Page 69 of Marked By the Devil

“Because he’s a snitch?”

He huffed. “So are you.”

I shook my head. “I was kidnapped.”

“Oh.” He laughed. “There’s a difference?”

“There’s a difference.” I never thought I’d see the day when the fact that Viktor kidnapped me would become something like an inside joke. It wasn’t a laughing matter—usually. But I couldn’t lie and admit that I was suffering here.

I was… thriving.

The difference was that I’d found my place and purpose in the world here.

The bigger difference was that I’d found… love.

“I’ll have someone figure out protection for him.” He lifted his chin at Maksim as he entered the room. “He can handle one sniveling, helpful snitch of a junior agent.”

“What?” Maksim glanced between us. “Carina’s up with Elena,” he told me.

“Oh, good.” I smiled. “I can’t wait to meet Isabel.”

I headed up to where Elena and I worked together, and sure enough, there they were. Mother and daughter, mother and son. Mila was there too, smiling at Isabel.

“Wow, that is a full head of hair!” I whispered it but couldn’t tamp down on my excitement.

Carina looked tired but happy, proud too. “No wonder I had so much heartburn.”

“She looks just like you.” Mila didn’t speak up much, but even she was fond of the others growing their families. Viktor hadn’t told me much about Lev’s wife, but I understood that it was new.

“Here.” Carina offered Mila the baby as she shifted. “I need to run to the bathroom.”

Mila sat back and cradled Isabel in her arms. Right then, Nikolai stepped in. “Damn.” He blinked. “That’s a lot of babies and a lot of women.” He mocked being so overwhelmed that he was blinded. “Too much estrogen…”

“Just wait ’til it’s your turn, Nik,” Carina sassed as she excused herself.

“My turn?” He rolled his eyes, turning to call after her as she went down the hallway. “It won’t ever be my turn. I’m too much of a catch to limit myself to one woman. It’s not fair to the rest of womankind.”

I rolled my eyes at Mila, who smiled in reply.

“I came to find you two,” he said, facing the room again. “Elena, there’s something I needed you to check with a property that the Konstanovs seem to be claiming as theirs.” Then he faced me. “And I’m supposed to get ahold of some kid Adrik thinks we need to protect?”

“He’s not a kid,” I replied.

“Oh, good. Because I’m cool with them being that little.” He smiled at his niece and nephew. “But I don’t know a damn thing about dealing with an actual child.”

“He’s an adult. A junior agent who is helping us collect intel against Smithson and Gregori.” I pointed at the door. “And I’m pretty sure he’s talking about it with Maksim downstairs right now.”

He saluted us and left.

“I’m so glad Brayden wanted to help,” Elena said as she put Luka in the portable crib. “I’m so glad that you want to help to.”

“Is that all I’m doing?” I asked as I took my seat. “Helping?” I scoffed.

She beamed at me, sitting down to tackle more of the files that we had to read and connect. I hoped that more things would click and fill in some gaps about what we needed to know, what we needed to discover to bring down Gregori. To end Smithson and his cronies who wanted to hide behind aliases.

Carina came back in and she visited with Mila, but neither of them distracted me or Elena from working. Brayden had saved a ton of data and it wouldn’t be a quick read.

As I settled in and made it a productive day, I realized that no one could claim that I was merely helping or assisting. I was owning this. I was fully enmeshed in this investigation, and I was proud to have a part in it.