Haven

Fifteen

Emiliano POV

The plan was simple, stay as far away as possible from her. What was I thinking? She was sent to live with me to keep her out of danger and I slowly started to believe that I was the danger. I knew taking her to see Surgirv was a risk, but I still did it. I allowed him to make her vulnerable and make her feel like completely nothing and how do I apologize? By kissing her.

I drained the cup in front of me of its alcohol and stood from my best to look outside my large windows. I could see her house from here, which made me comfortable although I couldn't see the inside. Thankfully there hadn't been any attacks in the past four weeks. But I still had to figure out who was behind this. What shady business had George Lexington gotten into in the past? Despite not sharing any information about his past personally, I knew the man enough to say that not all that glitters is gold. I wasn't surprised at all when he asked that I look after his daughter; it was in his nature to throw the hard dirty work to others but I didn't mind. Maybe because every time I was around her I wanted to grab her and kiss her. Get a grip man.

I wasn't having the best of days, but it was good enough. I hardly got any sleep for the past week as I had a lot of work to attend to. I had lost much time during my recovery period and I had no idea the amount of work waiting for me.

Right then there was a knock on my door and I shouted for them to come in. I already had an idea who it was.

"Good afternoon boss," Dmitry said walking towards my desk. I turn to face him and he immediately staggers. "Well, you look like crap." He says and chuckles.

"State your purpose Dmitry," I said taking a seat and so did he. He slid a brown envelope across me.

"That's the Anders Connect agreement ." He said proudly. "You, my friend and official own twenty-five percent of their company."

"Really? Twenty-five?" I said opening the envelope. Anders Connect was currently one of the biggest Data analytic companies on the market. Other than my regular business, I also was into investments and shares. That's how I made almost half of my money. Currently, the founder had passed and his only son and successor had no idea how to run the company and it was making more losses than profit. I offered to help get it back on its feet provided I got my cut.

"How did you get them to agree to twenty-five?" I looked at the contract in disbelief.

"Well, " he leaned back ok his chair and crossed his arms proudly. " that's for me to worry about boss, and you to, well,....celebrate me."

Dmitry was an absolute genius. He always had been. He and I have been pals from way back. His father worked as a bodyguard here and had to raise him alone because his mother was in and out of rehab. Bodyguards usually got decent pay but it was to hire a nanny and take him to school and provide for him altogether, so his dad would occasionally bring him to work, which is where we met. From the word go, he was an expert with numbers and solving problems and would tutor me until I became as good as he was despite attending a school with lower standards. My mother then convinced my father to sponsor his education as she believed he was a good influence on me, and we ended up attending the same school.

Despite his relationship with my family, he refused to take anything for free and worked for every penny he had. With the connections my family had he could work anywhere he wanted but choose to stay loyal to us and only accept a fair paycheck and he was good at his job.

"I must say, Dmitry, I'm impressed. " I said while signing the documents.

"Of course you are," he popped open the bottle of wine at my table and poured it into a glass.

"Careful, that alcohol might go straight where your ego is."

He chuckled and drained his glass.

"Have all my guests left?"

"Yeah, except Rayn."

"I see." I poured out another glass for myself fully aware of the look Dmitry was giving me.

"I'm pretty sure she wants you to see her out., he added.

"Please, do me the favor."

"When are you going to stop pretending you are not aware that she's into you?"

"Dmitry, we have had this conversation time and again, I don't need you as my wingman and I don't have those intentions for Rayn."

"I know. Because you fancy Graciella. "

"One glass of wine and you're already delusional."

"Yeah, I'm the delusional one," he said sarcastically. "Do you have any leads by the way?"

"Nothing. " I said rubbing my hot eyes. "Whatever Arhen got himself involved in is some pretty deep shit. And the bastard doesn't have any intentions of talking."

"His life is probably being threatened if he does."

"I should kill him myself. "

"Easy now. Did you tell him about the raid at the mall? "

"Nope," I said casually.

"Why not," he asked puzzled.

"Like he'd give a damn. It's never been easy for him to care about the daughter he didn't want in the first place."

"That so? Does Graciella know this?"

"No, and I hope she doesn't find out either. "

"I see."

"She looked disturbed when she came over earlier. "

"When she broke in." I corrected him and he chuckled.

"That's right. That was unexpected. You should talk to her. She seemed troubled ."

"Did she tell you so?" Truth is, I saw it too. There was something wrong; other than breaking and entering.

"I didn't speak with her but it was clear. You should go visit her." He added and he got up from his seat. "Try to get her to talk maybe."

"I doubt she would," I said casually.

"Alright then, just visit her as a friend. Maybe that what she needs. "

"Later," I said turning on my laptop on my desk. " I'm far too busy. "

"Well, since you could obviously care less about her," he said and shrugged. "I guess you wouldn't mind if I checked on her instead."

"Knock yourself out." He rose from his seat while shaking his head.