Page 64 of Taken By My Grumpy Pakhan

“No need.” I waved his phone away. “It’s past work hours.”

Almost immediately, a thought struck me. He had used a collective in his statements repeatedly as though everyone was in the same place.

“Where is everyone?”

He froze, his phone trembling in his hands.

“The monthly get-together,” Nikolai answered behind me.

“What is that?”

“It’s a Friday of the month when your staff choose a spot to drink and be merry.”

I didn’t bother asking how he knew the details. My head was already preoccupied with flashes of a party with Genevieve dancing and letting loose, and the possibility of a certain bastard dancing with her.

I had told her I would chop him to bits if I saw him anywhere near her, but I knew the woman enough to know she would straight up go against me.

“Take me there.”

Nikolai’s lips curled in amusement. “Since when are you interested in affairs of the staff?”

“Since you left your duty of keeping an eye on everything to hover around me with unsolicited contributions.”

Nikolai fell into step with me. He didn’t say another word, but from the amusement on his face, I could tell he was very entertained.

I walked into a low-lit lounge with my staff packed in a corner playing charades.

One of them was currently flapping his elbows and rising from the floor simultaneously.

The expression was clearly that of the phoenix, but the other party was stuck on the different waves of the ocean.

I stood in a concealed corner, slowly scanning the crowd for a leggy brunette. I’d spotted Caroline and Rose, but no Genevieve.

Against my better judgment, I decided to search for another face and found it missing too. My fingers curled into fists.

“Oh my God, Sir.” Abigail stumbled over her words, the cocktail in her hand splashing all over her as she tried to contain herself.

“Where is my assistant?”

“Bath—restroom. Restroom,” she stuttered. “She went to take a leak.”

Her face contoured into the picture of mortification at her choice of words, but I was long gone before the apology arrived.

Restroom. The word echoed in my head with every step I took. Everyone knew what happened when two people snuck off to restrooms in gatherings like this.

Red blurred my vision the closer I got. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I did know there’d be a casualty.

I got to the door of the female restroom, taking a deep breath to prepare me for the worst, when a muffled scream caught my attention.

I threw open the door and the red dusting my vision became blood.

A wave of rage I’d pushed aside for years resurfaced, taking control of my body before I could consent.

I was on him before I could take full note of the scene in front of me.

He put his hands on her. He put his fucking hands on her against her will.

Images of how she struggled against him flashed through my head with every punch I delivered.