Page 6 of Boardroom Sins

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening.

“I flew in this evening,” Lukas says. He speaks in a baritone that vibrates me from head to toe. “I thought I’d stop by. See how things were running.”

“Everything’s fine.” Kir sounds like he’s choking. “We were just?—”

“I can see what you werejust.”

What’s the right play for me here? Move, probably. I should fix my clothes, grab my bag, make some excuse, and book it for theexit. Come to think of it, that sounds pretty nice. But my legs won’t cooperate. I’m stuck against the glass like a bug pinned to a board.

Lukas’s gaze lands on me and skewers me in place. Any thought I might’ve had of moving vanishes in a puff of the smoke from his cigarette.

“And you are?” He takes another drag. The light dances over his hand. His thick fingers are mottled with scars and adorned with silver rings.

“Rae Everett.” It comes out as the meekest whisper anyone’s ever emitted. I clear my throat and try to sound less like a frightened mouse. “I’m, um… I work here. As a, uh, assistant. Executive assistant.”

“To my son.”

“Yes.”

He looks at Kir, then back at me. Something moves behind his eyes. Whatever it is, it frightens me. It’s like seeing the shadow of a shark swim below the surface of water you’re really, really not supposed to be swimming in.

Lazarev Global has been around for forty years. According to company legend, Lukas built it from nothing. He started in shipping, expanded into real estate, then tech, then about a dozen other industries I still don’t really understand. Whatever he does, he’s apparently very good at it, because the whole shebang is worth billions now. Maybe tens of billions, I don’t actually know. The numbers get awfully fuzzy at that level.

I got hired five years ago. It was an entry-level position, nothing special. I answered phones and fetched coffee and tried not toscrew up. Then Kir took over as CEO eighteen months back. He plucked me from the assistant pool for reasons I never understood.

Until now, I guess.

When Kir took the reins, Lukas stepped back to chairman of the board. Technically speaking, he’s no longer involved in the day-to-day operations. But his name still echoes through the halls, always with a whisper of ten parts fear and one part awe.

People talk about him like he’s a ghost.

Or a god.

Or something worse than both.

I’ve never met him before tonight. I’ve never even laid eyes on him in person. Now, he’s ten feet away, smoking a cigarette in a building where smoking hasn’t been allowed for decades.

And he’s looking at me like he’s deciding if he should pick up where Kir left off.

Kir clears his throat. “Father, I?—”

“Leave.”

One word. That’s all it takes. Kir doesn’t even attempt to argue. Nor does he look at me. He simply hurries away, shoulders hunched, footsteps quick and quiet, like a dog that’s been kicked too many times.

The elevator dings. The doors close.

And then it’s just me and Lukas Lazarev.

He takes another drag of his cigarette. The smoke curls up toward the ceiling. I watch it drift, because I can’t look at him. I’m starting to fear that if I meet those eyes again, I’ll be sucked into them and I’ll never, ever get out.

“Ms. Everett.”

I flinch. “Yes?”

“You can relax. I’m not going to bite.”

I let out a shaky breath, but the rest of me continues to tremble, my hands most of all. I tuck them behind my back so he won’t see.