I went back to my room to check my laptop. Jake Bennett had sent me a file about Dianna Dawkins, and I opened it up. For the first few years of Cleo’s life, there wasn’t much. Dianna had barely existed then. I wasn’t sure what she had done for money. She had paid in cash for her rent at a bunch of different addresses.

  It was fairly clear that Dianna had tried to ensure that nobody was looking for her. It was only when Cleo was required to enroll in elementary school that Dianna had signed a normal lease and gone back to using credit cards.

  Dianna knew that Arseny was some sort of criminal, but she kept the letters and photos. Jake thought, and I agreed, that Dianna was afraid of someone or something else.

  12

  POSITIVE FOR PREGNANCY

  CLEO

  ONE WEEK LATER

  My phone buzzed. Despite not recognizing the number, I picked up the call. “Hello?”

  “Hello, this is a nurse at our ambulatory clinic. I need to speak to Cleo Dawkins.”

  “I’m Cleo Dawkins,” I replied.

  “Great, the doctor wanted me to reach out to you and read a list of lab results.” He started reading from the long list. Apparently, Arseny and the doctor had wanted a comprehensive look at all my health. “And of course the big one is that you’re pregnant.”

  I dropped the phone on the floor. Yes, Sergei and I hadn’t used protection, but I was nineteen. I knew it was rude, even if I was scared, so I knelt and hit the speaker button. “Sorry, I think I misheard you.”

  “You’re pregnant. Congratulations.”

  I didn’t know how to feel. He said a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t catch before saying, “Have a nice day.”

  “You, too,” I responded. He ended the call.

  I stared at the phone that I had dropped on the ground. How had I gotten pregnant?

  I blushed, knowing the mechanics from health class. However, I was shocked that I had an unplanned pregnancy, just like my mom. I felt closer to my mom than ever. I knew that she had been in a very similar circumstance. I didn’t actually know much about Sergei, and he was tangled up with my father, Arseny. My dad and Vlad were in charge of something nobody would tell me about. The family paid for everything in cash.

  Thinking about it, I understood why my mom didn’t want to connect with my father. Growing up, I had resented being in the dark. Because I had spent time with Sergei and Arseny, I didn’t think that I was in danger. I wondered why my mom had taken the fairly extreme decision to go into an abortion clinic, which was what Arseny supposed was the end of my life.

  I didn’t know how I was going to break the news to Sergei. I wasn’t sure how to feel about having a baby grow inside of me. I still had months before I’d be ready to deliver the baby. I knew I was keeping the baby, despite my ability to go to an abortion clinic. My maternal instincts were telling me to protect my child. I wished that I could ask my mom about why she had stepped through the doors at that abortion clinic.

  I’d have to figure out if my dad or Sergei would help support us, since I was working on my degree. No matter what happened, I wanted to make sure that the baby was taken care of. My mother hadn’t had much, but she’d done her best as a single parent to make me feel loved.

  Sergei came to my room to collect me for dinner. Arseny had sent a stylist to take my measurements and make sure that I had clothing that was suitable for his daughter to wear to dinner, which was more formal than my mom and I ever were. I felt like Sergei knew that I was pregnant, but he didn’t say anything to me about it. Maybe I was seeing things that weren’t there. Pregnancy was protected health information, after all. We lightly chatted when we got into the dinner room. Arseny had already had the staff put our main course on the table. He dismissed Sergei with some quick words in Russian. Sergei left the room, and I was alone with my dad.

  “I spoke with the doctor who reviewed the lab results today.”

  Were we going to talk about my pregnancy?

  “And?”

  “You’re my daughter. I’m sorry that I waited so long to verify my paternity. I’ve wasted almost two decades being angry at Dianna for murdering my child, while she was raising you the whole time without my support.”

  My dad opened his mouth to speak, but then he went quiet. I knew that he could know about my pregnancy. I didn’t know if he was going to talk to me about it. We started chatting about his day, and he was telling me all about the hardship of hiring good accountants. He made me laugh by describing the different interviews that he had been through.

  By the end of our meal, I felt closer than ever to my dad. I didn’t know what would change, but I had a feeling that things would.

  Sergei came to my room after dinner.

  “What did Arseny want to talk to you about?” he said after he closed the door behind him.

  “He has verified his paternity.”

  “He’s going to shoot me if he catches me in your room now that Arseny knows that you are his daughter.”

  Sergei had a talent for the dramatic, it seemed. I liked the idea of having a protective father.

  “Come here,” I told him. He bent down to kiss me on the mouth, and we let passion grow between us. I needed reassurance that he cared about me, and he was giving it to me with actions instead of empty words.

  13

  3 AM MEETINGS

  SERGEI

  I woke up in Cleo’s warm bed around 3 AM. I admired the smooth skin of her cheeks and her lush breasts. Since she was asleep, I didn’t touch what my eyes were caressing. As much as I wanted to wake her up for another round, I also wanted to make sure she got her rest. As I had done on other nights, I cleaned up and got dressed before stepping into the hallway. I intended to go back to my room and connect with my handler while I didn’t have any other duties.

  A noise paralyzed me, my instincts kicking in. I stopped in my tracks, seeing Arseny sitting calmly on a chair in a nook in the hallway. He didn’t have a gun or a book in his hand, so he had simply been sitting there with nothing to entertain him. It seemed like a bad sign to me.

  “Sir?” I asked. I figured I might have to fight my way out of the house. My heart started to beat faster.

  Arseny got to his feet and motioned for me to follow him. He brought me into a room that was soundproofed as much as it could be. It was used by all of us to interrogate people, where their cries could not be heard outside. Being questioned in here was not a good sign at all.

  Arseny already had two drinks there. I didn’t touch my glass, since I had no idea what he had spiked it with. I waited to see what he wanted. Had Arseny discovered that I was a double agent?

  “There were a lot of results from the clinic,” Arseny told me. “The tests were very thorough.”

  “Oh?” I didn’t know why we were having a medical discussion. I figured his paternity had been established, which meant that Cleo would stick around. I needed her to stay close. I wasn’t sure how I could have a relationship with her, but I knew that I wanted one.

  “The doctor told me that Cleo is pregnant.”

  I felt as if I had been hit by a lightning bolt. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was as if I had hit a huge turning point in my life without any notice whatsoever.

  “The clinic thought that she wasn’t very far along, based on the levels in her blood. Is the baby yours?”

  I didn’t hesitate to respond. “The baby is mine.” She was untouched before we had been together, so there was no doubt in my mind that the child was mine. She stayed in Arseny’s house all day under his security. There were no other possible fathers.

  I didn’t know what was going to happen in the future now that a baby was in the mix. I liked the idea of my baby growing inside of Cleo’s womb. It made me want to claim her as my own, so that the whole world knew that she was my woman.

  “I assume that there is a wedding coming soon.” Arseny raised a single eyebrow at me.

  I reassured Arseny. “I will propose soon, but I’m not doing it because she’s pregnant. You gave me the assignment of getting close to her. We haven’t discussed any kind of future, but you’re only sure now that she’s your daughter.”

  “I don’t approve of the age difference. I told you to get close, but I certainly didn’t tell you to get her pregnant.” Arseny sipped from his glass. I still didn’t touch mine. It wouldn’t do to get complacent.

  “She and the baby are part of my future.”

  “If you plan to do the right thing, I’ll accept you as good enough for Cleo.” Arseny nodded at me, which was my cue to leave.

  My hands were shaking as my brain worked on the problem. I was still undercover, and I had knocked up a nineteen-year-old teenager whose father I was planning on turning over to the authorities. I was in a pickle. I needed to let my handler know the situation as soon as possible. He might extract me, regardless of what I wanted.

  After I had calmed myself down, I walked back into Cleo’s room. It might be the wee hours of the morning, but we needed to have a serious talk.

  14

  HARD CONVERSATION

  CLEO

  I woke up to Sergei shaking my shoulder. “Hey.” There was none of the intimate lover that there had been when we fell asleep together.

  “What’s going on? What time is it?” I moved until I could see the clock in the room. “Why are you even awake at this hour?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that you’re pregnant?” Sergei asked me.

  I was quiet. I hadn’t worked out how to approach him about it. I didn’t know what I was going to do, even though I knew that I wasn’t going to have an abortion.

  “How do you know about it?” I didn’t want to deny that there was a baby inside of me.

  “The clinic told your dad.”

  “What about patient privacy laws?” I complained.

  “You signed a waiver when we were in the clinic. Your dad paid for the whole thing.” He laughed a little. “The doctors in there are more afraid of your father than any lawyers.”

  “What do you mean?” I felt like we’d been dancing around just who my father was.

  “I should tell you a little more about your family.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck were telling me to pay attention. “I’m listening.”

  “You have a checkered lineage. If you want to declare that Arseny is your dad to the world, you’re going to have to be a lot more careful than you would be as Cleo Dawkins, carefree.”

  I wasn’t carefree, not by a long shot. For one thing, I was the one who had to handle balancing my checkbook. Now, Sergei might be telling me that my dad was some kind of criminal.

  “I think I understand my mom’s choices better right now.”

  “Are you going to leave, like your mom did?”

  “Not right now.” I hadn’t had time yet to think about leaving behind my new relationship with my dad, and I didn’t know where my romantic relationship with Sergei was going. “My instincts are telling me to stay.”

  “Arseny has already told me that he expects us to marry.”

  “I might be open to it.” I pursed my lips, not wanting to be forced into a marriage by a guy who wasn’t even sure until very recently that we were related at all. “It’ll happen when we’re ready, but it will not happen because my father says he wants it to happen.”

  “You’re either being tremendously brave or insanely stupid.” He came towards me and dropped a kiss on my mouth.

  I thought that he didn’t want the baby or the marriage. “I can leave if that’s what you want. You don’t have to support us. I never meant to trap you or anything.”

  “That ship has sailed. Your child is mine, which means that our fates are intertwined now.”

  We started making out, and he made me forget all of my anxiety.

  The next morning, my dad was in the kitchen on his laptop as he normally was.

  “Hi, Dad,” I told him.

  “Hello,” he told me. He was drinking a cup of coffee and eating a croissant. “I notice you’re not wearing Sergei’s ring.”

  “Dad, you can’t expect Sergei to make one appear out of thin air.”

  “You’re as stubborn and pragmatic as Dianna.”

  “Where do you think that I’ll live, if I get married to Sergei?”

  “Here, of course.” My dad acted like it was a done deal. “There’s nowhere safer.”

  “Does Sergei believe that?”

  My dad raised his eyebrows at me. “I can order him to continue living here.”

  I didn’t like how high-handed my dad was. “What if I wanted to move out?”

  “The expense would be high, but I would manage it.” He shook his head. “You always insist on your own way. You truly are your mother’s daughter.”

  We smiled at each other. I went to pick up some fruit, and my dad and I chatted about our plans for the day. I whined about the big paper that I had due soon. He told me about the meetings he had planned for the day. When I was done eating, I walked up and dropped a kiss on my dad’s cheek. It seemed like he wanted to welcome me into his life and take care of his grandkid.

  15

  SHIFTING LOYALTIES

  SERGEI

  Of course, I couldn’t see my handler inside of an FBI office. I’d be dead in short order. We had scoped out places that would be safe for us to go.

  Instead, we managed to meet unobtrusively in a nearby mall. We didn’t bother to go to the food court, where we couldn’t control who heard us talking. Instead, we were inside of a boba shop that Jake’s family liked. The drinks were too sweet for me, despite asking for 50% of the normal amount of sugar. Jake’s kid loved boba, though, so he was used to the various options. I had to read through the entire menu every time. I didn’t remember that many boba shops in Russia from when I was a kid, but I’d been so young that my memories were foggy.

  Jake had already gotten his cup of boba, so I got my own and settled in. I sucked in the first tastes of boba with a little extra honey in it.

  “Hey. What’s going on?” Jake asked me.

  “Cleo Dawkins is having my baby.” I had to drop the bombshell first, before we tried to figure out my next steps.

  He gaped at me for a minute, unable to speak. I had not put Cleo’s pregnancy into any kind of formal report. As my handler, he’d have to deal with disciplinary action if we documented the pickle that I’d gotten myself into.

  “We’ll need to move up the timetable for the mission. You’ve been undercover in there for more than a year. It has been way longer than we meant it to be. We just wanted to catch everyone we could.” Jake’s voice trailed off. He took a sip from his cup of boba. “How are you feeling as a prospective father?”

  “I’d never betray my mission just for Arseny.” I paused for a moment. “I’m not sure what to do about Cleo Dawkins.”

  “Can you remain unbiased and clear-headed?” Jake shook his head. “This is a nightmare. I want to arrange exfil as soon as possible.”

  “I’m going to stay until everything is resolved.”

  “You cannot drop your guard. I think you’re compounding your errors by staying near Cleo Dawkins, now that her paternity is confirmed. Her background checks out. Dianna really did raise her in Los Angeles without getting in touch with Cleo’s father, and we never knew about his secret kid.” He sighed. “As your friend but not your handler, I think it would be in your best interest to elope and disappear until Arseny and Vlad are safely in prison.”

  “I could do it, but it doesn’t feel right. Cleo is never going to sign off on that plan. She just got to meet her dad; she wants his approval. Marrying the law enforcement officer who put him in jail is not going to fly.”

  Jake rubbed his jaw. “Of course not.”

  We idly chatted about other stuff. The boba shop’s employees knew that we were method actors pretending to have deep conversations about heavy duty national security stuff, so they didn’t mind us.

  As soon as I got back into the house, I found Yuly sitting in the hallway where Cleo’s room was. While I was gone and Arseny was safe within the house, Yuly had temporarily been reassigned. “How has everything been?”

  “She hasn’t left her room all night. We checked her web traffic, and she’s just doing homework.” Yuly grinned at me. “Who knew that Arseny’s daughter would be such a nerd?”

  I didn’t say a word about one of Dianna’s dying wishes being for Cleo to get her bachelor’s degree.

  “When I was eating dinner, I overheard a phone call between Arseny and Vlad.”

  “Oh?” I asked him.

  “Vlad wants to come to the party this weekend. It seemed like Arseny didn’t want his father to come this time.” He shook his head. “We can all see that Vlad doesn’t like Cleo, blood relative or not. Vlad wants to cut her out of the family the same way she did with Dianna Dawkins.” His comms started buzzing. He got to his feet and checked the display. “There’s someone at the gate. I need to go.”

  I watched him leave the hallway, intent on figuring out how to keep Cleo apart from Vlad this weekend at the party.

  16

  PARTY

  CLEO

  A FEW DAYS LATER

  I rubbed the back of my neck. I was wearing a new dress with pretty flats and some statement jewelry pieces. I was totally out of place at the shindig that my dad was throwing. He had made sure that I was dressed like the other attendees, but I personally didn’t have the money to shell out on dresses, jewelry, or shoes like this on a daily basis. I knew that my dad was trying to take care of me in the way that he understood how.