“Anyway, that girl you’ve got doing things,” Nikolai said. “What about her?”
“You tell me,” Victor suggested. “You have a problem with who I hire?” Nikolai tilted his head to one side then the other, just slightly, a faint almost-grimace coming over his features.
“None of us would tell you how to run your life,” Nikolai said. “Least of all me—you’ve returned everything we’ve ever done for you and then some. But she’s got connections.” Victor sighed.
“Yeah, I know—she used to be a background player,” he said. “She isn’t anymore. Been clean for a while now.”
“Her brother’s still in, and with the Beys,” Nikolai countered. “Gotta be careful about that.” Victor rolled his eyes.
“She has nothing to do with him, outside of him being her brother,” Victor told the other man firmly. “She got out of the Bey family games before she and I even met.” That wasn’t, strictly speaking, entirely true—she had, after all, been working as cover for her brother that night—but it was true enough.
“I’m just saying,” Nikolai told him. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
“What don’t I know?” Victor raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe she hooked up with you for a reason,” Nikolai suggested.
“Yeah, she hooked up with me because I offered her a job,” Victor said. “She didn’t come to me—I found her.” Nikolai shrugged.
“In any case, just be on the lookout,” Nikolai said. “Now—let’s get to the point of me coming by to see you.” Victor nodded and listened, as Nikolai delved into the business matter he’d wanted to discuss with him, the night of the raid on Vagabond; it had taken the man a little over two weeks to get back to him on it, and Victor was sure that the raid had done more damage to the family business than the Sokolovs had let on.
The business that Nikolai wanted him in on was legitimate—a rare situation, considering the source—and Victor considered the possibilities of taking part in it. He’d started thinking about it before, without the full details, and while he was extremely careful of his “legit” standing in the eyes of the world and the organized crime counterpart alike, he wasn’t averse to making more money, expanding his own interests. “All it would need from you is some mentoring and some investment,” Nikolai finished.
“And there’s nothing dirty in it?” Victor raised one eyebrow slightly to underscore his concern.
“One hundred percent legit,” Nikolai said. “Some of us like having clean enterprises on top of the usual, you know?” He half-smiled and Victor returned the expression.
“Nothing falling off of trucks, no laundering—it’s totally an independent business?” Victor knew that if Nikolai were a more egotistical boss, he would be offended by his insistence. Fortunately, Nikolai knew where that insistence came from.
“I understand you’re precious about your legit status,” Nikolai said. “I wouldn’t put you at risk like that without telling you, giving you the choice to do it or not.” Victor nodded slowly.
“As long as it’s something that’s fully clean, and you’re not setting it up as a front for something else, I think I could chuck some money and brain power at it,” Victor told the man. Nikolai was a curiosity in the Sokolov family: he genuinely did at least seem to want to run some legitimate businesses, things unconnected to the crime that he and his fellow Russians engaged in.
Maybe, Victor thought, it was just to insulate himself if things ever went pear-shaped with the rest of the family; whatever the case, it was refreshing to deal with someone who was willing to ensure that there was no risk to him.
“I can have my guy get the paperwork to you after the weekend,” Nikolai said.
“Sounds good,” Victor told the man, smiling slightly. “I look forward to it.” He wanted Nikolai gone as soon as he could get him to leave; he was waiting to send Danielle a message for a long lunch together—one that, he hoped, would end with a tryst. He’d planned on taking her to Davio’s, where he had a standing reservation—somewhere beautiful, somewhere with amazing food.
So far, they’d set up something of a routine: twice a week they went out to lunch together, and in the two weeks they’d already worked together they’d managed to eat lunch in the office, ordering in, another time during the week. Of course, Victor had lunch meetings the rest of the time—even on weekends—but his lunches with Danielle had been his favorite ways to spend that time, especially since all six of those lunches had ended with some of the best sex of his life.
As Victor exchanged pleasantries with Nikolai, waiting for the man to finish up and get up to leave, images of Danielle flashed through his mind, and memories of how she felt, smelled, and tasted hit him from all sides of his brain, it seemed. He saw Danielle perched on his desk, legs spread wide, her vulva slick with her fluids, ready for him to devour. He could almost feel the way her inner muscles flexed in erratic spasms as she became more and more turned on, while they moved together.
Victor felt the heat pooling along his groin at the memories and tried to dismiss them—it wouldn’t do for Nikolai to see him getting turned on—but it was difficult. Danielle, bent forward, her weight resting on her forearms and her ripe, peach-shaped ass in front of him, her soaking wet pussy peeking out from between her thighs—it was almost too much to handle, remembering it.
“I should get going—lots of projects to manage,” Nikolai said finally, and Victor rose to shake the man’s hand. “Think about what I said about that girl.” Victor snorted.
“Dude, she’s legit,” he said, finally and firmly. If he had even entertained any doubts, the work that Danielle had already done would have convinced him: she already had given him the first reports on how to manage the charitable end of his wealth, come up with a system for spending the money as eff
iciently as possible, and he had given her the go-ahead to start spending.
He was doing it anonymously—and so far, it was only the smaller-scale project of funding in full various projects on crowdsourcing sites—but it felt good, knowing that there were people in the world who would be able to make their rent, pay off their mortgages, or their student loans, things like that without having to worry about it for years to come.
The rest—finding charities and organizations to support—would fall into place more fully later, but Victor was already pleased with the small amount of results they’d managed to accrue in just two weeks. “If you say so,” Nikolai said. “Last thing I’ll ever say on the topic—unless she turns out to bite you in the ass. Then I’ll only say ‘I told you so’ maybe five times.” Victor snickered and shook his head.
“Don’t hold your breath for your chance at that,” he advised the other man, and finished shaking his hand before releasing it. Nikolai raised an eyebrow for a moment and then turned away, giving him a final, brief goodbye. Victor waited for the man to leave and sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. There was no risk with Danielle—that much Victor knew.
She was interested in staying legit, she was a good worker, and he was sure that if she had anything to do with her brother’s business, she would have told him. She’s trustworthy, Victor thought, remembering their time together—short as it had been. He had made his fortune in no small part from his ability to read people, to assess risk. If Danielle were someone he couldn’t trust, he never would have given her so much discretion over his wealth. He’d come to the conclusion after their first night together, but he had made much more reckless choices in the past and come out on the other side of them richer for the chance.