Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
As he advised earlier, Mikhail shut down the cameras inside his penthouse. My security team had them back in operation up until two minutes ago. I got kicked out a second after Mikhail announced Zoya had seen him naked, and no matter how much code I fill the screen with, it won’t come back online.
“Why isn’t it fucking working?” My anger is too high to contain for a second longer.
Mikhail won’t touch Zoya. He’s too cunning to play a hand he knows will only ever win him a bullet hole between his brows, but there wasn’t an ounce of untruth in his eyes when he leered up at the camera before making his bold statement.
That fucker pranced around Zoya naked, most likely during their lengthy exchange in the walk-in closet and bathroom facilities that have no cameras, and the knowledge of that has the gun on my hip as heavy as it was when my surveillance team caught him removing the note I’d left with Zoya’s orange juice, requesting for her to wait for me at Mikhail’s apartment.
Melor, my CFO, looks at me as if I’ve lost my marbles.
I’m on the cusp of agreeing with him.
I don’t pine over women. I sleep with them and then move on. That was the principle of finding a reared-for-the-task bride for my latest campaign. There’s just something about Zoya that flipped my life plan on its head.
I want to blame Mikhail’s interest in her. He can rile me like no one else can because he knows he’ll never be buried in a shallow grave others would face for their insolence. I can’t, however.
I researched Zoya’s condition for hours last night.
I stalked social media for the hope of unearthing the fools she’d previously permitted in her bed.
I slipped back between the sheets before pulling her into my arms to catch a couple of hours of sleep while spooning her like a soft cock.
Mikhail was there for none of that.
It was all me.
Yet for some fucked-up reason, I wouldn’t change a single thing about last night.
Well, except for that one part I’m still endeavoring to fix.
I’m reminded that I asked a question when Melor endeavors to answer it. “The figures are good, Kazimir. Profits are on a steady inc—”
“Not the figures. I don’t give a fuck about the figures.” That’s a shock for everyone in the room, including me. Money usually comes before anything and anyone. “I’m talking about the surveillance in Mikhail’s building. Why can’t I see what’s happening in the elevator?”
My answer comes from the man I make sit in on my meetings so my wealth never extends further than this very room. “It’s being blocked by a portable dirtbox.”
Thank fuck Konstantine isn’t a man I have to pry answers out of. He coughs up the goods as regularly as he beds hookers.
“It impedes camera frequencies and phone signals. Pretty much anything with radio waves with one click of a button.” My jaw firms to the point of cracking. “Mikhail was seeking one a couple of weeks back. Right around the time you started that…”
His words trail off as his eyes stray to the stack of files I left Mikhail’s apartment with. I have no intention of using them—my grave has been dug. I merely didn’t want to leave Mikhail with more ammunition to use against me.
He’s already got the charm that makes the ladies weak at the knees.
I just don’t see his gimmicks working on Zoya.
She doesn’t want a sentimental schmuck who’ll make her breakfast in bed and massage her feet when they’re sore. She wants to be taken hard and fast. Fucked. She wants to be claimed by a madman who’ll send hitmen to her exes’ doors because he can’t stand the thought of any man seeing her how he saw her last night.
I will do precisely that once I find them.
Zoya’s online presence is as limited as my patience.
“Can you work past the block?”
I slam down my laptop screen with so much force it cracks when Konstantine shakes his head. “I designed it so it can’t be overridden. Its range is short, though.”
I doubt it is as short as my temper.
“The server will resume broadcasting the instant he is twenty feet out of frame.”
It takes me longer than I care to admit to work through the barrier Mikhail is attempting to throw up. The delay ensures it is nothing short of brilliant. “Extend the brief I gave you this morning. Add any discrepancies to our servers to your reports. I want to know if a camera is offline for even a second.”
When I couldn’t find any information on Zoya this morning, I put a tail on her instead. She’ll be able to move freely, but each step will be monitored.
Well, they would have been if my punk-ass brother hadn’t tossed himself into the ring of a fight he’ll never win.