Page 69 of Her Boss

“Genie. I need you at the office. The real one.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, the only sound her muted breathing.

“Why?” she asked finally.

“I just need you down here. Where are you?”

“Home…”

“Stay there, I’m coming to get you, then I’ll bring you back here.”

“Uh, okay.” She paused. “What’s going on?”

“Trouble.”

“What kind of trouble? The kind that could get people killed?”

I paused. “What do you think?”

“Then why do you need me?”

“I don’t know—I just do. Are you refusing me?” I left the question hanging there, the implication clear.

Now is no time to be a defiant brat, my dear.

There was silence on the line, then she sighed. “Okay. What do you need me to do?”

And with that, I knew I had a chance. A slim one, maybe, but a chance, nonetheless.

CHAPTER 32

Geneva

I watched through his open door as Rick paced back and forth in his office. I had seen him agitated before, but this was something else entirely. The air in the place practically hummed with tension, and not the good kind, either.

Rick gave me a long, appraising look before nodding, waving me inside.

I closed the door behind me. He’d had me wait outside his office when he’d brought me back, though I had no idea why. “Before I tell you what I need, you have to promise me that you’ll do exactly as I say, no matter what.”

I nodded eagerly. “I promise.”

“Okay. Here’s the deal. There is a man, Marko Salazzo is his name. And Nantes needs me to neutralize him. Somehow. It’s not going to be pretty, and if I’m going to have any chance at this, I have to get something on him. I need your help gathering intel on this asshole. Anything you can find.”

Shit.

I hadn’t a clue where I’d even start doing such a thing. “You want me to… spy on him? I’m just an intern…”

He scratched his jaw, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “It’s the only way we’re going to have a chance at taking him down. I need you to find me something. And quickly.”

“How?”

“I’ll give you a start.”

“I can do it,” I said, a conviction in my voice I didn’t actually feel. But I wanted to reassure him. “But how do I gather information on him?”

He opened a couple of drawers in his desk, pulling a file out of the second one. He handed it to me. “This is everything we know about him. His businesses, his associates, his routines. Thankfully, Vi already had a rudimentary profile on him.”

“Who’s Vi?”

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