As she continued to text, he looked out the window at the passing lights and traffic. He should have just walked her to her damn car. Not given her a ride home. Being around her always put him on edge, made him feel awkward. Maybe he should limit his contact with her even more. Normally he just emailed or texted her with instructions about work but sometimes working with her directly was unavoidable.
The truth was, though, he looked forward to the time they did spend together. Even if she seemed perpetually annoyed with him. Or aloof, which was even worse.
*
When he saw the number on screen he answered the phone after three rings, forcing himself to remain patient. “Yes?”
“Abram has definitely taken an interest in the new assistant. He followed her around all night.” The man snorted in amusement.
“Are you in a secure place?”
“Of course. I’m at a park. No chance of anyone overhearing.”
“Good… What else do you have?” Because that wasn’t enough. He’d seen that himself over the last couple months. And Abram wasn’t the one he hated. It was Viktor, with his smugness, the way he looked down on him. The man thought he was better than him. Which was ridiculous. Viktor’s father had been a common criminal, a thug.
“That’s it for now. You wanted me to call with updates on them.” His contact sounded annoyed.
“What about Viktor?” He couldn’t keep the disgust out of his voice.
“What about him? He never brings women around.”
He knew that. Viktor seemed to prefer paying whores, which was no use to him. He needed to find the man’s weakness and a woman would be the best one there was. Men became stupid over women. He didn’t let his disappointment show. “This is good. Thank you for the update.” Even though it wasn’t what he wanted, he liked to keep his contact happy because he never knew when he might get something useful.
“I’ll be in touch when I have anything else.”
He ended the call. There was no need to talk any longer. He’d approached the man he’d been using for information because he knew of the man’s secret addiction to strip clubs. Pathetic, really. Spending all that money for nothing except some grinding and maybe a blow job in a back room.
But the man was risking a lot by crossing the Ivanov brothers. They’d been careful though. No one would ever figure out he was getting information on them, building up a reserve of information he might be able to use.
Because Viktor would pay for taking from him.
Chapter 3
Dominique glanced up as her boss, Porter, stepped out of his office. He’d been here earlier than her this morning, which was pretty unusual, especially for a Monday.
Their two offices were connected by a big door and they both had huge windows overlooking the city. The elevators opened right up into her office space where she was the basic ‘guard’ for Porter. Not that he really needed one. He oversaw one of their security divisions so the only people who ever came to see him were employees directly under his purview. Or potential new clients, but he usually met with them in one of the conference rooms down the hall.
“You don’t have any meetings until ten,” she reminded him. It didn’t matter that she updated his online calendar—and had synced it to his email account and phone so he got hourly alerts—he still sometimes forgot stuff. He’d once told her it was because he was getting old, which was ridiculous since she was pretty sure he was only thirty-four. She had a feeling his forgetfulness had more to do with his one-year-old son who hadn’t been sleeping through the night lately.
“I know. I forgot to tell you I’ve got someone coming in. It has to do with what happened to Raegan. Would you get some coffee and refreshments for us?”
“Of course,” she said, automatically standing. “Do you have news about who drugged her?” Her friend had been drugged on Friday night. And Raegan was Porter’s cousin so of course he’d be involved in finding out what happened to her.
Too much had happened over the weekend. Raegan had been drugged—and almost taken by some random guy at a club—but thankfully someone had been there for her. A ‘sexy cop,’ as Raegan liked to call him. Dominique had no idea what was going on with those two but she had a feeling she’d find out all the details soon enough. She was just glad Raegan was okay.
“No, but I’m hoping to get something this morning,” Porter answered.
“Any news about what happened Saturday?” Raegan had been almost attacked at the Celebration of Chefs, as well. Dominique had missed most of the commotion because she’d been out front talking to her cousin.
He shook his head, his expression grim.
“Do you think…the two things are related? Raegan didn’t say, but I thought maybe, I don’t know. It seems like a coincidence that two bad things like that happened to her so close together.”