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Claimed in the Dark

Page 87

by Scarlett Shelton

I swallowed and crossed my legs. “Not now.”

He chuckled, kissing me quickly before sitting back like the smug devil he was.

“I’ve still got more to look into,” I told him.

“Here? Or at home?”

My heart squeezed. It felt so good to hear Brady call Nikolai’s house home. But hearing Nik say it only confirmed it.

Home.

“I think I can keep looking into this at home.”

With how everyone was splitting up and making more final plans, goals with action that didn’t include my input, it seemed like I was done here. For now.

I spoke with Wren a little more and we agreed that we’d both investigate similar avenues. If we needed to meet up, a video call would suffice.

Nikolai drove me home since Wren had picked me up earlier. But all through that ride back to Nikolai’s place, I listened to the ideas that Trojan had.

Then as soon as I reached the house, I waved at Nikolai and went into “my” office.

Brady was still preoccupied with Paloma, and I bet that Adrik would no doubt have a task for Nikolai before the end of the day.

Content to stick with this momentum, I holed myself up in the office and searched for more vital intel that the Volkovs could use.

Wren suggested that I stick with looking for Rico Johnson, and after three more hours, I felt like I’d succeeded.

She called, and I filled her in since she was through with telling me about what she’d found about Gregori’s supposed location. The key detail I paid attention to was that this Konstantin Bratva was essential in aiding the mastermind with his constant movement.

“What did you find?” she asked.

While she wasn’t an official supervisor, she was the easiest person for me to confide in about this. She was a former agent, and it seemed like she was becoming the Bratva’s go-to person about hacking and looking into Gregori’s activity. It was all teamwork, really.

“Rico Johnson paid Pickering Inc. Security to hide that video I happened to see,” I told her with confidence. I sat back and crossed my arms for the rest of our video call. “I can send you the trail of correspondence, but yeah, it’s confirmed.”

I elaborated on my research, explaining how Rico Johnson had been two-timing just about everyone he dealt with. For donations to his campaign. With bribes paid to him by Gregori. Then how he sided with the federal agents against them.

“Sounds like there will be a hit placed on him,” she mused wryly.

“If there isn’t already.” It peeved me that he was the indirect reason that I’d ever ended up in the crosshairs of assassins. Because I’d happened to see the video that he’d wanted to use as a prop, all for Gregori to fake his death—again—he’d nearly gotten me killed.

But then again, if not for all this happening, I never would have met Nikolai. Or any of the Volkovs.

“You’ll need to forward all of this to Adrik,” she said.

“Already have. I condensed it all and shared it with Adrik, the head of security, Trojan, you…” I nodded. “Everything I’m finding is provided for follow-up.”

“Good. What about your old supervisor?” she asked. “You find the evidence that he was behind that video too?”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded again. “He was the insider Rico Johnson was paying off. Indirectly, between his office and Owen’s ex, but Owen was definitely involved.” I narrowed my eyes, loathing him all over again.

“Then I’m sure that will be dealt with.”

That would be dealt with. Not that he would be dealt with. It sounded so clinical and cold, hearing this gorgeous and witty redhead discuss Owen’s fate, but with this sense of FAFO that I was embracing as the newest “investigator” on the Volkovs’ side, that was simply what I had to expect now.

Cross them, and death was guaranteed.

Now that I knew my place was here, with them, I couldn’t find any fault in that defensive attitude.