Page 21 of His Assistant

She pauses for a moment. I think she’s about to spill it all, but then she just shakes her head. “You’ve got enough on your plate,” she says. “You’ve got a meeting with the Francelo Group in fifteen minutes.”

I nod and let it go, for now.

I sit through the meeting and think about her the whole time anyway. My head isn’t in the game, but thankfully no one notices. When it wraps, I find Sofia at her desk, combing her fingers through her hair, stressed.

“That’s it,” I tell her. “We’re going to lunch.”

She looks up in surprise. “It’s only 11:30,” she protests. “And you have a lunch meeting at noon.”

“Cancel it,” I tell her. “I’m taking you out and you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on.”

She bites her lip and looks like she may argue.

“Cancel it,” I tell her again. “And grab your things.”

She reluctantly nods. Ten minutes later, we’re seated in the back booth of my favorite Italian deli. She’s got her eyes purposely glued to the menu.

“Sofia,” I say. “Talk to me.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not a big deal,” she replies. “My dad’s just gotten himself into something that I wasn’t aware of, and there was some blowback last night.”

I raise my eyebrow and reach over to push down her menu so she’ll be forced to look at me.

“What kind of ‘something’?” I ask her pointedly.

“These guys showed up at his garage,” she finally says. “He owes their boss some money. I didn’t know, and now we’re fighting.”

I nod and pull out my phone, texting Rafe to look into it. I can’t have her dragging this kind of worry into work. At least, that’s the lie I tell myself. The truth is, I just want to do whatever I can to lighten her load.

An hour later, when we’re back at work, Rafe texts that her father, Marco, owes money to a low-level loan shark named Giancarlo Andante. A lot of fucking money, thanks to a predatory loan. No wonder Sofia is so upset. Worse, Andante washes money for Enzo Calderone. What the hell are the odds?

I call him immediately. “We need to take care of this,” I tell him. “I can’t have my assistant’s father owing Calderone money.”

“I’ve got a few channels I can utilize,” he tells me. “Are you really going to pay off that amount, though? I know you like her, but goddamn, Dom. That’s a lot of fucking money.”

“She’s worth it,” I answer in a clipped voice. “And we don’t need Calderone figuring out the connection. You know he’d just use it to exploit me for money anyway. I’m getting rid of that possibility.”

“All right.” He sighs. “Send me the money and I’ll get it handled.”

I don’t hesitate for a second, even though I know this crosses every professional boundary I’ve ever set. Which is confirmed when Sofia bursts into my office an hour after she should’ve gone home.

“What the hell did you do?” she demands.

I lean back in my chair and watch her carefully. “You had a problem and I handled it,” I tell her honestly.

She shakes her head sharply. “I didn’t ask you to do that,” she says through clenched teeth.

“You didn’t have to,” I say lightly. “I could see that you needed help so I helped.”

“Without my consent,” she huffs. “And I want to be very clear about what this is. What do you want in return for buying out my father’s debt?”

I stare at her blankly. “In return?” I ask, confused.

“Yes,” she answers firmly. “Men like you always expect something in return. Is this hush money for not bringing up what happened with Mr. Armand? Are you trying to buy my loyalty to you?”

“It’s not like that,” I try to argue, but she’s too angry to hear anything.

“It’s always like that,” she says. “Men like you think money can solve everything. And you dug into my father’s personal business. Who the hell does that?”