Page 2 of Secrets

Nikolai isn’t aware of who I truly am beyond the veil I’ve perfected, and outside of his monthly visits for more plants, we rarely speak for him to be any the wiser. Alexi, on the other hand, knows all too well the monster within, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he would return alone to tell me what he really wanted.

And now, as he makes a show of closing his eyes, tilting his head while sticking out his tongue like a child, and running a thumb across his throat to drive in his point, I fully understand what he’s going to ask me to do.

I continue to cut the twine. “Alright.”

Alexi finally abandons my Monstera and takes a few broad steps toward me. My body instinctively tenses as he nears while his hazel eyes shimmer with a familiar glow I remember from when we first met—the night he found me hovering over my second kill. The one that condemned my future that was already doomed.

Fate has always been fickle with me, but that night, it was as though she was enacting a long, sought-out revenge.

“You have a month.”

My eyes roll as I drop the twine and scissors in unison. “You want me to killafederal agentin thirty days?”

He shrugs halfheartedly, an eyebrow lifting. “Iexpectyou to. Also, don’t arouse any more suspicion. My brother would throw a tantrum if I got his little plant lady locked up.”

One side of my lips twitches with an irritated smirk. Many people are terrified of Alexi—rightfully so considering his temper, erratic behavior, and small army—but I am not one of them. I only partially entertain a minute percentage of his antics because I would rather not make him my enemy.Myarmy, after all, only consists of plants, and even the most toxic of them couldn’t best his human one.

“Is there no other way? What if I gather information you could use instead?” I say it even though we both know I don’t have another choice.

Alexi shoves one hand into his pocket and places the other on the counter much too close to mine. “What can I do with information? They are deranged. Obsessed. Neurotic. And have been relentless in their stalking me for over two years now. No amount of information will stop the maniac from showing up at my door at two in the morning with flash grenades and a fuckton of idiot SWAT that will fuck up my nice floors. Do you have any idea how expensive the renovations have been?—”

“You act as if this person is a scorned lover,” I note.

He pauses, his eyebrows furrowing for a moment before he grins. It’s goofy and awestruck, like the notion is the solution to all his problems. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”

Alexi scratches through the scruff on his face absently for a moment, apparently lost in thought, and doesn’t acknowledge me until I clear my throat.

“So you need me to kill them within the month.”

It’s more of a statement that I understand the objective, but he blinks twice. “Yes, that’s been established three times now.” He begins his theatrics of studying my counter as though searching for something. A speck of dust, unevenly cut twine, the answers to the vast universe. I’m not precisely sure what he’s doing until he taps on the pad of paper I use to take orders. “You are getting old. Maybe let’s write it down.”

I bite my tongue from reminding him we are the same age and instead placate him by handing him a scrap piece of butcher paper. “How about you jot down some information that might be helpful? Such as which exact agency, known frequented locations, perhaps aname.”

Alexi releases a laugh. It’s much too boisterous to be authentic. “Oh, I thought I gave you the file. Silly me.”

A nerve in my jaw tics as I fold my arms over my chest. “Get me the file, Babin. Until then, the one-month timer is moot.”

His eyes flick to me, a playfulness passing over them as he slips his hand from his pocket. When he withdraws a switchblade, I lift a brow. An army, I can’t handle. Alexi alone? Simple.

He tips the knife toward himself, pointing to scruff that is long past a five o’clock shadow and to the vague, jagged silver mark that extends his smirk. “Would you like to know how I got this scar?”

“Not particularly.” I shove from the counter and turn, suddenly bored beyond fake pretenses. “I have things to attend to, so until you have something for me to work with, we have nothing more to discuss.”

A low chuckle follows me as I breach the beads and return to my back room. “One day,Elanora, dear. One day.”

I close my eyes, my heart pounding with the increase in my blood pressure, and it isn’t until Alexi’s heavy steps retreat toward the door and the bell above it signals his departure that I finally open them again.

While any dealings with that man are both dangerous and vexing, I’ve never felt unease—never had a reason to worry things wouldn’t go as planned. Something about this time, however, with this particular situation… Well. I’m not quite sure that will be the case.

I’m not one for rules.

They’re almost always moronic, put in place by someone who’s so completely out of touch, they don’t realize how hard they make it for the people who have to follow them. Or…maybe they do, and that’s the whole point. The sadists of the world grew up and became lawmakers who use their rules to inflict the most torture possible by creating ridiculous laws.

I mean, it makes sense, because why else would someone make it illegal in one state to catch a fish with your bare hands? Or in another, restrict anyone from running for public office if they’ve ever been in a duel. Or my favorite: not being allowed to walk backward after sunset.

It might be that reason alone why I make it a point to sneakily break as many stupid laws as possible, whenever possible. Call it a rebelliousfuck youto the long-dead and gone lawmakers or just for the fact I’m petty spaghetti, but it’s a physical need at this point.

You know, because rules are meant to be broken.

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