Page 21 of Beautiful Sinner

“I don’t want to scare you, Julia. I want to work with your brother. See what happens?” He winks and gets in his car, driving away before I can say more.

Slowly, I head back to Viktor.

“What was that about?”

I try not to flinch. “I thought he dropped something. I was wrong.”

Viktor looks at me for a long, hard moment. “It looked like you were having a heated conversation with him. But you’ve never met him before.”

“I was just making sure he can be trusted.”

His intense gaze turns soft as he rubs my arm. “Thank you for that, Julia, but I can take care of myself. I don’t need you to makesure people can be trusted or not. I can figure those things out on my own.”

“But if you’re going to invite him into our home, where me and Inessa are, you need to make sure he can be trusted or we could end up hurt.”

“You think I would invite a man into my home if I was sure he could hurt you and Inessa? Don’t you know me better than that?”

I sigh. “I do. I’m sorry. I… don’t know what overcame me. All this war stuff is just… getting to me.”

“I get it. Connor is going to prove to me that he can be trusted.”

“How so?” I ask.

He motions me inside and to his office. “We’re going after one of Dante’s nightclubs.” He places a picture on his desk. It’s an image of the nightclub I had gone to. Where I met Connor.

“Why this place?” I try to keep any emotion off my face.

“Because Connor likes to go here. It won’t be seen as unusual if he shows up. We can use that to our advantage. We’re going to strike at Dante and his second, Matteo, the moment they arrive. Connor told me that they frequent the club a lot. We can kill them there when their defenses are down.”

I suck in a breath. “Kill them? Dante and… Matteo?”

Viktor frowns, shaking his head. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” I say too quickly. “I just… I just want to make sure you’ll be safe.”

His suspicious look turns soft again. “I will be.”

“When is this going down?” I point at the picture.

“Tomorrow night. We don’t have time to waste.”

Tomorrow night Matteo could die. And I can’t stand for that. I have to warn him about what’s coming but… I can’t put Viktor in danger. I love my brother and would do anything for him.

Except, let him kill the man I have feelings for. I know it’s sudden. I know I barely know Matteo. I know he’s on the enemies side and could be using me for all I know.

But I also trust my gut and my gut says I can trust Matteo. That he wants this war to end just as much as I do. He doesn’t deserve to die for it.

I know what I have to do.

I can’t go back to the nightclub and hope to find him there. Connor might be there and warn my brother. So how can I see Matteo?

I don’t have his phone number and he doesn’t have mine. I have no idea where he lives. But someone might.

Elena Romanov, married to Aiden Murphy. She’s Inessa’s best friend but they haven’t been allowed to see each other since this war has started. They’re on opposite sides.

But Elena might know where Matteo lives. At least, Aiden would and Elena could get me that information. Only if Inessa asked though and that would mean revealing how I feel for Matteo to Inessa and it would mean asking her to lie to Viktor again and I just can’t do that.

There has to be a way.

---