Page 52 of Marked By the Devil

She shook her head and tossed my phone to the bed on the opposite side of where she lay. “Like he cares that ‘one of his own’ is missing.” She huffed angrily. “He doesn’t care that I was kidnapped. He sent me on that stakeout for a reason. Besides, even if he wanted to lie that I’m here to spy, I wouldn’t have known what to do. I just transferred to this department. I wasn’t given any cases yet.”

“I know.” I kissed her. “And they know that too.”

She sighed and nestled her head against my chest. “Smithson emailing that means he’s vulnerable about my being here.”

“Obviously,” I replied.

“I would have to imagine he’s more vulnerable about it because he’s clearly connected to this bribing scheme. But I can’t tell who is trying to infiltrate the agency, who is so determined to pay for favors.”

I do.

My brothers and cousins and I did. We were well aware of how Gregori wanted to put pressure on us from the law enforcement front. And I would stand by my hope that Wren would be able to help us find the proof of that so we could expose it all and counter-attack Gregori like that in the meantime.

“In conclusion, though,” she said sleepily, “I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. If I’m not here, Smithson can try to have me killed. If I’m here, I’m a target through association anyway.”

“If you’re not here,” I added, borrowing her words, “you also won’t be safe.”

I held her tight and closed my eyes, letting the warmth from her body seep into mine. It was too damn easy to imagine her just wanting to be with me. To stay and choose my “team”.

But to hope for that meant she would need to give up her beliefs in her career. She wanted to feel like she was contributing something to society by having a job in law enforcement. By siding with me, that drive wouldn’t be as applicable. She would be working for the security and wealth of my family, not the rest of the free world.

Yet, that would be a much harder sell. It wouldn’t be a matter of convincing her to see this as a career change. It would be more like wishing she could also want to prioritize my family’s success and stability.

And wishing for her to care about me was starting to sound like a pipe dream.

We were too different.

From completely opposing worlds.

With totally contrasting ethics and moral compasses.

Still, with her in my arms, I refused to lose a glimmer of hope that I could be the only one between us who was feeling like I’d met my other half. Feeling her pressed up against me like this, I was convinced that I shared her sentiment tenfold. That I would be more upset if I lived whatever lifetime I had and wasted it by not doing something good—like protecting her and showing her how much I cared.

18

WREN

The next day when I reported to “work” with Elena, Adrik called me aside and showed me the email that he’d received.

I could only shake my head. “I’m not a spy.”

“That’s what Viktor seems to think,” he replied.

“That’s what you should think too.”

He folded his hands together on his desk and raised his brows. “Why? Because you want to swear your loyalty to my Bratva?”

“I would prefer to consider myself an independent operator of law and order.” Saying that was risky enough, but it was the most honest reply I could give him. “I’m not running back to the agency. I can’t when there have been two attempts on my life that could have very well been ordered by my superior. A superior I’m actively investigating and unraveling a web of bribes and fraudulent accounts for.”

“I’ve never cared for Smithson.”

I almost smirked. “If not him, Rico Johnson. I was under the preliminary impression that I’d be expected to work on a case involving him since I came from a background of investigating fraud in Oregon. But I didn’t anticipate investigating him from your perspective.”

He shrugged. “Whatever gets the job done, right?”

The Volkovs weren’t quick to call themselves allies of Rico Johnson, but they had been open to speaking with him. I was getting more of the sense that they entertained meetups with him at all for the sake of keeping their finger on the pulse of everything else that was going on. That distance was clear in all they did. The Volkov empire was large and vast, bringing in significant wealth through many avenues of income. I wished I could adopt Elena’s Puritan request to not know details because that was the most direct conflict for me to get through—knowing the Volkovs collected their revenue from drugs, weapons, and other illegal means of commerce.

I didn’t have access to those parts of their records, though, and I was grateful for that.