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“Are you afraid of Jesse?” I demanded, infuriated by the idea.
I didn’t employ weaklings. Petyr grimaced at the question.
“No, of course not,” he scoffed, alleviating my concerns, if only slightly. “I just don’t see the point of warning him that you’re in his business.”
The words inflamed me, and Petyr realized it too late.
“In his business?” I echoed, advancing on the guard. “Why don’t you do what you’re paid to do and follow my instructions?”
“Yes, sir,” he mumbled, dropping his head and backing away before he could put his foot further into his mouth. But the damage was done. Petyr was right—I was in Jesse’s business, and I had to stop.
It was easier said than done. No amount of throwing myself into work was keeping my mind off Bianca. I caught whiffs of her when I turned corners, her big doe eyes emblazoned in my mind.
I just needed to know she was okay, at least.
“We have messengers for that kind of thing,” Sage informed me the moment Petyr left the office, and I bristled.
“Don’t you have anything better to do than stand around eavesdropping?”
“Don’t insult me,” she snapped. “I was coming in here for your signature, and I happened to overhear your request to Petyr. It’s not wise to send guards to alert Jesse of what you’ve been doing.”
“What do you need my signature on?” I demanded, ignoring her advice. I’d heard more than enough of it for one lifetime, advice I should have heeded a long time earlier.
“It’s about the fire,” she sighed, thrusting the pages in her hand toward me. “Insurance is questioning whether it was accidental or not.”
“That’s bullshit,” I muttered, grabbing the papers and scanning them with a frown. “They did an investigation. They know full well that it wasn’t arson.”
“That’s not what the witnesses are saying. There are several that insist that a bomb went off.”
“That was the gas line exploding,” I grunted, grinding my teeth. “Suddenly everyone is a civil engineer.”
“You have to work it out with the investigators.”
“I thought I had!”
“Well, you’ll have to do better if you expect the payout.”
I inhaled to steel my temper. There was no sense in getting upset with Sage. She was only relaying what she knew, and my frayed nerves had nothing to do with her. If anything, I had brought the fire on myself.
“We’re lucky that more lives weren’t affected by the disaster,” Sage said quietly, reading my innermost thoughts. “It could have been much, much worse.”
Her meaning wasn’t lost on me. She was telling me the same thing I’d been telling myself. The fire had been a direct result of me touching Bianca. I couldn’t pretend it was a coincidence. I didn’t believe in such things.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“What do you want from me, Sage? The girl is gone. She’s clearly not coming back. Why are you beating that dead horse?”
“You’re the one sending our guards after her.”
My teeth cracked. “I didn’t send anyone after anyone,” I corrected her. “I just want to make sure she wasn’t caught.”
“And what if she was?” Sage barked with uncharacteristic anger. “Are you going to swoop into the compound and save her? Throw away the rest of your empire now?”
My jaw dropped at her tone. Never had she spoken to me like that.
“Nothing else has happened since the fire,” I offered awkwardly.
