Page 213 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

“In an orphanage in northern France,” she says with a wry smile, as if recalling a fond memory.

“So they steal away little girls with no family and turn them into weapons.”

“I had no purpose,” Anna corrects haughtily. “They gave me one.”

“You call this a purpose?” I ask with disgust. “You help Astra Tyrannis steal and enslave thousands upon thousands of women.”

She shrugs as though those crimes are removed from her. “They created me,” she replies. “Who am I to question my creators?”

“And you feel no guilt?”

A flash of surprise runs through her eyes. “Should I?” she asks. “No, I feel no guilt. This was always what I was meant to be.”

The glint in her eyes tells me all I need to know—she’s a fucking psychopath.

The complete lack of conscience.

The unyielding belief in a monstrous cause.

The bloodlust that she can’t quite hide anymore now that her veil has been ripped away.

“It must have been torture for you,” I remark. “To play the part of the aging housekeeper.”

I notice the flicker of irritation in her expression. “As it turns out, everything and everyone has an expiry date,” she says. “There was talk of retiring me. Once I hit my late forties, I could no longer function how they wanted. They wanted their spies vibrant and beautiful. But I made them see that a spy didn’t have to be beautiful or young to get information. In fact, the most unsuspecting spies were the women you never really saw, never really noticed. The women who creep around you every single day and every single night of your life, watching you as you look right through them.”

I shudder. “They positioned you in Gibraltar’s house, didn’t they?” I surmise. “They put you there so that I would find you.”

“You frightened them, Phoenix. You had the force of the Bratva. You also had the Irish mafia to call upon. They knew that you needed to be… handled.”

I bristle at the word. She’s doing it purposefully—trying to goad me, trying to reduce me down to a child. I resist the urge to react.

“So they concocted a plan.”

“And they sacrificed Mario Gibraltar in the process?” I ask.

She smiles and shakes her head. “Gibraltar was useful once upon a time. For many decades, actually. But he’d been slipping a lot in those days. He was also starting to get cold feet. Maybe he was just growing a conscience. Either way, the powers that be decided that he needed to be taken out. No one knew this, of course. Astra Tyrannis business always stays within the family. As far as the world was concerned, Gibraltar was still a powerful man, working for a powerful organization. One who had his back at every turn.”

I close my eyes for a second.How fucking perfect.

“Two birds with one stone,” I say quietly.

“Precisely.” Anna smiles. “Poetic, isn’t it?”

Her face is transformed by the manic glint in her eye. The fact that she’s so controlled only makes her depravity all the worse.

“I was sent to Gibraltar’s home that night under the pretense of coordinating a new mission to deal with you,” she tells me. She leans forward, the gun dangling in her grip. She’s getting more and more enthusiastic about her story. “Astra Tyrannis had been monitoring you for months. They planted clues. Left you a trail of breadcrumbs.”

“They wanted me to attack Gibraltar’s home that night.”

She nods, pleased that I’m following along so well. “They wanted you to walk in on the exact moment I killed Gibraltar. It would be hard to question my allegiance after that.”

And it had been. She’d fed me a story and I’d believed every word. She’d just killed a high-ranking member of Astra Tyrannis. How could I not believe her story was legitimate?

They play the long game. Eiko had said as much to me only a few hours ago.

“You’re the spy Vitya warned me about,” I say, mostly to myself.

Which means something else. Elyssa and Charity? They were innocent all along.

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