[The Clans 05] • Love is War

Rhys

I owed Mariana so much. I’d betrayed not only her, but The Clans—my country,

my people; my own flesh and blood. With so much lost because of me, when

Mariana gave me a chance at redemption I was quick to take it.

I was needed in the Ukraine, and so I went.

But now a vicious woman named Vera is throwing me off my game, and, despite

all my preparations and all of my research, I knew nothing of this woman. She

was a ghost—a nightmare—appearing from thin air to complicate things. Over

time, however, I began to know her for what she was: a thug, a woman lost in

her own mind, nothing but a street rat.

How on earth could I be expected to work with such a woman; what happens when

you have to barter with someone like that?

I owed Mariana so much, and, though I knew nothing of her, she knew enough

about me to make that impossible. She knew that I would sooner die than go

back on my word.

All too quickly I’m being taught a valuable lesson by Vera: “love is war.”