Page 96 of Bratva's Intern

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

WREN

The office was quiet, save for the soft hum of the overhead lights and the occasional ping of email notifications. I sat at my desk, hunched over a stack of reports I’d already reviewed twice, but I kept finding ways to improve them. Margins a little tighter. Formatting cleaner. Every note filed exactly how Maxim preferred.

I hadn’t taken a lunch break. Not because I’d forgotten but because I wanted everything to be perfect when he walked through the door tomorrow morning.

He’d be proud of me.

I needed him to be.

“Working through lunch again?” Bradley’s voice broke into my thoughts.

I looked up. He was leaning against the edge of my desk. “Just trying to keep up with the workload.”

“There’s a new Thai place downtown. You want to come with?” he asked. “Thought we could catch up.”

Bradley and I used to talk a lot, but lately… yeah. Not so much. I’d been too immersed in everything Maxim, and I was afraid if we spent too much time together, I would slip up and Bradley would know I was sleeping with our boss. Plus, Maxim did warn me to stay away from him.

In just over a month, I would be back in classes, and then it didn’t matter if the entire office knew I was the office whore who slept with our boss. Until then I would rather no one found out.

“I’m kind of swamped.” I gestured to my screen. “Ma—Mr. Morozov will be back tomorrow, so I’ve been covering some of his tasks to make his first day back go smoothly. Just trying to stay ahead.”

Bradley raised a brow. “That’s weird. I thought he passed most of that off to Lewis’s PA?”

I blinked. “What?”

Lewis was Maxim’s senior project manager.

“Yeah. Didn’t you know?” He frowned. “He emailed me last week. Said Lewis would be an interim for anything sensitive. Didn’t want things to bottleneck while he was gone.”

But last night he’d said he was proud of me. I thought he trusted me.

Something in my chest dropped like a stone.

“Oh,” I said, keeping my voice even. Maybe it made sense. Lewis’s PA had more experience, and I was an intern. But then why had Maxim pretended as if I was doing important work? “I must’ve missed that.”

Bradley winced. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to rain on your productivity parade, but it’s natural. You’re an intern. Surely you didn’t think Mr. Morozov would leave his entire portfolio for you to manage while he’s out of town?”

He was right. I was a dolt. “Well, that’s a relief.” Not really. I turned back to my screen. “But I still can’t do lunch.The Thai place sounds good, though. Maybe some other time.”

He lingered a beat longer, then gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder. “All right. Let me know when.” His footsteps faded down the hall.

The second he was gone, I yanked open my phone and fired off a message to Maxim.

Wren

Did you seriously give all your sensitive tasks to Lewis while you were gone? Was I just here to hold your coffee?

I waited. No response.

Wren

I’ve been busting my ass all week trying to make sure things were perfect when you came back. If you didn’t trust me with it, you could’ve just said that.

Still nothing.

I stared at the screen for a long moment, irritation twisting under my skin, then typed a third message.

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