“Where’s Sofia?”
She harumphed, clearly realizing that I was interested in the new maid for other reasons than the purpose of her being here. “She’s supposed to be dusting in the old library.”
It was my turn to snort in reply. Dusting in the “old” library. What a useless waste of her time. That room of books was more like storage than anything else, and I bet that Renee had delegated her there just for her to have something to do.
“Whatever,” I mumbled to myself. I headed there, looking forward to another chance to be alone with her, uninterrupted and unbothered.
It seemed that I wasn’t the only one with that idea, though. Even worse, someone else had beaten me to it. To her.
“Stop,” Sofia insisted, pushing back the guard who cornered her against the walls of shelves. Bookcases blocked her from escaping as the new recruit on the security detail trapped here there. Literally in the corner, walls to her sides and back, and his body pressing against her from the front.
“Leave me alone.” She paired her request with a shove of both her hands on his chest.
“Just shut the fuck up.” He chuckled and tried to reach his hand under her skirt. “No one can hear you.”
A red tide of anger coursed through me as I strode into the room. “I can,” I growled.
Sofia gasped in surprise, her delicate features twisted with discomfort.
The guard spun around at my voice, frowning.
He didn’t wear the expression for long. I punched him with enough force to knock him back, sending him sprawling and smacking into a chair. The feet of the furniture skidded over the floor, a loud scrape that almost distracted me from the new spike of pain that traveled up my arm.
I’d punched him with no regard for my injuries. Even though I’d used my “good” side, it still stung to be this physical.
“Mr. Orlov!” Sofia reached for me, already worried by my hiss of pain.
“Fuck,” the guard groaned as he slowly stood, shaking his head from the hit. “Sir, I was just?—”
I hit him again. And again. The new waves of agony rippled through me, but the need to be brutal and punish this stupid asshole didn’t fade.
Sofia clung to my arm, trying to pull me back.
The guard groaned and held up his hands in surrender.
And still, I couldn’t dispel this urgency to teach him a lesson thatno onehad the right to bother what was mine.
Already, I saw this compassionate maid asmine. Not only my employee, butmineto protect. To shelter. To repay in any good deed that I could justify for how she’d given a damn to want to help me when I was down.
“Mr. Orlov,” Sofia insisted, tugging me back from the guard when I paused. My chest heaved. My knuckles ached. And the skin around my injuries protested moving like this. “Stop.Please. That’s enough.”
I whirled around to face her, giving up on watching the beaten man on the floor. “That’s enough?” I shot back.
I’d be the one to determine what wasenough.
Where she was concerned, I had only just started.
6
SOFIA
“Can I be of assistance, Boss?” Oleg appeared at the doorway, raising his brows as he looked at the guard moaning on the floor, then at Andre.
I swallowed hard, my mouth so dry. Blinking once at the bloodied, bruised man on the floor, I frowned at Andre. He still watched me, livid but worried.
“He’s…” I pointed at the guard who’d tried to corner me and rape me. His whispered threats of having his way with me would be a thing of the past. Because Andre had shown up and wanted to protect me, those nightmarish taunts would never be actualized as reality. “He’s getting blood on the floor,” I said while Andre watched me, seemingly speechless as he inventoried me. Checking me over, he stepped closer yet.
“I’ll handle it,” the other man said.
