Page 16 of Plus-Sized Bratva Prisoner

The entire day, I don’t leave my desk.

The project that I am supposed to hand in tomorrow—somehow, I completely overlooked it, and I hadn’t even started. Thank goodness it’s not a massive project, and if I stay late tonight, I can get it done, but just the fact that I missed it has freaked me out to my core. What else have I overlooked or notmade a note of? What else is going to jump out at me, late, delayed, causing issues?

I’m getting more and more freaked out as the day goes on.

I’m emotional, drained and stressed.

I keep my head down, though, and I work. I work like my life depends on it, because at this point, I think I it does.

I have five debt collectors chasing me, three jobs and a possible fourth that I need to do well at, my studies, which I am not doing well in right now, and I’m only one person.

I stop working, put my pen down and rub my eyes.

“Pull it together, Tia. You’ve got this. You’ve always got your own back and youcan do this.”I give myself a stern pep talk, then pick up the pen again.

I do have this.

I’ve fucking got this.

I nod, determined to ignore the anxiety and stress weighing heavily on my shoulders.

***

At the end of the work day, the office empties and I am still fighting to finish this project. I need a few more hours. That’s all.

I keep pushing on.

Yefim’s warning is floating somewhere in the back of my mind. I’m supposed to find him and work in his office, but I haven’t seen him all day. His office has been empty.

No one else is around, though, so I’m just going to keep working.

Around eight o'clock, I hear Yefim’s voice coming from somewhere in the back of the office near the storerooms.

I blink a few times. Goodness, I can’t believe how focused I was.

But if he’s here now, I should go find him and let him know I’m here, too.

I push away from my desk, and my body aches a little, stiff and tense.

I sigh heavily. You’ll be okay, Tia. You’re doing okay. This is temporary. Soon your debts will be paid, and you can focus on the more important things.

I walk towards Yefim’s voice, but just before rounding the corner, I pause. There’s more than one voice, and none of them are Yefim. Shit. He warned me not to get caught here by anyone else.

The voices are coming towards me.

I panic and press my body against the back of the door, trying to hide.

Two of his brothers walk out of the storeroom area, talking about a shipment. I recognize Leon and Oleg.

“The boat was searched. Yefim’s right, we would have lost millions if we’d had the weapons on there. Thank fuck our guy managed to warn us in time.”

“The German contact isn’t happy, though. There was the weapon shipment, but also that new product that he wanted to launch next weekend. How are we going to get it there in time?”

“Yefim has a new ship ready to leave Monday. We just need to get the shit out of the storeroom and to the harbor on Sunday night.”

Shit.

Fuck.

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