Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
My hand flies to the thick bun at the nape of my neck. I thought I looked sophisticated.
“My – hair?” I ask haltingly.
He leans on his forearm and gestures for me to step closer with a crooked finger. Against everything in me that tells me not to, I lean in.
“It’s too easy for someone to reach out”— he gestures to the air in front of him — “and grab it.” He makes a fist so suddenly, I jump back, my heartbeat threatening to choke me. “And once you were caught in their grip…” He shrugs. “They could do anything they wanted to do to you.”
One last lingering gaze skates over my neck to my chest and all the way down the length of my body.
“Now go.” He turns away. "If you're still in here in ten seconds, I'll give you a personal escort out of my office. And just so we’re clear.” He snaps his gaze back to mine. “If you ever fuck around with me again, you’ll deal with me personally. I promise you, you don’t want that to happen.”
I open my mouth to try another angle, but his steely gaze forbids it.
I do the only sensible thing.
I walk out the door with my head held high and shoulders squared.
I outed myself to Mikhail Romanov. I practically flat-out begged. He knows who I am and what I’m capable of.
I offered what I had to give.
He didn’t bite.
When my feet hit the ground outside his door, I finally run.
CHAPTER SIX
Mikhail
“Follow her.”
I don’t wait for a response. They know exactly who I'm talking about. Hell, they followed her in here. It’s cute that she thinks she orchestrated this.
Even though I knew she was coming, I wasn't prepared for how beautiful she was. Nerdy, yeah, but in the sexiest way I could imagine. The brightest eyes hiding behind scratched lenses, thick, dark hair pulled into a bun at the nape of her neck. I imagine pulling on her mane of hair. I imagine pain flashing across her face before she moans when I wrap my fingers around her hair and pull. I want to see her fight me when I take control.
I wasn’t giving her a warning when I told her about her hair. I wanted her to imagine me gripping it. I wanted her to imagine what I’d do to her when she was at my mercy.
A knock sounds at the door.
"Who is it?" I snap. I'm not in a social mood. When am I ever in a social mood?
“Aleks.”
I grunt in reply, and Aleksandr opens the door.
He nearly slams the door shut behind him, but he's too in control of himself to give way to temper. Unlike the rest of us.
He stalks in and glares at me. "You know her?"
"Of course I don't fucking know her." By the end of the day, I will. By the end of the day, I'll know everything about her.
“But you knew she was coming.”
I nod. “I did.”
Scowling, he doesn’t ask me how I knew. The less we say out loud, the better. I tell my brothers what they need to know, no more, no less. We have informants and allies, and the key to survival is knowing when and how to use them.
"Someone hacked into our data system. Give me ten minutes and I’ll prove it was her.”
I raise an eyebrow at him and he nearly flinches.
He fucked up and he knows that I know. He also knows what that means.
I shake my head. “You don’t need to. I know it was.”
She’ll pay for that. But so will he.
Aleksandr’s eyes grow dark as he glares at me. “And you let her walk?”
I lean forward. “You’re hardly in a position to question my decisions, don’t you think?”
Aleks is suitably humbled. He swallows and hangs his head. “No, sir.” As the oldest, my parents held me responsible for my siblings from a young age. They learned to respect me and defer to my authority, so the transition to me being pakhan was almost seamless.
“No. She only thinks she walked. Do you really think, brother, that I let someone hack into our systems, manipulate their way into my office, and leave unscathed?” I shake my head with a sigh. “Sometimes, I don’t think you know me at all.” A glint of a smile ghosts his lips, but he knows he fucked up. I lean forward, my voice deceptively calm. “But tell me, Aleks. How did she hack into our system to begin with? Think before you answer.”
He flinches as if struck and nods.
“Give me ten minutes, Mikhail,” he says, unusually subdued and chastened.
“You have five.” I tap my phone and send a message.
Krasnaya trevoga
We need a meeting, now. What if she’s working with others? If she could access our scheduling with ease, what else does she have access to?