Page 10 of The Pakhan’s Hidden Heir

She frowns and her brow creases with worry. I haven’t come right out to tell her who I am or what I’m about, but she’ll figure that out eventually.

In the meantime, my enemies are very real and I have no choice but to protect my investment.

And she has signed a contract she can’t back out of easily.

“For how long?” she asks, swallowing hard around the words. Her anxiety is palpable, much like the shyness I just witnessed in my office moments ago as she dressed.

“For as long as you’re valuable to me.” I know that sounds very harsh and cold, but the truth is the truth. She’s better off knowing where she stands.

What I don’t say is how the idea of her leaving twists in my chest. I’ve hunted a year for this exact woman, and I don’t like the thought of her out of my reach.

She’s mine now.

I found her.

I chose her, and I won’t let her go.

It’s a foolish thing to feel over a woman I’ve known for a day, but I’m not prone to thinking before acting and my gut is in charge right now.

“Settle in,” I tell her. “Ingrid will send up dinner. I have business downstairs.” I leave her standing there with her boxes and her stunned silence, and I don’t look back on my way out the door.

Akim’s waiting for me in the study, and I know before he says a word that he’s got opinions.

They’re written all over his screwed-up face, that he’s not happy with my choices. He’s earned the right to share those opinions with me over the years. But he knows the exact moment I stop listening.

“You’re making a mistake,” he grumbles, standing from the spot he’s chosen to park his ass as soon as my feet cross the threshold.

“You’ve been busy.” I nod at the folder in his hand, one of the same folders I’ve spent all month studying. It looks like he’s been doing research too, the computer screen open with a social media profile staring back at me.

“I have.” He slaps the folder onto my desk, opens it, then glowers up at me. “Boss, she’s so far beneath you. She barely pays her rent on time—dropped out of college. This is who you want bearing your child?”

I’m no stranger to Akim’s frustration on this topic.

He’s told me why every candidate was wrong. This time he’s dead wrong, but he’s just looking out for me.

“I’ve read the file, Akim. And she’s been honest with me. I’m more worried about good genes, not good socioeconomic standing.”

“Then you know she’s beneath this house.” He wants me to look at her flaws and see a woman who isn’t good enough. What he can’t see, because he’s never sat in the chair I sat in all year, is that I looked at every one of those marks yesterday and saw the opposite of a problem.

A woman with nothing has no other loyalties. No other doors. No family waiting to pull her out and no soft life to run back to. Every strike against her is a reason she’ll do precisely what I need and nothing more.

Combine that with the intoxicating good looks and my son or daughter will be perfect. Loyal to me with no strings pulling them away, and they’ll turn eyes, just like their mother and father.

“She’s perfect,” I tell him. “You just can’t see it yet.”

Akim huffs and steps back, shaking his head. “You’re closing your eyes on purpose.”

I feel him—I really do. In this world one can never be too certain. For my right-hand man, he is doing his job. Protecting me is his chief priority, and I appreciate the good job he’s doing. But I’m going to redirect that so he can see for himself exactly what I see.

“Here’s how this goes,” I say, leaning on my desk comfortably. “You’re going to stop hunting for reasons this won’t work, and you’re going to make it work instead. As of right now, Raina’s security is your responsibility. Where she goes, you go. Who she sees, you know about. She doesn’t set one foot past that gate without your eyes on her.”

He stares at me, unblinking, before he says, “You want me guarding her?” He almost scoffs but when I narrow my eyes, he reels it in.

“I want you guarding the woman who’s going to carry my heir who will lead this family into the future. So yes.” Then I lift my chin and continue. “And understand me, Akim. If anyone lays a hand on her—anyone, one of theirs or one of ours—you’ll put him in the ground. She is not to be touched. Not by any breathing man except me.”

4

RAINA