Chapter 2 Sofia
SOFIA
Moonlight shone through the window as I scrubbed the floor.
Alone in this stretch of the hallway at Andre Orlov’s building, I fell further into the belief that I just wasn’t cut out for this.
I’d started out my first day as the household’s newest maid by following a stalwart, cranky old hag of a house manager, Renee.
She must have assumed that I only knew English or Spanish with my alias of Sofia Gonzalez.
It was likely the only reason she frequently slipped into Russian, complaining about me with every step of the way as she gave me a tour of Andre Orlov’s residence.
If I wasn’t walking too slowly, she was bitching about how overly strong my deodorant was.
If I dared to look too long out the window in passing, I was a stupid girl prone to daydreaming.
When I mistook a door on the first floor of this massive building for the door that would lead to the kitchen, I was a brainless twit who wasn’t paying attention.
Aside from her complaints about how lousy of a maid I would be, an estimated failure of an addition to the house staff, she took the liberty to critique my appearance under her breath.
How curvy I was, probably having cosmetic surgery to have a rack of this size.
How short I was, no doubt useless in properly reaching high enough to clean anything.
How tan my skin was, somehow proof that I was a lazy good-for-nothing idiot who laid out in tanning beds and wasted my money.
Getting Renee’s approval only mattered insomuch as obtaining and keeping my employment here.
The woman didn’t have to like me. I doubted she was capable of liking anyone, just one of those miserable people who hated the world on principle.
But she had to get to the point that I could meet muster and be allowed to stay on the staff.
Being a maid wasn’t my aspiration. Until I could satisfy my uncle, though, I was forced to endure this assignment.
Scrubbing harder, I set my teeth together and bit back a growl of frustration.
I’d knocked over a vase with my elbow and sent the crystal container crashing on the floor. A simple mistake, one that should’ve been forgivable with how startled I was to find a guard practically hiding in a nook in the corridor near the doors to Andre’s office suite.
“You’ll need to get used to them,” Renee snarled. She’d flicked a dismissive hand at the burly, scowling guard. Gaunt-faced and not showing a single emotion as I jumped at spotting him so still in the hallway, he looked like a freaking statue. An indoor gargoyle. With the personality to match.
“The Orlov resident always has guards.” Renee arched a graying brow. “They’re always watching.”
I’d gulped and nodded, putting on the show of an obedient maid.
Having guards and soldiers around me wasn’t anything new. I, too, had lived in a residence that was heavily protected. While Renee bought my lie that I was Sofia Gonzalez, the short, curvy, brainless twit, I tucked away the secret of my real identity.
Guards and soldiers were a staple in my life. Being the eldest niece of Roberto Giovanni meant that I’d been subjected to the presence of security for as long as I could remember.
It was also why I understood every grumbled word of Russian she muttered.
My father had insisted upon my cousin, Esmeralda, and I learning English, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
Even though we weren’t the strong sons they’d wished for—born girls and stuck in the fate of being Mafia princesses—we were expected to be fluent in any and all languages that members of crime families might utilize.
“He startled me is all,” I’d told Renee when the guard standing in the shadows made me jump, fling my arm out, and accidentally knock the vase off the table.
“Eh.” Renee curled her lip. “See that you don’t let Yusef ‘startle’ you again.
” She proceeded to order me to clean up the broken vase and flowers.
To wipe up the water and clear out any shards.
While she was at it, she tacked on the instructions to vacuum the nearby plush rugs, scrub the area by hand, then polish it.
The entire wing looked immaculate, but the devious glee in her grin suggested that she loved lording over new maids, treating them like slaves.
Enjoy it while you can.
I narrowed my eyes as I scrubbed on my hands and knees.
Because I won’t be here for you to boss around for long.
Another shard sparkled in the moonlight, and I sighed as I picked it up to dispose of it properly.
I’ll be gone as soon as I can.
Yet, I worried whether that was true.
Uncle Roberto had told me just last week that he expected me to “pick up the slack.”
Slack wasn’t a word I ever used to describe myself. I cooked for him. I helped teach the younger children in the family how to speak Russian. I was going back to school to finish my nursing degree. And I was often busiest helping Esmeralda when she was too sick and weak to do much at all.
I wasn’t a slacker at all, but he’d found a better use of my time. A better direction of my servitude to him since he was supposed to be the respected and beloved leader of the Giovanni Family.
Just days ago, he’d ordered me to disguise myself as a maid and be hired at Andre Orlov’s residence. He’d berated me about being a spoiled, lazy niece. Then he’d threatened me with an ultimatum I couldn’t have considered ignoring.
Be a maid and gather intel for him from Andre Orlov. Or else he’d stop funding the treatments and medical care Esmeralda needed to stay alive. Not to thrive, just to be alive.
Gulping back another scream of frustration, I scrubbed the floor harder. Faster. As if rubbing a hole in this floor would give me a means to vent how much I loathed my uncle. How deeply I feared losing my sweet cousin. And how much I dreaded being here as a liar and spy at all.
I wasn’t a damn spy. I’d trained to be a nurse.
I wasn’t sure about how to sleuth and snoop. I’d grown up with the plan to mind my own business.
And I wasn’t comfortable being here at all, living under a false identity.
All I could hope for was the concept of this ultimatum having an expiration date.
Uncle Roberto couldn’t possibly expect me to hide and spy here forever, indefinitely.
Although I was “just” a girl, and not one of his revered and trusted soldiers or men, even I was aware of how he’d been arranging a brutal and intense campaign against the Orlovs.
The Giovanni and Orlov feud and rivalry predated my existence, and it would likely surpass it for decades more.
My uncle was fine-tuning his antagonism and angle of fighting through the drug business.
His plan was to beat the Orlovs with drug distribution, but in order to be one step ahead, he had to rely on obtaining intel about their routes and shipments.
His former spy, Emilio, had been killed recently, and that was where I came in.
“Look in his office. Take pictures of anything you can find about their drugs. And send it to me. How fucking hard is that, Sofia?” Uncle Roberto had shaken his head in disgust at me when I asked him to clarify exactly what he’d wanted from me.
“Andre Orlov is the one who’s negotiating most of their deals, and he’ll have access to the details I need. ”
As far as I could tell, spying like that wasn’t something I’d need to invest a long time on.
I was here.
I was near Andre’s office.
And I could easily sneak in, get pictures, send them, and leave.
Renee could bitch to another new maid.
I could return home and resume helping my cousin.
In and out.
Right?
Letting the nerves rise up in me, I paused scrubbing the floor. I was alone in this dimly lit corridor. Darkness spread down the hall, and only the moon’s rays of light from outside gave me the clearance to see that no one was lurking.
Guards would be around, of course, but none were patrolling here now. According to the schedules I’d already noticed and memorized, I’d have at least a half hour now with the last patroller pair passing me just minutes ago, taunting that I’d missed a spot.
Renee was in bed, off the clock with the warning that she’d check my progress on this floor when she woke.
Andre and any other members of the Orlov family were likely out or asleep.
So just do it.
Go in there. Find something to take a picture of. And tomorrow morning, you can go home.
I bit my lip, nervous. If not for the looming threat over Esmeralda’s well-being, I wouldn’t have had the gumption to act on this stealthy maneuver.
Just go in the office already. Get it over with!
I left the scrub pad on the floor. Another glance back and forth proved that no one was around. Keeping my appearance simple and making sure that it wasn’t obvious that I was spying—in case of cameras tracking me and how I behaved—I stood up calmly and brushed off my apron.
Then, still wearing a look of authority like I belonged here, I approached the door to Andre’s office. The doorknob’s metal was cool to touch, but I ignored the chill. I tamped down the fear of getting caught.
After I opened it and entered, I leaned against the back of the closed door and let out a whoosh of an exhale.
I’m in.
I did it.
I’m in here.
Opening my eyes, I scanned the dark office suite and instantly cringed.
It was a huge space, full of so many bookshelves and piles of papers and cluttered crap collecting dust and debris all over the place.
Where do I begin?
How will I be able to dig through all this and not leave a trace of it?
If I move anything, it’ll look different like it was disturbed!
I pushed off the door and slowly walked through the dark room. Cataloguing where the piles were and skimming over the words typed on some of the correspondence, I began to fear that it would take me more than one sneaky visit here to find anything my uncle would want.
Besides, it’s not like he’d leave important information lying out in the open.
I winced at a sticky ring of brown sludge where a coffee mug had been left too long on the wood desktop.