"Dinner?"

She has a boyfriend.

A loser who isn't moving here. Any guy who'd let her move across the country and not follow deserves to lose her.

You're asking for drama.

"Yeah. We've got a lot to do. You eat, don't you?"

She doesn't answer, takes a deep breath, and avoids my gaze. "I'm going to walk to Vivian's now."

I nod to her laptop. "Let me put this in the car."

"I can go myself." It comes out stern.

Back off. You're freaking her out.

"All right, kotik. I'll wait in the car." I motion for her to go first and grab the door before she can open it.

I don't get into the car. I stand outside the vehicle, ogling her perfect, juicy ass until it disappears inside the building.

My phone rings. "Maksim, did you close it?"

He sighs. "We're close."

"We're running out of time."

"I'm handling it."

"Fair enough. I just secured a designer."

"Who did you get?"

"A woman from New York. She's moving her firm here." I don't know how big Anna's business is or anything about it, really. My brothers will kill me if they find out I didn't do any due diligence.

"Who is it? Marisha? Yelena?" Those are two big Russian's in the New York community.

"You don't know her. Her name is Anna."

"Anna what?"

"It's Vivian Monroe's sister-in-law."

The line goes quiet for a moment. "Her husband is American."

"Yep. So are we."

"Not funny. That's a lot of money to withhold from our community."

"We're in a jam. We're going to lose millions if we don't solve this problem. She comes highly recommended and does amazing work," I insist, saying a little prayer that everything Vivian told me about Anna is true.

"We should look for a Russian."

I lie again. "I already signed a contract."

"You didn't?"

"Yep. It's done."