AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What? No.Melissa!”
Too late. She holds open the door—and Adrik fucking Makarov waltzes in with a bottle of scotch wrapped in a red velvet ribbon.
“Why thank you, darling,” he croons to her.
“Of course!” She bats her eyelashes at Adrik and sashays off to eat her weight in granola. I regret hiring her. I’d rather have the granola for an assistant.
“New help?” Adrik asks as he places the scotch on my table and makes himself comfortable.
“Not for long.”
He wrinkles up his nose. “Don’t tell me she’s a temp? What happened to your pretty little assistant? What was her name again… ah that’s right, Emma!”
Yeah, like he fucking forgot.
“She was quite the looker. Perky little ass. And her tits weren’t bad, either.”
My hand clenches into a fist but I force it under the table. I’m almost positive Adrik is behind all the shady shit that’s gone down recently but without proof, I can’t pin it on him. I need to play the long game until I get enough information to make my move.
The fact that he’s come up clean so far is grating on my nerves. It only reinforces my theory that there’s someone on the inside helping him.
Emma…?
No. Impossible. She wouldn’t—
Then again, shehadbetrayed me to Remmy. And who can forget that intimate dance she had shared with Adrik the night of the Olsen-Ferber gala?
There’s no way. She doesn’t have enough information herself to be able to pass anything actionable along to Adrik. Her knowledge of Venera was zilch until the night of the launch.
Focus.
“What do you want, Adrik?”
He smiles, the very picture of pleasantry. “Just wanted to express my sympathies in person and give you a little‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out’gift.”
I suppress the urge to grab his bottle of scotch and fling it at his head. “As usual, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on. When will you stop acting coy and just admit that you’re behind Venera?”
“I’m not.”
Adrik rolls his eyes. “Okay, okay. Wink-wink. Nudge-nudge. Am I right?”
“Fucking hell. You and Melissa will get along great.”
He crosses one leg over the other and laughs. “I can’t fault your mood. I’d be equally pissed if the drug I spent millions to develop ended up being a colossal failure before it’s even launched. Dead on arrival. I heard that no one is touching the samples anymore. Gives new meaning to the term ‘kiss of death,’ am I right?”
I lean back in my seat. “Is this what you call sympathizing?”
“I’m not hereonlyto sympathize—”
“Of course not.”
“I also wanted to thank you.” He hesitates—for dramatic effect, no doubt. Maybe he’s just waiting for me to ask why he’s thanking me. Joke’s on him.
I don’t fucking care.
He clears his throat, irritated by my complete lack of interest. “I’m here to thank you for inspiring me. I’ve decided to launch myowndrug. Of course, mine will actually work.”
