Page 9 of Claimed in the Dark

“And if there’s a chance that she’s not a witness who could be a threat to us, then…” I ran my hand up and down over the raised stripe of hair on my head. I frowned, watching a man talk down to her in the office. His tiny moustache proved he was one of those assholes who wanted to look like a man but didn’t know how to act like one. “Then maybe she could be a source of intel.”

“That’s not a bad idea. If this supposedly incriminating video footage is lost or hidden, she could find it,” he replied. “Maybe you could adjust your assignment and see what else you can achieve.”

“I’m not sure that killing her would achieve anything.” It could send a message to everyone that the Volkov Bratva didn’t hesitate to use power. “Do you think Adrik could be flexible on this?” I knew he was aggravated about the lack of answers with the hit someone had placed on him. It seemed like the Konstantins were behind it, but Alexei was still working on proving that conclusively.

“He’s flexible with whatever it takes to stop Gregori from accomplishing whatever he’s intending to do—with coming back from the so-called dead and potentially faking his death again.” He cleared his throat. “We trust you, Nikolai. You know that.”

As the youngest, often dismissed while the others took charge, I sometimes had to wonder if they did trust me. It wasn’t easy measuring up to the five of them.

Watching Louisa sit hunched over at her desk, worry clear on her angelic face, I had to question whether I could trust myself.

Never in all my years of serving the family and doing my duties as an enforcer and assassin had I failed to follow a direct assignment like this.

If seeing this stranger and perceiving her supposed innocence were all it took for me to challenge my orders, how could I trust that I wasn’t losing my edge?

4

LOUISA

Mrs. Richards stayed true to nature. The next day, she came late in the afternoon to pick up her sons from my apartment.

“Any second now,” Brady said when the boy asked when his mom would come.

Even my boy could parrot the line I always gave them.

It was almost like a tangible switch was flipped. When she opened the door, her smile faded as she saw her children. She had to change gears, going from a single woman with a lover to having to pretend to care about the sons she had with her husband.

Her attitude about not wanting to see her boys stayed with me for the rest of the night. All through the ordeal of dropping off Brady with Carly, then as I hurried into work and tried to talk myself out of this insistent fear that I was being watched.

Owen wasn’t in the office when I arrived, thank God. I wasn’t sure that I could handle another dose of his nagging me about being late—especially when three other coworkers came in tardier than me.

Punctuality was important. My parents raised me to always be on time and respect others’ schedules. It was too bad that their punctuality had gotten them killed, going to church well before a service would start and being in the wrong place at the wrong time to be hit in a fatal car accident.

It just needed to be an important policy for all us at Pickering Inc. Security. He couldn’t hold me to higher standards than the others, but he so obviously did.

Without him there to be mean to me or harsh about reminding me that I was easily replaceable in this low-wage job, I took my time settling into my cubicle, getting ready for another long, brain-numbing shift.

And still, I kept thinking about how drastically Mrs. Richards avoided being a mother to her children. It just didn’t make sense. I couldn’t understand how a woman could bring a precious child into this world and not want anything to do with him.

Of course, post-partum depression was a real stark issue for some. And certainly, there were many instances of psychological issues like depression and whatnot.

I wasn’t judging her for not wanting to be present with her children, but it broke my heart to witness it. Especially when I longed to be home with Brady every minute that I was here.

I sighed, logging into the system while the coworker in the next cubicle cheered.

I rolled my eyes, feeling distracted but now also thoroughly annoyed with the fact that the others were just gaming and screwing around on the clock.

I could be doing so many other things with my time than being here.

I could bake those cookies with Brady instead of relying on his babysitter to do those kinds of activities with him. I could take Brady to the park to teach him how to ride a “real” bike without training wheels—a little outdoors trip like that with just the two of us, something I couldn’t pull off when I always had the Richards boys with me.

We could check out a museum. Take a bus to one of the big parks in the area. Or even just sleep in and cuddle in bed while he practiced his reading skills.

I heaved out another long sigh, reminiscing about all that had happened to get me to this moment, here, like this.

I hadn’t counted on having Brady when I discovered I was pregnant. Back then, I’d been getting out of college, excited to start an internship for a computer security start-up. But then a busted condom with my boyfriend at the time meant I’d be a mother much sooner than I thought I might. It also meant getting married to a man I hadn’t seen myself staying with for good. Kaleb was a decent boyfriend, but he hadn’t seemed like husband material. However, his parents insisted on our doing “the right thing”, so we’d married as mostly incompatible partners. He died from an accident at his welding job before Brady was even a year old, so it’d been me raising that sweet, smart little boy. Just me and Brady. The two of us against the world.

Ideally, if I had gotten that internship, I would’ve been able to apply myself and my skills and education in a much better way, with a job I cared about, that would give me some drive. I probably would’ve been able to work from home and be present in Brady’s life as a single mother.