My father locked a calculating stare on me. “Perhaps.”
I rolled my eyes. He didn’t usually question me like this.
“IfYusef was the mole you’ve been looking for, then yes, that’s the end of him and his involvement with our rivals. But Giovanni’s not going to stop there. He could send someone else.” Shaking his head as he lowered his gaze to the floor, he let out a heavy exhale. “I’m not convinced that Giovanni will back off completely after last night.” He asked about the ambush at the warehouse next, and I gave him a better picture of how Oleg and I walked into the warehouse and were hit so severely. Cleanup crews were no doubt still there this morning, moving the bodies.
“Like everything else, Andre, Giovanni’s obsession with striking at us is a multi-layered fate.”
I nodded. “Yes. But his loss of an informant has to set him back.” Yusef was a tool for him, and he was no longer at the man’s disposal. My father would never truly relax, but I was in the mood to welcome a break. To be more lax about this after last night.
“I trust that you’ll take some time to recover?” he asked after we finished speaking.
I nodded. “Sure. I can hang around here and let myself get back to one hundred percent.” I followed him out of the study and toward the door where he could use the elevator to return to his building. After he rode it to the sub-basement, he’d navigate the interconnected tunnels of hallways that linked the four of us.
“Hang around home to spend time with this new maid?” he asked with a smirk.
I smiled and shrugged my good shoulder. “Why not?”
Once he left, I checked my phone to see if Oleg had anything for me. He did. Of course, he did. He’d been injured last night, too, but he wasn’t an invalid. He’d probably get bored before I would as wetook it easy.
Oleg:She’s a maid. Nothing else to her.
I rolled my eyes. I seriously doubtedthat.
Oleg:Parents are dead. She took a few nursing classes but dropped out. Lived in a shitty apartment with some roommates before starting here.
That couldn’t be all there was to know about her.
Andre:What about that bruise on her face?
Oleg:I noticed that too. I asked. She said it was from a handsy jerk at a bar who was trying to make her go home with him.
Narrowing my eyes at the idea of anyone trying to harass her, I pocketed my phone.
She was too gorgeous not to be singled out at a bar, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t care for the chance that she’d ever be with another man at all.
What the fuck?
What’s going on?
I rubbed my cheek, ignoring how I needed to shave.
How the hell is she getting under my skin like this?
This streak of possessiveness was coming out of fucking nowhere, but I wasn’t going to try to stop it. Something about her drew me in. Some element of her taunted me to want to protect her. Not as repayment for her assisting me last night when she hadn’t been expected to, but because I wanted her. Because I wanted to embrace this new awareness and connection that kept her on my mind despite only realizing she existed less than a day ago.
And without anything new on my schedule, other than to recover from these injuries that wouldn’t hold me down at all, I saw no reason to quit this interest in her.
Seeking her out, I checked all through the main floors of my residence. She wasn’t in the kitchen or the dining room. Nor was she in the lounge or libraries. As a bachelor who was often not home and never had guests, I knew better than to assume she was preparing a guest room for anyone.
It was just me here.
Me and you, Sofia.
The idea of our being together was a force of need I couldn’t quell.
“Renee.” I stopped her as she headed toward the stairs that would lead to the laundry rooms.
She turned her wizened old face toward me and raised one brow.
