Page 32 of Auctioned to My Bratva Boss

See? Now Anton's message revealed new vermin.

"Thirty kilos of heroin total, split between dozens of crates."

Victor Marchetti. That son of a bitch. Using my channels to move drugs under the cover of diamond smuggling? He had a death wish.

"Tell him the partnership's done."

I loosened my collar button and typed out a line.

"And he can pick up that powder at the police station."

When would this idiot learn? On my turf, you didn't play games.

"He won't let this go. A scumbag like him is capable of anything."

Anton had a point, but I doubted he had the balls.

"Not if he wants to take a bullet."

My phone went quiet for a few seconds before Anton's message came through again.

"Understood, Pakhan."

The silence and stuffiness in the office made it hard to breathe.

Honestly, I hadn't expected Victor to be this bold. He should've known my style. I never touched drugs. And he'd dirtied my pipeline with the business I hated most. He'd better have washed his neck clean before he decided to fuck me over.

Bastard! I nearly put my fist through the glass.

Good. It'd been a while since anyone could piss me off this much. Except for Riley. The image of that soft, petite girl suddenly popped into my head. Damn it, that face always showed up at the worst times.

I hadn't forgotten Riley sitting close to that so-called colleague, the two of them laughing and chatting in the break room. When would she learn her place? I'd bought her. She was mine now.

So I'd transferred that guy to grunt work and dumped the entire quarter's worth of design proofing on Riley. Three days' work for a normal employee. These blueprints replicated the jewelry one-to-one, but sometimes the numbers were off. Someone careful and patient needed to check each one and make corrections.

Personal feelings aside, Riley was a good fit for this.

I knew it was childish of me. Fucking childish. But if I didn't do it, something lodged in my chest, making me irritable as hell.

Maybe I should check on her progress now.

I took the elevator down to the twelfth floor. The moment the doors opened, the anger I'd already suppressed surged back up.

The scene before me felt like a close-up shot. Riley had her back to me, leaning forward slightly, reaching for a box held by the man across from her. And standing opposite her was Adrian—that damn kid I'd already transferred to field operations.

"Let me help you with that." Her hand was already touching the box, her fingers just inches from Adrian's.

If he actually touched Riley, I thought he should be grateful my first instinct was to fire him rather than snap his hand off.

"Forget it." Adrian immediately stepped back.

Smart move.

Though he'd obviously spotted me. His eyes met mine for an instant before sliding away, and he didn't hesitate to slink off down the other end of the hallway.

Riley's shoulders sagged, her blond hair sliding off her shoulder. She looked pretty disappointed. Over a wimp like that? Give me a break. I'd only looked at him once, and he'd scurried away like a turtle pulling into its shell.

I stood behind Riley without saying a word. Until she turned around and collided with my chest. The instant that soft body pressed against me, her sweet scent flooded my nostrils. My anger inexplicably cooled by half.