Page 60 of Caught By the Bratva Boss

I was about to close it down when something caught my attention. One little line of code that didn’t seem right.

“Well,” I swore long and angrily in Russian. “That’s not good.”

“What is it?”

“Security breach. Someone changed her clearance. It would have gone unnoticed if I didn’t know what I was looking for. Damn.” Picking up my phone, I called the cybersecurity team head of department and ordered him to my office.

“What’s going on?” Anya asked finally.

“He hacked us. I mean, I can’t prove it was him, but who else would single her out? And he’s been—” out of the corner of my eye, I saw two men step out of the elevator.

“He’s watching us. Tracking every move we make.”

“So she was right?”

I sighed. Yeah, I didn’t want to admit it, but Lily was right. She had warned me, and I hadn’t listened. Greg was dangerous. And I had sent her right back to him.

“What are you going to do, Daniil?”

There was a soft knock on the door, but I didn’t take my eyes from her. “I’m going to get those two to fix our security. I can’t leave the business wide open to cyberattack, and then—” I sucked in a breath. “Then, I’m gonna go and get Lily and bring her home where she belongs.”

It might have been my imagination but I was sure I heard Anya mutter, “About bloody time.”

It took hours longer than I had anticipated, and the afternoon was winding down when I finally managed to leave the office. I made a call to the security detail that I had ordered to watch outside Lily’s house.

“Anything to report?” I asked instead of saying hello. Not that it bothered him at all.

“Nothing, she got back in about an hour ago.”

My eyebrows slammed down. Out of my tinted windows, I watched the rainy, snowy sleet come down. She had left the office hours ago. Why had it taken her so long to get home? But I already knew the answer. She had walked home. She hadn’t taken a cab or the train. She had walked. In a snowstorm. No wonder it had taken her hours.

“And the man?”

There was a pause. “I haven’t seen him, but I think he’s inside.”

My hands tightened around the steering wheel. I didn’t like the idea of her being alone in a house with him. If I had learned anything today, it was that Greg was much more dangerous than I had originally given him credit for.

“I want you to keep a very close eye on that house,” I ordered. “Any hint that he’s hurting her,” the lump in my throat was almost impossible to swallow around. Shit, he could be hurting her right now. He could be killing her. Panic gripped me, and I swerved into traffic to a blare of horns.

“If it sounds like he’s mistreating her, I’ll get her out, boss. I promise you.”

It should have made me feel better, but it didn’t. I had an uneasy feeling in my gut. The same kind of apprehension that I’d had when Claudia had had her accident. Back then, I hadn’t followed my gut, and it had cost me her. I wasn’t about make the same mistake twice.

“I’m stuck in traffic, but I should be there in less than forty minutes. Just watch out for her until I can get there.”

My voice was ragged. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”

I ended the call, slamming my foot on the brake just in time so I didn’t slam into the back of a slow-moving trash truck. Swearing, I forced myself to calm down. I would never be able to get her back and fix this if I got myself killed.

I didn’t get to her neighborhood in forty minutes. It was closer to thirty. By the time I pulled up outside, I was shaking with nerves and anger.

“Mr. Popov?”

Straightening from the car, I stared at the man for a second and then at her closed door. Every drape was pulled over the windows so I couldn’t see any movement. Only one light was on. An upstairs one. Her bedroom?

“Anything to report?”

He shook his head. “No, sir. It’s all quiet.” He glanced at the window, and I did as well. “That light went on a little while ago. But other than that, everything is quiet.”