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By the time our attorneys left, it was well into the afternoon. I had skipped lunch, but I was not in the mood for food. It was something I hated doing, but I found it necessary on days like these. Going hungry by choice was a lot different from when we were children and there were no other options.
“Boss?”
Andres, my assistant, came into my office after the lawyers were packed up and gone. I’d headhunted the younger man from a former competitor who I later bought out. That was some ten years ago now. I’d been unable to purchase or glean information from him using other, less savory means regarding the deal we were trying to make.
Afterwards, I offered Andres a job. Marat thought I was being sentimental, but I admired his loyalty and grit. Asking him to join our team was one of the best business decisions I had made. The man was like a walking, talking computer. He had a knack for recalling details with unerring accuracy, and I knew I could trust him with corporate secrets.
It took a few hours going over notes before we switched to the daily correspondence. Going through my email with Andres was always easier since he was better on the computer than I was. I did not have the patience for technology, ironic as that was. The metals we mined were necessary to keep such tech working, but I did not care which iPhone was out or what new gadget was the next best thing.
Facing the window, I watched the storm clouds gather among the skyscrapers and towers. Those mile high representations of humankind’s genius stood in defiance of nature. Imagine that kind of brilliance to master physics, making history and erecting monuments that point directly at the heavens as if daring the gods to strike them down.
I admired the men and women who created such things. They must have had balls of steel to challenge the very beings responsible for creation itself. Like recalcitrant children asking their parents for a duel. Innovators were often mad, wasn’t that a saying? I was sure I had heard it somewhere. I listened as Andres rattled off the rest of my schedule with about half the attention I should have given it.
“Dinner tonight at Chez Luis with Marcus Porter from Capital One at seven,” he said.
“No. Move the dinner appointment to Marat’s calendar. In fact, move all of them to my brother’s schedule. I will be unavailable for everything save my office hours during the next few weeks.”
“What about the Castle Ball on the twentieth? He will expect you to attend in person,” Andres said.
“Fine, but make sure Marat and Josef, and you too, Andres, make sure all three of you are on the list as well,” I said, steepling my fingers as I continued to watch the storm clouds gathering.
“Very well, Mr. Volkov,” he replied, frowning as he added the note.
Josef knocked and entered my office without waiting for a response. I ignored him while I rattled off replies to the most important of my messages. Andres typed everything into his tablet faster than a fifteen year old on TikTok.
Once we were finished, I turned my head and acknowledged Josef. It was after four now, and my business day was just getting started. He spoke into the mic hidden in his cuff link and pressed the com in his ear as he listened to whoever was speaking to him. He had come into our lives later, but if I had to choose anyone in the world other than Marat to guard my life, or the life of someone I care about, it would be him.
“What is it, Josef?” I asked, stepping inside my office, where Andres waited for me.
“We might have a line on the woman.”
“Might?”
“Yes. I think you will appreciate this. She arrived at the party last night as Missy Castle’s plus one.”
“Missy Castle?”
“Indeed. She’s Matthew Castle’s sister. If my information is correct, I know your mystery woman’s name.”
“Well. What is it?” I growled, impatient.
“Sofia DiFalco. She works as Missy Castle’s personal assistant, but I understand she is an aspiring novelist.”
“A novelist?”
That was surprising. I never met a novelist, not even an aspiring one. My heart hammered inside my chest at the prospect of seeing her, Sofia DiFalco, again. I trusted Josef to have already put together a dossier on the woman, and I stood from my desk, hand out for the tablet Andres held. He gave it to me immediately.
“Send me everything you found and get the car,” I instructed.
“Yes, boss.”
“Where is she now?”
“She rents a shitty apartment in a Midtown.”
I grunted and scrolled to the file, opening as I walked to the elevator. Josef had already called for the car and was seeing to security as I read more about the woman who rocked my world last night.
Sofia. I liked the sound of her name. The more I played it over and over again in my mind the better it sounded. She was almost ten years my junior. She’d turned twenty-eight years old this past November, and I frowned, wondering if she would mind the age difference. She did not seem to mind it last night, but what did it matter, anyway?
