Page 9 of Shielded Secrets

“I imagine it’s because she moved out of the dorms and has to pay rent for her apartment.”A really shitty one.

“Damn.” She sighed and lowered her head. “I bet she didn’t want to live in the dorms after she was drugged and was found in the shower room like that one day.”

I’d never forget how helpless I’d felt to see her like that, but I’d let Eva and Lev take charge. It wouldn’t have helped anyone if they suspected I was attracted to Kelly. I was supposed to be fully on task with keeping Eva safe.

“Hey.” She furrowed her brow again, pensive, as she sat up. “What if you go check on her?”

Please. I’d fucking love to.

“I mean, you do need to take it easy, but walking around campus and checking in on her wouldn’t be that taxing on you.”

I shot to my feet, demonstrating how ready I was to move around. “I can handle that,” I said, trying not to give away how excited I was at the prospect of being moved out of light duty. “The doctor said to limit my range of motion still and to avoidpicking up too many things with this arm, but I can do light surveillance work. I can do a courtesy check on her.”

Eva nodded, standing as well. “I know others are still on campus since Vik’s cover was blown there, but it’s not like any of them are specifically looking out for Kelly.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

She smiled. “Well, go on, then. I’ll tell Lev. He won’t mind.” As she started to leave the room with me, she pointed at me and gave me a stern look. “Just no overdoing it. No fighting. Nothing strenuous. Just watching—from afar.”

I saluted her. “Understood. Thanks for the idea, Eva.”

She studied me for a long moment, long enough that I worried she was seeing right through me and knew how eager I was for an excuse to see her former friend.

I wouldn’t risk questioning her about it. Too thrilled to have something to do and a reason to be near the young blonde I couldn’t stop thinking about, I headed toward the side door to exit the mansion.

Before I stepped out, Oleg’s angry voice reached my ears.

“I don’t care, Boris. I don’t care if I’m stirring up old grudges. If Sonya is alive, I will do everything we can to find her.”

I slowed, listening in even though it was never wise to eavesdrop on the Boss. This sounded like a bickering moment between Oleg and his younger drunk brother, Boris, though, and that was a commonplace occurrence around here.

Sonya Baranov disappeared years ago, and it seemed like Oleg cared more about locating his niece than Boris could care aboutfinding his daughter. Boris had never been much of a father around here. Eva dismissed him all the time, deferring to Oleg as the true father figure in her life. Oleg was the Boss, though, the father to us all in the organization. So, of course, as a brother under his leadership, I had to wonder what had him so impassioned about telling his younger brother that he would persist in looking for Sonya.

What old grudges?

Vik had recently gone to Moscow on a tip. It had led nowhere, supporting what most of the family suspected—that Sonya and her mother died long ago.

I shook my head, tucking this curiosity away for later.

Right now, I had a reason to stop this idleness from dragging on. I was now free to mix business with pleasure, and I would get right to it. I had a request to check on Kelly, and I couldn’t wait until I’d see her gorgeous face again.

5

KELLY

Seeing Jerome stabbing a Petrov man in the alley wasn’t the last that I’d ever see of him.

He popped up everywhere on campus, alarming me to the possibility that he would stick around for longer than what I was comfortable with.

I wasn’t uneasy about his being near just because he was a lousy reminder of the past I wanted to never go back to. I was worried because no matter what his business was on campus, it would be trouble.

Jerome Parson was a deviant. A delinquent. A troublemaker who precisely fit the profile of all the misconceptions foster kids had to deal with. If he hadn’t been dealing and doing drugs as a thirteen-year-old, he was drinking and trying to skip school from being too hungover. If he wasn’t picking fights and bullying the other kids in the foster home, he was trying to seduce the neighbors or prey upon her daughters to take their virginity.

Jerome was bad news. And if I had to guess at his presence on campus, it was to sell drugs. It seemed that he hadn’t reallymoved up in the world, doing the same old, but then again, I hadn’t exactly moved up, either.

I had yet to earn my degree. I had no career to feel superior about.

But I was trying. I was not the same girl he would’ve remembered from years ago.

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