Anger gnawed at me at how he was trying everything he could to wear me down.
He was annoyed that I wouldn’t take his offer to sleep with him and accept the charity of an easy life, one with expenses paid and my goals closer within reach.
So now he was trying another trick to have me be something other than a not-really-necessary maid?
I held in a growl as I tried to picture it. As long as he wasn’t getting rid of me and making me leave, I supposed I could still try to accomplish what I’d come here for. If I were still employed and inside this house, I could still try to get what I needed to send to my uncle.
Maybe this will work out in my favor.
If he brought me into his office, that messy haven he hadn’t been in for two weeks, I’d be that much closer to something useful—whatever that may be. Yusef had been in there for a supposed map of some kind. As I stowed the vacuum cleaner in the closet it belonged in, I envisioned it.
I could be in the office, not wearing this stiff, starchy uniform, and straighten out papers for Andre. That map, or something else that looked official, could be in the stacks and I could pull out my phone, make a guise of checking a text or something as I actually took a picture. Then I could send it to my uncle and I would have done something. All this time I’d been here, he’d nagged me daily for not giving him anything. I supposed thatmy presence here was proof that Icouldspy for him, and that appeased him for the time being.
Sooner or later, though, he’d expect me to pony up something of a clue or detail he could use against the Orlovs.
Pausing with my hand on the doorknob, I zoned out and fell deeper into my imagination.
Instead of seeing myself seated in Andre’s office and organizing his mess, I envisioned him looming over me as he caught me red-handed. Then I’d be the target of his gun lifted in the air, shot dead for double-crossing him.
And what would that get me?
I couldn’t help Esmeralda if I were killed.
At the idea of setting up the Orlovs, though, I was pushed to recall how Andre’s face was twisted in pain that night.
If I give Uncle Roberto something that he could use to harm him…
I sucked in a deep breath, uneasy and anxious about being an indirect contributor to hurting Andre. Or any of them. I hadn’t really gotten to know many of them, and Andre was more of a loner who didn’t have people over. But Oleg seemed like a gentle giant. Roman was clearly a flirt, but nice to me. Sergei was gruff but polite, looking like a happy father with that little girl Maisie who’d held his hand when they stopped over for lunch once.
Andre’s family showed me what arealfamily looked like. Not a fractured mess of one with my uncle as the boss of ours, ruling with a heavy hand, taking too many drugs to function as a rational adult, and prone to abusing me and my cousin.
Do I really want to see them hurt?
I swallowed hard, torn in two.
No. But I can’t see Esmeralda suffering either.
Mind made up, I closed the closet door and wondered how I would start my “new” job for Andre. And when. The quicker I could knock out this spying expectation, the sooner I could push it into my past.
For better or worse.
Later, at dinner, where Andre insisted I was off the clock and to join him, I braced myself for being near him without the barrier of my “job” to hide behind. These episodes of him treating me not like a maid or employee were the hardest to stomach.
If I’m being his assistant in his office, I’ll have a harder time of avoiding him.I’d be that much closer to the dangerous man I was here to help my uncle ruin.
“You can start tomorrow,” he said once we started eating.
“Is this fair to Renee?” I asked honestly. “She’ll be the only one to clean up around here.”
Renee brushed by then, taking her tray of food to her room. “To clean up what?” she quipped.
“Well… um…” I frowned, stumbling for an answer.
“I can handle it ’til we hire another new girl,” Renee said with a laugh. “You replaced Miss Susana, and she only retired because her arthritis was getting to be too much.” She shrugged. “I’ve got it made here.” She glanced at Andre, who smiled. “I don’t envy Mr. Roman’s staff.” She snorted. “All those parties and messes he has from socializing like he does. All the women who comeover. No. I can handle this grumpy workaholic loner. Ain’t much to clean at all with how he’s a hermit and bachelor.”
Andre waited until she left the room to arch one brow at me. “Tomorrow.”
I furrowed my brow, my appetite waning under his intense attention. “Why me?”
