Page 39 of Marked By the Devil

She raised a brow. “Isn’t Smithson your superior?”

I cringed. “Yes, but…”

But nothing. If he was involved in all this, his superior could be too. And another above him. No matter how shocked I was to see all this evidence of bribes, it didn’t escape my notice of how widespread it was. How webbed and interconnected it all could be, preventing it from being a clean-cut case to solve.

Luka’s cries sounded from the hallway and Elena sighed. She shut down the computer as Adrik and Viktor returned. “Yes, Master,” she muttered, jokingly but with love as she took her baby.

“Seen enough for now?” Viktor asked me.

I stood. He offered me his hand but I resolutely ignored it. I ignored his question too. I hadn’t seen enough, actually, because deep in my heart, I wanted to dig and probe and investigate to know exactly who was behind all this corruption within my reach.

My need to do the right thing would never change. But as I followed Viktor through the mansion and back to his car, I felt terribly conflicted about how my views of what was right or wrong had already changed.

What am I doing here?

Why does this have to happen to me?

I hadn’t asked for that stakeout assignment, and I hadn’t ever considered how it could have gone so wrong to change my life like this. Or to modify it so much that I debated the reason I was being held with the Volkovs.

Because a little part of me was ready to commit. I wasn’t wholly offended by Viktor’s question about whether I could offer ideas for how to identify the root of corruption in the agency here.

As I got into the car and stared out the window on the drive back to his house, I struggled with being able to tell whether I was even supposed to be a captive anymore if I was considering turning against the corrupt interests of my coworkers.

I wasn’t at all sure what to think or believe anymore.

13

VIKTOR

Wren didn’t say anything on the ride back to my house.

She didn’t say anything as I led her inside it, either.

That was to be expected, though. She had to grapple with a lot to process, and that couldn’t be easy on her.

I directed her to sit in the kitchen while I made us lunch. She did, staring at the wall and zoning out.

She didn’t eat much, but I wasn’t in the mood to push her about her appetite.

I was in the mood to push her on whether she could ever be flexible about her stubbornness that she was good and we were bad. If she would be able to assist us in this war against Gregori.

After we ate—or rather, after I did—I told her that I was going to my office. She could stare at another wall. It didn’t matter where she went or what she did in my house. But I recognized that she needed space to think, to slot away all the news about how her “side” of the law wasn’t so perfect, after all.

Eventually, when I felt like my nerves were fraying and I was rereading the same emails over and over again without actually absorbing any of what was on the screen, I gave up and sought her out.

I glanced at my watch.

A couple of hours. She’s got to be in a better frame of mind by now.

I headed up to my room, assuming she might have gone up there to nap. I found her there, pacing back and forth slowly. I couldn’t guess where her head was at with the news I’d had Elena show her, but I picked up on enough. Her shoulders slumped. Her head hung. Those red tresses curtained her face, and I knew without seeing it that she was frowning, scowling, or locked in a grumpy expression.

“What do you want?” she asked without looking up. She’d detected my presence as I slowly entered the room. Pulling out the tie in my hair, I let it fall free and avoided the sting on my scalp from it being held back too tightly.

“Right now?” I caught her as she paced, not letting her retreat in another path over the carpet. Slipping my arm around her waist, I served as a barricade. She slumped forward and jerked her head up to glare at me. Before she could protest or dodge me, I stepped forward and tugged her into my embrace. Locking my arms around her, I left no gap or buffer between us. She was flush against me, her breasts pillowing against my pecs as she craned her neck to face me directly.

“I could think of a thing or two that might entertain us.”

She pressed her lips together, and too swiftly, that lost and conflicted look returned to her eyes. That flare of a fight left her.