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Leonid sighs again, so I ask, “What?”
“He’s gone to arrange another trade with a family and will be out of state for two weeks,” he shrugs. “That’s why I say I could just send someone to handle him, and poof, our problem is gone.”
“No, I want him to admit it to me before I put a bullet between his eyes for betraying me.” I stand up. “Thanks, Leonid. Just keep this between the two of us for now. I don’t want Evgeni to get wind and make a run for it.”
“Of course. Is there anything else I can help with?” he offers.
“No, nothing for now. Go to your family and enjoy your day,” I say, turning to go inside. I wander around for a moment, musing over the betrayal. I find Tori in the office, and I sit down heavily. She turns to face me.
“What’s wrong?” she asks gently, scooting over to me.
I take her hand in mine. “Evgeni is the one who tried to have me killed. He’s betrayed the family.”
Tori looks distressed, and I give her hand a squeeze. “It’s always harder when it’s someone we’re close to.”
“I’m so sorry, Ivan,” she pulls my hand to her lips and kisses my fingers the way I do to hers.
“I always try to do right by my family. I always try to make sure everyone is taken care of, but there’s always one ungrateful miscreant that has to betray me,” I say with a heavy sigh.
“You’ll figure this out. Speak to him and ask him for reasons,” she says. “There must be a reason. He seems to adore you so much.”
She swings around, pulls papers from her desk, and hands them to me. “I’m finished with the contracts,” she says. “You’re getting an excellent deal out of my family.”
I take the paper from her and start to rifle through them, reading her notes. “Your family isn’t getting anything too bad from me either,” I point out. “In fact, a few of these assets are really nice.”
“A mutual exchange,” she says quietly.
“Seems good to me,” I say, setting the paperwork down on the desk and pulling her off her chair and into my lap. “Now that you’re finished working like a slave, why don’t we curl up on the sofa and read.”
She smiles down at me and kisses my mouth softly. “That sounds like an amazing idea.”
I kiss her back, and for a moment, we simply sit there, kissing each other over and over again. I touch her breast, and she moans loudly, and I raise an eyebrow. “Horny much?” I tease.
She blushes and climbs off my lap. “Let’s go read before you get other ideas of what we should be doing.”
“But those ideas could be fun,” I point out as I let her drag me to the library. We both have books we’re busy with, and there’s a large sofa in here we both curl up on. She leans against me slightly as she reads. I love watching her read. She concentrates so hard as though she could telepathically transfer the information into her brain forever.
I’m reading a horror novel at the moment, but my heart isn’t into it after learning about Evgeni. I keep thinking that he, or whoever decided to go rogue, also was behind the missing money from my account and the situation with the contracts.
I decide to put an arm around Tori and lean back, closing my eyes and relaxing. “Read to me.”
“It’s psychological stuff. It’s boring,” she murmurs.
“Read to me anyway,” I comment.
She shifts around and starts to read. Her voice is so pleasant to listen to, and it turns out that the stuff she’s reading about actually isn’t that boring. I listen intently at first, then a little less so. I’m tired, so I shift and lie down with her lying between my legs, her head on my chest. I get comfy and close my eyes. She stops reading after a moment, and I nudge her. “Carry on, or I won’t fall asleep.”
She giggles and carries on reading, and I slowly close my eyes.
Chapter 21 - Vittoria
With each day that passes, I feel worse and worse. At first, I blamed the morning sickness, which seemed to have hit me very hard. Pregnancy. Zero out of ten. Do not recommend it if you hate puking.
It’s not just the morning sickness, though. I love Ivan, and I feel so bad for betraying him. The contracts have been handed to the family lawyer, and I know they are going over them. I’m stressed they’ll pick up that something is wrong or point out that the Volkov family is being screwed. I don’t know who the lawyer is or how good they are. I can only hope they don’t pick up on what I’ve done.
I can’t ask any questions as that will only rouse suspicion, and I don’t want to do that. It could put my and my baby’s life in danger. I can’t just sit here doing nothing, though, as the wait is killing me, and I feel so useless.
It’s after the tenth day that I’ve finally had enough. I go from the library to Ivan’s office and knock softly on the door to get his attention.
