Page 14 of Forever Fake

“I don’t drink cow’s milk!” Yve shrieks. “I said almond milk, you moron! You’re fired!” She makes a shooing motion. “Get out of my sight.”

Erica bolts out the door. No arguing. No begging to keep her job.

Another one bites the dust.

Yve glares around the silent room.

Unflinchingly, I gaze at the creature who rules over the Baron family business that my father left behind. He left everything in her tainted hands. The woman has never worked a day in her life until three years ago. Until she became acting CEO until Liam’s old enough to take charge.

As much as I hated my father, my other reason for being here is to keep Yve within my sight. I’m ninety percent sure she had a hand in his death, whether she did the deed, orchestrated it, or paid someone else to do it, hardly matters. She influenced him to change his will to suit her own needs and then did away with him.

If only I could prove my suspicion that Yve murdered my father. But I can’t prove it. For three fucking years I’ve been trying to find something to pin on her, only to keep coming up empty-handed. Frustration burns through my chest.

The fishing boat explosion left no evidence behind. Not a shred.

For the past three years I’ve been waiting and watching for Yve to slip up. Everyone does eventually. And when she does, I’ll be there to help her fall to ruin.

It’s what I do best, after all.

My phone rings and I fish it out of my suit pocket, ignoring Yve’s sharp glare. To further annoy her, I take the call in the boardroom, not bothering to budge from my seat.

“Baron,” I say into my cell phone.

“It’s Dimitri Kozlov.”

I sigh. “Yes, I know. What do you want?”

Thankfully he gets right to the point. “I’m having some trouble at one of my clubs. Roman said you could help.”

Did he now..?

“Go on.”

“Someone’s raped and murdered two of my waitresses right behindRiot. The security camera I put out there turned up disconnected and my security team can’t catch this guy. I think he works at the club. I need someone from the outside to deal with him.”

Interesting.

Without a single glance at the board members, I step out of the room. This meeting is fucking over anyway.

“Why not have your Bratva men take care of it?” I ask, strolling in the hallway.

“Some of my men work at the club. I don’t know if he’s Bratva or not.”

I step into the elevator and push the button for the lobby level. “So you want me to set up a little sting operation?”

“I want you to do whatever will catch this fucker before he kills someone else.” Dimitri pauses, and I can practically hear him raking his fingers through his short hair. “Money’s no object, so name your price.”

Itsk. “You know I don’t do favors for money, Kozlov.”Silly boy.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “Fine. I’ll owe you a favor in return. Just make sure it’s not something that’ll piss off my wife.”

“I can’t promise you that, as I don’t allow conditions placed on favors owed. Do we have a deal or not?”

He hesitates. “We have a deal.”

“It probably won’t be tonight, I’m busy. Send me what info you have.”

“If not tonight, then when?—?”

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