Opening my eyes, I scanned the dark office suite and instantly cringed.
It was a huge space, full of so many bookshelves and piles of papers and cluttered crap collecting dust and debris all over the place.
Where do I begin?
How will I be able to dig through all this and not leave a trace of it?
If I move anything, it’ll look different like it was disturbed!
I pushed off the door and slowly walked through the dark room. Cataloguing where the piles were and skimming over the words typed on some of the correspondence, I began to fear that it would take me more than one sneaky visit here to find anything my uncle would want.
Besides, it’s not like he’d leave important information lying out in the open.
I winced at a sticky ring of brown sludge where a coffee mug had been left too long on the wood desktop.
Maybe all his important correspondence and notes are digital. Then what?
Uncle Roberto could give me an ultimatum to spy as a maid and take a picture of anything tangible or physical. But he wasn’t going to get far if he expected me to act like a spy and hack into any computer.
No. Don’t think like that.
Worrying that this would be more time-consuming than I first thought, I grimaced and endured the twisting knots in my stomach.
Don’t be negative.
Realistically, though, I’d be looking for a proverbial needle in a haystack here.
Don’t give up.
My determination to see through this spying exercise was founded on caring for my cousin. I wasn’t doing this for my uncle. I wasn’t doing this out of loyalty to the shitty family I was cursed to belong to. I was only here and would give it my best so that Esmeralda could continue to live and hopefully not suffer.
I let out a deep breath, racking my mind for a plan of action. Rifling through the clutter and mess wouldn’t get me far. I needed order. Steps. An outline and map of organization so that when I was through with this, I’d know that I’d done my best and left no stone unturned.
Start at the corner of the desk and go through the contents on top.
Then move on to the drawers, the left side and then the right.
After that?—
The sound of the door opening spooked me.
I stiffened, my hand midair before I could start to touch anything at all.
The door hinges creaked a bit, and the heavy wood panel swung in.
Yusef!
Shit!
I dropped down and spun behind the huge leather chair pushed into the desk.
“I’m going to find that fucking map if it’s the last thing I do,” he growled to himself as he closed the door behind him.
Shivering in terror, I hugged my arms around my knees and tried to be as small of a ball as I could humanly be. Tucked under the desk and out of sight. Trembling in fear at the risk of being caught.
Or handled otherwise. It sounded like Yusef was planning to spy as well, to find something he likely wasn’t supposed to get his hands on. Any infighting in the Orlov Family didn’t apply to me. I was only here to spy and get a copy of what my uncle wanted—any documents with details about drug deals that he could use to his advantage.
Yusef wasn’t quiet or tidy as he rifled through the paperwork on Andre’s desk. He grunted and huffed. Papers ruffled and were scrunched up. A book was dropped back down on the surface over my head. I tensed, ducking at the loud thud.
