Chapter 3

I set Rooster on her feet and angrily moved her away from me, so her nearness would stop disturbing me. This was the last thing I needed at nightfall: to snap and do things with my secretary after which it would be difficult to find words for working together. I had had enough of one irregular relationship with a business partner. Now neither of us knew what to do with it. I did not love her, and because of that I felt like a bastard.

Rooster finally unfroze and quickly adjusted the skirt that had ridden high on her hips because of my hands. She glanced at me, embarrassed and suspicious at once, as if wondering whether I had suddenly started staring at her.

Seriously? This young woman had children? She looked like innocence itself. And she blushed like a schoolgirl! She was surely one of those women who had sex exclusively in the dark and under the blanket. Better not even try to imagine what would have happened if I had decided to straighten her skirt myself.

Ha! I would definitely have left the light on, and I would not have remembered Anna.

Damn it!

I stepped aside and lifted the stepladder. Gripping it to carry it to the utility room, I looked sternly at the secretary.

"Don't just stand there, Rooster. It's over, and you're intact. Better clean up the traces of your fall, or tomorrow my deputy will have questions about what exactly you and I were doing in here!"

"Andrey Igorevich…"

"No, I am not dismissing you!"

"But it's already seven!"

"I won't be here tomorrow, so take a day off then!"

"Thank you. May I…"

"What? Offer your shoulders again?"

"…t-turn on the vacuum?"

"Do whatever you want already!"

And Rooster did, all the following days. Absolutely everything to knock me off my thoughts about the shadow deals with minor contractors, mostly fictitious, that I was trying to identify and trace.

How cleverly they had arranged the money-theft scheme at Sezam! You could not dig into it right away if you did not know where to look. On the official papers, everything was clean. But once you dug deeper, questions immediately appeared: what were these shell companies? Who had been responsible for the tenders? And had there been tenders at all?

No, this could not have passed by the finance director. And Granddad, it seemed, had trusted his team until the very end…

So who was the first worm that had eaten away at that trust? Yuri Dolmansky? The son of Granddad's school friend? It looked very much like it. He was older than Valerka, far smarter, and most likely had known him for a long time, even before I had shot up, grown, and unexpectedly found myself here as the corporation's main heir.

It was entirely possible that Dolmansky had been friendly with Kupriyanov for a long time. And if that was true, then against the background of the fraud I had uncovered, the picture emerging was not rosy at all, but deeply dangerous: one in which the leading role was played not even by greed, but by years of envy that had eventually forced the elder Voronov's junior partner onto a crooked path. Sezam Construction Company was an extremely tempting prize. Valerka was not cut out to manage a machine like that. Within a year, the local sharks would have bitten through his spine and tossed him out of the business like trash.

Granddad could not have failed to understand that, could he?

And nevertheless, the old man had backed him for a long time…

Was it because he wanted to make everyone believe it and give the sharks a chance to stick their snouts out of the water? So he could pick them off one by one while signing all the assets over to me?

Mmm. You prepared quite the gift for me, Granddad Matvey. You made me the hunter. And not only me: I had become an unpleasant surprise here for many people. So unexpected that they had even decided on murder.

Though I had to admit, it was clever of them: kill two birds with one stone and get to Sezam's shares.

What kind of idiot did Valerka have to be not to understand what role would be prepared for him after my elimination? Could he really be even stupider than he seemed and honestly believe that, once he sat in the general director's chair, he and his accomplice could wriggle out of it? Did he not understand they would not be spared?

Of course, I suspected Nelly Prigozheva was working not only for Kupriyanov, but also for the main shadow operator in management. And that was exactly what I intended to find out as quickly as possible. Preferably before they decided to do their dirty work.

After Rooster's story, hiding the investigation any longer was impossible, and after warning the right people, I deliberately moved closer to Prigozheva, intending to play along with her and let her near me. And if necessary, pin her by the throat to the wall.

And I would have let her near me if not for my secretary, who stubbornly refused to calm down and "not believe her own eyes and ears," no matter how sternly I insisted on it. She kept vigilantly looking around and, because of her stubbornness, risked getting herself into trouble. That was the last thing I needed.

And if not for me, after spending most of the day running around construction sites and then sitting too long over work, forgetting that this morning I had met Prigozheva in the elevator (what a coincidence!) and scheduled a late meeting with her in my office. Promising the full-breasted beauty a cup of coffee and a hot one-on-one conversation.

Damn it! Her timing could not have been worse. As if she had chosen the exact moment when I, having lost my patience, was already close to proving to Rooster how wrong she was.

An iceberg, was I? An icicle?! She was planning to freeze solid with me? What did she know about me? It was not my fault I was helpless without her! Let her learn to read my thoughts if she wanted to work with me, and she could forget all about resigning!

But I was a fine fool myself! Imagine getting so lost in work and quarrels with the most stubborn secretary in the world that the brunette flew clean out of my head. Now all I could do was hide Rooster under the desk and hope for her good sense. Hope she would sit there quietly for at least a couple of minutes while I oriented myself in the situation and decided what to do next with Prigozheva.

Lately Rooster had been behaving suspiciously enough, running after me all over the company building, that interested parties might start asking why. So it was better for her not to flicker between us again right now.

"Andrey Igorevich! What… what are you doing?! Have you lost your mind!"

"Get under there, I said! And pick up the papers. Quietly!"

I shoved Rooster under the desk so decisively that she did not even have time to squeak. Turning my chair, I placed my hand on the girl's neck and pressed her temple to my thigh, ordering her with that gesture to sit quietly and not stick her head out. Then I straightened my shoulders and lifted an impassive gaze to the late visitor, who was not embarrassed by anything when she entered my office: not the muted light of the desk lamp, not the tense silence that met her.