Chapter 7
Cara
“You’re not doing enough!”
My father’s voice rings in my ears as I walk away from the office on my lunch break. It won’t be relaxing since he wants to chew me out for my lack of progress throughout the duration of it.
And through his constant disapproval he heaps on me, I can’t stop hearing Dmitri’s deep, seductive voice in sharp contrast saying, Good girl.
Two words conveying his approval and I’m capable of setting off flash flood warnings in the desert.
“I’m sorry. Things are just taking a little longer than expected,” I explain to my father. “I’m close to getting him to open up. He already trusts me with his other business,” I tell him as I pitch a quick look over my shoulder to make sure that no one is too close behind me.
Specifically, Dmitri, who should be on the other side of the city by now for a lunch meeting with a friend of his.
“You need to end the engagement immediately. I don’t care what you have to do, yeah? Make him loathe the thought of being with her. Just do something for feck’s sake!”
“I’ll figure out a way to make it happen,” I assure him, withholding a frustrated sigh. I swallow my frustration. This isn’t an easy mission.
“We need a backup plan in case you can’t pull this off,” he mutters. “Do you still have that bug I gave you?”
It’s safely tucked away in a zipper compartment in my purse. For emergencies. “Yes, why?”
“Bug his desk phone,” he tells me. “I want to hear all the conversations that he’s having in the office. The more intel I can get, the more I have to use against him. Maybe he’ll say something that’ll piss off Suyunov, and I can send the recording to him.”
I doubt that Dmitri will say anything too damning while on the phone, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe my father will get exactly what he wants, and I’ll be off the hook.
“I’ll do it today,” I say without letting my frustration show.
I’ve only given my father attitude once in my life, when I was a teenager, right after we were reunited.
And the punishment was that I couldn’t leave his house for the entire two months of summer break.
No phone. No television. No friends. It took over a week for the bruises to heal from his backhand.
I’ve seen him do worse to disloyal men right in front of my eyes, and that’s stuck with me for years. It’s not easy to disobey a man who can kill others without a shred of remorse. That’s why I’m not as afraid of Dmitri as I probably should be.
“Let me know when it’s done, yeah?” Sean replies before ending the call.
I tighten my grip on my phone, fighting the urge to chuck it across the street so that I don’t have to have any more calls with him. They exhaust me every single time, and they certainly don’t help my confidence going into this plan.
My own father doesn’t believe in me. I’m going to prove him wrong.
Good girl.
For some reason, Dmitri has already put a little of his faith in me.
And how do I return that faith? By betraying him every second of every day.
At lunch, I eat my feelings, ordering a brownie to go along with my club sandwich and orange soda. Eating in a quiet sandwich shop calms me somewhat, but the thought of having to sneak a bug into Dmitri’s office phone isn’t relaxing in the slightest. It’s a huge risk.
I devour my brownie in a few nervous bites, my stomach twisting at the thought of failing. It’ll all be over if Dmitri catches me in the act. He might shoot me right then and there because I know that he’s carrying most of the time.
Uneasiness haunts me as I head back to the office, the sun beating down on me from above. I step out of the elevator and see Karly eating a salad out of a Tupperware bowl, making better life choices than me.
“Is Mr. Ivanov back yet?” I ask her.
She shakes her head with a mouthful of lettuce. “No. Why?”
“Just wondering,” I say as I walk past her to disappear into Dmitri’s office. At least he’s still insisting that I work in his office with him, so I have an excuse to be in here whenever he’s out.
Once the doors are shut, I hurry over to Dmitri’s office phone and inspect the receiver. It’s been a while since I learned how to tap a phone like this. Cell phones are easier to work on, but there’s no way that I’m sneaking a bug into Dmitri’s that he has within reach at all times.
I open the receiver. Slide the bug inside. Seal it.
The sound of the doors opening behind me makes me jerk away from the phone and grab any sheets of paper that I can reach. I shuffle them into a neat stack as Dmitri enters the room.
He seems so pissed off with something else that I’m barely on his radar until he reaches his desk. “What are you doing?”
“Organizing your reports, sir,” I say, forcing my voice to be as calm and steady as possible.
Dmitri drops into his office chair with a heavy sigh, one hand squeezing his temples. “The fucking things that I have to deal with...”
My eyes shift to the phone as the sound of my heartbeat thumps in my ears. Hopefully, he doesn’t notice that it’s been tampered with, or I’m dead. He’s smart enough to figure out who would’ve had a chance to plant it.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I ask as I place the stack of papers down and take a step closer to him.
Dmitri lowers his hand to look up at me. At first, I swear his expression softens for a moment, but it soon becomes hard and stony. “No. If there’s something for you to do elsewhere, do it. If not, go home.”
I blink at him in surprise. It’s barely past lunch. “I—”
Dmitri fixes me with a glare that makes me shut my mouth.
Maybe it’s best if I leave for the day.
With a small nod, I grab my things and walk out of his office before he can take his anger out on me. I pass by Karly quietly as she also keeps her head down and focuses on doing work at her computer. The office will probably be even quieter than usual for the rest of the day.
When I step outside of the building, I pause for a moment, unsure of what to do. I know my father wants an update on the bug, but I don’t think that I can handle another lecture right now. The call can wait until tonight.
I turn to head back to my apartment, but something catches my eye down the sidewalk.
A bright white fur coat in summer. I quickly back up where I’m hidden by the entrance of the building, carefully peeking around the corner of the entryway to watch Annika talking on the phone outside of the sleek black Lexus that I assume is her ride.
Her driver stands next to the back door, waiting for her to be done so that he can let her inside.
I shift on my feet, desperately wanting to know who she’s talking to and what she’s saying. It seems like she’s in a heated conversation.
I scan the area. Not much traffic or pedestrians right now. There are multiple cars parked along the street in front and behind her car. They’ll have to be my cover.
My adrenaline spikes as I hurry behind the closest car to me and crouch down, my heart racing. If I get caught snooping, she’ll tell Dmitri, and who knows what conclusions he’ll draw from that.
That I’m a jealous woman? A creepy stalker?
I’d rather be either of those than a spy.
I ease forward to the next car and then the next until I’m two cars behind her. Luckily, she speaks loudly naturally because she always wants to be heard, so I can hear her from here. Thankfully, she’s speaking to someone in English not Russian.
“I’m starting to get sick and tired of it! Why am I the only one involved in the wedding planning? All I asked was for him to attend the cake tasting, floral arrangement appointment, venue tour, and meetings with officiants!” Annika rants to whoever is listening on the phone.
I raise an eyebrow. Sounds like the two are already quarreling. Good.
“I know…I know. He’s a busy man. Maybe I can get him to buy me a little wedding gift,” Annika says with a ringing laugh. “I’d love a vacation home somewhere. Maybe Italy.”
She must be talking to a friend. Ranting about her fiancé so soon before her wedding is definitely a sign of a happy relationship.
“I bet I can convince him to fire that bitchy little assistant of his. That would be a wonderful wedding gift,” Annika says.
I go still. I can’t even see her face because I’m crouched down, but I can hear the smirk in her voice.
“Alright, I’ll see you there in a few. Kisses,” Annika replies, making a kissing noise before hanging up the phone. “Take me to Ravage.”
I can only assume that’s one of her father’s clubs.
I shrink down even more as I hear her driver open the back door for her, my mind racing. Given how many relationship problems Annika and Dmitri are already having, I think that I can apply a little pressure to that topic and see if Dmitri will bite.
Time is running out before the engagement is officially announced and wedding invitations go out. I need to hurry up and at least put a crack in the foundation of this alliance.
Once I hear the Lexus pull away and race down the street, I stand up and move back to the sidewalk, watching the black car take a right and disappear.
Annika is so desperate to get rid of me.
What she doesn’t know yet is that while she’s busy planning a wedding, I’m planning a war.