Bone Deep (31 page)

Arrow slammed her hands on the table but did not get up. “Grant took the child, Bone and I buried the other one beside Ninka in the boneyard, but we never saw the mother. Blade was left with her and when she returned that night to our barracks, all she said was, ‘She is gone from me.’”

“The boy you speak of…” Dmitry said in a dead voice.

“He is ours,” she and her sisters said as one.

“I saw her in Arequipa,” Dmitry said into the silence.

“And?” Rand asked.

“She looks like my father,” he said harshly. “She looks like me.”

“We do know her but we call her Nameless,” Bone bit out, her voice threatening to desert her. “In Arequipa she told me her given name was Ninka.”

Arrow and Bullet both stood, chairs slamming into the walls behind them. Bone searched their gazes and nodded.

“She is gone from us,” her sisters said at the same time.

Bone closed her eyes.

“There is something else I have not told you,” Dmitry murmured.

“
Sisters
,” Bone whispered, as insight swift and fierce pounded through her mind.

Each time Dmitry had spoken of his siblings he’d spoken of
sisters
, plural.

“What are you saying, Bone?” Arrow asked.

Bone looked at Rand, Adam, Bullet, Arrow, and then Dmitry. His face was lined with pain. “Tell them,” she urged.

Everything had grown exponentially more complicated. There had always been another child in play in Arequipa. It was at once unbelievable and all too easily acknowledged. That’s what Joseph did—he played games.

Dmitry ran a hand down his face and she stepped to him, turning into his body and holding him. He was shaking as if the truth could not be borne. His pain reached for her and she could do no more than meet it.

He inhaled deeply and glanced at every person in the room before his gaze settled on Bone. She gave him everything she was with a single look.

“I had two sisters,” he said gruffly. “Ninka was a twin.”

She woke to his mouth on her spine. He had not taken her since he had told the truth of his siblings. He had told her of his encounter in the forest the night he’d rescued Bone.

Dmitry was positive though it was Ninka. Only Ninka had ever called him
nesti
.

Bone wasn’t quite so sure. Ninka had died in a clearing in the mountains of Arequipa. He could not understand why his other sister would lie about her name. Bone reminded him they had all been trained by Joseph and the first lesson had been trust no one. It had taken time and mutual pain to grow the bond with her sisters. Everyone else had been subject to immediate suspicion.

She sighed and he bit her neck, licking over the tiny hurt and soothing it as quickly as he delivered it.

Bone had contacted Grant and not heard back. Rand, Adam, and Dmitry now hunted the hunter. And Blade was still out there, searching for the boy. The boy did not belong to Nameless. He belonged to First Team.

“In the midst of all of this, I have found the one truth that matters, Togarmah Ramler,” he said in her ear.

It seemed the man was always seeking to undo her. Her given name meant nothing to her except when he said it. Then it was a blessing from a God she thought never heard her prayers.

She rolled over and gazed up at him knowing she’d been wrong. He had heard her and when the time was right he’d delivered her salvation. Salvation’s name was Dmitry Asinimov.

“What is this truth, Asinimov. I would hear it before you take my body and make my breath break.”

“You are my truth.”

And she knew that until her time ended on earth he would be her truth as well.

“
Zeh mah shevesh
,” she whispered at his lips.

“And it is enough,” he answered.

She watched him love her and loved him back with everything in her. There was more strife headed their way. The game was in full swing, only a few moves left before the end came upon Joseph and First Team with the force of a tsunami. Death was calling.

But here and now with Dmitry Asinimov, in his arms, his body inside hers and their hearts beating together it was most definitely enough.

It is always tough to get translations exactly correct. I have relied on Google Translate for most of my previous works, especially the Spanish, Japanese, French, and Irish Gaelic. I was unable to rely on Google Translate for the Hebrew in this work. Hebrew is most especially difficult to literally translate so please understand, any mistakes are absolutely my own. The Russian translations are absolutely spot on because of a very lovely woman who took her time and effort to help me get them accurate.

So again, any mistakes are mine.

Aba
(Hebrew) – Father

A kind’s treren reissen himlen (
Hebrew) – a child’s tear reach the Heavens

rakad shel mavet (
Hebrew) – dance of death

Ima
(Hebrew) – Mother

Kar li (
Hebrew) – I feel the cold

Poupon
(French) – little baby

Etz haChayim (
Hebrew) – Tree of Life

Ibadti et haderekh sheli (
Hebrew) – I am lost

Shavur (
Hebrew) – broken

Achot (
Hebrew) – sister, pl. sisters

Baruch dayan emet, aval n’kamah hayah mokesh. Shalom, achot.
(Hebrew) – Blessed is the True Judge, but vengeance is mine. Peace, sister.

Kostolomochka
(Russian) – Little Bone Breaker

Bratva
– Russian Mafia aka Brotherhood

Ubiytsa
(Russian) – Killer

Etzem
(Hebrew) – Bone

Da
(Russian) – Yes

Kostolomochka moja (
Russian) – My little Bone Breaker

Zeh mah sheyesh (
Hebrew) – this is what there is; there is no more

Syn (
Russian) – Son

Sicariorum (
Latin) – Assassins

Esli ja popadu v ad, ja vozjmu tebja s soboj.
(Russian) – If I go to hell, I’m taking you with me.

Poshel ti na huj
(Russian) – Fuck you

Spasibo
(Russian) – Thank you

Pozhalujsta
(Russian) – You’re welcome

Hashem
(Hebrew) – Literally means “the name”; God

Coma! Coma! Es bueno para tu alma, pequeña.
(Spanish) – Eat! Eat! It is good for your soul, little one.

No tengo alma, vieja. (
Spanish) – I have no soul, old woman.

U tebya hrupkie kostochki. Sogneshjsja ti ili slomaeshjsja? (
Russian) – Your bones are fragile—will you bend or break?

Za kazhdij tvoj vzdoh ja otdam tebe chastichku serdtza. (
Russian) – For every sigh I will give you a piece of my heart.

Serdtse mojo (
Russian) – My heart

Ljubovj - velichajshaja bitva. (
Russian) – Love is the greatest battle of all.

Moye (
Russian) – Mine

Ti mne nuzhen (
Russian) – I need you.

Watashitachi ni ushinawa reta mono wa, wareware ga mottomo oboete iru monodesu
(Japanese) – The ones lost to us are the ones we remember the most.

Ja slishkom mnogo poterjal, ot menja nichego ne ostalosj.
(Russian) – I have lost too much, there is nothing left of me.

Nesti
(Russian) – Bear

No he olvidado, anciana
. (Spanish) – I have not forgotten, old woman.

Tengo la esperanza de que un día se quiere, rompehuesos
. (Spanish) – It is my hope that one day you will, Bone Breaker.

moja ljubimaja
(Russian) – My love

Kazhdaja snezhinka
–
eto sleza rebenka okutannaja vechnim ljdom.
(Russian) – Every snowflake is child’s tear wrapped in the ice of forever.

Serdtsa muzhchinam razbivaet ne nachalo i ne konets, a to, chto praishodit mezhdu. (
Russian) – It is not the beginning or the end, but the in-between that breaks the hearts of men.

Rince leis an lann
(Irish Gaelic) – Dance with the blade.

Derzhite kataniye, dorogaya.
(Russian) – Keep skating, darling.

Pervichnaya Okhrannik
(Russian) – Primary Guard

Nyet
(Russian) – No

Tvoj otets bil horoshim chelovekom. Horoshim ubijtsey.
(Russian) – You father was a good man. A good killer.

Siúr (
Irish Gaelic) – Sister

Vsegda (
Russian) – Always

Lea Griffith began sneaking to read her mother’s romance novels at a young age. She cut her teeth on the greats: McNaught, Woodiwiss, and Garwood. She still consumes every romance book she can put her hands on, but now she writes her own.

Lea lives in rural Georgia with her husband, three teenage daughters, two dogs, a cat, and a Beta fish named Coddy George. When she’s not running her girls hither and yon she’s usually at her keyboard writing. She loves romance and nothing is off-limits when it comes to her muse.

http://www.leagriffith.com

Hartwood Publishing delights in introducing authors and stories that open eyes,

encourage thought, and resonate in the hearts of our readers.

If you enjoyed this book, please spread the word.