Page 28 of Shielded Secrets

Eva elbowed her. “Hush.”

“You were only sleeping last night?” Irina teased.

Kelly’s cheeks burned a bright pink. I slung my good arm around her shoulders and hugged her close to my side. As I tipped her chin up and kissed her deeply, I looked back at Irina and Eva and dared them to question it.

“Ooh,” Irina teased, laughing.

Eva smiled wide. “Iknewit. I thought that you two had a crush on each other last semester.”

“A crush?” Irina huffed. “I doubt they’re in the realm of something as juvenile as that.”

Oleg cleared his throat, and that sound was all it took to make them stop giggling.

Having everyone in on these meetings was a new thing, but in this context, it made sense. All three women were familiar with the college issue.

“Marcus James was killed last night,” Oleg announced, “and many are eager to know who could’ve killed him.”

Irina crossed her arms and shrugged. “Easy. It was probably my father.”

“He wasn’t there,” Vik told her. “The spies we have on him would’ve told us.”

Irina shook her head. “I wouldn’t have put it past him to have a hit put on the politician, though. If he was favoring the other one.”

“Eric Benson,” Oleg said. “That was the other politician there last night.” He glanced at me. “We’ve confirmed that he was one of the men who spoke in that recording you took. So Benson was there before Marcus could’ve been.”

I felt like I was missing something. “So the assumption is that Benson killed Marcus James?” I supposed that was logical, since they had to be rivals or competitors as up-and-coming lawyers who wanted to rule politically.

“No. But my interest lies in whatever business Benson might be up to.” Oleg lit another cigar and puffed it before continuing. “His family is of interest. Eric’s father might have known something about Amelia’s and Sonya’s disappearances.”

I noticed the confusion on Kelly’s face and leaned in to explain with a whisper, “Eva’s mother and sister. They disappeared years ago.”

She winced and nodded.

I hated to tell her about Baranovs disappearing, even if Eva’s mother and sister had gone missing many years ago. It contradicted what I was telling Kelly earlier, that the Baranov legacy and name represented power and might. I had been trying to convince her that she could trust in me and my brothers to protect her if she were to be affiliated with the family. She already was, whether she knew it or wanted it or not. My act of killing her attacker last night held significance because I was a Baranov. I had acted in the name of the family by protecting her then, and depending on who that man was, his death could bring consequences for the family. Oleg didn’t seem bothered about the incident, and he really didn’t have any reason to be upset with me. He sure didn’t seem mad. He only seemed concerned about this Benson angle, and again, I got curious about why he was so obsessed with the cold case of investigating what had happened with Amelia and Sonya.

“I’ve never trusted that family,” Oleg said, “but since they’ve focused on politics and tried to appear as clean and scandal-free as possible, I’ve never been able to really get a good feel for what they might know.”

Unlike anyone in the Mafia, who we could torture and force to talk, the Bensons and other politicians had to be handled with care.

“But first, before I can address anything further about that meeting you unfortunately missed last night, I want to hear from you.” He looked at me, then Kelly. “I want to know why a dealer for the Petrov family was following you—the one Rurik left beaten nearly to death. And why a Petrov dealer thought he could attack you on your way to work. Both men have been identified since last night.”

Shit. I’d killed a Petrov.That would come with complications for the family.

The Boss must have noticed my cringe because he shook his head. “No worries about retaliation. That man was a former member of the Petrov family.”

Irina nodded. “Yeah, I heard this morning. Igor caught that man stealing a few years back and put an order for his men to kill him. He escaped and hid since then, so if anything”—she rolled her eyes and huffed—“you did him a favor.”

I shrugged. I didn’t give a shit about what Igor Petrov wanted or what would please him, but I was glad that I hadn’t caused more trouble with that kill.

Once more, I studied Kelly. She still didn’t seem fazed by the concept of killing people, and I had to wonder again if that was because she realized life in the Mafia was deadly like this or if she had been exposed up close to death and killers before.

Everyone looked at Kelly, putting her on the spot. She didn’t blush, like she had when Irina teased her about not getting much sleep with me last night. Holding her hands on her lap andlooking as neutral as possible, she appeared collected and ready. As if this wasn’t her first time being interrogated.

For almost twenty minutes, Kelly explained without many interruptions of how she knew Jerome Parson from years ago. She shared details about how sketchy of a guy he was and why she wanted to avoid him now, when she was working so hard to start a new life for herself with a career and an education.

Irina and Vik asked questions when Kelly mentioned her student worker position in the admin building. I didn’t think it escaped anyone’s notice how shocked she seemed when we explained that the meeting I was supposed to spy on, the one where Marcus was killed, had happened very close to where she usually acted like a preliminary office and customer service member in front of someone named Jasmine.

“I’ve only done it for a while. I took the position because the college will lower my tuition with a discount.”

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