Stupid question, Sof. Of course, he fucking will.
He had no heart. No remorse. He had to have sold his soul to the devil to be this cruel to his own flesh and blood.
“You’redenying her,” he corrected. “I could look into asking around how to get this treatment. It’s not on the market, not for just everyone yet. But it’s there. I could ask about getting my hands on some for her, but why should I if you’re not going to do what I sent you there to finish?”
My mouth moved. I wanted to speak. Instead of looking like a guppy, I wanted to tell him to either fuck off and let my cousin be free or to get that potential cure now.
“Sleep onthat, niece. Think aboutthatwhen you want to slack off and defy me. I expect more reports. Immediately.”
He ended the call, leaving me staring at the wall in stunned silence.
I’m damned if I do.
I exhaled a shaky breath to weather the storm of rage boiling inside me.
And I’m damned if I don’t…
21
ANDRE
Isat back in the chair and dragged my hands over my face.
Meetings weren’t anything new in my life. As the Orlov negotiator, it was my strength. The art of persuasion. The gift of compromising. And the skill of selling a deal with cunning maneuvering.
This meeting with the lawyers was nothing short of gradual torture.
“Mr. Orlov?”
I lowered my hands and faced the turtle-faced head of the legal team. “I’m listening.”
Not.
I’d checked out of this fucking meeting five minutes after it started. That was how stretched thin I felt. How tired I was of being on the go. Maybe it was more to do with the fact that I’d just gotten “back to work” and I was unused to being a workaholic.
But deep down, I knew it was how I missed Sofia that was rubbing me the wrong way.
I hadn’t lost her. She was still stuck in these funky distant spells, indicating something was bothering her, but I hadn’tlosther. She was still at home, in my building, and she’d be there when I had a chance to leave.
Give her some slack.
She’s got a sick cousin.
She’s too damn proud and independent to accept help.
Let her fight her own battles and be there to support her when she caves.
That was the sticking point that kept me confident we’d last. She caved. She submitted. In those sweet, glorious episodes of her lowering her guard to me, I had the rare chance to see her fully at peace and satisfied.
With me.
After the attack at the Rossis’ restaurant, we’d both faced the consequences. Having any member of any law enforcement department breathing down our necks required it. Hence, all these meetings with the top-notch legal firms that my father wanted to have on our payroll. Slick sharks in the courtroom, never failing with how much money we threw at them, these lawyers were the MVPs now.
They handled the press. They dealt with any charges and bonds. And in this case, they investigated at the same time they defended us with those cops and agents showing up. I hadn’t shown up with anything on me. No drugs. No unregistered firearms. Meeting the Rossis was supposed to have been clean.Yet, the fuckers in office wanted to make a big deal out of it—they were rabid and foaming at the mouth to have a chance to arrest an Orlov.
Or a Rossi.
They were dealing with charges and investigations too, on their end. While no law enforcement officers were killed that night, some were injured. Properties suffered damage from the high-speed car chase that followed those agents and cops popping in like they had.
