Chapter 3 Andre
ANDRE
Relief washed over me. It contradicted the throbbing ache of the bleeding wound on my shoulder. The searing stabs of pain that radiated out from the slash on my side couldn’t diminish the utter peace that hit me in knowing it was over.
It was done.
I’d found the bastard selling intel, and I’d killed him.
While I hated that it was one of our own, that the one responsible for selling secrets and confidential information to Roberto Giovanni was a member of the Orlov organization, I loved that I’d ended his life. I had personally seen to it that he couldn’t deceive us any longer.
You stupid motherfucker…
If I had the energy, I would’ve shaken my head as I lay on the floor.
Yusef had been in the family for a long time, at least twenty years.
He was a low guard when I’d started taking more of an interest in the business, likely when I was ten or so.
With it only ever being me and my father, plus my two cousins, it was very much a boys’ club, a tight-knit foursome of us, with my father teaching us all he knew as early as he could.
He’s going to be so fucking pissed. He’ll be livid when I tell him that the mole was one of our own.
I wouldn’t have any right to keep the news from him.
Besides, as soon as I summoned the energy to get up and clean off all this blood, the discovery of Yusef’s body would be out there.
A call to a couple of the men on patrol would begin the cleanup.
Staff on hand or in the other buildings we owned on this block would start the process of returning my office to order. It wouldn’t be a crime scene for long.
I’d rather be the one to tell my father about this duplicity, though. It might soften the blow if he heard it from me, not someone else on the force.
Learning that one of our own men had turned traitor was a hard pill to swallow. And because Mikhail Orlov was that ruthless and just of a leader, he’d take the betrayal personally.
I grunted, trying to gather the energy to get up.
A lazy sleepiness seeped through me, though.
Relief drugged me, coaxing me to lower my guard.
The restlessness of hunting down the mole was gone.
Now that it was over, now that I knew I’d caught the mole red-handed as Yusef pilfered through the papers on my desk, I didn’t have to hurry. To stress. To be on the go and on task.
No. I should go tell him now.
Pain kept me sluggish, though. That fight at the warehouse had been a bloody mess.
I’d made sure to drop off Oleg at my father’s building, where Claire had her health clinic.
My stepmother—a misnomer if there ever was one since my father’s wife was younger than me—would no doubt be in bed or trying to get in bed.
Owen was just a baby yet, and she was a hands-on mother.
She was also a doctor at heart, and that was why dropping Oleg off at the clinic there was smart.
He had been bleeding faster than I was, and I bet that Daria, one of the newest trainees, would be there working the graveyard shift to help sew him up.
Wait.
If I went to inform my father about Yusef being the in-house mole, Claire would see how wounded I was. And she’d get up and be inconvenienced to help me, which I wanted to avoid.
Avoiding my father and his new wife had become another pesky habit I couldn’t kick. I loved them. But something about seeing him so settled and happy for the first time in his life was difficult to accept. I felt… jealous of that peace and serenity they’d found in belonging to each other.
Instead of lying here and groaning in pain, though, I could drag my ass to the bathroom and at least clean up. Wincing as I pressed on my shoulder, I tried to rock my body for momentum to get up.
More pain shot through me, and I grunted louder.
“Let me help.”
I opened my eyes a bit at the soft, feminine voice.
A hint of fear clung to the end of her offer, but the brunette kneeling over me executed authority.
Knowledge. Determination to help. Without asking for my permission, before assessing what was going on, she took a rag and pressed it over my shoulder.
She didn’t slap it on randomly but held it with pressure where it would help slow the bleeding.
I blinked, stunned by this angel showing up out of nowhere.
And in my office? I furrowed my brow as I opened my eyes wider.
“Who the hell are…” I didn’t bother finishing the question.
Black and white garments shielded her lusciously curvy body from my sight.
The lace trim on her maid’s apron seemed so frilly when the woman wearing it bore an expression of no-nonsense as she tended to my wounds.
“I’m… a maid. I just started today.”
Clearly, she was a maid, dressed like that. She sure as hell wasn’t stodgy Renee, who’d been handling my building for years. This young beauty must be the new hire that Renee had mentioned to me in passing, someone from the staffing agency who’d be starting soon.
As I slumped to the floor and accepted her help, I dismissed the soothing comfort of her gentle hands on me as she began to unbutton my shirt and push the fabric aside.
Feeling her delicate fingertips on my bare skin was enough to jolt me out of the all-consuming pain, but it wasn’t enough to push me into the territory of being turned on.
She looked too serious. Her touch was too clinical.
“A maid?” I winced as she bundled up my shirt to smear away the blood from the gash on my side. “Or a nurse?”
“I’m just a maid.” She frowned as she inspected my wounds, too analytical in her study. Something deeper hid in her gaze, some trick of the eye. She wasn’t just anything.
“Welcome to the household,” I replied wryly as I focused on breathing through the fiery stabs of pain. “But what the fuck are you doing in my office?”
She glanced up, stunning me with her worried, dark-brown gaze. “I was… I was…” She swallowed, and I watched as she swung her attention to Yusef, dead on the floor. “I was cleaning in the hallway, and I heard…” She swallowed hard again.
“You heard what…?” I frowned at her. “You got a name?”
She nodded as I tried to sit up. “Easy. Go nice and slow. Or better yet, perhaps you should lie down for a little longer until—”
“A name?” I prompted again.
“Sofia. Sofia Gonzalez.”
“Sofia, what did you hear?”
She licked her lips, her face a show of complete concern as I tried to get upright.
I wasn’t going to bleed to death. Not here.
Not like this. But the sooner I cleaned up, the sooner I could rest for whatever was left of the night.
Because first thing in the morning, my father would need to be informed about all that had happened tonight.
“I was cleaning the hallway floor—”
“This late?”
She nodded. “Renee gave me instructions…”
I nodded, grimacing as I pulled myself up to stand. Sofia’s hand stayed on me, both compressing my wounds and assisting me as I got up.
“And I heard someone in this room. I was startled by that man and hid under the desk. Then, then…” She cringed, glancing at Yusef dead on the carpet.
I didn’t need her to explain anything else. I was there. I remembered. I’d killed the mole who’d been hiding too close for comfort.
“And then that,” I finished for her.
She cringed and nodded, seeming to put effort into not looking in Yusef’s direction.
At least she didn’t freak out at seeing a dead man so up close. Or cry. Or try to run away and hide, hysterical from the trauma. No. She wasn’t leaving me. She was right here, her hands dirty with my blood as she assisted me.
Together, we rose to stand. Keeping her close, I had the steady balance to stagger fully upright. But as soon as I took one step forward, I lurched to the side and groaned.
“Easy. Nice and slow, Mr. Orlov.” She didn’t hesitate to go with me, wedging her shoulders under my arm and propping me against her.
Easy?
She had that part right. Accepting her help was no challenge on my part. And I wasn’t in the frame of mind to hurry to my room or to push myself. Staggering out of the office took all my energy, and if it weren’t for her helping me, I wouldn’t have gotten far at all.
“Can you reach my phone?” I asked her, breathing hard as I leaned against her in the hallway. My injured side was opposite her, and my range of motion was limited to get the device from my pocket.
She didn’t hesitate, proving again that she was made of sterner stuff.
She wasn’t flipping out and panicking at the sight of blood.
She wasn’t balking at the fact that I’d been wounded and had shot a man dead.
Some staff couldn’t handle the hardships of the Mafia life, but Sofia wasn’t scared. She was game to help.
Once she got my phone out, I told her what to do, and she soon held the device up to my ear. The call went through to the head of security at the house, and I gave him instructions to handle the mess in my office.
“I will tell my father about this,” I told him.
“Yes, sir.” He disconnected the call as I continued staggering toward my room.
Sofia didn’t part from me until we were there, in my room.
“That way.” I tipped my chin in the direction of the bathroom, and she nodded.
Although the idea of her staying with me while I showered was a tempting one, I suspected that it would obliterate her advice of going easy.
Or nice and slow. Letting her touch any more of my skin was too enticing of a concept.
It wouldn’t be easy to keep my distance from her.
I wouldn’t want it to be nice and slow between us.
After she released me so I could sit in a chair in the bathroom suite, a master’s space with plenty of room to move, she grabbed a towel and wetted it to bring it to me.
“No.” I shook my head, watching her in the brighter light. Makeup nearly concealed the faint mark of a bruise on her face, but I noticed it.
I noticed it and grew more intrigued.
“Start the water for me,” I told her instead.
She pressed her lips together, worried, but turned and spun the faucets for the shower to turn on in the spacious stall. Accidentally activating the handle for the second showerhead, she flinched and reared out of the way of the water.
Ever so slightly, the corner of my lip kicked up.
A smile.
Almost.
And once more, I shook my head. Amused that I could be entertained enough to smile at this sexy, young maid, I began to shove off my jacket and shirt.
Not now.
Not here.
Not like this.
With a maid?
I’d never cared to fuck the help. But there was no denying the intrinsic force of how captivated I was.
Aware of her as she came to help me get my bloody clothes off.
Intrigued by how steady her fingers were.
Curious about how guarded her gaze was as she deferred to me demurely, avoiding direct eye contact.
It’s because she’s new.
It’s just because she’s something I haven’t seen before.
Nothing more.
“I can manage from here,” I told her after I stood again. Despising how long it took me to catch my breath from the exertion of standing, I watched her back up. Keeping her hands up as if to spot me as a fall risk, she winced.
“Unless you plan on getting wet,” I added, teasing her with a meaningful look at the shower.
A gorgeous pink darkened her cheeks, further pushing me out of the realm of exhaustion.
As she backed up more, shaking her head and shyer than before, she averted her gaze. “I can wait nearby. If you need my help with your wounds…”
I didn’t reply, undoing my pants before she left, practically bolting out of the bathroom. The idea of seeing me naked was too much for her delicate personality.
I grunted a huff of wry humor.
Delicate?
Nothing seemed fragile about her. Any other maid would’ve screamed at the bloody mess. Renee had never cared to play housemaid for me.
Once I stepped into the shower and clenched my teeth at the water on my wounds, I hissed in a deep breath and willed all thoughts about this new maid out of my mind until I could get myself rested and presentable to tell my father about the unfortunate news that one of our own was the mole.
It wasn’t good news, but it was news we could be done with. The worry of someone spying was over. The problem was solved. I’d wrapped that matter up by killing Yusef, and that was that.
Maybe now I can give myself a “break” with the job well done.
I let a wicked smile curve over my face as I considered allowing myself the freedom and time to get to know my nurse-minded maid a little better than the odd introduction we’d had tonight.