Page 9

Three weeks ago, I'd caught one of the night guards watching her. His eyes had followed her as she bent to empty a trash can, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. The next night, he came to work with a broken arm. No one asked questions. No one ever did.

Only I was allowed to watch her.

To savor the innocent way her gaze would stay on the floor.

A natural submissive.

Every time I saw her, I wanted her.

To take her, ruin her, corrupt her.

Every cell in my body screamed that she was mine. A possession no one else would ever touch.

Last Friday, I'd watched her from my darkened officeas she cleaned the conference room across the hall. Some drunken accountant had stayed late, cornering her by the doorway. I made sure he "resigned" the next day.

She never knew I was the reason he disappeared.

Never knew that she already belonged to me, because I’d been forced to rein in my lust.

Gregor made it very clear—the staff were off-limits.

Initially I’d had no intention of going against his wishes, at least until after Solovyov was dead.

After that, he and Artem would be too busy with their power struggle to notice where I stuck my cock.

But all bets were off now.

She was here, where she wasn't supposed to be.

My men assured me she had left.

I caught her scent before I even opened the closet door a few minutes ago. The same floral fragrance I'd memorized from the nights I'd followed just behind her, her hips swaying to whatever music she was listening to on her headphones. My movements shrouded in the dim, after-hours lighting.

Now she was running through the building like a frightened rabbit.

The warning shot I'd fired was my gift to her—a chance to play the game I'd been dying to initiate for weeks.

Unfortunately, she wasn't a temptation anymore.

She was a problem.

My sweet little kitten had seen things not meant for her eyes.

That had turned her into a liability.

We did not suffer liabilities.

Of all the things she could've seen, a stone-cold murder was the worst.

A clean, efficient bullet to the head of the last of Solovyov’s men.

Once I made a call to my cousin, Roman, we’d finally take out Solovyov himself.

And then the threat to the Ivanovs would be over.

No loose ends, no weaknesses.

At least there wouldn't have been, if she hadn't seen everything.