Knocked Up By the Russian Boss by Bella King

Chapter 5

MAXIM

Ivory’s idiot friend made them both very easy to find.

As soon as she posted that photo to Instagram and tagged Ivory, she captioned the photo “getting white girl wasted at the bat caves!” Having spent a considerable amount of time there myself in my younger days, I knew exactly how to get there.

Ivory’s definitely drunk now. I can see her eyelids blinking in slow motion as she glances around the party. Occasionally, she’ll giggle at something, but I’m too far away to hear it. She’s looked over at my car a few times, but there’s no way for her to know who I am or truly recognize my vehicle. She probably sees ten black Escalades per day.

After watching Ivory stagger around for twenty minutes, I decide to make a call to my brother back at my headquarters. I figure she isn’t going anywhere for a while based on how her friends are behaving.

“Maxim,” Sergei says as he picks up the phone. “I wasn’t planning on hearing from you today. What’s up?”

“Just wondering how things are going over there. I’m on a mission of my own and just wanted to keep tabs on everything,” I reply. Sergei has been my most reliable partner since we broke into organized crime together. He’s the first person I call when I need an update.

“Well, it’s actually a good thing you called because I learned something you might be interested in,” he says.

“Go on.”

“So, not only is Steven Mae a hugely influential political figure, but he also owns an oil company in Alaska that’s been doing extremely well in the last few years despite the lobbying against oil companies. It wouldn’t be hard to maybe try and form an alliance with him if you could get close to him. He has a business with a precarious public image, so having somebody to back him up if anyone tries to cause problems might be of use to you,” he explains.

I think about his words for a moment. On the one hand, I would avoid the commitment of a baby and a wife, but having to kiss asses and play the popularity game to get closer to Steven Mae sounds nauseating to me.

“I mean, what else were you going to do?” he asks, prompting me for a response.

I haven’t told him my master plan yet. All he knows is that I’ve got my eye on Steven and his empire. He has no idea that I plan on knocking up Steven’s daughter to gain permanent access to it.

If I wanted to play it safe, I could just pretend to be a business investor and lie about my intentions, stroking his massive ego and infiltrating his personal life. I don’t have the patience for it.

“Don’t worry about it. Good to know, though,” I say, derailing the conversation as I see Ivory begin to move around more. I don’t want to lose sight of her, or I might miss something important, even though she seems to just be shuffling around wherever her friends go.

“Uh, okay. I guess I’ll talk to you when you get back? When are you coming back anyway?” he asks.

“Not sure yet. I’ll see you then, though,” I reply.

He sighs, exasperated by my lack of communication and unpredictability. “Okay, whatever, man,” he says and hangs up.

I watch Ivory closely again.

When I’m watching her, I try to figure out if I can see what she’s thinking. Is she having a good time? Does she seem uncomfortable? There’s some asshole that keeps buzzing around her head like a fruit fly, following her all over the place and trying to make her laugh when she doesn’t feel like talking to him. Rich frat boys are a whole other monster of douche.

Ivory is handed another beer by the frat boy asshole. Part of me is activated by this, a part of me that wants to investigate his intentions. Ivory doesn’t even know I exist, but I feel somewhat protective of her seeing the way these guys are leering at her.

She doesn’t seem like the kind of girl who would fight back, either. Definitely raised to be a good girl, a little princess, somebody who never offends anyone like her life depends on it.

She hesitates at taking the drink, reaching her hand out to take it and retracting it. The frat boy groans and she quickly takes the drink out of his hands just to avoid the confrontation for saying no. She drinks the whole thing down, crushes the can, and drops it. The frat boy and his friends nearby cheer, and I immediately get a bad feeling about the whole situation.

Not for me, of course.

I could crush his head with my hands.

But Ivory could be in a compromised position here, and I need to make sure she doesn’t leave my sight. I need her in order to double my personal wealth, but she also just looks so naïve, like a lost baby deer. It’s a little pathetic.