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Knocking my campaign manager the fuck out can’t be taken back.
“Ark…” Fyodor’s swallow is audible as he stalks my trek to the door. “I thought I was supporting your decision.” His confused eyes bounce between mine. “I thought you were disinterested. Isn’t that why you requested me to keep you away from her?”
Rafael’s laughter booms into my ear, freezing my steps. “You did a shit job of that, Fyo.” His eyes are on me, hot and telling. “Where the fuck do you think he’s been running off to every afternoon?”
I wordlessly warn him to shut his mouth, but I’ve never given him any reason to fear me, so my bluff does little good. “He sure as hell ain’t visiting the gym.” My nails dig into my palm when he steps closer to ensure his words are only for my ears. “Though I’m pretty sure he’s getting athoroughworkout every time he enters the shower withhershampoo at the ready.”
He waits for an objection. When he fails to get one, because every word he speaks is true, he shifts his focus back to Fyodor. “If you truly want this, if you want him to lead this nation out of the trenches it’s been buried in for the past thirty years, you need her at Ark’s side.”
He doesn’t need to stray his eyes in the direction Mara went to announce who he is referencing. The absolute honesty in his tone exposes every detail of his plan and hides how much I am terrified that he is right.
10
MARA
“I’ll see you in the morning, okay?” Tillie nods before she loses her fight to hold back a tigerlike yawn. It’s been a big day for us both. “I love you, Tillie.”
“I love you too, Mom,” she replies before she hands the phone back to Mrs. Lichard.
“Don’t,” she warns when she spots the numerous apologies beaming from my eyes. “I love having her here, and we have almost a week’s worth ofHome and AwayandNeighboursepisodes to catch up on.” My worry eases from the excitement in her tone. She loves Australian soap shows as much as Tillie does. “I just wish you weren’t taking the late bus home. You know it isn’t safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assure her, confident in how well Maksim has cleaned up the streets of Myasnikov since he made it his hometown. “Are you sure you don’t want me to collect Tillie when I arrive home? I don’t mind.”
Air whistles between her teeth when she waves off my offer. “And have you interrupt my sleep? No, thank you. Unlike you, some of us need our beauty sleep.” Her expression switches fromplayful to mothering. “We will see you in the morning. Travel safe.”
I promise I will before disconnecting our FaceTime chat.
After tossing my phone into my bag, I rub the kink in the back of my neck. I’m exhausted. My roster was already bursting at the seams, but Rafael’s lie set it back an hour.
I had to scramble to finish all my assigned apartments, but I did it. All the residents on my ledger are sleeping in freshly made beds, and I’m a fifty-minute bus ride from doing the same.
I just have one last task to tick off first. I need to return the dress Rafael gifted me earlier. I can’t accept it since Ark was unaware it had been given to me. He purchased those clothes for his guests. They were not Rafael’s to give away.
With the hour late, and since my visit is more personal than business related, I close my locker before heading for the main elevator.
“Ma’am.” The elevator attendant finalizes his greeting with a glare before he pushes the call button for me.
I breathe a sigh of relief when he doesn’t shadow my entrance into the car. It could be because he doesn’t deem me a threat to the residents here, but my intuition pleads with me to look deeper. His decision feels like it centers more around Ark than me.
After selecting the main floor of Ark’s apartment, I check my face in the mirrored wall. I look wretched. Dark circles plague my eyes, and my cheeks look gaunt. It is understandable after recalling what I had for lunch.
Air isn’t overly filling.
I hesitate to exit the elevator when it arrives at Ark’s floor. Someone is ending their week surrounded by friends. Four apartments spurt off this hallway, and its echoing design makes it impossible to work out which apartment is being overrun withguests—guests I will most likely have to clean up after in the morning.
The cleaning staff have a seven-day roster. Weekends are not guaranteed days off.
While grumbling about my dislike of my position, I stomp down the carpeted hallway. Music carries through my ears the further I encroach on Ark’s apartment. It leaves no doubt as to who is keeping the other tenants awake.
Ark is entertaining guests—many of them.
Confident they’ll all most likely be as attractive as the female giving him gaga eyes this morning, I pivot on my heel and stalk back to the elevator.
I’m halfway there when a familiar voice says, “Hey, Mara. Ditching already?”
I muster up a fake grin before spinning to face the voice. “I’d have to be invited to di-ditch.”
Rafael shrugs as if science is an unnecessary part of physics. “Tomato,tomato.”