Chapter 14
It was harder than it should have been for Nuri to concentrate. He kept getting distracted by the other man across the room, gaze wandering over without his approval.
The Emperor was seated at his desk in the study, his tablet open as he clicked away on a holographic keyboard attached to his computer screen. He kept glancing between the two devices, completely engrossed in his work, as per usual.
Only Nuri was struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy. Silver didn’t even seem to care or recall that less than an hour ago he’d had his hand down Nuri’s pants and had stroked him to completion.
Nuri shifted on the couch when his dick twitched, gritting his teeth and refusing to allow that to happen here.
His multi-slate was stuffed full of messages that needed his utmost attention and yet here he was growing semi-hard at the thought of Silver’s skillful fingers.
This was why those fantasies should have stayed that way.
It’d been easier to manage when he had no real knowledge of what being with the Emperor could feel like.
After seeing his brother off, Falc informed Nuri that Silver had ordered him to the study.
The two of them would be working from home due to his injury.
It’d been tempting to argue and point out he could clearly move on it, but why bother.
Working from the mansion was a lot easier than having to drive to the office and he had no delusions; it wasn’t like he’d get to go back to his apartment from there.
Since Nuri would simply be forced back here anyway, there was no point in leaving if he didn’t have to.
Nate would be staying another night in the room Silver had provided for him and then returning to Vitality tomorrow. He had to get back to his job and had used his emergency leave in order to come in the first place.
That flash of guilt came swiftly and Nuri latched onto it, needing the vivid reminder of how they’d all ended up here and whose fault it truly was. If only the Emperor hadn’t overstepped, Nuri would be on Vitality right now, and Nate wouldn’t have had to use up his precious leave days.
The anger helping to stabilize him, he finally tore his attention off of Silver and began working.
He checked the communications and calls and settled those, opting to tackle the easier jobs first. The emails were a mix of work-related missives and reminders about subscriptions and upcoming appointments for both him and Silver, and it was taking forever to sort through them all since typically he had his multi-slate on him twenty-four-seven and was constantly checking whenever he received something.
He was so caught up in making sure he didn’t miss anything important from a Rien Inc. staff member that he almost scrolled right past one from his friend Eli.
Friend was a strong word, really. It was more like they were acquaintances who’d met through work several years ago and had kept in touch.
The night after meeting with Ackor Hue, Nuri had sent Eli the file from Ackor and asked if he could try his luck on tracing it since he was more skilled in that department than Nuri was.
His hopes weren’t very high when he clicked the message open, but a moment later he was leaning forward on the couch, scanning the information quickly. Eli had come through and managed to find a trace.
And according to him, it’d been sent from inside Rien Inc. HQ.
Someone at the office was out to get Silver.
As the Emperor and CEO of a multimillion-dollar company, of course, being targeted wasn’t anything new, however, this was the first time someone so close to home had been the operator of such nefarious schemes.
Nuri nibbled on his bottom lip, debating whether or not this was information he should share or if it was wiser to keep it to himself for the time being.
On the one hand, Silver would be furious and most likely cause an uproar at the office, giving the perpetrator a chance to slip through the cracks and run off. That was no good.
On the other, if Nuri dealt with this on his own, like he did most conflicts anyway, he was confident he could uncover this person’s identity.
Could this be it? The other option he’d been looking for? His potential way out?
With a temper like Silver’s, if Nuri went to him with the culprit’s identity in hand, he’d most likely be able to negotiate an exchange.
He didn’t like the idea of withholding important information from the Emperor and demanding compensation, since finding this person technically fell under his job description, however…
He didn’t really have much of a choice, did he?
Silver had well and truly backed him into a corner, and if he even had a prayer of finding a chance out, he needed to readjust his mindset. So what if he had to stoop to a lower level? Freedom was what was dangling on the line here.
His multi-slate pinged with another incoming email, reminding Nuri of the anger he’d felt earlier when he’d turned the device on and realized Silver must have announced his vacation had been canceled to everyone.
Why was he bothering to feel bad about manipulating the Emperor when he’d already shown Nuri time and time again that he felt no qualms about doing the same?
This whole game they were going to be playing was just another manipulation in and of itself, wasn’t it? A roll of the dice to decide Nuri’s fate? As though it was no more important than what the Emperor ate for breakfast.
He glanced back over at Silver who was still too distracted by his own work to have noticed Nuri’s reaction to the email.
The Emperor was ruthless when there was something he wanted, if anything, this thing between them solidified that fact. Not only was he willing to sleep with Nuri to keep him on as his secretary, he was also willing to threaten Nate to get him to agree to take the gamble.
There’d been no real reason for Silver to do what he’d done in the kitchen this morning.
Nuri hadn’t antagonized him, and even if he had agreed to meet Nate’s friend, it wasn’t like that would have affected work.
This friend certainly wasn’t high enough up the corporate food chain to steal Nuri away as a secretary.
Had Silver truly been jealous? He’d sounded it. His words had made it seem so…
Was that more manipulation though? How much of what Silver said and did could Nuri take to heart?
He ran a hand through his hair, the matter decided.
For now, he’d investigate on his own without informing the Emperor.
Knowing it was someone from Rien Inc. helped narrow down the search, but not nearly enough.
There were over five hundred employees at the main branch, and that was going off the assumption that it’d been sent by one of them and not a visiting employee from another.
Eli had been unable to locate the exact computer or device that had sent the email, meaning they couldn’t even break it down to a specific team.
Since it was next to impossible for him to check out every single employee himself, he needed another way.
…Someone had to have filmed the video that night.
They’d somehow figured out where the Emperor would be and had set the camera up ahead of time—if Ackor was to be believed and he wasn’t in on it as well, which was still a possibility.
Perhaps there were two of them, Ackor included, working together on this.
The payout they’d asked for was immense, certainly enough to share.
If need be, he could look further into the man, for now however, Nuri was going to operate on the assumption he’d been telling the truth. It made things simpler that way. And if that was the case, that meant someone else had figured out where Silver would be.
Nuri was going to have to pay a visit to Club Spade, but how?
His multi-slate went off and he instinctively answered without checking the caller ID. “Royal Secretary Narek speaking.”
“Nuri,” Romeo’s friendly voice came through the earbud. “I’m glad you picked up. I was hoping to follow up on our plans.”
“Plans?” His gaze pinged to the other side of the room, but fortunately, Silver still seemed preoccupied.
“Yes, we talked about catching up.”
“Oh. Right. About that, I—” Wait. Hadn’t the two of them run into each other at Club Spade? “Actually, I happen to have an opening in my schedule next Tuesday. If you’re free, I can set a meeting for then.”
“Great!” Romeo sounded pleased. “There’s this fantastic restaurant—”
“I’m currently working on a project that will take me out of the office,” Nuri interrupted. “How about I send you an address where we can meet and go over the details?”
“Sure, that works. Whatever you’re comfortable with, Nuri.”
“I’ll be in touch. Have a nice day.” He ended the call, blowing out a breath.
“Who was that?” Silver tipped his head when Nuri’s eyes widened slightly. “You seem flustered, Narek.”
“No, no,” he denied. “You just surprised me is all. You’ve been so engrossed in your work, I almost forgot you were here.”
Silver’s eyes narrowed.
Shit.
Nuri cleared his throat and forced a small smile. It was no secret that Silver and Romeo did not get along, and since Nuri intended on using the other man to get into Club Spade so he could investigate… It was best to keep the Emperor in the dark. “I—”
His multi-slate rang again, but before he could get too nervous, he noticed his sister’s name flashing across the screen. It was easy to forget all about his problem when her angry voice came blaring through the earbud as soon as he connected the call.
“What happened? I can’t believe that not only did you not show up as promised but you also went and got yourself into an accident!
” Neve sounded angry, but also concerned, and that made the guilt within Nuri swell to exponential levels.
“If not for Emperor Silver, we wouldn’t have even known about it, would we? ”