Page 35 of Marked By the Devil

She protested.

She resisted.

But she caved. Because beneath all the labels that wedged a moral divide between us, she was a woman. A passionate, scared, defensive, and stubborn woman. And potentially an honest one.

If she didn’t know anything about Adrik’s assassination attempt, fine. The fact that she had only just transferred to the department was something that we had tracked and verified with Trojan hacking into all that he could.

If she was convinced that someone was aiming to shoot her at that same event, it was past time for me to twist my perspective.

Someone wanted Adrik dead. Clearly. That threat wasn’t going to disappear.

Someone supposedly wanted Wren dead that night too. Maybe. That threat had yet to be verified since she was the only one who claimed that a second shot had been taken.

However, with my brand of math, that meant someone wanted both of them dead. That they were both targets to eliminate, and in that vein of thinking, I tried out the theory that she had to have some value for someone to want to kill her.

Whatever that reason was could very well matter to us.

Seducing her wasn’t going to open her eyes to some critical piece of information that she was holding. It would only cement how strong the bond was between us, this raw magnetism that had her caving under my kisses and me going to the shower to jerk off while she dozed.

I paced in the foyer, waiting for her to come down like I’d requested.

My phone buzzed, and I checked it.

Adrik: You want me to have Elena show Wren what now?

Viktor: You’ll see.

Last night as I lay in bed and stared at Wren sleeping on the couch, it hit me that I could adjust my approach entirely. Feed her a little intel. Show her how rampant the corruption was. And maybe she’d realize that her cooperation with us would outweigh her concerns about siding with the enemy.

I texted him then, in the middle of the night, to have Elena be ready in the morning to show Wren some things on her computer. Trojan would dial in too, via a video call, since he worked out of state as only a remote employee.

Adrik had been up in the middle of the night due to Luka not sleeping. He agreed for me to bring Wren over, but he wasn’t clear on my reasoning yet.

I’d had a federal agent within my reach for over a week now and I was only slacking if I didn’t test what she could know with the evidence I’d show her. I had to have some barometer of how she would react to the possibility of corruption as a motive for why she could be taken out. And only then would I feel more confident to feed her some more information. Like the fact that we were seeking answers about Gregori.

She came down the stairs, her brow furrowed as she watched. I expected her to be tense and awkward around me after I’d made her come, but that shit wasn’t going to last. We’d proven to each other on that sofa how good it could be when we weren’t only enemies.

Her glasses rested on her nose, and I embraced the visceral punch in the gut that came when I took in how gorgeous she was. Her red hair covered her shoulders, left down, and as she came down the steps, the long waves caught the light and glimmered like copper.

“Before anyone can be preoccupied again,” I said.

She held up a hand. “That kind of preoccupation won’t be happening again.”

“Hmm.” So you say. I eyed her up and down as she joined me in front of the door. “Before anyone can be preoccupied again, I have something to show you.”

She hesitated, watching me warily. I imagined she was clueless for what to say since I’d made her come, but her lack of trust in me remained consistent. “Something good or something bad?”

“I’ll let you be the judge of that.” I gestured for her to follow me as I reached for the door knob.

She didn’t move, frowning at the void that waited for her to pass through. Staring outside, she seemed rooted in place. “You’re letting me go.”

I heaved out an impatient breath and grabbed her hand. “No.” Holding her hand, I led her to my car and opened the passenger door.

Once more, she paused and eyed me warily.

“Don’t tell me the only way I can transport you is by knocking you out and carrying you.”

She narrowed her eyes and got in.