contacting? Talking to? Her?

I can’t wrap my head around it. The only thing I can say is, “You’re the Chameleon.”

This woman, the one who’s messed with my head, drugged me, fucked me, and driven me insane, is one of the deadliest assassins in the world?

33

LANE