Sin of Silence (Sinner's Empire #1) - Nikita Slater Page 0,47

name. What was he going to do once he found out about Shaun’s escape attempt?

As though reading her mind, Dasha said in a serious voice, “He knows and he’s on his way.”

The bodyguard had likely called Jozef the second she was safely tucked in the car. Shaun figured Leeza had called to alert her mother, which is how she’d known to meet them at the door so quickly. Dasha was rifling through Shaun’s packages, tossing the occasional item on the bed.

“Is he going to be angry?” Shaun asked tentatively. For all she knew, Dasha was angry too. After seeing Leeza with a gun, Shaun was starting to realize that the women of this family were just as deadly as the men.

Dasha straightened and turned to look at Shaun, her expression grim. It was that look that made Shaun viscerally aware of how vulnerable she was. She was inside the mansion of a crime family. They could do anything to her and not a damn person would stop them. She’d been a complete idiot to enact a half-formed plan that was doomed to fail from the start. She should have waited, lulled them into thinking she was reconciled to her situation and then found a fool-proof way of leaving. Instead, she’d acted on impulse and fear.

“Jozef doesn’t get angry.” Dasha continued to empty shopping bags. “He uses cool logic in everything he does. If he decides to put a bullet in your head, he’ll do it calmly.”

Shaun’s mouth went dry and it took real effort to stiffen her spine so she wouldn’t collapse to the floor. She couldn’t handle the constant adrenalin rushes razing through her body. They were making her slow and sluggish. She needed to stay as calm as possible so she could think on her feet.

“I’ve seen him angry,” she told Dasha, reaching out to fold a shirt from the pile of clothes gradually growing bigger.

Dasha stopped and looked at Shaun, a frown creasing her perfectly plucked and coloured eyebrows. “I’ve never seen Jozef get angry, or much of anything else. Not even when Krystoff was taken. I’ve long suspected his ability to feel emotion has been damaged. The day Jozef’s parents were murdered, his heart froze along with any feelings he had.”

Dasha was wrong. Shaun had seen a variety of emotions in Jozef. It seemed odd to her that she could pick out the emotions of a man she barely knew, and his own family couldn’t.

Shaun pulled the stretchy fabric of a skirt between her fingers. “But he loves you and the rest of the family. I could tell by sharing one meal with you.”

Dasha shrugged. “Sure, he loves us, but he doesn’t express it. No love, no fear, no anger, no feelings.”

“When we were… when he…” she paused, trying to find a delicate way of telling the man’s aunt that he’d shot someone point blank in the head and then turned the gun on Shaun. Dasha waved her hand impatiently as if to tell Shaun to get on with it. “When he was trying to get me to patch someone up, he seemed really angry when I refused.”

Dasha stared at her with speculative eyes. “What do you mean by angry?”

“Uh…” Though she didn’t want to, Shaun forced herself to remember the interaction. “He pushed me down and got right in my face. He was frowning and signing so fast I couldn’t follow what he was trying to say, but I got enough that I understood he was angry with me for refusing. Then, after he’d… killed the person, he seemed angry again when he put the gun to my head.”

“You can speak sign language?” Dasha asked sharply, her expression melting from concern to understanding.

Shaun nodded, surprised Dasha didn’t know. She tried to remember if she’d used sign language in front of Krystoff and realized she hadn’t. The aunt and uncle had no idea that Shaun could easily communicate with their nephew when most other people couldn’t.

Dasha seemed to absorb what Shaun was saying, before turning back to the pile of clothes, shoes and toiletries on the bed. She picked out a few items and handed them to Shaun. “Change into this.”

As Shaun changed, Dasha rushed around the room, tucking Shaun’s new clothes and toiletries away. Shaun thought it was a strange activity to engage in at a moment that felt very dire. The outfit Dasha chose was comfortable and flattering, but then, all of Shaun’s new clothes were flattering. She pulled on a pair of bright