Page 74 of Marked By the Devil

Looks like you’re settling into your new job nicely, Agent Green.

Is this your first working lunch date?

Or your last?

My blood froze. Jerking my head up, I scanned the surroundings. I tugged Elena behind me, and Mila snapped into action. She flanked her too.

“Oh, my God. Seriously, what’s with you two⁠—”

“Damen.” I called out the name of one of the guards with us, and my tone told him enough.

He rushed forward, and Mila reacted too. She pushed both me and Elena back toward the café. “There’s a light under the car…”

We both tugged Elena backward and the guards rushed forward to barricade us. They had just gotten into place between us and the car when the explosion hit. The car burst, catching flames immediately. Heat spread out with the combustion, and we ran to safety, aiming for the café.

“Get in.” Another Bratva guard pulled up, and I wasn’t surprised that Viktor, Adrik, and Lev had ordered more backup than what we saw.

“Go, go.” I pushed for Elena and Mila to get in, following the rear.

Once we were seated, the SUV sped away from the pandemonium in the parking lot.

“Was…” Elena swallowed hard. “Was anyone hurt, do you think?”

Mila patted her knee. “We weren’t.”

“But…” Elena winced.

I took my phone out to text Viktor the update. “If they were, it was not your fault. Or ours.” I glanced up at her to catch her cringing and nodding.

I still had the scrap of paper, and as I rocked with the momentum of the car speeding us away from the Strip, I reread it again.

Looks like you’re settling into your new job nicely, Agent Green.

Is this your first working lunch date?

Or your last?

“Those fuckers,” I muttered.

“What does it say?” Elena asked. She held her hand out for the paper and I hated how her fingers trembled as I handed it over.

Mila leaned over to read with her. “From your coworkers?”

I frowned. “Former coworkers,” I corrected. “And they were hardly even my coworkers at all. I worked for that department one day.”

Seething and frustrated for the rest of the day while the Volkovs did damage control, I gave up on trying to be productive at the computer.

It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. All I’d ever done was want to make the world a safer, better place. I wanted to do good, yet just because I was the new person on the task force to join the Vegas branch, Smithson and his cronies had tried to use me as a substitute for a hit intended for him. Just because I’d been kidnapped by Viktor and the truth of corruption had been revealed to me, they had to try even harder to get me killed.

The hit that first night, when the bullet missed me.

The car that tried to run into me on the sidewalk.

The bomb that had gone off.

I growled as I rolled over on the bed where I’d dropped down to try to relax after I left Mila and Elena back at the mansion. The whole day was shot, and I vowed to work extra hard tomorrow to make up the difference.

I stared up at the ceiling, counting down the time until Viktor would be home. He’d gone with Lev to inspect the damage at the parking lot, still trying to smooth things over with the cops and the business owners around there.