28. Elena
ELENA
A t the start of the next week, I began to look forward to going to work. That dread that I experienced each morning when I pulled into the parking lot at my father’s firm wasn’t a routine anymore. I didn’t dwell on hating my job or my life.
I was still stuck in a rut. There was no other future for me than being here with the Volkovs as their accountant.
Sacha and Igor were running more of the invoices, but I had essentially bootlegged a copy of the programs and software that my father had used.
Those copies were now what the Volkovs relied on, and there was still that third-party, middle-man approach to it so the money trails wouldn’t be so easily searchable or trackable.
But I didn’t hate my job.
The further I looked into those previously unclaimed shell companies, the more the mystery got to me.
In a way, it’s like I promoted myself. I almost smiled as I entered the main house to go to the office that had been delegated as my work space. I hadn’t returned to Adrik’s office again. Not by myself, at least, but that was for the best.
Because nothing’s happening there, El.
He’s a busy, important Mafia boss.
He’s focusing on taking over as the next leader.
He got a piece of what you were offering and that’s it.
I sighed as I sat at my desk.
“What’s that sad sound for?” Lev asked as he passed by.
Having two doors in and out of this room made it seem more like a hallway, but I didn’t mind it. I minded when Adrik came by because I’d need to put a little more effort into avoiding him while still being professional. But it was sort of nice to have the others walk through when they did.
Back at my father’s firm, I’d been secluded and holed off.
I was always so paranoid to close my door and shut myself off from the rest of the office.
Because of the secretive nature of the clients I managed and the potentially dangerous financial information that I handled, I had wanted that shield of privacy.
Perhaps it was all in my head, that need to cower and hunch down and to avoid attention.
Here, there was no such need to hide anything. I was in with them now. They all knew about the sordid deals and services that they collaborated on.
Sometimes, it almost seemed like I was safer here.
You know you are.
I furrowed my brow, thinking back to that intruder they’d killed. I still didn’t know what that was about. I’d ceased asking the brothers and cousins about it. Maybe it was just one of those things that happened. These were dangerous men and they’d have countless enemies.
I turned in my chair to face Lev, not wanting to blow him off. “Nothing.” I pasted on the brightest smile I could manage.
“Nothing?” He huffed. “People don’t sigh for nothing .”
I shrugged. “But in my case, it is nothing.” I rolled my shoulders. “Some of these things I’m tracking can get tricky, that’s all.”
With Sacha and Igor more or less like the employees I supervised and worked alongside, I had more time to investigate this Gregori network.
That was what made this almost exciting.
Everything I discovered led me to deeper proof that a network was at play.
Alliances were being formed through shell companies, and I knew that had to mean that different groups or people were forming an organization.
Continuing to investigate it all was keeping me busy and preoccupied, and I relished the opportunity to do something more in-depth and advanced than the same old of bookkeeping and checking accounts.
“Oh, yeah?” Lev crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the desk. He wasn’t interrogating me, but he looked curious. “Like what?”
“Um.” I cleared my throat. “Well, to start with, the first time a payment showed up from the biggest account for this company”—I showed him on the screen—“it seemed like it was a brand-new entity. When I looked further back, like more around the time when your uncle might have died or not, or rather, when he started picking up the pieces after almost dying?—”
I glanced up at him and noticed the hard set of his lips in a thin line. “Sorry. Did I… say something?”
Now it was his turn to sigh. “No. You didn’t know.”
“What? I’m sorry.” I had to have said something wrong.
“He’s not my uncle. Or wasn’t.” He frowned again. “If this is Gregori Volkov that we’re talking about, he was my father. Not my uncle.”
I cringed. “Sorry.” I hated the blush on my cheeks. “It’s hard to remember all of you. Not that it’s my business or anything. I thought Alexei and Viktor were Gregori’s sons and the rest of you were brothers.”
He allowed a small smile, and it made me feel a little better. “There are six of us. Alexei and I are brothers, and the rest are our cousins.”
I nodded, imprinting this into my brain so I wouldn’t make the same mistake. Based on how mad he’d looked at the association being mixed up, I could infer that Lev did not like a reminder that he was related to Gregori at all.
“Um, so what was I saying?” I faced the computer again.
“Oh. Right. The dates. I thought this larger shell company was newer, but I tracked through old title changes and deeds and I realized it was just renamed and relabeled over the years. Still the same route that indicates the same owner, but it wasn’t new. ”
“How long ago did this shell company start?”
“Over fifteen years ago, as far as I can tell.”
He glared at the screen and mumbled something under his breath.
“Lev?”
After a moment of him blanking out like that, he jerked his head toward me and raised his brows. “Hmm?”
“You okay?”
Once more, he sighed. “Yeah. Fine. And I appreciate your working so hard on this.”
His praise warmed me from the inside out. It wasn’t as good as it felt when Adrik praised me, but I would take what I could.
“Because if he’s alive and scheming against the family…” That darkness returned to his eyes.
I winced, worried. “Um… He is. Or, if this isn’t Gregori, like your father Gregori, it’s someone else. Someone else who is definitely alive or was alive and is letting someone use their identity.”
More than that, it was starting to seem like a fact that this network was aligning against the Volkovs.
Explaining it wasn’t easy. Showing the evidence through all the paperwork and files and transactions took time, too.
But the further I dove into looking at all of this and the more I researched the matter, it seemed obvious that the Volkovs had someone targeting them for trouble.
Staying busy in the office and letting out my intrigue about this investigation was only half of my time, though. No matter what I did or told myself, the nights were still so long.
I hadn’t actually ever spent the night with Adrik. Fate was cruel to remind me of that during the twilight hours.
With every day that passed and I didn’t have a small interaction with him, I grew more convinced that any of the attraction he might have felt for me was an illusion and trick of the mind.
And with every night that passed and I lacked a touch from his strong hands or a kiss from his hungry lips, I forced myself to accept that those two times we’d come together were nothing more than flukes.
As I lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling, dreading and wondering if I’d dream about him again, I tried to talk myself out of missing him. Out of this inclination to yearn for him.
Join the club.
Like you’re the only woman in the world who has lusted for him.
At least you got a taste, right?
He used you for pleasure.
And it was good.
I cringed. It wasn’t just that he had made me feel good. I was on the verge of being a total idiot and believing that he’d ruined me for any other man.
At least you’re still here and safe.
He didn’t kill you.
He sees the value in keeping you around for your brain and accounting skills.
That still counts for something.
It was a paltry something , though. Because later that night, as I tossed and turned to yet another erotic dream of him dragging his hot lips down my body and kissing a wicked path toward where I ached for him between my legs, I woke up with a start.
Panting and sensing that my panties were wet again, I damned this curse of arousal.
I’d put up walls around my heart. I adapted to seeing myself as his thing and employee, not his lover or friend.
I avoided approaching him alone. I stopped initiating anything with him, which he seemed to prefer with how busy and moody he was.
But he was still on my mind. Phantom touches could be reignited in my dreams, when I wasn’t conscious and able to tell myself to quit thinking about him like that.
Slumping back on the mattress, I hugged a pillow and squeezed my eyes shut.
It’s not going to happen, El.
The man is not going to want you.
Much less love me.
I just needed a little more time for it to truly sink in, for that hard truth to coat the chipped and cracked pieces of my lonely heart.