“Here as in this room, or in general?”
“In general,” I clarify. “You’ve heard my conversation with Alexander. I need you to find Daisy.”
“I figured,” she nods. “But finding a four-year-old child named Daisy isn’t as easy as you might think.”
“I have everything on her.’’ I whisk out Zoe’s phone, handing it over to Kaya. She takes it, unlocks it, then all I see is her finger either tapping or scrolling down. Her eyes don’t tell me a single thing, but she’s reading through carefully.
“Alright then,” she turns the phone off. “What do you want me to do?”
“Find her, make sure she’s safe and unharmed.”
“Yeah, obviously,” she scoffs. “What am I supposed to do with her after that?”
I lean back, lying on one of the trash bags, looking at the ceiling. “I don’t know. I didn’t think that far ahead.”
“Look, I get that you want to save her from this situation, but you need to tell me where to take her. I could potentially find childcare for a while, though I don’t trust anyone to have them keep her longer.”
“Not even your family?”
She lifts a brow. “Let’s see, my oldest brother is the current head of the Russian mob, so I highly doubt he has the time to dealwith a traumatized child, or even wants to. Then we have Dominik, who, to his credit, would take her in immediately, but he’d want to adopt her later on.”
“What’s bad about that?”
“We’re criminals, Blair.” Kaya looks out the window, staring at the moon. “If you ever decide to have kids, please think carefully about the world you’re bringing them in. You’ll always have to look over your shoulder to try and keep them safe, more than families with legal jobs. If you piss someone off, there are no lines here. They will go after your kids. No one deserves to be a target just by being born.”
A beat of silence passes. No matter how much I want to dispute her claims, I know that she’s right. Deep down, I wouldn’t want to bring a child into this world. I told Alexander I’d kill his son, but that was a bluff. Unless the child’s equally as responsible for the wrongdoings of his father, there’s no reason to kill him.
However, not everyone will be bluffing. The thought of having to work twice as hard to protect my kids from the evils of this world is painful to even think of, and it’s even worse knowing that those evils would want my children dead because of me.
“You’re right,” I sigh. “Then, keep Daisy for a while. At least until all of this passes. I’ll figure out the logistics after that.”
Kaya looks like she wants to protest but nods nonetheless. “Fine. I’ll go tonight.”
“Good, and keep me updated.”
“Will do.”
With a groan and a small crack of my back, I sit up straight, then start going through the bags again. Kaya offers help, which I happily accept, and we continue to look for Noelle’s phone for the next twenty minutes, neither of us speaking.
Kaya’s the one to break the silence, huffing in irritation. “Why do you need her phone, anyway?”
“I need to find a particular phone number.”
“Which one? I’ll get it for you easier than this.”
“Yes, but I need to make the call from Noelle’s phone.”
Confusion falls on Kaya’s face, her brows scrunching together. “Are you calling the king of Denmark?”
I snort. “No, definitely not. These past few days while Arlo’s been away and Aria’s been trying to do everything here, I heard some snippets of conversations.”
“Something interesting, I’m assuming?”
I nod. “Look, what I’m about to do is something Arlo will probably be angry at me for.”
Her eyes glint with mischief, a lazy smirk tugs on the corner of her lips. “Do tell. Who’s this mysterious person?”
“Current chief of the FBI.”
