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I watched Brady, pleased he didn’t seem bothered at all. If anything, he barely noticed, already so excited to go.

“I’ll keep you updated,” Louisa said, taking her phone and coffee toward the office. “About this, uh, update that popped up earlier this morning.” She backpedaled and waved, already calling Wren back.

I hoped it was a more productive update than what she had before, the almost-secure location on Vladimir Konstantin.

For the next several hours, I kept her at the back of my mind while Paloma and I took Brady shopping.

“You’re going to grow like a weed,” she joked. “I can tell.”

“I’m not a weed!” he protested after we finished at the third store. Guards flanked us while a couple of others were waiting in the car with all the purchases.

We spent hours getting clothes, new things for the pool. A few toys—Paloma was the bad influence there, insisting it was impossible to spoil a good little boy like Brady—and then I lost count at the bookstore.

On the drive back to the house, Brady asked questions about what it was like to go to school. He seemed interested in what Paloma explained, how he could just have a private tutor, too, but I gave her a look.

We couldn’t override Louisa. I doubted Brady could go to a school and always be safe, but with his being part of my world now, this was a discussion we’d have to have sooner or later. I didn’t want her to think we were predisposing him to any opinions or plans.

Before the driver reached my house, I got a text in the group thread.

Adrik: When you’re done, we need to meet.

Nikolai: Almost home now. I’ll bring Louisa.

Adrik: She’s been here for a couple of hours already. We’re all waiting on you.

I ran my hand over my hair. “Huh.”

“Something wrong?” Paloma asked.

“No. It just sounds like Louisa’s had a very productive day.”

Brady and Paloma would be busy for a while, sorting through their new purchases. I had no doubt that when he was reading or relaxing, she’d get carried away moving Louisa’s things to my room.

I went to meet with the others at the mansion, thrilled when Louisa didn’t shy away from me.

I came up behind her while she sat next to Elena, both of them at computers.

She tipped her head back and I ended up giving her an upside-down kiss, slanting over her. “You have a good day?”

“A very good day,” Maksim answered for her as he entered the large room. This had started out as Elena’s office, then it became more of an IT meeting room. Now, it was an auxiliary workspace. With Luka being born, Elena was more used to working off a laptop, needing the mobility to complement being the bookkeeper and a new mother.

“Let’s take this to the office,” Elena said. I picked up baby Luka from the portable crib in the room and carried him with us.

“I can’t believe how this is all fitting together,” Louisa said as she took my hand and walked up the stairs with me.

I can’t believe how well you and your son fit with me.

In the office that used to be my father’s, we all found a place to sit or stand. For all six of us to be present, it had to be something big. Most of them seemed to have already been here for a while, and I realized that they really had been waiting on me.

Wren stood, ready to point at the screen that projected what Louisa had on the laptop she’d brought up with her. “Maybe you should just start.”

Louisa shook her head. “No, you go on.”

Wren grinned. “But this is totally all you.”

“Okay, enough with the sisterly bestie stuff,” Alexei quipped. “Someone start talking. You can’t text that critical evidence has been found and then drag it out.”

“Shut up,” Viktor said.