ARCHER
The next day,I get to my office at nine o’clock, which is too early for me, considering we had a virtual meeting with the board members at midnight.
The biggest accomplishment from yesterday is not the new seven-figure account we signed with the Japanese but a full meal that I ate for the first time in days and four hours of sleep afterward.
The bruising on my face is fading. My head still feels heavy, but I didn’t have my morning cognac—tough life, but I need to control my temper and have another virtual meeting later. It’s like the whole world is trying to keep me off booze.
For the last week, I’ve been working from the office in my villa. But I have a new addition to my crew, and the possibility of a little entertainment on this otherwise boring island drags me to the office early.
Kat is wearing shorts and a long-sleeve shirt from the Ayana general store, her hair gathered in a high pony tail.
April gave her a resident’s bracelet yesterday and helped her order clothes from the mainland. I wonder what her style is. Unlike the rich girls on Ayana, Katura is a street kid raised by a single military dad. Maybe that’s why I picked her to come here—some strange sixth sense.
I nod to her when I walk past her desk to my office and tell Corlo to open the blinds.
Usually, they are closed. Usually, I don’t want to see anyone around. But the view through the glass brings a smile to my face. The beautiful spy is on full display. I can see what she does, who she looks at, and when she takes breaks.
She wanted to work for me? I’ll have a magnifying glass over her.
She has an app activated on her phone that lets me track her at any given moment. Not that I think she will screw around—there is too much at stake for her, and she knows it.
I trapped her. I’ll study her. And if she finds any useful info—I’ll get her and her dad those precious visas to Australia and maybe make a beneficial deal with Tsariuk.
I pick up the phone to call Marlow. “I need a file on Katura Ortiz, her dad and uncle, full background check on the latter two.”
I need to go through her info again as well as her family’s.
There are over a hundred security employee folders on Kat’s desk. There is no security breach about this. Spring-breakers’ info is a whole different story. She is crazy to assume I will give her access to those.
I lean back in my chair and cock my head, watching her.
As if sensing it, Kat raises her eyes from her desk and locks her gaze with mine for just a moment. Something in that gaze makes every cell in my body come alive.
Until Margot walks in.
No knocking.
Her pink hair is curled and carefully placed over her right shoulder, a baby-blue dress and high heels that will clack against the floor toward my desk in a second, and she will plant her ass on the edge of it, her finger curling a pink strand.
I know Margot’s every step before she even thinks of it. She’s been playing this game for two years. She wants me. And it’s getting old.
Pretty—don’t get me wrong. I would’ve fucked her in a heartbeat if…
One, we weren’t locked up on this island and didn’t have to see each other daily afterward.
Two, she is too valuable of an asset. Margot doesn’t understand that. She was born with a brilliant brain, but her fucked up mogul family brainwashed her into thinking that science is silly, and her looks are all that matters to have a spectacular life.
Yep.
Just like I knew, Margot’s ass is on my desk, one leg dangling off.
“You got a new view,” she drawls, staring through the glass at Kat.
“For a change, yes.” I nod slowly.
Her lips press tightly together, and the way her eyes roll is too deliberate like she is shaming me.
She is jealous. Precious. Her words drip with sarcasm when she says, “I take it you will spend more time in this office from now on?”