Page 31 of Forbidden Boss

“That isn’t going to happen,” I tell her firmly. “You can’t leave Levcon until the threat is neutralized, and even then, we’re going to have to do a lot of vetting to make sure my enemies can’t use you against me again.”

“I figured,” she says with a shrug and turns back to the screen. She drops it too easily. It makes everything worse.

I green-light more coverage on her. Yuri posts a tail outside. I have her computer bugged so I can see everything she looks at. Elyan watches elevator arrivals. We rotate teams so nobody gets predictable.

Yuri tells me on Friday morning that she bought a new suitcase from a luggage store on Fifth. Two blocks later, she stopped at a bank and withdrew cash. He says what I’m already thinking.

“She’s acting like she’s going to run,” he confirms. “What do you want to do?”

“We have to stay on her,” I say. “Double the surveillance if we have to.”

He nods and leaves my office.

I replay what I know in my mind. First, she found $200,000 missing from the books. The fake agent showed up at her door. Then there was the attack on our Delancey club and the photograph at my gate. It all relates somehow.

The agent who showed up at her apartment was fake, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t contacted the actual Feds. Agent Halloran says we aren’t being investigated, but if sheapproached someone, they would do everything to make sure no one else in the organization knows what’s going on.

It’s the only explanation. She’s going to turn me over to the Feds, and then she’s going to run away. Maybe they’re already talking witness protection. As if that would be enough for her to get away from me.

At five-thirty, I text Mari to meet me in the small glass conference room. When she arrives, she doesn’t sit. She stands at the far end like she’ll bolt if I move. Her color’s off. Her hands are tight at her sides. It looks like anger. Reads like fear.

“Tell me what you’re hiding,” I demand coldly.

“I’m not hiding anything,” she answers nervously, her posture all wrong.

“You’re lying,” I say, as calmly as possible. “You’re avoiding me. You bought a suitcase. You pulled cash out of your account. You’re looking at jobs.”

“I’m allowed to buy things,” she says. “I’m allowed to have my own money.”

“You are,” I agree. “But you’re not allowed to disappear.”

Her chin tips. “You can’t stop me from existing, Lev. You can only make my life smaller.”

“If you want to leave this office for another office, say it plainly,” I say. “If you want to move away when this is all over and fuck off to the farthest corner of the earth, you’re more than welcome to dream about that. But what you’re not going to do is work with someone behind my back to destroy me.”

“I’m not working with anyone,” she fires back, a little of her normal color returning. “I just want out. That’s it.”

“Why?”

She looks down. For a second I think I’ll get the truth. Then she shakes her head.

“Because I just do.”

“That’s not a good enough reason.” I let the silence stretch. “Look at me.”

She does. It costs her. Her eyes are glassy at the edges, but she blinks the tears away.

“You want to run,” I say. “Who’s waiting on the other end?”

“No one.”

“Who told you to buy a suitcase?”

“No one.”

“Why’s your color gone?”

“I’m tired,” she says. “You’re a lot of work.”