Page 16 of A Devious Arrangement
Now, I need to know everything about her.
I pull out my phone and open up our group chat,Brothers Before Mothers.
Me: What do you know about the Volkov family?
Damon: Where the fuck did you disappear?
Me: I found something interesting. Do you know anything or not?
Matthias: I’m not sure we should encourage him.
Damon: Agreed.
Me: That’s truly unfair coming from the both of you.
Xander: Sounds ominous to me.
Me: Ha ha very funny. She just caught my attention.
Matthias: She? I thought you were asking about the Volkovs.
I place my phone on the table. It dings again, this time with a message just from Xander.
Xander: I’ll look into the Russians here in New York.
Xander: Tell me what you’re up to.
Me: Not yet.
Chapter 6
Anastasia
“You can’t just walkinto the Vault. This is precisely why I said it needed to be me.” The exasperation is clear in Nikolai’s voice.
I skirted around how exactly I gathered the information when he called me, but that still leaves what the next step is. And since Nikolai’s on house arrest at our grandmother’s house, there’s absolutely no chance he’ll find out.
“Well, it’s not you. So, are you going to help me or not?” I rub my temples as we go over this for the hundredth time, always ending up with the same thing. There’s no way I can go down there without someone noticing. Never in the Order’s history has a woman been in the Vault, blah blah…bla— “Wait…”
“I don’t like the sound of your voice, Ana,” Nikolai says.
What’s with boys calling me annoying nicknames lately? Heat curls below my navel as images of Bash kneeling in front of me fill my brain. I shove them to the side. “What if it’s okay if everyone sees me?”
“Just because you’re a Volkov doesn’t change the fact that no women are allowed in the Vault.” He lets a long slow breath as if searching for patience.
I itch to reach through the device and throttle him. “I know that. That’s why I think I should pretend to be you.”
His laugh is loud, and I have to pull the phone from my ear until he’s finished. “No one in their right mind is going to believe you’re me. Not only are you thinner, but I have several inches on you. You may be tall, Ana, but you aren’t that tall.”
He’s not wrong, but at five ten, a pair of four-inch heels will do the trick. I tell him that.
He grumbles. “And how do you intend on hiding those?”
“You wear robes, don’t you?” Already going through the plan in my head, I ignore his protests.
Nikolai sighs. “You’re going to go through with this no matter what, aren’t you?”
“Definitely. Now, be a good brother and help. Well, unless you want me to get caught.” It’s not fair to play that game, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
