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That was when he said he’d made arrangements.
“Arrangements?” I peered up at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means I made arrangements,” he stated simply. “You don’t need to worry about all that debt.”
I gawked at him. “All of it?” He was wealthy, unquestionably wealthy, but he couldn’t just…
“You’re giving me lots of ideas,” he teased, dragging his thumb along my lower lip.
“You can’t just—”
He kissed me, rolling me until I was on my back beneath him. “I can. And I did.”
“But how can I repay you? I can’t repay you,” I protested between kisses.
“I don’t want you to. But I do want you to spread your legs and let me fuck you until we both want to pass out.”
Thinking back to that blissful moment with him, I furrowed my brow. “I want a job.”
Carina glanced at me, Mila frowned, and Elena smiled.
“What do you mean?” Carina asked.
I shrugged. “At first, I thought you all were just, I don’t know, kept women. No offense, but I can see how much you do. You aren’t piggybacking on an easy life with these men. You have active roles. Responsibilities. You contribute.”
“Hey, you contributed, too,” Wren said, coming closer and clearly having heard me. Brady remained near the water with Paloma who was cracking up over his antics.
“You gave them those videos,” Mila said. “And that could help them find out who’s behind the rumor that Gregori is supposedly dead.”
I shook my head. “But that’s it. I want to help more.”
“What’s bringing this on?” Elena furrowed her brow. “Nikolai couldn’t be asking anything of you.”
“No. He hasn’t. Yet, the more that I get pulled into living with him, the more I see him seeming to spend time with Brady, the less I think about leaving. I don’t want to mooch or just be here without contributing.” They had to understand.
“No one thinks you’re mooching,” Carina said.
“I know, but, well, don’t you get it?”
Elena nodded. “I do, actually. I never wanted to stop working. I like not being idle.”
It seemed like she never was. She was at the head of all the bookkeeping and financial investigations. Carina was also happy to be serving like an ambassador with the Cartels and assisting on smuggling runs. Mila accompanied Lev often, as a spy, and Wren was very involved as an agent working for the Bratva instead of against them.
“And that’s what is getting to me. I’ve been here for over a month now, and I wonder if there’s anything else that I can do to help the… cause.” I shrugged. “I have a degree in computer science. Put me to work.”
“I can’t see anyone turning down that offer,” Wren said. “I’ve wondered what else you might be able to find through Pickering Inc.’s database if we could get you in. Trojan’s limited in what he can find.” She smiled at me. “I’ll mention it to Viktor.”
“Adrik would appreciate the help too,” Elena said.
As far as I was concerned, that settled it. While I enjoyed having my dream come true of only meeting the responsibilities of being Brady’s mother, I looked forward to applying some of the skills I'd obtained from college. Working at Pickering Inc. hadn’t given me any true sense of purpose, but I had a strong feeling that applying what I knew to this hunt for Gregori would make me feel like I was doing something good.
Doing something good for the devil.
But I could make peace with that if it meant keeping them and my son safe.
21
NIKOLAI
