𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞 | ✔

ғ ᴏ ᴜ ʀ

DEVI BHATT

I don't really have many secrets. Mostly because I tend to overshare when I meet people. I don't know what it's like to be guarded so I have no protective walls. People say I'm an open book, what I'm thinking is as clear as writing them on a note and sticking them to my forehead. It's a way of the world keeping up with my chaotic mess of a mind.

But it's also a problem sometimes- no-one trusts me with their secrets. When people show interest in me, it feels like a drug- it makes me happy but I know it's temporary. I dribble out everything about me and everyone else to keep them hooked, but in the long run that isn't good.

Some people say, mystery and secrecy keeps the relationship going. When there's still things about you to uncover, I'm not going to want to leave. People are naturally inquisitive. Some more than others. And you know what secrecy builds up to? suspense. The tension in a relationship- the tension that leads to a voracious scramble from either party to strip down the other of any secrets.

To leave them bare. Open. Vulnerable.

It's a ruthless world out there. But I know what to keep to myself, whilst making the world think I've laid myself out bare.

I leave them with nothing to find, if not scraps. I'm a four-piece puzzle that's already been solved. No-one chooses a puzzle of so few pieces. It's insulting to their intelligence. So I'm overlooked. Left to an advantage they're too arrogant to double check.

Something tells me, Grisha see's right through the top of fake tits I have on. He knows I haven't fully laid myself bare, he's suspicious of me. But there's something that will pop all of his suspicions like a pin does with a balloon. Swooning and flirting all over him will get his thoughts back to where everyone else's is.

"So?" Grisha taps his foot impatiently, waiting for an answer. I have a lie to confess. When I first met Grisha, when I first saw him, at the back of my mind I knew who he was.

Everything he has told me has been a shock to my system. The adrenaline coursing through my veins is feeling is all too familiar. I stand in a house of mindless criminals, yet again.

Pasha and Sasha, also known as duet smerti (the death duo). Twins- both are twenty-six. You get within a mile of these two siblings when they hunt you, running won't be an option. The only option they give you is death. Calling them assassins would be an understatement- they have the monopoly of you.

Fixation is their weakness- once they have their target they do not cower even if it results in severe injuries. Pasha is missing an eye.

Feliks Petrov. Adopted cousin of the Petrov's. Twenty-six. Tech savvy and a computer hacking mastermind. No-one's personal records lock him out. He knows not the feeling of panic when being hacked. He is the one who ignites that.

Trusting too easily is his weakness- he searches for more people to trust to make up for the absence in his youth.

Demyan Petrov. Blood cousin on the Petrov's. The second in command and he is utterly heartless. His bloodthirst grows with each passing day, and he looks for the action. After killing his sexually abusive father at sixteen he rose in power, given by the boss of the bratva. Quite a charmer.

Loyalty is his weakness- that's all he has to give, and he will sacrifice anything for the criminal organisation. His entire family, dead after attempting to leave this life. No-one who tries to leave, survives.

Kai. Just Kai, with no surname. Peculiar guy. He's the Japanese profiler, who was found on the streets of Moscow. He investigates every bit of everyone in the bratva's background. He misses nothing. With an extensive history and bachelor's degree in psychology, he mindfucks. Each member is given his test, to see their durability. It's brutal, they say.