Page 17 of Brazen Obsession

Finn just shakes his head.

“I mean, she could use my office, but it might be a bit of a commute.” Drew smiles at Sara.

She laughs lightly, happy to let us work out this detail. As long as we have our eyes on her, I’m happy.

“We need to figure out how Beth fits into all this.” I glance at Tom. “She seems to have a thing for you, but after her cruise and being sick, she’s been working in the office.”

“Beth Brown? The one that brought the accounts to me?” Tom looks confused. “I fired her.”

I stiffen. “There was no record of her being fired.”

“Fuck.” Tom runs a hand through his hair again and stands. “Fuck. She has access?”

“To what she needs. We locked her out of most things.” Finn looks concerned and starts working on his phone.

“Take away her access now. Fuck. I should have told you.” Tom shakes his head as he paces and thinks.

“We knew she brought you those accounts.”

Tom stops and looks at me. “We can’t go back into the office until she’s gone.”

“Why not?” I tighten my hold on Sara.

“Because she’s the daughter of a Petrov.”

Chapter 7

Bond Rate

Finn

“Sebastian told us about Beth.” I run a hand through my hair. We fucking forgot to block her ass out of the system before we left. I can get into the system to lock her out from my phone, but I need my fucking laptop to doublecheck she didn’t access anything. “We fired her, but we weren’t exactly thinking about her access before we left. We were too preoccupied getting Sara back. Employee management was the last thing on my mind. And we haven’t had internet until now.”

I reach over to Sara and she takes my hand. Her pale green eyes lock with mine. It’s been one hell of a ride to get to here. I’m not sure what it will cost me going forward to have my father’s protection. Maybe nothing until he names an heir.

Then I become competition for the throne. Something I don’t want to think about because I don’t want it. But it may not matter to the man my father chooses. I’d still be a threat.

“See, Tom. This is why we need you to keep us informed.” Wyatt shakes his head and lifts his gaze to Tom. “You can’t just disappear anymore. This can’t keep happening. If you can’t agree to that, you’re out.”

“What?” Tom narrows his eyes on Wyatt.

But Wyatt is right. We can’t keep doing this.

“We’re trying to run a business, Tom.” Dante’s voice is solid. “If you can’t put in for vacation like a normal person, then I agree with Wyatt. You’re out of the firm.”

Tom looks shell-shocked. We were too lax with him. But he gave us everything growing up, so we put up with this shit for far too long. Thinking we somehow owed him for sharing his family with us. But fuck that.

“I agree.” It’s all we need to push him out. For us three to be in agreement. “No more running off and keeping clients off the books. We could get in serious trouble for that shit. You could have destroyed our business.”

Tom pales. “You guys would kick me out?”

“If you don’t change.” Dante lets that hang in the air between us.

We absolutely mean it. Tom doesn’t need to be handled with kid gloves. He needs to learn to be a fucking responsible adult for himself, Natasha, and the baby. Squeezing Sara’s hand before releasing it, I rise and run a hand down my slacks.

“I’ll meet the rest of you upstairs. I need to go fix another of Tom’s problems.”

He doesn’t meet my eyes. He’s lost everything. His friends. His sister’s trust. He should be sad. He gambled with his sister’s life. That has repercussions.