Page 76 of Claimed in the Dark

I read to Brady, glad his curiosity about calling Nikolia his daddy didn’t evolve into that intrigue of asking a million questions at once. He fell asleep within the first few pages, but I kept reading. Just to prolong this simple companionship. Just to preoccupy myself.

I’d be staying up late until Nikolai came home from this dangerous assignment with Alexei.

Nervous and worried despite having faith in his strength and devilish wisdom as a hitman.

I’d be up waiting with excitement and stubborn hope, too. Between what Wren and Mila and I talked about earlier, plus this conversation with Brady, I knew I couldn’t stall on actively deciding what I wanted for my future.

It’s you.

I want you, Nikolai.

To come home to us and be mine.

27

NIKOLAI

Alex and I entered the casino on the Strip later that night. We were right on schedule to find the Konstantin assassin who was most likely behind the hit that was placed on Adrik. Multicolored lights flashed all around us from the LED display screens. Countless beggars and fools—most of them tourists in this area not reserved for the VIPs sat at the tables and in front of the machines. Annoying jingles and beeping tempos of supposed wins assaulted us from every direction.

Like many other casinos and clubs on the Strip, this one was bustling with activity. Too much activity.

It wasn’t an ideal situation for us to carry out a hit, but we couldn’t be picky. If Vladimir Konstantin was supposed to be here meeting with a bookie, then we would just have to take advantage of those plans.

Taking someone out this publicly, all of a sudden, wouldn’t end well, but we had contingencies in place. We always did. No one would be able to accuse the Volkov Bratva of being sloppy, and that was all thanks to my father. In his legacy, we would stay the top predators of this city. Unlike Gregori, whose greed and sloppiness ended with the deaths of my grandparents, we would always do our due diligence.

Members of the Volkov army were situated throughout the place, both as plainclothesmen and the expected suited presence of guards close to us. Alexei and I weren’t high up in the hierarchy of taking over, so we didn’t often have the cavalry and personal security everywhere like Adrik or even Maksim ordinarily would.

One glance at my cousin proved that he wasn’t too pleased with the condition of this hit, either.

“Of all fucking places,” he muttered, shaking his head as his eyes roved back-and-forth, constantly scoping and scanning.

“Kind of busy tonight,” I agreed.

“Kind of?” He shot me a dirty look as we passed by another bachelor party, all the members louder and rowdier than the rest.

“I find it really fucking ironic that a witness you were supposed to kill is sending us to kill someone else when there can be so many witnesses around,” he grumbled.

“We won’t have any witnesses,” I argued mildly. We weren’t stupid enough to shoot anyone out in the open like this. “Besides, I’m not sure that Louisa actually witnessed anything in that video that she was targeted as a loose end for.”

He shook his head again, still looking out like I was. “I agree with you on that point. I don’t think there was even anything in that body bag she saw being moved.”

My thoughts exactly. “It was all meant to throw us off.”

“But why?” he asked. “Why would Rico Johnson be motivated to suggest that Gregori was killed?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. He either wanted to distract us with that rumor, or he believed it himself.”

Until we could understand whether Rico Johnson was turning against or acting in Gregori’s interest, we couldn’t be sure of anything that the missing politician said.

“I’m also not convinced that we necessarily need to take out Vladimir right now.” I glanced at him, finding him watching me carefully as we continued to look for Konstantin’s man.

“You think we can just take him in and question him?”

I scoffed. “Why wouldn’t we? Viktor will want answers about why that hit happened on Smithson.” That was a touchy detail for him because it meant that Wren had almost been killed in the other agent’s place.

“But we’re not gonna do anything if we can’t find him. Are you sure Louisa even knows what she’s doing?”

I glared at the crowd, seething. “Are you suggesting that she’s not working with our best interests in mind or are you implying that she’s not qualified in this investigation?”