Page 54 of Marked By the Devil

I nodded at him and watched him exit.

Luka started to fuss while Elena was on a call. She kept glancing back at him and I gave up, going to pick him up and give him the bottle of breastmilk Elena had waiting for him.

Maybe it was a little forward of me, but she was clearly busy and my God, how could anyone let a baby cry?

I fed him the bottle while I kept working on the other computer. When I felt her looking at me, I spun my chair to hand him over.

“Oh, no, no.” She turned her back slightly. “He’s happy where he is.”

I smiled. “Don’t jinx it,” I teased.

“You okay?”

I glanced at her, finding her watching me. Maybe it was because she was a mother now, but something about her was just so pure and maternal. Like she wanted to please everyone and would mother hen everyone until she thought they were cared for.

“Oh, yeah. He’s fine.”

“I didn’t mean holding him.”

“Oh.” I did another double-take at her still watching me. “Um. Yeah.”

She didn’t look convinced.

“Honestly, holding Luka is the distraction I need.” I smiled at him practically asleep again. “Physical contact with someone—anyone—so I won’t spiral in how it probably doesn’t matter whether Viktor cares if my personal things that my mother left me are intact. You know, like I don’t lose parts of myself.” I huffed, facing the computer since it was easier than letting me mistake her as my shrink. “Because that’s a lost cause. Or I am. I don’t even know… who I am anymore.”

Collaborating with the Mafia?

Maybe technically a kidnapped woman?

Also a target for my superior at the workplace that had been my dream job?

“I know how you feel,” she said kindly. “And it does take a while to adjust to being here. With them. Working for them.”

I nodded.

“But I can tell you exactly who you are, in case you ever forget.”

I shot her a side-eye.

“You are the person I feared the most.”

I furrowed my brow. “Literally? You didn’t… even know me before Viktor brought me here. I mean, before he kidnapped me.”

“Not you, specifically. But I was terrified for so long that some secret agent or cop would know that I was handling the books for a crime family when I was at my father’s firm.” She shook her head. “Someone exactly like you, a federal agent who investigated fraud.”

I smirked. “And look how… far you’ve come.”

“That’s true, though. My life has completely changed, but not for the worse.” She shrugged. “I know everyone teases me about not wanting to know the details. But I know them. I always have, in a way. They do dangerous, illegal things, but so do the so-called good people out there. There will always be evil in the world, but at the end of the day, the Bratva isn’t some monster trying to take over the world and be violent for the hell of it. They’re businessmen. Not necessarily in, um, proper markets, but they are businessmen who protect what is theirs.”

The problem was that I could see that. I understood her perspective even with my background. Would I rather take down a serial killer and rapist than a drug dealer at the corner? Would I prefer to end the regime of a cult-like group who targeted children or to stop a single hooker from having a good night of clients? It was all relative, after all.

“And if you want my personal advice on what helps me sleep at night…” She raised her brows.

“Sure.”

“I like that I’m helping them stop the real evil ones out there, like Gregori who does seem to want to take over the world and be violent for the hell of it.”

I carefully shifted Luka back to his crib. “Everyone’s hell-bent on finding evidence of all that Gregori’s doing.”