Page 38 of Filthy Little Fix

"You just… called him whatever you wanted?" Dmitry says, hiding a laugh, and I raise my voice.

"It's irrelevant! His name isn't the problem! His mind is the problem! Hisperversionsare the problem! You saw what he did in 24 hours! Do you think that's normal for a Leonel?"

"He didn't seem bothered by my presence," Svetlana says, adjusting the lapels of her blazer. She sighs before forcing herself to calm down. "He was tired, yes, but efficient. He introduced himself, I gave him the drive. That's it."

It gets more unbelievable with every sentence.

"And you just… gave him the drive? You let him tamper with our data? He could be implanting anything!"

She glares at me. "He's in a locked room, Donya," she says slowly. "And the drives are encrypted, analyzed copies. He has no external access. He's perfectly contained. And do you know the only thing he asked for, after agreeing to dissect every digital aspect of our goddamn organization, after being beaten with all your 'specific approaches'? He asked for Luca to call a woman—agirlfriend, I don't fucking know—and ask her to water his fern. His fucking fern."

My vision blurs.Girlfriend? He has a fuckinggirlfriend? And he's worried about afern?

This isn't Nyx. This is… some domesticated idiot. My stomach churns, and I feel nauseous. He was letting me fuck his mouth while what? Thinking about a fucking girlfriend watering a fern?

"What?"

"His fern, Dante," Svetlana says, her voice rising again. "He asked Luca to make sure it was taken care of."

No. This image of innocence, of someone who just did what he did for money, that's not him.

I tense my entire body. She thinks I'm crazy.

"Ask Luca!" I yell. "Ask Luca what kind of man he is!"

Svetlana crosses her arms. She thinks. Luca is the most principled man in our business, a simple person. He was there. He saw.

"Fine," she says grudgingly. She taps her stiletto heel against the marble floor and walks over to the general staff intercom.She unplugs the phone and dials the code for Luca's line. "Luca. Please come up to the conference room."

I try to hold back the irritation of needing an outside report on this. Svetlana might see me as a brute, but Luca's wordhasto carry its weight.

Luca appears shortly, a nervous look on his face. He walks in, and I stare at him.You're dead if you fuck this up.

"Tell us about Leonel," Svetlana says. "My brother here seems to think he's some kind of monster. Is he?"

Luca looks at me. At her, at Dmitry. He's never seen us together in the same room, and his hesitation is obvious.

I clear my throat.

He flinches.

I'm not kidding, Luca.

"Mr. Volkov…," he starts, "beat him… and he… he liked it…."

That's it. That's the report from my best man. He just stands there, shaking his head, and Svetlana lets out a pure frustrated sigh, pressing her own forehead as if to relieve a headache. Dmitry lets out a choked sound, trying not to laugh.

Luca looks at me. He doesn't know why I'm warning him with my eyes that Iwillkill him, and it frustrates me even more.

"I-I mean," he stutters.Fix this shit."I'm wary of him too, Mrs. Volkov, he's unpredictable..."

Svetlana stares at him. "Is he violent?"

"Uh… Negative, miss."

"Does he break contracts, agreements?"

"I don't know?—"