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Almost like she had spent years training for this moment.
Keira was a brilliant hacker, but she didn’t act like a computer nerd at all. Gregarious. Charming. Computer science majors were supposed to be reserved and awkward, and even Xeniya had struggled in crowds, avoiding this particular garden party like the plague.
After graduating college, she’d attended this mandatory gathering only once. Xeniya had always pushed my father’s buttons. She was brave like that. He wanted her here, but she refused because the event made her so uncomfortable.
Keira, on the other hand, had no trouble with any of it. Which was wonderful because I could use the support.
Especially after the news of my father’s impaled head spread.
The vultures had their claws out, watching my every move and weighing whether this was the best moment to stage a coup.
When one of my underbosses stepped away, leaving Keira and me alone, she turned toward me and pretended to straighten my collar.
A ripple of tension ran through me at her touch, and I swallowed hard, sliding my hands into my pockets.
She clearly wasn’t my Xeniya. They acted nothing alike, but my heart still fluttered at her nearness, and my cock still appreciated her goddess-like looks. Aurora was delusional if she thought Neeve could be prettier than her cousin.
This woman was a problem, with fire-red hair and curves a man wanted to hold on to.
Yet even thinking it felt like a betrayal.
Keira leaned in, her breath hot against my neck as she whispered, “I’ve cleared the Morozovs as your mole.”
Relief washed through me.
“Good.”
Nothing more needed saying. If Keira confirmed it, then it was true.
She was one of the best.
Between the fire and the hunt for the ghost, I’d nearly forgotten that I’d hired Keira to investigate my men.
“How is that search going?” I asked.
“Frustrating.” She ground her teeth and ran her palm along my lapels. A shiver passed through her, and I wondered if she felt the same electricity between us.
“The mole is taunting me,” she continued through her gritted teeth. “He’s a very good hacker, and he likes to show off.”
“He?”
She nodded. “He calls himself Damon Bayswim Locke, and he wants me to know he’s messing around in your systems.”
“Brazen?”
“Yes, so we’re looking for one of your men, or even an outsider with that much nerve.” She tipped her chin up to meet my eyes. “And the skill set to rival mine.”
“But the only people we know in the Bratva with that level of skill are the Morozovs.”
“And therein lies the problem.” She swallowed and stepped back, flashing me a beautiful smile for the benefit of the crowd.
“I see.”
“But I’ll keep hunting,” she said with lazy confidence.
“Good.”
The mole was another problem in a growing sea of them, and after the fire, the divide among my brigadiers had widened, with Leon and Kaz openly resisting my leadership.
