Page 4 of Shielded Secrets

“None survived,” Lev said. “Checking back on the camera feed, it looks like all were gunned down by our men, and the last two killed themselves.”

Just so they couldn’t be captured and forced to talk. It happened, but it was always aggravating when it did. I shifted to get comfortable on the bed, resting after my shoulder was repaired from the shot that almost killed the Boss. “There’s no easy way to guess who sent them there,” I remarked.

Lev shook his head. “It’s not clear who could’ve sent them, but nothing indicates it as a hit from the Petrovs.”

“What about the Ilyins?” Oleg asked.

Lev shook his head and shrugged. He’d more or less become the Boss’s right-hand man since asking Eva to marry him, and it was a good promotion for him. He deserved it, no matter that he was found as an orphan and not born into the family by blood.

“Nothing to indicate it could’ve been a hit from the Ilyins, either.”

“Yet,” Viktor added. “The men are still looking through the men’s IDs and watching all the cameras that are trained on that place.”

“It has to be Petrov,” Oleg muttered. “Ever since we let you take his daughter…”

Lev cleared his throat. “If Petrov wants retaliation for Irina coming into the Baranov family and telling us all his secrets, he wouldn’t have attackedyoufirst. He’d go for her.”

“Not on my watch,” Vik said, so possessive and protective of his fiancée.

“No.” I shook my head, recalling how we’d all helped to get Maxim Petrov—who was actually a Baranov bastard—out from under Igor Petrov’s control. “He’d be more upset about losing his son. Well, nothisson, but still.”

Oleg dismissed my comment with a wave. “He can be mad about both of his children becoming Baranovs, but this ambush is ridiculous.”

I huffed a laugh. “No one’s ever said he’d play fair.”

“Well, I’m not in the mood to play at all,” Oleg growled. He faced me, sobering up into an expression of gratitude. “Not when one of my best men can be hurt in the process.”

His praise hit home. I never went out of my way to earn his favor. I knew my worth. I had good standing in the family, but for so long, I preferred simpler jobs where I could blend in. I liked being the dependable backup, not the leaders who headed up jobs or projects like Lev and Vik did.

“You’ll be off duty until you’re rested,” Oleg said, placing his hand on my good shoulder. “You deserve the break. You more than deserve my thanks.”

“No. Don’t say it like that.”Off duty?I couldn’t handle being put on the sidelines completely. I hated to be idle. Ever.

“You do deserve a break,” Lev agreed. “You’ve been doubling up on so many things at once lately. Your routine work as a soldier. Then being a spy on campus, too.”

“And I’m fine. I’ll take a couple of days off and I’ll be right back out there to keep an eye on things.”

Keeping an eye on thingsceased to matter as much. Without Eva enrolled in classes anymore, there was no need for Lev to be there. Which meant there was no need formeto be there either, at least not as much.

“We can’t just stop surveillance at the college,” I reminded them all. I looked from one man to the next, checking that they were as serious as I was. “With all the intel that Irina told us about the Petrov plans to take over that area, we can’t back out completely now.”

Vik sighed and agreed. “It wouldn’t be smart to have fewer spies there right now. Irina and I heard enough to make me think that the Petrovs or the Ilyins will increase their influence there soon.”

“Just give me a couple of days to recover,” I told them, desperate not to be relegated to recovering and doing nothing else.

“A couple of days?” Lev asked with a laugh. “You took a bullet for the Boss. You just got out of surgery. You’ll be out for more than a couple of days.”

No. Please no.“Then who will keep watch on campus?”

More to the point, one burning question remained unanswered in my mind.

Who will keep an eye on Kelly?

Who’s going to check in and make sure she’s doing all right?

It had been hard enough to reduce my time on campus when Lev left, and subsequently, his crew, of which I was a member. Justifying my time on campus wasn’t so easy when Vik was there to get close to Irina for answers. But now that he was off the project because his cover as a professor was ruined, there wasn’tany one specific soldier or spy in charge now, not anyone in this upper circle of the Boss’s confidantes.

“I’ll assign someone to check things out,” Lev said. “We’ll find someone.” He almost smiled at me, nodding once in acknowledgment. “All you need to do is recover and rest.”

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