by Lee Winter
Ryan laughed, and Natalya chose not to dignify it with a response.
Chapter 10
Natalya was in suburban hell. It was possible she was in actual hell, too. Primary colours pummelled her eyeballs. A number of girls from both teams, along with their parents, had decided Hamburger Heaven was the ideal post-match lunch location and had converged on this family-friendly satanic hell pit, too.
Adding a touch of class, every so often the room would be drowned out by the clanging sound of the boom gates on the nearby railway line. Glasses of drinks trembled on the tables as the train roared by.
“Any allergies, ladies?” Alison asked, eyes gleaming with amusement at the appalled expression Natalya no doubt was wearing. The tables were covered with plastic, red and white checked tablecloths and cheap napkin dispensers.
Hailey rolled her eyes in an exact mirror of Natalya at the question.
“Okay then, I’ll be right back. Trust me!” Alison said.
Because, of course, table service would be too much to ask for.
“So,” Hailey said, considering Natalya for a beat. “You and my aunt, huh? How long have you two been dating?”
Natalya blinked. “She’s your aunt?”
“That’s what you took from my comment? Okay, so that proves it. You two are on like Donkey Kong. Hey, do you have any pets? You have to like dogs if you date her. Like—have to. I have one dog, Charlotte, but she’s really old. Actually it’s my aunt’s dog but she lives with us. The dog, not my aunt.” She giggled.
“What?” Natalya peered at the little upstart, wondering what Donkey Kong had to do with anything. As for pets, did a cone snail count?
“You look sooo confused. Was it the Donkey Kong thing? Don’t you know what that is? It’s a computer game from, like, a century ago.” She studied her closely. “How old are you anyway? You look wayyy older than my aunt.”
“Charming. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
Hailey gave a bark of laughter. “Oooh, super snark. You remind me of my best friend Petey. He’s gay, too.”
“It’s rude to announce people’s sexualities to them. What if you’re wrong?”
“Am I? And why’s it rude unless you think being gay’s a bad thing? Oh, I get it: Are you one of those self-loathing homophobes? I saw a daytime special about that once.” The kid gave Natalya a shit-eating smirk.
“I’m not a homophobe,” Natalya bit back, snarling, “and anything else is none of your damn business.”
“Ooh! No swearing!”
Natalya gave her an evil sneer which just made the little shit laugh harder. Natalya was losing her touch. Her sneer fell away as she suddenly considered the implications. If Hailey was Viktor Raven’s kid, did that mean Ryan was the weasel’s sister?
She tried to recall the image of the pasty-faced slug with his narrow, watchful eyes. They didn’t appear to be in the same gene pool, but stranger things had happened. And it might explain how Ryan had ended up on someone’s kill list. Did she know something? Or had she witnessed something?
Hailey played with the salt shaker. “You’re funny. And that evil glare is totally awesome. It’d melt the paint off a car. But I was totally just trying to be friendly. Seriously, Mum will be really pleased. She says her big sister got stuck with Grandma and it’s, like, killing her social life.”
“Did your aunt have much of a social life before your grandmother got sick?” Natalya asked curiously.
Hailey shrugged. “Nope. Well, I don’t think so. But I wasn’t alive then.”
“So what makes you so sure she’s gay?”
“I overheard Mum talking to Dad once. Like a few years ago. She was asking him to treat her better at work. And he said he couldn’t or it’d look like nepalism and besides no way the rest of the team wanted some dyke getting all the good jobs. And she was too pathetic to do anything but paperwork anyway. No one would take her seriously.”
“Nepotism,” Natalya corrected quietly and flicked her gaze to the counter, where Alison was now queuing to place their order. “Your father is Alison’s boss? What do they do exactly?”
“How can you not know that? Come on, you’re dating her!” Hailey said, eyeing her suspiciously. She gave a savage huff of breath and leaned forward. “No offence, but you sound like a really crap girlfriend. You should get her chocolates. A box of Whitestars. With fudge centres. She loves those even though she says she can’t have too many.”
“Fudge centres,” Natalya repeated. “Well that’s a dentist’s visit just waiting to happen.”
“I take it back, you’re not funny, you’re mean.” Hailey folded her arms and studied her. “How did you two even meet?”
“At an orchestral event,” Natalya replied archly. “I’m a cellist.”
“Oh.” Hailey sat back abruptly and nodded as though that explained everything. “Okay then. Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Yep. I get it. My aunt loves all that old boring music. How long have you been dating anyway?”
Natalya glanced at her watch by way of answer. The kid didn’t seem to be taking her denials as truth anyway.
“Oh!” Hailey looked shocked. “Did I just crash your first date? I didn’t know, swear!”
Natalya was faintly amused. “Well, I daresay at least it’s been entertaining.”
Hailey grinned back. “See? I knew it was a date.”
Natalya shook her head in amusement. She saw a leaf sticking out of Hailey’s hair, and her hand shot out to pluck it from the strands.
Hailey flinched, bringing her elbow up to protect the side of her face. Natalya’s hand immediately retracted showing her the leaf.
“It was a leaf,” she murmured as a red tint spread over the girl’s cheeks.
Who hits you?, she wondered darkly. Viktor? The slug had the eyes for it. She opened her mouth to ask.
“Don’t,” Hailey said quietly.
Natalya looked at her, startled by the world of pain in her tone.
“Don’t ask. You can’t help. You don’t know my family. You don’t know Dad. What he can do. No one does.”
Her voice was chilling, and nothing like that of the carefree teen she’d first sat down with. Natalya flicked her eyes over to the counter to see Alison turning towards them with a tray of food.
“Don’t say anything,” Hailey hissed.
“Your aunt doesn’t know?”
“He’d hurt her if she did. Please don’t tell her.”
Natalya studied her. “Suit yourself.”
Hailey shot her a shaky smile. “You’re okay. I guess.” She plucked her knife from the cutlery bundle rolled up in a serviette and waved it playfully. “But don’t you hurt my aunt. I might be little but I would track you down and cut you one.”
Natalya was impressed at Hailey’s loyalty and ferocity. She laced her fingers together. “You know, I’m not actually romancing her.”
“Well, then, success! Because you suck at romance,” Hailey said brightly, but Natalya saw the attempt at distraction for what it was.
“Hailey,” Natalya said in a low voice as Ryan neared. “There are people who can help.”
“I know you like her,” Hailey interrupted, ignoring the topic shift. “Can’t lie to me.”
Natalya gave her a mock glare and Hailey shot her a grin in retaliation.
Definitely losing her touch. She really wished she didn’t know this much about the kid. Life was so much easier without knowing people’s pain.
Ryan was suddenly at their side and slid the tray of food down. “Did you behave?” she asked.
Hailey shot her an askance look.
“Oh, I wasn’t asking about you, missy. I’m seeing whether Natalya was on her best behaviour or whether she grew weary of having to converse with someone who lives for flouting the rules.”
Natalya eyed her. “You’re so sure I live by the rules? I thought you said I don’t think the rules apply to me.”
“Paradoxically both can be true. It all d
epends on which rules. Did you even click any of the links I sent?”
“I was waiting for you to send me something sensible before wasting my time,” Natalya retorted. She studied the enormous carb-laden feast before her and slid her gaze back up to Ryan. “Is this really a meal for one?”
Hailey giggled. “Hells, yeah!”
“Language,” Ryan corrected automatically before giving them a bright smile. “Hamburger Heaven has no regard for portion control. They must think we’re all front rowers for the Wallabies.”
Natalya stared at her blankly.
“Rugby,” Hailey groaned and turned to her aunt. “Geez, what do you see in her?”
“See in her?” Ryan repeated, puzzled. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two. “What have you told my niece?” she asked, spearing a fry on a fork.
Natalya pursed her lips. “Your niece appears to have convinced herself of a great many things with no help from me.”
“You two are totally dating,” Hailey announced. “And you,” she told her aunt, “think she’s hot.”
Ryan looked pointedly at her food. “I think you’re imagining things, young lady.”
“So you don’t think she’s hot?” Hailey tilted her head, stymied by the denial. “Really?”
Her scepticism was written so clearly on her face and Ryan looked so awkward that Natalya wanted to laugh—if it didn’t also involve her.
That kid was trouble.
Ryan shook her head. “I’m quite sure one of the most renowned cellists in Australia can do better than an occasional soccer coach.” Her accompanying laugh was forced.
“Why not?” Hailey asked. “Soccer coaches are cool. Even you!”
“Thanks for the vote,” Ryan said and reached for the salt.
Natalya’s gaze drifted to the windows, wondering how she’d gotten caught up in this domestic quagmire. She didn’t do this. She never did this. She should remove herself immediately. Her stomach rumbled faintly.
Well, maybe after the burger.
And then her gaze met a shocked one in the window.
Viktor Raven! His hand was casually resting on the shoulder of young girl wearing a Dandenong Rampagers uniform and he was frozen, as though he’d been about to enter the restaurant when he’d seen her. Beside him, also clocking her with a measuring look, stood his new lethal bodyguard.
Sonja Kim.
Oh hell.
Natalya was instantly in Requiem mode as she studied the woman for weaknesses. She looked far better than the mess she’d left her in a few weeks ago, when Sonja had attacked her for electrocuting her boss. The slippery little shit was lucky to be alive, and only the fact that Sonja had leapt out a two-storey window and rolled down the awning had saved her from being killed.
Sonja looked a whole new level of pissed off right now, though. The murderous expression was startlingly familiar—and their sordid, sexual power play in a back alley almost four months ago came to mind. She gave Sonja her most confident, slow-curling smile, noting with satisfaction the Korean’s answering enraged look.
Requiem placed the expression: A woman scorned with nothing to lose. The most dangerous kind there was.
Raven placed his hands protectively on his daughter’s head and then pushed her behind him, murmuring something to her, and never taking his eyes off Requiem. Sonja, meanwhile, had positioned herself in front of them both, hand reaching under her jacket. She then shouldered her two charges out of sight of the windows, before glancing back. Her dark gaze slid to who Requiem was sitting beside, her brow arching in surprise. She smiled menacingly, and stalked away.
Requiem stood immediately.
“I have to go,” she said curtly, eyes fixed on the door, half expecting her nemesis to burst in and begin tossing knives around.
“I’m sorry,” Hailey said, worry lacing her voice. “I was just kidding around. I didn’t mean to ruin your date.”
“It wasn’t a date,” Ryan snapped, her voice tight.
Requiem glanced at them. A matching pair of wide, hurt eyes. Christ. She didn’t have time to offer the reassuring platitudes they wanted. They were going to be far worse than embarrassed if she didn’t take this outside immediately.
“I have something I have to do,” she said and exited the booth. “I just remembered. Goodbye.”
She left swiftly, her mind blocking out their dismayed words, urgings for her to stay, and tried to focus. She should have been outside the moment she’d seen the rat’s face. She’d had the briefest window of opportunity before she’d been seen. Had she been alone, she would have ended him already.
Requiem strode out the restaurant, furious with herself. A true assassin never hesitates. Never loses focus. What the hell had she been thinking playing happy families?
The moment she was through the restaurant door, the cold steel of a knife was biting into her throat. She was yanked around the corner, out of sight, into a side alley containing rubbish bins and empty food cartons.
“Lookee here, the great Requiem in her natural setting. Who was that you were with? Your sweetheart? You have a brat, too? People’ll be so shocked when I tell them.”
Requiem forced herself not to react to the words and began a mental checklist. She calculated where Kim’s body was in relation to her own. There was a telltale strip of warmth down her back where their bodies touched, and a bump against her left leg. Kneecap. Useful.
She heard a squeal of rubber and knew it was Viktor escaping.
“I think you just lost your ride,” Requiem taunted. A faint breathy exhalation fluttered against her ear as Sonja relaxed. Well, that wouldn’t do at all. A tightly wound Sonja was the best option for her survival. Stressed people make mistakes and lower their guards.
“I booby-trapped his car,” Requiem lied calmly. “He’ll be dead in five.”
“Bullshit! You don’t even know which car he’s in!”
Despite the words, Sonja’s body went rigid and in that split second Requiem simultaneously grabbed her knife arm with both hands, pulling it off her throat, while leaning forward and stomping backwards on the knee behind her with her boot.
Sonja went down in a hissing heap. At that exact moment she heard the restaurant door open. Ryan stuck her head around the corner.
“Natalya? Are you okay? You left so fas…” Her eyes went to Sonja, lying on the ground, clutching her knee.
“Aww. She’s so worried about you!” Kim laughed through gritted teeth.
Requiem spoke evenly. “Everything’s fine. Go back inside.”
Ryan stared at Sonja. “Why’s she on the ground?”
“She tripped,” Requiem said coolly. “I was helping her.”
Sonja laughed again. “Ow,” she added melodramatically. “Big fall.”
Ryan looked between the two women. “You two know each other?”
“Might say that,” Sonja said and her voice almost purred. “She’s a special ladyfriend. Ask her what we did together.”
“Sonja,” Requiem warned, eyes flashing her a furious warning.
Triumph lit Sonja’s eyes, clearly smelling blood in the water, and Requiem’s own cold focus slowly dissolved.
“What’s the matter?” Sonja taunted. “Afraid she might not like you anymore?”
“What do you mean?” Ryan whispered faintly. Her hand came up to rest on her stomach, as though bracing herself.
“She fucked me,” Sonja announced gleefully, pointing at Requiem. “In some alley, like a horny tomcat. Want me to tell you how? The things she di–”
A rage Requiem had never experienced before flared, hot, white and lethal. “Shut up!” she snarled.
Savage delight crossed Sonja’s face.
Requiem’s hands formed fists that clenched and unclenched. She wanted to pound in that smug, goading face. Ordinarily she disliked punching people. One ill-timed hit could mess up her hands. Right now she’d gladly throw that rule out a plate-glass window, along with Sonja Kim.
Ryan’s tiny, soft hiss mad
e her glance over. Shock, humiliation, and betrayal were plainly displayed on her stricken face. A blush was spidering up her neck.
“I see I was right,” she murmured. “It was me you didn’t want. I didn’t mean to intrude. I’ll leave you to catch up with your…friend.”
Ryan left and Requiem wanted to unleash her rage with a howl. Instead she hauled Sonja up by the scruff of her shirt and threw her at a nearby dumpster. The Korean let out a pained cry, and fell onto her back. Natalya stood over her and laid into her with her boots.
“That was…” she kicked her in the ribs while Sonja snickered and cradled her knee, “fucked up.”
Requiem next smashed her knee.
Sonja grunted painfully, then laughed again.
“Screw you. It was fun,” she spat at her, unable to contain her glee. “You started this. You treat people like shit, you get it back. Oh fuck—your faces! I think your honey’s not your honey for much longer.”
Requiem suddenly realised a new danger. The cruel and brutal things her many enemies could do to Alison and Hailey if they thought the pair meant something to her. She should kill Sonja on the spot but the place was brimming with people and dozens of witnesses had seen her walk outside and turn toward the alley.
She forced herself to still her features, to let the rage ebb away and to think carefully about her next move. It was a mental exercise Dimitri had drilled into her. She would become flat like a rock. Powerful. Solid. Impossible to hurt. She was almost there, in her serene place, when she recalled Ryan’s betrayed expression.
Without another thought, she cocked a fist and smashed it into Sonja’s taunting face.
“We’re not dating,” she told her with menace. “She’s my target, you crazy bitch.” She slammed her fist into her face again as she said the word.
“Sure, she means nothing,” Sonja said, unmoved, blood rushing from her nose. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, then glanced back at her. “That’s why you’re busy hitting me instead of chasing Viktor.”
Hell!
Requiem scrambled off her immediately. What was she even doing? She should have realised what was going on when the wrestling champion had actually stayed still long enough to let Requiem mess with her. The devious bitch had been stalling to help Viktor’s escape.