Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 45957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
I opened my mouth to give Igor a small lesson on what having class actually meant because my dear friend whose hobby was playing with dead bodies definitely had none. But then, Adrian stepped into the room, and all of my attention zeroed in on him like I was the big bad wolf and he was just a cute little bunny rabbit.
A rabbit I wanted to eat.
“Where’s my phone?” Adrian grumbled as he dropped into the vacant chair across from my desk.
“Hello to you, too, sunshine,” Igor snarked as I opened my desk drawer to pull out his phone, where I’d placed it for safekeeping. Adrian turned his head to look at Igor, rolled his eyes, then looked back at me. I slid his phone across the desk to him, and he grabbed it, typing in his code then scrolling through it, no doubt looking at all the missed calls and texts waiting for him.
“Well, he’s certainly not a morning person,” Igor said, closing his pocketknife and listing to the side just a bit to slide it back into his pocket. He nodded toward the manila folder on my desk. Leaning forward, I grabbed it. “That’s what I’ve found so far.”
Flipping it open, I was greeted with none other than a picture of Inessa’s uncle, Boris Ilyin. I should have been surprised, but I wasn’t. Him being the culprit made sense. He’d been too quiet and docile for my tastes since I took over as Pakhan, and he’d never been truly happy that Adrik had married off his niece to an American. When I’d been named Adrik’s successor and then became the Pakhan, he’d gone quiet. Too quiet.
I should have known he’d have something under his fucking sleeve.
“He and Inessa’s mother, Ninel, are apparently having an affair. During their visits to see Inessa, it seems Boris had been using the time there to gather what intel he can. And if he’s able to gather the kind of intel that man you murdered had, he has access to James’s and Adrian’s offices. Might even have access to Darren’s and Jaxon’s, too.”
“Mother fuck,” Adrian growled. I glanced up at him. His brows were furrowed, and his lips were pressed into a flat line. “How the fuck—” He scrubbed his hands over his face, clearly stressed. I didn’t fucking like it. “When he used to come around, he was never there often enough to know our guard schedules, and Jaxon is fucking anal about never keeping the same schedule day to day. He makes it look like a jumbled mess on purpose, even though it’s organized as fuck.”
“So, you have a rat inside your walls,” Igor said like he was announcing he wanted pancakes for breakfast.
“I have to go home,” Adrian said, jumping up from his chair. “My family—”
“Kotik,” I growled, my voice full of warning. He turned to face me, his jaw clenched and those dark eyes of his flinty. I pointed a stiff finger to the chair he’d just vacated. “Sit down. Once we’re done here, you can contact James and inform him of what’s happening. But you and I will be dealing with Boris and Ninel and whatever other threats there may be here.”
“They need me home.”
“They need you here,” I corrected. It was only a partial truth though. Because the real truth was that I wanted him here. I could very well take care of all of this by myself if I wanted, but I, quite frankly, didn’t want to. I wanted Adrian here with me, where I could continue to wear him down and eventually make him realize he was mine. He’d always been mine.
“Did you call him kitten?” Igor asked, sounding positively gleeful.
Adrian’s upper lip curled in disgust at me, and fuck, I couldn’t help the grin that spread my cheeks. Oh, he was pissed, and damn, it was a glorious thing to witness after he’d spent days barely even conscious.
“Is that what kotik means?” he asked, his voice not much more than a deadly whisper. “Fucking kitten?”
“Yep,” I said, popping the ‘P’ just because I knew it would piss him off more.
“I am not your fucking kitten,” he growled at me, teeth bared in a snarl. Igor, the fucking shithead, was laughing. The look Adrian cut him—which Igor promptly ignored—was cold enough to kill.
“Sure you are,” I told him, unable to wipe the smile from my face. Wasn’t like I actually wanted to though. “I mean, I did basically have you purring for me when I had your cock down my throat.”
Igor howled like the bastard he truly was. Adrian’s face was so red, I thought his head was going to pop like a fucking smooshed tomato. Jerking out of his seat, he stormed from my office, slamming the door shut behind him. I tossed the manila folder onto my desk and stood, rounding my desk to give chase.