Page 10 of Marked By the Devil

I glanced at her.

“A Fed, huh?”

It wouldn’t change my plans. The driver brought me to my house, only a few miles from the Volkov mansion Adrik lived in with Elena and Luka, as well as our father. I carried Wren inside and left her in a holding cell. No furniture was in here but a chair. She wouldn’t stay upright in it, though. I laid her on the floor and backed out.

With her locked in, I strode through the basement floor until I reached the stairs to head up. “Paul?”

I never knew what to call him. Butler was too elegant of a title. Soldier was outdated since he was older than dirt. Assistant seemed like a mockery.

He did whatever I asked as the head of security at my property.

I’d spotted him around earlier.

He approached, not speaking up because he didn’t “do small talk.”

“Run a scan on my newest ‘guest’.” I handed him the ID I’d taken from Wren’s wallet.

He took the card and arched a brow. “An agent?”

I nodded, backpedaling. “Let me know what you find. I’m going to check in with my brother.”

She would be out for at least an hour, and when she woke up, I’d give her exactly one minute to explain her part in this assassination attempt on my brother.

I drove to his place and instantly felt bad.

Elena was crying, her eyes red and puffy.

She sat with Carina, who comforted her as Adrik paced with Luka in his arms.

He shot me a look that he was at his wit’s end.

“He’s fine,” I told Elena, already clued in to how worked up she was.

“But he almost couldn’t have been fine,” she protested.

Carina hugged her and continued to console her.

“What’d you find?” Adrik asked as Luka fussed.

“An agent. She ran from the scene and I followed her.” Maksim entered the room just as I explained. “I’ve got her in my holding cell.”

Luka looked more agitated, and even though I didn’t know what I was doing, I gestured for me to try to hold him. He gave me the baby, and I let him kind of swing, like he was a football on my arm rather than a bundle to hug.

It worked.

Adrik furrowed his brow as he watched. “He never likes it when I do that.”

I shrugged. “Call me the baby whisperer,” I mocked.

“An agent?” Maksim asked.

I nodded. “Paul’s running a scan on her now. She’s out for about another forty-five minutes.”

“Why didn’t you take her to the, uh, accommodations at Lev’s?” he asked, shooting a side-eye to Elena. She’d come to live with Adrik as an outsider, not someone who’d been born and raised in our world of organized crime. She never wanted to know the “details” and we all tried to humor her.

“Because I can question her.” I shrugged again.

“It’s got to be Gregori,” Maksim mused angrily. “He had to have ordered the damn hit on him.”