Page 65 of Marked By the Devil

Wren growled. “It’s why he probably sent me in his place.”

“What the fuck…” Brayden cursed some more. “I’m done. I’m so done with this shit. If this is what it would be like to work for the agency, fuck it.” He scoffed. “I’m just glad I can put this in your hands and I can walk away with a good conscience. I’m not signing up for a career where this crap happens. I’ve been dreading what to do because if I speak up, I’m dead. If I don’t, they’ll have me under their finger and prone to being screwed over anyway.”

The fact that he had been so scared about knowing anything sealed the deal for Wren. She was in the same boat as him, stuck with wanting to do the right thing and also to survive.

When she came back to the car, she immediately called Trojan, who was ready and at standby to look up what Brayden had stored on his personal cloud.

“Fuck…” Trojan drawled the reply as I drove Wren back home. The other car with backup trailed after us as we circumvented the Strip traffic.

“Anything on there?” Wren asked.

He whistled via the call on speaker. “More like what’s not on there.”

I knew she was excited to dive into all this new intelligence, but she disconnected the call so Trojan could start scanning it all for her to process.

At the next light, I grabbed her and pulled her over the console so I could kiss her.

She grinned. “We hit the jackpot.”

No. I did. With you.

“I’m just fucking relieved nothing happened.”

She shook her head. “Nope. Nothing happened. I almost feel bad that he’s been waiting for someone to unload this on.”

“I can see now why he’d be hoping for you to find him,” I said. “Since you’ve clearly chosen your side and are not in with any of Smithson’s plans.”

She snorted. “Except his plan to have me killed.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes as she stared out the windshield on the ride back home. “There'd better be some clear evidence about that.”

“It sounds like he knew a hit would be placed on him and wanted Brayden to take his place.”

She nodded. “Which wouldn’t have happened because Brayden just didn’t have the clearance to do a job like that. Obviously, their rules and protocols don’t mean much anymore since they are all corrupt, but I see how Smithson would’ve jumped on the chance to send the newbie on the force out.” She faced me, so pensive and furrowing her brow. “But this means that someone else wants Smithson dead.”

“I’m sure many do.”

She rolled her eyes. “Aside from you.”

“Think about it. He’s probably playing the system every which way he can. I wouldn’t put it past him to double-cross countless people, and they might not be so forgiving about that.”

“I bet not.”

When we got home, Elena called. “There is a lot to wade through with all of this that’s coming in from Trojan.”

“We will be very busy, indeed,” Wren said.

Before she could get carried away being too busy, though, I intended to square away one critical understanding between us.

She headed to her laptop in our room, but I walked up to her before she could sit at the desk. Putting two fingers on the top of the cover, I pushed it down.

“What are you doing? I want to see⁠—”

I picked her up and carried her to the bed. She sat on the edge of the mattress and raised her brows at me as I stepped back and crossed my arms to watch her.

“Umm… what’s going on?”

“I wanted to talk.”

She smiled and looked off to the side. “Now?”