Her lips quirk before she passes me and makes her way toward my usual chair, diagonal from Raife’s empty desk. Still standing in the doorway, my eyes flick from Griff to Felix. “Where is he?”
Felix brings his glass of whiskey to his lips. “In the front house. We got another offer for a buyout. He’s shutting it down.”
Griff grunts as his gaze trails Emmy, pausing on every curve, and my eyes narrow. “You don’t get to look at her,” I grumble, tracing my fingers over the knife inside my pocket. I feel Emmy watching me, but my focus is on Griff.
He shifts his attention to me and scowls. “Since when do you make my decisions?”
“Since you broke the rules and lost the right to make your own.”
He snarls but keeps quiet.
Just as I move toward Emmy, the door opens behind us. Raife strolls inside and heads to his desk, slowing halfway when he notices Emmy leaning against my chair. I grit my jaw. In light of professionalism, I’d planned on waiting until after the meeting to finish what he started yesterday. But one wrong move and that flimsy plan goes to shit.
Typical Raife, he opens his mouth before he even circles his desk. “Well, isn’t this sweet.” He smirks as he glances between us, and I instinctively move closer to her. “I gotta say, I’m impressed you’re still keeping it together, brother. Must be a pussy made of magic.” He winks at her, then runs the back of his fingers down the fresh cut I left on his cheek. “Gonna have to test it for mysel—”
I’m behind him before he finishes his sentence. I pull his hands behind his back and use my leg to shove him against the desk, keeping him rooted to the spot. After whipping my knife open, I hold it with my free hand less than an inch from the vein in his neck.
Griff stands, braced to fight. Felix stays in his seat and downs the rest of his whiskey.
Raife’s deep chuckle makes the knife brush skin. “Finally,” he groans. “Yes, old friend. Throw away the key and come out to play.”
A dry smile tips my lips. I tighten my grip on him. “Not today, brother. This revenge isn’t mine.”
The room falls silent, and Felix shifts in his chair as he watches me transfer my focus to Emmy. Confusion etches into her forehead, her eyes locked on mine in silent question.
Moving the knife from Raife’s neck, I extend it to her. “A cut for a cut.”
Raife wasn’t the one who tore into her stomach, but he may as well have been. And with all the shit he’s pulled on her since her arrival, I know she’s burning to make him pay.
A swallow passes through her throat as she stares between the knife and Raife. I can almost feel the anger, burning like fire, under his skin.
His eyes turn to slits. He digs his shoulder into me, but I hold him in place. “You’re gonna fucking regret this, Adam,” he seethes. “No fucking way would I let Katerina cut into you.”
I shove him against the desk, hard enough to pull a groan from him. “She isnotKaterina,” I bite out. “She had nothing to do with any of that shit.”
He barks out a laugh and shakes his head, his chest heaving. “You so sure about that?”
My gaze narrows when I glance at Felix, but he just shrugs. Griff’s lip curls as he watches Emmy. When I look at her, her eyes are wide and she’s shaking her head. “I have no idea who Katerina is, Adam. I swear.”
Uncertainty grips my veins, despite the fact I know that’s Raife’s intention. Emmy isn’t lying. Anyone could see that just from her expression. Still, the resemblance is too striking to keep any of us from questioning it. Not to mention her age. She would have been exactly Sofia’s age at the time we were there.
I watched Sofia die with Katerina. I’ve seen Emmy’s file, her family, her home.
Gritting my teeth, I slide the knife across the desk. Emmy’s gaze drops, and a shaky exhale pours from her mouth. She takes a slow step forward.
Raife’s fucked with her enough.
