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“Oh, no. I won’t. I mentioned my idea to help with any investigations to Paloma this morning. She’s excited about it as well, because she’s more than willing to help watch Brady. If I have a laptop, I can work near him.”

That settled it. Before I left with my brothers to check on something, I called a couple of men to get her what she needed.

Hours passed between lunch and what should have been dinnertime, but I got carried away, checking in with spies and crew members in the city. It was much later than I realized when a guard called me.

“Nikolai, there’s been a concern with the property.”

I furrowed my brow, stepping aside from where the club noise was the loudest. Adrik left me and Maksim hours ago. We’d agreed to stop at one of our smaller clubs before giving up for the day. Unfortunately, the “spotting” that someone had reported was a false tip. Rico Johnson hadn’t been here today like the security guard had suggested. It was a dead end.

“What concern?” I asked. Narrowing my eyes and putting a finger in my other ear to hear him clearly, I braced myself for bad news.

“A drone was circling the property,” he reported. “We shot it down and checked it over. It seems to be a device from the state police. Miss Emerson has been looking into the state police’s database today, and it seems like too much to be a coincidence.”

I gritted my teeth. “She’s been made, then?”

“Potentially. Wren has been over, assisting her as standby and support while she hacked into their server. It seems like they’re concerned that her IP address was tracked back to here⁠—”

“No, that’s not possible.” I didn’t dive too deep into understanding cyber security. That wasn’t my thing. But I knew enough that I wouldn’t have to worry. All of the security specialists and techs ensured that no one could easily track anything we were doing on our systems.

“That’s what Wren insists, but the timing of Ms. Emerson looking into that specific group’s database and then that drone showing up…”

I growled and cursed.

“The property is secure. Everyone is accounted for and we’ve increased the patrols.”

“Good. Thank you.” I paced, staying away from the noisier side of the club. “What was she looking at that could’ve been noticed?”

“The employment files. She explained that she was digging into that badge number of the officer who showed up in that video. It sounds like Wren and Elena were talking about trying to follow any money trails to or from the last officer associated with that badge number.”

I nodded, knowing that was a valid path of the investigation. But it wasn’t anything newsworthy. We knew that Gregori was paying off countless members of multiple law enforcement agencies. He was bribing so many to get away with attacking the Volkov empire as it was with decades of my father’s wise leadership. Still, it could reveal a clue, a new account, a new name. Hopefully, a location.

All this confirmed was that Gregori’s network was still that large. That identifying the components of his organization—so we could dismantle it completely—would take more time.

“What would you like me to do?” the guard asked.

“Maintain the increase of security. I’ll be on my way soon.”

I could count on him and all the members of the staff to keep her and Brady safe. Removing a threat on their lives was my number-one goal, but that would be challenging to pull off with only this remote invasion. The drone was shot down, but as I headed out to find Maksim and let him know that I was leaving, I worried whether the device could have captured any images of her or Brady.

She’d been hidden and under my protection all this time, and that wasn’t going to change. I couldn’t envision her leaving. And I couldn’t allow the possibility of someone knowing where to reach her with any hopes of killing her off.

Maksim stepped aside from the spies we’d come to talk to here. He listened, nodding along with the little bit of an update I’d given him.

“She’s too important to risk,” I said bluntly.

“I agree.”

While she’d only just started actively participating in an investigation for us, even he could see her worth.

“I’m going to move them to another location,” I said. “A safer one.”

As I pictured my main residence, I wanted to allow the idea of their moving there for a permanent purpose.

Regardless of where she was, I had to know that she was protected and unreachable from the others who wanted her dead.

I’d spent a lot of time reflecting on the before. Before I’d met her and she’d changed my life for the better. But I wasn’t going to permit an after. Not now, and not anytime soon. She was too precious to lose.

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