Chapter 21 Andre
ANDRE
Isat back in the chair and dragged my hands over my face.
Meetings weren’t anything new in my life. As the Orlov negotiator, it was my strength. The art of persuasion. The gift of compromising. And the skill of selling a deal with cunning maneuvering.
This meeting with the lawyers was nothing short of gradual torture.
“Mr. Orlov?”
I lowered my hands and faced the turtle-faced head of the legal team. “I’m listening.”
Not.
I’d checked out of this fucking meeting five minutes after it started. That was how stretched thin I felt. How tired I was of being on the go. Maybe it was more to do with the fact that I’d just gotten “back to work” and I was unused to being a workaholic.
But deep down, I knew it was how I missed Sofia that was rubbing me the wrong way.
I hadn’t lost her. She was still stuck in these funky distant spells, indicating something was bothering her, but I hadn’t lost her. She was still at home, in my building, and she’d be there when I had a chance to leave.
Give her some slack.
She’s got a sick cousin.
She’s too damn proud and independent to accept help.
Let her fight her own battles and be there to support her when she caves.
That was the sticking point that kept me confident we’d last. She caved. She submitted. In those sweet, glorious episodes of her lowering her guard to me, I had the rare chance to see her fully at peace and satisfied.
With me.
After the attack at the Rossis’ restaurant, we’d both faced the consequences.
Having any member of any law enforcement department breathing down our necks required it.
Hence, all these meetings with the top-notch legal firms that my father wanted to have on our payroll.
Slick sharks in the courtroom, never failing with how much money we threw at them, these lawyers were the MVPs now.
They handled the press. They dealt with any charges and bonds.
And in this case, they investigated at the same time they defended us with those cops and agents showing up.
I hadn’t shown up with anything on me. No drugs.
No unregistered firearms. Meeting the Rossis was supposed to have been clean.
Yet, the fuckers in office wanted to make a big deal out of it—they were rabid and foaming at the mouth to have a chance to arrest an Orlov.
Or a Rossi.
They were dealing with charges and investigations too, on their end. While no law enforcement officers were killed that night, some were injured. Properties suffered damage from the high-speed car chase that followed those agents and cops popping in like they had.
As far as I could tell, based on my own investigations and what the Rossis told me, the sting was for nothing more than to capture the leaders who were loosely wanted for other crimes.
And as far as I could tell, we would never know where the fucking leak had come from. Who had listened in to know that meeting was scheduled and where.
I maintained innocence. I couldn’t see how the intel about that meeting had come from my end.
The Rossis also insisted no moles or spies were operating under their noses.
They refused to acknowledge a leak on their side of it.
What made it worse was that the Rossis were aware of how I’d recently been searching for a mole.
Telling them that I’d caught them, both Emilio Ricci and Yusef, seemed to placate them, but I was glad that they didn’t come right out and accuse me of setting them up or anything.
“Fucking Giovanni’s gotta be behind it,” one of the Rossi reps told me this morning.
I nodded along. “Giovanni’s been fucking with us, too.”
The Rossis’ dislike of the other Italians made it easier for me to want to align with them, but until we could both figure out where the details of that meeting had been leaked from, we’d be tense.
Finally, once the lawyers were done updating me, I could go. Instead of going home, I checked in on the crew that Sergei supervised. Although they’d hit Niko Popov’s men hard a few months ago, there were lingering concerns that surviving members of our rival would regroup and regather.
Speaking with the spies on the street who were watching out for Popov activity, I got in the car and had the driver take me home.
Oleg was in the foyer when I arrived. He was often around, but I had been hoping to see Sofia before visiting Sergei to fill him in on what was happening in his corner of the city.
“A word,” Oleg said, indicating for me to head to my office with him.
I bit back a groan. No more. Nothing else. Talking with him would take up the time I could be spending with Sofia.
We entered my office and I sat. Once more, I rubbed my face and loathed the headache that was adding tension at my temples.
“I’ve uncovered evidence of someone spying in your household.”
I lowered my hands and narrowed my eyes at him. “My household?” I smirked. “That’s a fancy fucking way of referring to my building. It’s just me. And Sofia.”
He nodded, stone-faced and serious. “Your father asked George to double-check all the guards patrolling. He also had him do a run for bugs. To track all the devices in use.”
And he didn’t bother to tell me about it first?
I bit back the growl of annoyance.
My father was the boss. If he wanted to doubt everyone and check them all, he had every right to do so.
But it stung. My father and I were close.
Sure, we had drifted a little with his prioritizing Anya’s return, then Claire turning his life upside down, and then welcoming a baby to the family.
We’d drifted even more once I found Sofia in my building and started an affair with her.
Still, we were close. If he didn’t trust me or how I did something, he should’ve told me directly.
I hated the chance that he could be second-guessing my worth and loyalty.
“And?” I asked.
Oleg was pissing me off with how skeptical he was of Sofia, but he wasn’t a liar. He didn’t do drama or stir the pot for the hell of it. He was practical and direct, always.
“And something is pinging on this floor.” Oleg cleared his throat. “It wasn’t a clear signal, so he’ll have a better tracker come through tonight.”
I gritted my teeth. “I can trust her.”
He didn’t react, staying as still as possible.
“I trust Sofia,” I emphasized. He had to be thinking of her, that she’d be spying. She was the only anomaly in the building.
“Suit yourself,” he replied wryly. “I didn’t mention her. I am only relaying the facts to you.”
I growled and slammed my fist on the desk. I could actually do that now since Sofia had organized this room so well and the surface was no longer hopelessly cluttered.
“But you think it’s her,” I said.
He nodded.
“Fuck.” I gripped my hair and looked away.
“She’s the only new person to have been here.”
“No, she’s not. We had two new drivers recently.”
He held his hands up in a truce-like manner. “Fine. I agree. Sofia is not the only new personnel here. What stands out to me is that this bug seems to be located inside. It ain’t in the cars or garage.”
I clenched my jaw.
“She is also no longer personnel, Andre. She ain’t been a maid for a while now. She ain’t even working in your office. She’s…”
“Mine,” I stated firmly. “She’s mine. You got that?”
“Officially?” he challenged. “Have you claimed her? Have you told your father this?”
I didn’t need him picking at my life. He worked for me, not the other way around. I didn’t answer to him.
“I will. She’s seemed distracted lately.
For fuck’s sake, I am too. I’ve got the Rossis asking questions about that night.
The cops now. Sergei just had a kid and…
” I blew out a deep breath. “I haven’t had the free time to talk about Sofia with my father.
” Even if I did, I wasn’t sure what I’d tell him.
Because honestly, I couldn’t shake off this suspicion that there was more to her than what met the eye.
She had secrets. I was sure of it. Fuck, I had secrets too. We all did.
“I can’t let go of how few details she’s shared about her past,” I admitted reluctantly.
“When she was hired, you mean?” He nodded. “We asked the agency for more.”
“I know.” I rubbed my jaw. “But it’s not enough.” There was still just a bit of mystery about her. At first, I dismissed it as part of how stubborn she was, how she had seemed to be playing hard to get at first.
Now, though, I was determined to uncover the truth and root out any secrets she might want to keep from me. She had to accept that level of openness and vulnerability to stay in my life.
“If you plan on keeping her, then—”
“She’s not leaving. She can’t.” I shook my head, irritated with how urgently he had to hear that. “I can’t let her go.” Not now, not ever.
At the same time, I would only be a fool to ignore my instincts that were going off about her. Especially lately with how distant she was becoming.
“You said they’ll search for the bug tonight?” I asked.
He nodded. “Then tomorrow morning, we’ll have our answer. We’ll know that Sofia’s not here to spy or steal intel.”
When he didn’t reply, I took it as a slight win that he didn’t argue with me about the fact.
I’ll have my fucking answers about her by tomorrow morning.
I’d get her in my bed tonight, submissive and needy like usual. This time, I wanted her trust, her honesty, even if I had to trick her into revealing why I had such shitty instincts about her identity and the purpose of why she’d shown up in my building at all.