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Maybe tattooing my name on her ring finger was too much? I don’t know. She did seem especially upset about that.
I shake all thoughts of her from my head and refocus on my business. Picking up my cell, I dial Mr. Pontrelli.
“Kozlov,” he greets, his tone mildly irritated.
“Pontrelli, I need your men on the lookout for my man Boris. He’s a dead man walking. If you spot him, tell me and only me.”
“Consider it done.” He pauses. “How is my daughter?”
“Combative, stubborn, and pure hell.”
He lets out a dark chuckle. “That’s my girl. Remember if you hurt her, I will fucking skin you alive.”
“She’s safe with me,” I tell him before ending the call.
Why does everyone have it in for me today? Fucking hell.
That evening after work, I head upstairs to my penthouse. It’s Sunday night, but the club below is hopping. This city really never sleeps.
As soon as I step through the door, I hear raised voices coming from the kitchen.
“That was not a slappable pile!” Arianna shrieks.
“Yes it was,” Maks says. “Look, there were two sevens.”
“No there weren’t, you put that second seven on top after you slapped it. You’re a cheater!” She giggles.
“Prove it.”
I enter the kitchen to find Maks with his hands full of playing cards held up over his head, and Arianna jumping up and trying to grab them. Maks laughs and taunts her.
Their easygoing banter and genuine mirth fills me with jealousy. My entire body stiffens.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” I glare at them both.
The smiles drop from their lips. Maks looks panicked, he immediately sets the cards on the island and takes a step away from Arianna, who levels me with a cold glare. As if I’m nothing more than an annoyance, interrupting their time together.
She sits down and grabs Maks’s cards. “I’m teaching my cheating bodyguard how to play Egyptian Rat Screw.”
“What?” I blink. Screw what?
Maks holds up his hands in surrender. “It’s not what it sounds like, Pakhan. It’s innocent, I swear. Just a silly card game.”
A silly card game. While I’ve been downstairs dealing with one headache after another, they’ve been up here playing card games and laughing? Sure she’ll teach Maks something fun that she knows, but all she does is fight with me. I had to chain her to the fucking table just to have dinner with her last night.
What the actual fuck?
I know I’m overreacting, but I’m fucking jealous, envious, of their time together.
“Get dressed,” I snap at Arianna. “We’re going out.”
“Why don’t you try asking me nicely,” she counters, shuffling the deck. “I’d rather stay here and play cards with Maks. He’s much more fun than you are.”
Fucking Maks. I shift my irritated gaze to him, and he looks guilty as fuck. Which he should.
If Arianna wants to play games, fine, we’ll play games. I fish her phone out of my pocket and dangle it in front of her face, snatching it away when she reaches for it.
“If you’re a good girl tonight, you can have this back. Tomorrow’s Monday, you wouldn’t want to miss work.”
