Page 18 of Romi

“Great, I’ll wait for you outside!” she said before heading out.

My eyes followed her. I couldn’t stop them from tracking her every move or from noticing how great her bum looked in those tight black jeans she was wearing. My body swayed slightly towards her as if it had a mind of its own. Luckily, I managed to stop myself before I actually moved. However, I noticed Ash giving me a thoughtful look. Fuck, I needed to get a grip!

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t get much sleep, and I’ve got a bit of a headache coming on, that’s all,” I said, running my hand across my forehead and briefly closing my eyes to avoid looking directly at him.

“You’re working too hard,” he said, obviously thinking I had been overdoing it with the flat renovations.

We quickly briefed Miki on the state of our investigation into who was really behind the attacks. Our lack of progress was frustrating, but we were hopeful that some more information would be forthcoming soon.

We’d spoken with Sergei, who ran the drug-dealing side of our operation on the ground. He was Bratva through and through, and his twin worked for our Uncle Maxim in Russia in the same role. He was completely loyal, and we trusted him to do his job well.

Sergei was the liaison between us and our dealers higher up the totem pole. He distributed the drugs to them, and they sold them on to other dealers lower down the totem pole, who then sold them on to our lowest-level street dealers. That way, we had no contact with the dealers. It was a good model of business as it made tracing things back to us so much harder.

However, even if he didn’t deal directly with all of our dealers, he knew who they were and kept a close eye on them, no matter what level they were. So we could rely on him to ensure they were warned about this new threat to their lives. Whether that would do any good remained to be seen, but at least they would have been forewarned of the possible danger they faced.

It didn’t feel like enough, but until we knew more about what was going on, it was the best we could do.

Marko had hacked Siri’s phone and was trying to get into a couple of his more senior soldiers’ phones, too. He was also looking at all of Siri’s bank accounts, those in his name and those he thought were hidden but Marko, being a bloody genius hacker, knew about.

We needed to know exactly what they had planned for us and what these attacks were leading to. They had only started a week ago, and so far, there had only been a few. However, that our guys had been attacked at all was a huge problem that needed to be dealt with quickly. Otherwise, we would look weak, and then the sharks would start to circle, and we didn’t want that.

We needed to get more information soon, and our lack of progress was frustrating, so naturally, Miki was not at all impressed.

“Keep up the pressure on our informants. I want to know who is behind this!” he fumed before dismissing us.

Ash headed to his own office after reminding me when we had to pick up the delightful Peacocks.

“I need you with me!” he stated, ensuring I couldn’t bail out on him.

Darn, I had almost convinced myself that creating a flood in the flat might just be worth it to get out of that dinner. I sighed at the prospect of spending more time in the company of that despicable woman.

It looked like I wouldn’t be going to the flat anyway since Sonia wanted to go somewhere—probably shopping. I huffed at the thought. This was going to be another difficult day. Why hadn’t I said I was sick or something? I told Ash I had a headache. I should have played that up and got myself out of this situation.

It was too bloody late now. Sonia was already waiting in the car, and everyone else was busy. Cursing my stupidity, I quickly collected my suit and forced myself to go out to the car. Somehow, I would get through this. There was no other choice.

“Where to?” I said as I slid into the driver’s seat.

“Your flat!” she stated, making me freeze.

“My what?!” What the heck?

“I thought you might like to show me the flat you were telling me about?” she said, smiling.

I blinked at her. Shit, I would love to show her the flat, but that was not a good idea. I was hanging on to my control by a thread as it was. Having her in my own private space, alone, would likely be catastrophic for maintaining my distance.

“I’d love to see it!” she said again, and I could hear the pleading in her voice as she gazed up at me.

She looked so adorable. How could I say no to that? I gulped.

“Okay, I would love to show you it,” I said, although my voice sounded strained to my ears.

All I could think of as she smiled up at me with her beautiful big blue eyes was that I really did want to show her my flat. The straining bulge in my pants was reminding me that I really wanted to show her something else, too, but that was definitely not going to happen. Down, boy!

So much for staying away from her, damn it, I needed to control myself. I needed to get out of this, but I didn’t know how and frankly, deep down, I didn’t want to. I longed to spend more time with Sonia, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I desperately wanted her to see my flat. I wanted to get her opinion on it. I wondered if she would be impressed by the work I had done. I was thrilled by the idea that she might be. Shit, this was bad, very bad.

“So where is it?” she asked, oblivious to the storm of emotions tormenting me.