Page 75 of Beguiled

I thought my brother was going to choke to death. “What?”

“You heard me. My… financial analyst is preparing a presentation with pros and cons. As well as making recommendations for purchasing other businesses.”

“Oh, my God. Let me guess. You find that attractive.” He wagged his finger, which meant he’d suspected I’d had a thing for Saige. He’d seen me at the Christmas party when I’d attempted to hunt her down.

“As hell.”

When Artem giggled after what I’d said, Kazimir cocked his head and grimaced. So the kid would grow up learning cuss words in both Russian and English. Good for his psyche.

“Maybe she can get you out of your house for longer than five minutes.”

“Didn’t Rafaela show you that all good things happen behind closed doors?”

It was good to see him laugh. “Yes, she certainly did. So the rumors are true.”

“What rumors?” There was no reason for every muscle to bristle, but that’s what happened.

“Come on now. The girl at the Christmas party you couldn’t get out of your mind. Then you hired her. Then you saved a girl under attack. Should I put the pieces together about who that girl was? You’re not paying her enough if she was forced to takea second job. Now, you’re willing to take her advice? To me, that smell of romance in the air.”

I gritted my teeth until my jaw ached. “That’s not anything of your concern. I won’t allow it to interfere with business.”

He leaned forward in his seat. “I’m your brother, Stash. I know you didn’t want to be a part of this family. I completely understand why, but no matter the betrayal we both experienced with Mikhail, blood is thicker than water. We are family. And I want you happy. Just proceed with caution. Because there is a flaw in our bloodline.”

“We’re killers?”

His laugh caused me to do the same. “We don’t like being alone. Mikhail is no different.”

While I hated to admit it, he was right.

“To answer your question, I don’t have a problem with considering taking the stock public or with any other business opportunity. That’s your end of business. Maybe it’s hers as well. Maybe doing so will be good for our reputation. And maybe you working closely with her will answer all the questions you have about whether she’s the one.”

If what I feared came true, publicly traded stocks wouldn’t erase the blood pooling in the streets. “I’ll let you know my thoughts after her presentation. With every aspect.”

Damn the man for grinning as if he’d won a round.

“Let me know what you decide about the Armenians. If there’s any concrete sightings of our brother, call me. Day. Or. Night. Watch your back.”

“Don’t worry. I will.” With the call ended, I yanked off my glasses, tossing them on the desk and rubbing my eyes. While I was used to going on little sleep, the night before had been surprisingly both stressful and the most enjoyable evening I’d had in a long time.

Still, all because of her.

Just thinking about Saige at this point was driving me crazy. I’d spent the better part of the day staying behind closed doors in my office, but what work could I say I’d done? Not shit.

All because she was sitting twenty feet away from me.

Damn it. Maybe leaving the office was in my best interest. Hmmm… I sat up, hitting the space bar. I brought up the photographs of Davit and the woman I’d had Dimitri email me. Where was this restaurant? After blowing up something I noticed on the wall behind where they were sitting, I managed to capture a name.

After a little internet surfing, I found what I was looking for.

A lovely Armenian restaurant close to where I’d been earlier in the day. Why not continue my reconnaissance work I’d started earlier? That couldn’t hurt. If the location was a hub for the mob, then I might find the information I was looking for.

Or I could get myself killed. I yanked out my weapon, checking the magazine and grabbing my jacket.

Before I left, I noticed Dimitri had followed through with sending me a list of recent threats we’d received. I took a little while to go through them. Most were random from the company’s social media sites from people who believed ourownership with the oil and gas company meant we were killing wildlife.

I was ready to turn my computer off when one caught my attention. It had come to the email that had been established for me after coming to work at this location. Before I’d insisted on using the old one used by legitimate contacts. I’d thought the email had been shut down but apparently not. Someone had checked it recently. And how did I know?

Because as of the night of the attack, a message had been sent from a Gmail account with two words and nothing else.