Chapter 4

"And a crybaby, too! Here, take it. We'll talk tomorrow. Better yet, go downstairs and wait for me in the parking lot. You know my car? The black SUV. I'll drive you home."

He slammed the door again and left!

The bastard, the jerk, and… the heartless scumbag!

An iceberg. A block of ice!

And Matvey Ivanovich had been so proud of him! He'd said his younger grandson took after him completely. That he was a good man.

A goblin was what he was, not a good man! He had a million things to do. What, did I have nothing to do? I'd have to go to bed at one in the morning again after finishing everything at home. Or did he think the whole world revolved around him?

I blew my nose into the handkerchief with feeling.

No, I'd decided—I was quitting! To hell with all of it! Sezam, the rumors, and the conspiracies, heirs and all! What, couldn't I find another job? Of course I could! I could even work at a real-estate agency.

So what if they bumped Voronov off? The rude bastard would have brought it on himself. Sezam would go to Kupriyanov and the Man-Eater, a pair of murderous accomplices. What did that have to do with me? No one had listened to me anyway.

That's it! I'd gather all my things right now and leave! Somewhere around here was Matvey Ivanovich's old leather briefcase… There it was! The main thing was not to forget the decanter—my former boss's gift. And tomorrow morning, as soon as I woke up, the first thing I'd do would be to send my resignation to the goblin by courier. Let him fire me, as long as I never had to look into those icy, stubborn eyes again!

Only after I'd thrown on my puffer coat, put on my hat, wrapped a scarf around my neck, and gone outside did I suddenly stop at the end of the office building. Ahead of me, across the street and half a block down, was a bus stop (Voronov surely hadn't decided I was actually going to ride home with him? As if!), and behind me…

Behind me lay everything good that had happened to my family over the past three years.

Fine, all right! Let them bump Voronov off tomorrow, after I was no longer here. But today, while I was still his secretary, I'd watch from around the corner for five minutes one last time and wait for him to leave.

What if he needed my help—or a witness?

I slipped from the lit walkway into the shadows, went up to the building's wall, and peeked around the corner.