Page 26 of Single Mom's Daddies
“Most people are.”
She shrugs. “You did adeepbackground check on me. Saw all my little secrets. Who am I to judge?”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone in your position.”
My eyebrows lift.
“Checking my background,” she clarifies.
“I meant the part where you said, ‘Someone in my position.’”
“You’re the Pak-han, right?” She says it wrong—soft and American, like she only half heard it. Pack-hand, in her twang.
I laugh despite myself. “Pakhan.”
She repeats it, better this time.
“And yes,” I say. “That’s me.”
She nods again. “Then yeah. I figured you’d look into me.” Another pause. She takes a breath, like she’s been waiting for the right moment. “If I take the job, I’d like fifty thousand more than you’re offering,” she says. “Up front.”
My body stills.
Nikolai, who’s been silent the whole time, finally looks up from his seat.
I blink. “I’m sorry?”
“Fifty on top of the salary. Up front. Call it a signing bonus.”
“And why would we do that?”
“Because you need absolute secrecy about what happens here, and I have a daughter with a broken heart,” she says softly. “And no one else to help her.”
The air goes still.
She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t soften. She just tells the truth like she’s used to having it ignored. And that’s when I know. She’s not here for money. She’s here for war.
I’ve seen that look before. The look of someone who’s desperate enough to risk it all.
For a long moment, no one speaks.
Saffron sits perfectly still. Her hands don’t fidget. Her gaze doesn’t drop. She’s just dropped a bomb in the room, and she doesn’t flinch at the echo.
Nikolai shifts in his chair, but doesn’t interrupt.
I set my glass down slowly. “You don’t waste time, do you?”
“No.”
“You understand that’s a hell of an ask for someone who’s been in the house for—what? Twenty minutes?”
“I do.”
“And you think that earns you fifty grand up front.”
“I think what earns it is the fact that I’m willing to take this job.”
