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Maybe we’ll find Konstantin’s sniper, have the answers we need, and be that much closer to actually finding Gregori once and for all.

Louisa, Brady, and Paloma were in the kitchen, looking like a perfect picturesque scene of a family starting their morning. Waffles and eggs were still steaming from the serving dishes, and Brady stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on pouring orange juice into a cup for himself. I hurried up close and helped him hold the jug that was too heavy for him. He smiled up at me.

“Are you going to work already?” he asked.

I nodded. “I will be soon. I’ve got to meet with my brothers.”

“To talk about management?” he asked.

His innocence sobered me.

“Yes,” I replied, glancing at Louisa.

She gave me a knowing look in reply but lowered her gaze.

Thanks to her, we could identify one of the Konstantin assassins who was very likely behind the hits placed on Adrik and the agent Wren used to work with, the one who’d set her up to be killed in his place.

Through her work with Trojan and Igor, plus a couple of other IT specialists, she was able to scan surrounding surveillance feeds and piece together who had been watching Pickering Inc. Security around the time that she was supposed to have been killed. It was due to sheer good fortune that I happened to also be around there watching her, and also the fact that I had hesitated to kill her. If I hadn’t listened to my instinct about her and followed the orders to eliminate her, I never could’ve had this lead for us to follow now.

“Too bad you can’t work from home like Mama does,” Brady said as he dropped into a chair to sip his juice.

“Things are a little busy right now,” I told him. “But I’m due to slow down as soon as everything is more settled.”

“Will you be busy too, Mama?” he asked.

She lowered to sit next to him, peering at him with so much love that I wanted to give her another child.

Fuck, this is a lot.

I could fantasize about knocking her up, keeping her here forever, but Brady’s questions put me on the spot. I was busier than usual. As much as I wanted to excuse this uptick in activity as something temporary, an increase due to how close we were getting to finding Gregori and dismantling his network, I had to be realistic. He’d spent years secretly forming alliances to gang up on us. Through the Cartels and with paying off law enforcement, he’d done so much damage already. Now, with this Konstantin assassin, we had to go to war with other Bratvas.

Will it ever end?

“Yes, buddy. I’ll be busy in the office,” she said with a hint of regret in her tone.

“That’s okay.” He beamed at her. “I’ll keep an eye on Paloma.”

She laughed. “Oh, is that how it is? You’re keeping an eye on me, now?”

They continued joking about it, but I tilted my head to the side to indicate for Louisa to talk to me at the other side of the kitchen.

“Are you going to meet with them now?” she asked as soon as we were out of earshot.

I nodded. “Not about what you found yesterday. First, I need to go with Alexei and Viktor to supervise some concerns at the warehouse.”

She wasn’t aware of the hard hit we’d taken there, when Gregori paid off law enforcement officials to swarm one of our biggest warehouses where we stocked arms and drugs. The sting was a major collaborative event and it was taking a deep toll on our revenue. With time, though, we’d be able to recover. Unfortunately, we had to follow up and oversee it all—from dealing with the DA and also others trying to steal the clients we’d delivered to before.

“Later, Alexei and I will go find Vladimir.”

She furrowed her brow and nodded. Her worry was sweet, but it wasn’t necessary. “Be careful.”

I took her hand and tugged her back toward the pantry. Once I had her hidden from the others’ view, I kissed her deeply. “I will always be careful.”

She kissed me again.

“Because I’ve got you to come back to.”

She smiled slyly.