Page 31 of Shades of Loyalty
Yuri falls silent again. It’s a fucking uncomfortable silence, filled with either anger or frustration. Maybe both.
“Trust me, whoever did this, I’ll make sure they regret their decision.”
“I hope so,” I reply. “I really like working with you Volkov, but you know… Situations like these can’t happen.”
“I understand. I totally do. It won’t happen again.”
“Now, what did you want to tell me?”
“Listen, Daniel. We should meet up. Have some drinks, talk. I’ll bring my wife, and you bring a pretty woman. What do you say?”
I understand immediately what he’s trying to tell me. He doesn’t want anyone to know, and although the chance of someone listening to our conversation is low due to our great security system, we can’t take any more risks than the shit we talked about already.
None of our families would appreciate a war, after all. It’d be useless, come to think of it.
“Sounds good. Dinner at the usual place tomorrow?” I ask. By “usual place,” I mean the restaurant we always go to when there’s business to discuss.
“Perfect. Who are you bringing, Caruso? Any women you’re interested in?”
I scoff at the thought. “No, I don’t know who I’ll bring yet.” I pause, thinking about someone, but ignoring the thought again after a second only, “A prostitute will do.”
Yuri laughs at me. He fucking laughs.
“Please don’t. Last dinner was terrible, have you seen the way my wife looked at that woman?” He reminds me of the last time we had serious business to talk about. I think for a moment, smirking at his words. “I’ll find a better solution, then.”
“You better, Caruso.”
“Take care, Volkov.”
“One more prostitute, and my wife’s gonna kill me.”
“Thanks for the great idea. I’ll keep it in mind.”
I press the red button and set my phone down, leaning back in my chair. Who the hell should I bring? An absurd idea comes to mind, but I push it away immediately. There’s no way she’d agree. Right…?
Fuck it. She’s my only andbestoption. She’s nice. Sweet. Gentle. And fucking beautiful.
Who else do I bring, if nother?
This isn’t even necessarily about me liking her. It’s business. Presentation.Peacekeeping. That’s all. So, she’s gonna accept. Right?
Chapter Thirteen
Daniel
It’s been four days since Jennifer started working for us, and although I’ve tried to keep my distance, she’s constantly on my mind. We barely see each other anymore—maybe over breakfast, but otherwise, we’re both drowning in work.
Our schedules might align, but our places don’t. While I spend most of my time either in my office thanks to Yuri’s newest dealer changes or outside dealing with stubborn customers, she’s holed up in the medical room.
It makes me feel bad, somehow. I know she’s been working as a nurse for years, but working for us is… different. The first two days must have been especially rough on her.
Every time I passed one of my men, they were talking about wanting to see the “beautiful new nurse” in the medical room. And frankly, it pissed me off. I wanted to slap some sense into them, make them realize she’s not just some woman, but then again… I don’t know her.
I don’t know who she is. What she likes. Sure, I know she’s a single mother. I know her age and her name. But do Ireallyknow her?
I don’t. Nobody here does.
Today is going to be different. It has to be. I cleared my schedule, pissed off Julian again by handing him some of my tasks, and now, I have nothing else to do.
