The Deception Read Online Free PDF Page A

I right wrongs. “Thank you.” I rise to my full height and brush at the invisible lint on the cuffs of my sleeves. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with my friend.”
    “Oh,” she says, as if remembering we aren’t the only two people in my shop. Her earlier terror is gone, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go easier on Petrov. Quite the opposite actually. “You go on; I need to leave in a few minutes anyway. I’ll see you Friday night for our first class. It’s at seven, so we can eat before we go or after. Or you don’t have to eat with me at all.”
    Like a date?  And what happened to having lunch with her? Stupid man—you can’t have lunch with her. You can’t have anything with her at all, beyond these walls. Meeting with her in the park was fucking madness. “What if we pick the same restaurant? Shall we sit at separate tables and pretend not to know one another?”
    She tilts her head to one side again. Adorably, I might add. “Are you flirting with me, Roman?”
    I catch sight of my customer leaning against the counter, his inquisitive eyes missing nothing. Fuck my life. I can’t respond how she wants. Hell, I can’t respond how I want.
    Everly’s a dangerous little thing to my peace of mind. She makes me forget what I do for a living. She makes me forget that my hands are scarred, burned, blackened and twisted, stained with the blood of vile monsters.
    Not meeting her eyes, I shrug.  “I’m not sure of my dinner plans, yet. I’ll meet you at class, yes?”
    “Sure. Whatever. See you at class,” she answers, smiling brightly. Her bright smile doesn’t reach her eyes. “Don’t worry about lunch this week or whenever. I, ah, forgot I have plans with my out-of-town guest.” A lie. The air vibrates with it. I’ve just hurt her. Again. There’s no way she’ll push for more.
    “Brilliant.” I focus my attention on the man at the counter, watching Everly gather her things in my peripheral vision. She looks defeated.
    She turns suddenly, her mouth opening like she has more to say, and my body tenses. Then she gives herself a little shake, and her mouth snaps shut. She hitches the strap of her bag higher on her shoulder, scooping the box of books into her arms before barreling toward the front of the store.
    The door opens with a bang, from her hip hitting against it. The cat I found in the alleyway slips out, flicking its tail proudly. I stand there, watching as both of them disappear from view.

CHAPTER FOUR
    THE REQUEST
    “W omen. Always wanting what they can’t have, eh?” Viktor Chapeyev knows about the shooting and Everly’s role. He always knows.
    At fifty-five, he’s still just as intimidating as the first time I met him as a boy of twelve. Same white-blonde hair, same black eyes, and same charming smile. A great many have met their Maker after seeing Viktor’s visage. Sixteen years after our first meeting, I still wonder if he’s truly on my side.
    Or any side for that matter.
    I shrug. “She’s spooked from Petrov’s handiwork and wants me to take self-defense classes with her.”
    Piercing, black eyes assess my words. “She knows nothing?”
    “Less than zero,” I mutter as he passes a book to me.
    “I’m interested in selling this,” he says.
    I turn it over and read the title. The Secret Lives of Kings . “Royalty,” I say, nonplussed.
    Besides the implication of the title, there are only three copies of this 1835 tome in the entire world. When it was published, kingdoms came tumbling down, because it created such a stir. Newspapers, pamphlets, and posters copied the scandalous truths of those in power, and it had gone, for lack of a better term, viral.
    If I truly ran this store as a business, I’d be gobsmacked right now.
    “ Viva la revolucion, ” Viktor says with a smirk, and so begins information dissemination. “It’s a fairly recent regime change, though the family is an old one. Hence...” He pats the book.
    Before Snowden revealed what he knew