Despite a voice telling her to just call for help, she turned the knob and peered inside. Besides, the thieves would’ve probably stolen everything of value and had left by now. A man stood in her living room, huge and intimidating. Ava nearly pressed the call button, except when he turned, she recognized that profile.
She furrowed her brow. “Viktor? What are you doing here? Wait. Were you the one who broke into my apartment? How?”
He shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’ve been waiting for you to call. You never did.”
“What?”
“I offered you a job. I’m guessing from the haggard expression on your face that you haven’t found one yet?” he asked.
“Um. Yeah. It hasn’t been easy. The HR managers kept telling me my expected salary is too high. That they could just hire someone younger, someone who came from a better school.” She scoffed. Why was she telling him all this? Any other woman would’ve been freaked out to find the man they slept with a week ago had broken into their apartment. Ava noticed he was once again wearing one of his tailored suits. A dark-gray one this time. He walked up to her and plucked the phone she was holding.
“There’s no need for this,” he said, setting the phone down on the coffee table. “It wasn’t my intention to scare you.”
“Yeah? Well, you’ve done a good job of it so far.” She sucked in a breath when he cupped her cheek. His dark eyes looked intense, contemplative.
“I’ll never hurt you, Ava. Not you,” he said.
Ava had no reason to believe him. For all she knew, he really was some kind of criminal. A psychotic stalker who somehow found out where she lived. Which reminded her. “How did you find me?” she demanded.
“Google. You shouldn’t put your real address on your online résumé,” he said.
What right did Viktor have to admonish her like she was some kind of errant child? Still, he did have a point. Ava couldn’t remember doing that, but she’d been out of it lately. She hadn’t gotten much sleep over the last few days, and her anxiety level was off the roof.
“In case you didn’t know, I was debating calling you right after my failed interview today, but I’m starting to change my mind,” she said.
Ava realized she hadn’t locked her door yet. She closed it and returned to the living room. The smug bastard looked far too comfortable lounging on her sofa. Her tabby cat, Fatty, circled Viktor’s legs and meowed softly at him. The traitor. Fatty had never been affectionate with her. To her surprise, Viktor picked her up and settled her on his lap. He started to stroke Fatty, and the conniving feline let him.
She had to admit seeing Viktor being so good with her pet made her reassess her initial opinion of him.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m still freaked out by all of this,” she said, taking a seat on the armchair next to the sofa. Should she offer him a drink? That seemed silly. What any sane person would do was throw Viktor out and call the cops. Still, she didn’t think he meant her any harm. Yet.
“And yet you’re curious about my job offer.”
“I’m desperate. I know my savings won’t last the end of the mouth.” She blushed, angry at herself for admitting the shameful truth. She took out his card from her purse. Viktor smirked, and that irritated her somehow. Of course, he’d be smug to know she hadn’t disposed of his business card. “What exactly does Kotov Entertainment do?”
“I own a couple of strip clubs in the city. My last accountant, as you recall, stole from me. My accounts are all over the place. He also used his own system, so it’s been hell trying to sort out the mess he left behind.”
She blinked and stared at him. Ava had the impression strip club owners were sleazy individuals, and Viktor looked so well put-together. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine him dining with the mayor and his wife or attending some charity event for the wealthy. Ava told herself she had no right making judgments about others.
“I’ll double whatever your old firm’s been paying you.”
That stumped her completely. “What? Are you serious?” She had been prepared to take a pay cut, but the HR managers she’d spoken to said she was still asking for too much. Yet, here was Viktor, making a ridiculous offer. Nothing in this world was free. Growing up dirt poor taught Ava she had to fight for everything.
“What’s the catch?” she asked. There had to be one.
“No catch. I’m used to running a well-oiled machine. The cogs of that machine stopped working the moment my previous accountant quit and that—” Viktor seemed to struggle to find an appropriate word. “Unsettled me.”
“Oh. Can’t you call your old accountant? Just to sort of some of the chaos he left behind?”
“He skipped town.”
Ava wanted to smack her forehead. Of course. She’d almost forgotten this guy had stolen from Viktor. Not a very wise move. Ava had a feeling those who crossed Viktor would soon come to regret their actions. Was she seriously considering working for someone like him?
Chapter Eight
Viktor could tell Ava still had doubts about his offer. She was a cautious one, but he knew she wouldn’t refuse him. He read the report Sergio had dug up on her. Ava had been raised by her mother in some small town he’d never heard of. According to Sergio, Ava still sent money to her mother on a monthly basis. Knowing that about her made Viktor like her even more. She was tough, resilient. Not weak.
“Well?” he asked. “We can start on a trial basis. If you don’t like working for me in a month, three months, whatever, then quit.”
Ava bit her bottom lip. Viktor was tempted to yank her to his lap, to kiss that pouty mouth of hers. To touch those splendid tits still concealed under her white blouse. They only fucked once and yet being in her presence stoked a fire deep inside him. Viktor wanted to have her again. To bend her over the coffee table and yank up that sensible pencil skirt she wore. He wanted to find out what kind of underwear she wore.
“It’s hard to think, especially when you’re looking at me like a hungry wolf.”
He chuckled.
“Okay, I have one condition.”
Viktor leaned forward in his seat. Ava’s cat jumped from his lap and settled on the space next to him on the sofa. He grazed her soft cheek with his inked fingers, watching for her reaction. Ava froze like a deer caught in the headlights.
“You don’t make the rules. I do,” he told her simply. He stopped touching her. She rose to her feet. Viktor almost thought she finally gathered the nerve to kick him out, but she only slapped her cheeks. The sound took him by surprise.
“No. You can’t do this. You can’t offer me a job and still want me. If I agree to work for you, it’ll just be purely business between us. No hanky-panky.”
“What?” He couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Who still uses that word?”
She scowled at him, then crossed her arms over the generous swell of her breasts, breasts he would like to suck and sink his teeth into. The hickey he’d given her seven nights ago was already gone, of course, but he wanted to mark her again.
What Ava was proposing was smart. With the looming threat from the Mogilevich Bratva, Viktor couldn’t afford distractions. It didn’t help she was all he’d thought about the entire week. Pavel thought hiring her would be a mistake. His father would’ve said the same thing if he were still alive, but Viktor had trouble letting go.
“Fine. I agree to your terms,” he said. Viktor stood up and held out his hand. She stared at it for a few seconds, then closed her fingers over his.
“We have a deal then.”
“Yes. I’ll have my assistant, Katya, draw up a contract. She’ll email it to you by the end of tonight. Once you apply your electronic signature, it’s done. I expect you to start work this Monday. Katya will give you all the details.”
“Okay.”
Viktor padded to the door. He paused. “You better have your locks fixed. Change them to better ones.”
“They were working just fine before you broke them. God. I must be insane for doing
this.”
Viktor shut the door behind him. She’d been so surprised to find him in her apartment. It was easy getting in. All Viktor had to do was avoid going through the front door. He exited via the emergency staircase. Dust clung to the walls, telling him it was seldom used. He emerged in a back alley. Viktor’s car was exactly where he left it.
“Viktor Kotov?” a voice asked.
Viktor declined to answer. He raised his left arm in time as a knife slashed right through the sleeve of his suit jacket and the shirt underneath. Viktor grunted, backing away as the crazed guy wearing a dirty oversized army coat and baseball cap came at him again. He reached for his gun just as his assailant reached for something inside his coat. Metal flashed under the afternoon light. Viktor had a silencer on his firearm, so it would draw less attention. He doubted his attacker would bother with a silencer.
He fired first, aiming for his attacker’s arm. Viktor missed and hit the guy’s shoulder instead. It was enough for the man to drop his gun. Viktor kicked his weapon away, then delivered another kick to the guy’s injured shoulder. The man howled. Viktor leveled his gun between the bastard’s eyes, but he’d underestimated his opponent.
Viktor’s attacker gripped his knife and drove it right into Viktor’s left thigh. Pain lanced up his body. Gritting his teeth, Viktor smashed the silencer over the guy’s head. He grunted in agony as Viktor did it again and again until his attacker dropped the knife. Viktor kicked him away. This time, he stayed down.
He swore, then studied his surroundings. No one else came after him. It alarmed him that this fucker had followed him all the way to Ava’s apartment. Viktor walked up to the body on the ground. The bastard looked up at him, bloodshot eyes full of fear and hate. Once again, Viktor spotted the Mogilevich Bratva crest inked on the side of the man’s neck. Another disposable junkie assassin. Then again, the Mogileviches had plenty of spares.
Viktor took out his phone and dialed Pavel. “Send over two men to Cross and Diamond Street.”
“Did something happen?”
“Another junkie assassin.”
Pavel swore. “This is getting fucking ridiculous. I told you plenty of times to take backup. You still refuse to listen.”
Viktor wasn’t in the mood to be admonished by his brother. Fire still emanated from his thigh. He was bleeding out, but he had a feeling the junkie managed to miss any major arteries. Lucky him.
He continued, “He’s still alive. I want Andrei to work on him.”
“It’ll be hard to get anything solid from a junkie.”
“I know but we might get something.”
“Okay. I’ll send Motya and Olaf over.”
It didn’t take long for his men to arrive. They stowed away Viktor’s assassin in the trunk of their car. Viktor confiscated his assailant’s gun and knife. “Disinfect this area. Make sure there’s no evidence left behind,” he ordered Motya.
“Boss, you’re hurt,” Motya said, looking at his bleeding leg.
Since his suit jacket was ruined anyway, Viktor tore the fabric into strips to contain the bleeding in his leg. He’d gotten into worse scrapes before. He’d live.
“I’ll ride with you and Olaf back to headquarters. Get someone to drive my car,” Viktor said, fishing out his keys.
Viktor wasn’t invincible or stupid. He knew when to accept help. As he rode with Olaf and Motya back to headquarters, a headache started in the back of his skull. What a fucking annoying moment to be injured. His meeting with Fernandez would be in a few days. He couldn’t appear weak, but he couldn’t postpone the meeting either. His thoughts eventually circled back to Ava.
He wanted to know if the junkie who attacked him knew about Ava. She was just a woman he slept with once. A future employee. Hell, she even made it clear she didn’t want anything sexual between them. She meant nothing to him. Liar, liar, a voice in his head said. Still, the junkie would make presumptions. He’d assume Ava was important to Viktor.
If Viktor’s attacker somehow managed to tell Goran Mogilevich about his attachment to Ava, then she would be in danger. Viktor shook his head. He’d get Sergio to hack this guy’s phone. Sergio would know if he made any calls or sent any messages to Goran.
Fuck. His father would be laughing at him from his grave if he knew Viktor was starting to get all sentimental over a woman. Whatever. It was good Ava had made that ultimatum. It would be a lot safer for both of them if they maintained certain boundaries anyway. Either way, she would be working for him. Viktor would be able to keep a closer eye on her. Maybe he’d even send out a man to watch her, just in case.
Chapter Nine
“So, how’s your new job working out?” Gina asked her.
Ava kept her cell phone pressed to her ear while she furiously inputted some numbers into her spreadsheet. “It’s no honeymoon, I can tell you that. Viktor said his previous accountant had his own system, but honestly? I think the guy didn’t know what the hell he was doing. I have to start from scratch.”
“Sounds tough. So, anything else happened between you and your new boss? You’re not keeping anything from me, aren’t you?” Gina pressed.
This time, Ava looked over her shoulder, at the glass wall that separated her desk from Viktor’s office. Initially, she found it strange that Viktor had an entire office floor above one of his strip club. She thought it would be noisy downstairs, but she was wrong. Viktor had lined the entire second-floor walls with some kind of special material that cushioned noise.
Viktor was seldom at his desk. He went out for meetings all the time. Katya mentioned he visited his other businesses from time to time. That made sense.
“These are the reports you asked for,” Katya said, placing a stack of files on her desk.
Katya’s desk and her desk were positioned together. At first, Ava had the impression the tall and icy blonde didn’t like her, but over the past two weeks, Katya and she had begun taking their lunch breaks together. Viktor’s assistant was blunt, made her opinions known, and didn’t fall for anyone’s bullshit. Ava admired that a lot.
Having a thick spine seemed to be a requirement if you worked for Viktor. Dangerous and strange men frequently stopped by Viktor’s office. Thugs in suits were the words Ava used to describe them. They looked like they could easily break an average man in half. Ava noticed Viktor’s visitors sometimes gave her curious stares, but none of them tried anything with her. She certainly had questions about the company Viktor kept, but he didn’t pay her to be nosy.
“Thanks,” she said. Ava plucked the folder on the top.
“Katya, is Viktor in his office?” asked a familiar man’s voice. Pavel. Viktor’s brother. Ava wasn’t sure what to think of Pavel. He was the only one in Viktor’s company who seemed brave enough to flirt with her.
“Viktor left earlier this morning for an important meeting,” Katya said.
Pavel swore in Russian. Viktor did that too whenever he was stressed or something wasn’t working out, she noticed.
“Doesn’t he trust me, his own brother, to watch his back?” Pavel demanded, leaning a little close to Katya’s desk for Ava’s comfort. She busied herself with her reports, although she was intrigued about where this particular conversation was going. Why was Pavel so worried about Viktor? Viktor had just gone to a business meeting.
“He took Motya and Olaf with him,” Katya said.
The blonde gave Pavel an icy stare, then nodded toward Ava’s direction. More secrets? Ava sensed people sometimes carefully worded their sentences around her, like they were keeping some big secret they didn’t want her to know. At first, Ava wondered if she was being overly paranoid. Now, she wasn’t too sure.
Pavel followed Katya’s stare. Noticing Ava, he gave her a big grin. “How’s my little accountant doing?” Pavel asked her. His change of mood disturbed her a little. Truth be told, Ava was a little wary of Pavel. He reminded her of a big predator who loved playing games.
“I’m not your anything.” Ava looked from the dusty folder and b
ack to her spreadsheet, checking the numbers there.
“You know, at first I didn’t understand why Viktor was so taken with you, but I’m beginning to see it now. You look adorable when you furrow your brow in concentration like that.” Pavel sat on the edge of her desk, his stare unnerving.
“Don’t you have more important things to do than harass the accountant?” she asked him.
“But it’s so fucking fun,” he said. “What are you going to do, report me to Viktor?”
“I’m tempted to.” Ava bit her lip.
She told herself she wouldn’t allow Pavel to get to her. He was harmless, just another one of those guys who liked bugging the women in the office. Except instinct told her it wouldn’t be wise to piss him off. Pavel gave off the same dangerous vibe as Viktor, except unlike Viktor, he didn’t seem to have any boundaries.
Pavel chuckled. Ava squirmed in her seat as he leaned forward and gripped her chin. “Oh, sweet, poor Ava. I’m his brother. I’m blood, and you? You’re just an employee he fucked once. Which side do you think he’ll take?”
She shoved him away, which only made him laugh all that harder. Pavel still didn’t release her.
“Pavel, stop joking around. Viktor wouldn’t like this,” Katya said in a stern voice.
“Viktor’s not here.” Pavel’s penetrating stare made her ball her hands into fists. Punching her boss’s brother wasn’t the wisest course of action, but Ava had no choice. God. She hated bullies. They’d hounded her throughout high school and made her life miserable.
Before she could deliver a swift blow to Pavel’s groin, someone grabbed the back of Pavel’s shirt and bodily hauled him off her desk. Viktor snarled, shoving his brother against the closet wall. Ava barely recognized him. Viktor looked like an enraged animal. Eyes narrowed, hair disheveled. His suit looked untidy, covered in dust and dark spots. Blood? Ava shook her head. Her imagination must be going on overdrive, and yet she hadn’t imagined that whiff of copper coming from his direction.
“Stay away from what’s fucking mine.” Viktor emphasized each word with a painful blow.
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