“As long as she lives there, and when she moves, too,” I told him. “Stay out of sight and protect her at all costs. Until I can take over the job myself,” I added, ending the call.
That moment couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter 6 - Clem
After floating in the clouds for two weeks on the high of finding Koboyashi Corp and both owners loving my presentation, I got dashed back to the ground at my latest findings. I had been digging into the Japanese company, finding information that would help us impress them, and now I’d found something that could sink the whole deal. My stomach flipped over as I cross-referenced all the information again and came to the same conclusion.
Damn. After all my hard work, we might not get the contract to import Koboyashi’s game system after all. Here I was hoping I might get another bonus one minute, and the next minute, once again fearing for my job. This was pretty big.
Rurik rushed in as if he was late when I had already been almost an hour early to try to beat him for once. He tossed a stack of papers as thick as my wrist onto my desk. “I need you to read and sign these, then get them notarized before lunch.”
It looked like it would take me a week to read all those contracts, but I nodded along as he reeled off a slew of other things he needed done before his ten o’clock meeting, where I was supposed to take notes.
“Okay,” I said, mustering the nerve to tell him we probably needed to get the silent partner on a call.
But he was already heading into his office and closing the door, bellowing for his coffee as he shut it.
His tyrannical behavior was the least of my worries for once, and by that time, I was used to his abrupt manner. Honestly, it saved time, and whenever I got miffed, I remembered that juicy, unexpected bonus that was letting me finally move into a building that had a gate.
“Too much sugar again,” he said, after taking a long sip and closing his eyes like he’d just had a taste of heaven. I was beginning to think he had a very odd sense of humor and was just messing with me.
“I’ll bring you a new one,” I said.
“Do you have time for that? Don’t bother.”
I bit back a smile at my small victory and started powering through his task list, calling the main trucking company we used to try to track down a huge shipment that never made it to its final destination. I had no idea what was in the shipment, and didn’t have time to care. I was normally busy, but I was beginning to feel a bit ragged by the time the midmorning meeting rolled around, and I wasn’t halfway through the pile of his documents I was supposed to sign.
Thankfully, the meeting was short, and I grabbed the stack on my way to get Rurik’s dry cleaning, which he assured me was absolutely an emergency since he was meeting a local clothing designer who was branching out into furniture, and who might want us to bring her pieces over from Italy. So, of course, he had to wear one of the designer shirts, which was a gift from his cousin Mila.
I would have sworn he was trying to waste my time by telling me the convoluted story instead of just barking for me to get to the dry cleaners before lunch.
Once I had the all-important shirt, I was only a couple of blocks from the notary we used, so I skimmed through the remaining documents as fast as I could and bounced around impatiently while she stamped them all.
Rurik was tapping his toe and looking at his watch when I made it back ten minutes before his deadline. “Sorry,” I said, anyway.
“Did the papers get sent off?”
“Not yet, but they’re signed and notarized.” If he dared to give me grief, I was prepared to fight back because he hadn’t told me to get the documents in the mail before the lunchtime deadline.
“See that they go out today,” he said, silencing any retort by whipping his shirt off.
I could have run from the office while he changed into the designer’s shirt, but I was frozen to the spot. The man was ripped, all abs and pecs and biceps, smooth skin and a smattering of manly chest hair. My eyes were flying all over the place of their own accord to take it all in, finally landing on his smug face as he began to button up.
“Boxing gym,” he said, flexing and making my eyes pop even more. “Nothing like throwing punches at a heavy bag to keep in shape.”
I had no answer, still stunned by all that flagrant manhood on full display. I kept my head down when he strode past me to go to his lunch meeting. A gust of air flew out of my mouth, and when I sank into my chair, I lay my head on my arms for a minute, trying to catch my breath. Partly because of those gleaming muscles I wasn’t expecting, but also because I didn’t have much left on my schedule for the day. Up until this morning, Rurik had been urging me to use as much time as possible to look into Koboyashi.
Remembering I had bad news to share when he got back, my appetite dwindled, but I forced myself to eat a sandwich with someone on the design team, letting him go on and on about his new baby while I tried to fortify my strength and courage.
“How did it go?” I asked when my boss returned with a stormy look on his face.
“Not great. She’s very demanding and wants too much from us.” He forced a smile. “Not to worry when we have Koboyashi on the horizon.”
“About that,” I said. “I think we should get Mr. Bocharov on a call. I have some news.”
“Your face doesn’t scream good news,” he said, motioning for me to go into his office.
“Not good news, no,” I admitted.