Page 87 of Lord of Passion

"Which one?" I say sharply. You donotfuck with my waitstaff.

"It was Kylie. I drove her to the emergency room myself. Fortunately, the doctor said she didn't need anything more than a shot and some antibiotics."

"Well, that still counts as assault to me. Please give Kylie a week off with pay and send her some flowers."First day back and I'm already pissed off.

"Will do," he says, making a note on his iPad. "Anything else?"

I'm putting the pieces together. Bitey little dog, entitled rich person… I groan silently. "What's the name of the guest?"

"Miroslava Balabanova," he says, checking his guest register.

"Oh fuck," I sigh. "We have to let her stay. She's a client of the Morozov family."

Trevor's sharp, and he understood immediately who the Morozovs were when he first started working here, and why just the name Morozov was pretty much the last word every time. Fortunately, the Bratva hasn't had an endless round of demands that would affect the day-to-day running of the hotel. More things like private dinners and keeping their suites open on the 10th floor.

We settle in my office after Isaak searches it and we get back to work. "One more thing that's annoying," Trevor points his pen at the bank of monitors on the opposite wall. "We've had a lot of trouble with the security system over the last day. I don't know why."

Frowning, I pick up my remote and point it, clicking on the first monitor. The video is blurry. I check each of the eight monitors. None of them are particularly clear. "Are you seeing the same problem with the security cameras in the hallway?" I ask."

"Yeah," he says. "I called our tech people this morning and they're still working on it."

"Okay…" I say slowly. "Let's call in four more security guards for today, and until this is fixed, I'm authorizing the additional payroll expense. I want to make sure there's nothing that escapes our notice that could impact the guests."

"I'm on it," he says, tapping away on his iPad. "Do you need anything else from me?"

"Let's start with that," I say. "I'll need the rest of this afternoon to catch up."

"You were only gone four days," Trevor chuckles. "But god, did it seem longer than that."

Laughing, I shrug. "I'm embarrassed to admit that it felt much longer than that for me too." He shoots me a smile as he leaves my office.

I order flowers for the Dragon Balabanova, and message our chef to prepare a caviar bar for her and her guests. Then, I call Nikandr.

"Well, hello, myPlokhoy kot."His voice is warm, and he sounds genuinely pleased to hear from me.

"Hey, gorgeous. Have you heard anything back from Balabanov regarding the trade deal?"

He chuckles, the rich sound of it makes my nipples harden.What the hell, nipples? I'm like a teenager!

"You were completely correct, my darling wife. He called me at eight this morning. He was definitely pouting, but not only agreed to the resumption of shipments, he also requested morestock to make up for the shipment that never happened with Novikov."

"Good," I say spitefully, "I hope this is tanking Johann's reputation long enough to kill him."

"Such a savage little thing," he says approvingly.

"You think I'm kidding?" I snap. "I would like to be the one who shoots him."

"All this talk of you murdering people is getting me hot," he laughs.

"The world will be better off without this unmitigated piece of shit," I say. "Every day he's still breathing is another day that puts multitudes of people into danger."

"Ah," he says. "So, it's your goodness for your fellow man that is creating this murder spree?"

"Don't judge me!" I say haughtily. "Remember, I'm a dangerous murderess now, you don't want to get on my bad side."

"As long as I avoid getting crippling cancer and lounging in a hospital bed, I think I'm safe," he says easily. "What does the rest of your day look like?"

Slumping back in my chair, I have to admit that my support staff did a fantastic job, and that the security tech is our only real problem.