Epilogue
Cassandra
“Mrs. Solokov, your husband’s here.”
A smile takes over my face as I tear my focus from the budget I’ve been working on all afternoon.
I nod to my assistant. “You can send him in, Ruby.”
A few moments later, Mikhail’s large form fills my brand-new office door, a sly grin tilting his lips.
“Hi, baby. I thought you weren’t coming in until later?”
“What kind of shareholder would I be if I didn’t check in on my CFO?”
I roll my eyes. A few months ago, I suggested that Mikhail incorporate his businesses for asset protection and tax benefits.
Plus, I knew how much my husband loathed running the Bratva’s more nefarious activities from his office in Empire.
Personally, I love his clubs, but my man is really leaning into his grandpa side; every time he came back from there, he’d complain for hours about how loud and irritating it was.
Thus, Solokov Industries was born. We moved into our brand-new building last month, Mikhail named me his Chief Financial Officer, and the rest is history.
I tried to tell him he should really find someone with more experience than me until I had a few years under my belt, but he was having none of it.
It’s your baby, too. This incorporation was your idea, Menace, and there’s no one I trust more to manage it.
His words scared me. Of course, they did.
I was fresh out of college with an untried degree, and here I was, thrust into the ring of power.
But I’ve always loved power.
Craved it.
And Mikhail is right. This place is my baby, too, and I intend to keep building it up until our capabilities meet the sky.
“You’re gonna have to wait. I’m almost done with this report.” I smirk, fingers returning to the keyboard in front of me.
His voice lights up in false shock as he wanders behind my chair. “You’d make a shareholder wait?”
“Well, I don’t like to throw this around a whole lot, but I’m kind of married to the owner.”
“Is that so?”
His arms wrap around me from behind, and I instinctively settle into the hold. “I think I should have you moved up to my floor. I’m tired of taking the elevator down every time I want to see you.”
“Um, like hell you will! Financial needs its own floor! I can’t have your big, beefy Bratva men out wandering through the auditors’ offices.”
He chuckles at that, the sound soft in my ear. I sigh, shutting my laptop and sliding up into his waiting arms. It’s a miracle I can get anything done around here, as is.
His body wraps around mine, chin settling against my shoulder. The large, floor-length windows in my office bathe the room in soft light, providing us with a staggering view of our kingdom below. Other skyscrapers streak the sky, and scattered movement dots the busy streets beyond.
Breath ghosts my cheek a second before it’s replaced by lips. I turn to face him, my arm snaking between us until it reaches the collar button of his shirt, reaching to brush that comforting scar that started it all.
That girl, the one who staunched this wound so long ago, who hid from violence and cried in closets, rises in my veins like a phantom of the past. I hold her tight to my heart, cradling her into the warmth between our bodies, feeding her the power that pounds through my chest. As it turns out, we were never hopeless, after all.
We were just made for more.