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All my things were back in the small apartment that I called home with Brady. Everything I owned was in there, probably never to be the same again with the memories of those two dead men lying on the floor.

It would never be the same. I didn’t know how I could ever go back there and feel safe again. But that was no reason to be docile and trusting that this illusion of security would be anything to have faith in here.

Because this can’t last.

It just can’t.

And I refused to get my hopes up high that it could.

11

NIKOLAI

Having Louisa in my guest house wasn’t a hindrance, but it did put more of a time constraint on me. Instead of going home to my house, my main residence, I stayed in another room in the house she was staying in with Brady.

Guards would protect her.

Her answers hadn’t changed, and I doubted she was hiding any more intel from us.

Yet, I felt like it was my duty to stay close and personally watch over her.

“You haven’t been home for a while,” Alexei commented after a week had passed with Louisa and Brady living in my guest house.

He’d come with the others to discuss the developments, or lack of them, in this search for Gregori and the proof of whether he could be alive.

I glanced at him, more interested in watching Brady splash around in the pool. I’d hired a crew to erect a temporary one for him to enjoy, and it pleased me to see him having so much fun out there. At first, I’d done it more as a way to let the boy be preoccupied and less likely to whine. He wasn’t fond of staying inside or being idle. A few men had brought things from Louisa’s apartment—toys and books and things—but he still acted like he was trapped here.

But I wouldn’t budge on that.

The men who’d handled the cleanup of the two men at her apartment had been shot at. Others were still after her. When the other men went to retrieve more personal possessions of theirs to have here, someone had been lying in wait to attack.

“I’m just making sure that the security protocols are adhered to here,” I told my cousin.

He smiled, nodding. “Sure.”

“But it’s not like you don’t have staff to accomplish that for you,” Alexei said as he came to stand with us outside, under the awning.

“Paloma’s been very helpful,” I said, not wholly agreeing with him or arguing either. If they wanted to call me out on being present with Louisa and Brady, they could. I didn’t owe them an answer about my motivation where this sexy woman and her precious son were involved. I owed myself an answer, but none were coming to me. It seemed like a complex admission to admit that I took her safety personally.

These unfamiliar protective instincts over her continued to war with my duty.

Adrik had stopped pressuring me to kill her as a loose end since she provided us with copies of those videos. But no other new clues were forthcoming yet, and I was well aware that everyone had to be wondering why I was letting this lone woman and her son make such a difference in my life.

“You ready?” Maksim approached us, beckoning us to the table where Igor was set up with a laptop. He’d been assigned to work under Elena’s charge. Adrik’s wife was a busy new mother, but she still contributed as the main manager of the finances and the part of it that led to financial investigations. Igor was a jack-of-all-trades when it came to hacking and scouring the internet for clues and proof, and he often assisted Trojan. On this matter, he was in charge of organizing all they could uncover about Pickering Inc. and that video so many people had been talking about. Rumors still spread among the crime families that Gregori had been killed near that warehouse where the hidden video footage caught activity.

We all gathered at the table, and Wren began to speak. A former federal agent but now Lev’s expecting wife, she still acted like a careerwoman. Just on our side, now.

“While there is a lot of talk about Gregori’s supposed death, there is not a single word of anyone taking credit for the kill,” she said.

“And the only thing we are hearing is that we planned to kill him,” Maksim said.

“Well, we are,” Viktor said.

“We are definitely going to kill him,” Lev growled, always the first one to speak up with his wishes that Gregori stayed dead.

“But it adds to the idea that he’s faking it,” Wren said. “Again. And he or whoever helped staged that video knows that they need to control when and if it could be circulated.”

Igor took over. “What doesn’t add up is how the video was concealed at Pickering Inc. Security. If Louisa hadn’t accidently tapped the command to copy it for later review, it would’ve been covered up and likely only housed in the hands of whoever ordered that setup. It had to have been an inside job.”