Chapter 3: First Day Jitters
The alarm goes off at 5 AM. Allie is already awake.
She has been awake since 3, since Luna had a nightmare about pirates who turned out to be mean, since Leo got up to check the locks and then could not fall back asleep. She made them hot chocolate and told them stories about brave children who conquered their fears, and she did not mention that her own heart was hammering loud enough to wake the neighbors.
Now she stands in front of the mirror in her only other professional outfit, a black pencil skirt and a grey blouse that she bought at a consignment shop for eleven dollars. She looks tired. The circles under her eyes are purple and undeniable. But she looks professional. She looks like someone who belongs in a glass tower downtown, not someone who spent last night reheating leftover mac and cheese for dinner.
"Mommy?" Luna appears in the doorway, clutching her stuffed dinosaur. "You look pretty."
"Thank you, baby." Allie kneels down, pulls her daughter into a hug. Luna smells like sleep and strawberry shampoo. "You are going to be good for Mrs. Chen today, right? No climbing on furniture? No convincing Leo to run away to sea?"
Luna considers this. "I will be medium good."
"I will take medium good."
Leo appears behind his sister, already dressed in the outfit Allie laid out last night. Khaki pants, blue button-down, tiny loafers that make him look like a miniature accountant. He is frowning.
"Mom," he says. "I researched the company. Volkov Industries. They have a lot of money but also some bad reviews from former employees. People say the boss is... difficult."
"Leo, you are five. How did you research a company?"
"I used Mrs. Chen's tablet. With permission." He says this seriously, like he is presenting evidence in court. "Also, their security is very intense. They have cameras everywhere. That is good for safety but bad for privacy. You should be careful what you say in the building."
"Leo." Allie pulls him into the hug, making it a group. "I love you. I love that you worry about me. But I need you to worry about being a kid today, okay? Play with your sister. Draw pictures. Try to have fun. Can you do that?"
Leo nods, but his frown does not disappear. "I will try. But I am assigning Luna as your backup. If anything goes wrong, she will create a distraction and you will run."
"Luna is my backup?"
"She is very loud," Leo explains. "It is her best feature."
Allie laughs, really laughs, and for a moment the fear loosens its grip on her chest. She has the best children in the world. She has survived worse than a difficult boss. She can do this.
The subway is crowded and hot. Allie stands pressed against strangers, her purse clutched to her chest, repeating her morning mantra in her head: I am competent. I am prepared. I belong here.
She does not believe it, but she says it anyway.
Volkov Tower is just as intimidating in daylight. More intimidating, maybe, because now she knows what waits inside. Now she knows that Dominic Volkov has grey eyes that see too much, and a voice that lives in her dreams, and some strange interest in her that she does not understand.
The security guard recognizes her. "Ms. Bennett. Mr. Volkov left instructions. Go straight up."
No receptionist this time. No waiting. Allie is not sure if that is a good sign or a bad one.
The elevator rises. Her stomach drops. She steps out onto the forty-seventh floor and the first thing she sees is Dominic Volkov, standing in the hallway, waiting for her.
He is wearing another perfect suit, navy today, with a tie the color of midnight. His hair is still damp from the shower, combed back from a face that belongs on a magazine cover. He looks like money. He looks like power. He looks at her like she is the only person in the world.
"You came," he says.
"I said I would."
"I was not sure you would." He steps closer. Allie fights the urge to step back. "After yesterday. I was... intense. I apologize."
"You already apologized."
"Some things bear repeating." He gestures down the hall. "Your office is this way. I had it prepared last night."
"I have an office?"
"You are my executive assistant, Ms. Bennett. You will need space to work. Space to..." he hesitates, "to make calls. Personal calls. If your children need you."
Allie stares at him. "That is... thank you. That is very considerate."
Dom's jaw tightens. He looks away. "Do not thank me yet. The job is demanding. The hours are long. I am not an easy man to work for."
"I did not expect easy."
"No." He looks back at her, and there is something in his eyes, something warm and complicated. "I do not imagine you expect easy. You do not seem like a woman who takes the easy path."
They walk down the hallway in silence. Allie's heels click against the marble. Dom's shoes make no sound at all. He moves like a ghost, like a shadow, like something dangerous pretending to be civilized.
The office is small but beautiful. A desk with a computer, a phone, a view of the city that makes Allie dizzy. A couch in the corner, plush and inviting. A mini fridge stocked with water and juice and, she notices with a start, vanilla sparkling water.
"For the perfume," Dom says, not looking at her. "I thought... you might like it."
Allie does not know what to say. No one has ever noticed her perfume before. No one has ever stocked a fridge for her. This is too much. This is strange. This is...
"Thank you," she manages.
Dom nods. He hands her a tablet, a stack of files, a schedule printed on heavy cream paper. "Your duties. Review them. Ask questions. I have meetings until noon, but I want you to sit in on the afternoon calls. You need to understand the business."
"The whole business?"
"Everything I do, you will know. Everything I am, you will see." He says this quietly, intensely, like it is a vow. "No secrets between us, Ms. Bennett. That is my rule."
Allie thinks of the watch in her jewelry box. She thinks of the twins at home, their faces so like his, their eyes the same storm grey. She thinks of the lie she is living, the secret she is keeping, the truth that would destroy everything if he knew.
"No secrets," she agrees, and hates herself for the lie.
Dom studies her face. For a moment, she is sure he sees it. The guilt. The fear. The desperate hope that she can keep this job, build this life, without ever having to tell him who she really is.
But he only nods. "Good. I will send coffee. Black, two sugars. Correct?"
Allie's mouth falls open. "How did you know how I take my coffee?"
Dom smiles. It is the first real smile she has seen from him, and it transforms his face. He looks younger. Softer. Almost human. "I pay attention, Ms. Bennett. It is what I do."
He leaves her alone in the office. Allie sinks into her chair, her heart racing, her hands shaking.
He knows. He has to know. The coffee, the vanilla water, the way he looks at her like he is memorizing her face. He knows about that night, and he is playing some game she does not understand.
Or he is flirting.
The thought makes her cheeks burn. He cannot be flirting. He is her boss. He is rich and powerful and beautiful, and she is a single mother from Atlanta with thrift store clothes and five-year-old twins and more debt than she can admit out loud.
But the way he smiled...
Allie shakes her head. She opens the tablet. She focuses on the work, because the work is safe, because the work is something she can control.
The morning passes in a blur of names and numbers and corporate structures that make her head spin. Volkov Industries is bigger than she realized. Shipping, tech, real estate, imports and exports that span the globe. And beneath it all, whispered about in the files she is not supposed to see, something else. Something older. Something darker.
The Bratva.
Allie has heard the word before. Russian mafia. Organized crime. Violence and secrets and blood oaths. She assumed it was rumor, gossip, the kind of thing people say about powerful men to make them seem more interesting.
But the files do not lie. The coded language, the references to "family business" and "traditional arrangements," the security protocols that go far beyond normal corporate needs. Dominic Volkov is not just a CEO. He is not just a billionaire.
He is a prince in an underworld empire.
And she slept with him.
Allie closes the tablet. She stands up. She walks to the window and presses her forehead against the cool glass and tries to breathe.
This is bad. This is worse than bad. This is dangerous. She has read enough crime novels, seen enough movies, to know what happens to people who get involved with men like this. They disappear. They have accidents. They become liabilities that need to be managed.
She needs to quit. She needs to grab the twins and run back to Atlanta, or somewhere farther, somewhere he cannot find her.
But she thinks of Leo's face when he talked about researching the company. She thinks of Luna's pirate dreams. She thinks of the refrigerator at home, currently containing only a jar of mustard and a questionable yogurt.
She cannot run. She has nowhere to go.
"Ms. Bennett?"
Allie spins around. A man stands in her doorway, young and handsome with dark hair and a charming smile. He is wearing a suit almost as expensive as Dom's, and he is looking at her with open curiosity.
"Sorry to startle you," he says. "I am Viktor. Dominic's cousin. You must be the new assistant."
"Alessia," she says, because Ms. Bennett feels too formal suddenly. "Allie."
"Allie." Viktor rolls the name around in his mouth like he is tasting it. "Pretty name. Pretty woman. Dominic has good taste."
"I am just an employee," Allie says quickly.
"Of course. Just an employee." Viktor's smile does not reach his eyes. "He never lets assistants sit in on afternoon meetings, you know. Never let them into the inner circle. You must be very special."
"I am just qualified."
"Qualified." Viktor laughs. "Yes. I am sure that is it." He steps closer, close enough that Allie can smell his cologne, something sharp and aggressive. "A word of advice, Allie? Be careful. My cousin is not what he seems. He collects beautiful things. He breaks them. And when he is done, he moves on. I would hate to see someone as lovely as you get hurt."
Allie lifts her chin. She has dealt with men like Viktor before. Men who think charm is a weapon, who think women are prizes. "Thank you for the warning. But I can take care of myself."
"Can you?" Viktor studies her face. "I wonder. You have that look. The look of someone running from something. Someone with secrets." He leans in, whispering. "I love secrets. They are such useful things."
"Get away from her."
The voice is ice and steel. Allie has never heard anything so cold.
Viktor steps back, hands raised, smile fixed. "Dominic. I was just welcoming our new colleague."
"You were intimidating her." Dom appears in the doorway, and he is terrifying. Not the controlled man from this morning, not the almost-tender man who stocked her fridge. This is something else. This is the Bratva heir, the predator, the killer hiding behind the expensive suit. "Leave. Now."
Viktor goes pale. "I meant no harm. I was only"
"Leave."
Viktor leaves. Fast.
Dom does not look at Allie. He stares after his cousin, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. When he finally speaks, his voice is rough. "I am sorry. Viktor is... he is family. I cannot simply remove him. But he will not bother you again."
"It is fine," Allie says. "I have dealt with worse."
"Have you? Dealt with worse?" Dom turns to her. The anger drains from his face, replaced by something that looks almost like pain. "I am sorry. I should have warned you. Should have"
"No." Allie steps closer, surprising herself. "No, this is what I needed to see. The real you. Not the boss, not the... the performance. The man who protects what is his."
She stops. Realizes what she said. The man who protects what is his. As if she is his. As if the twins are his.
Dom is staring at her. He heard it too.
"I should get back to work," Allie says quickly. "The afternoon meeting"
"The meeting is in an hour." Dom's voice is soft now, gentle in a way that scares her more than his anger. "Allie. I need you to understand something. I am dangerous. The world I live in is dangerous. But I would never hurt you. Never. That is a promise."
"I do not know you," Allie says. "Not really. Not enough to trust promises."
"Then let me show you," Dom says. "Let me prove it. Day by day, if that is what it takes."
Allie looks at him. This man who terrifies her and fascinates her and makes her feel seen in a way no one ever has. This man who might be a criminal, who might be the father of her children, who might be her salvation or her destruction.
"Okay," she whispers. "Show me."
Dom smiles. That real smile, the one that transforms his face. "I will. Starting with lunch. There is a place I want to take you. To apologize for Viktor. To... to start again."
"I have an hour," Allie says.
"I only need half of it," Dom replies. "The other half, you can use to decide if you want to quit. If this is too much. I will understand, if you do. I will give you excellent references, a severance package, whatever you need. But I hope you will stay."
Allie should say no. She should protect herself, protect her children, run while she still can.
"I will go to lunch," she hears herself say. "But I am not quitting. Not yet."
Dom's smile could light the city. "Good. Let me get my coat."
The restaurant is small and hidden, a basement Italian place that smells like garlic and history. The owner greets Dom like family, kisses both his cheeks, leads them to a corner booth where no one can see them.
"My mother's favorite," Dom explains as they sit. "She brought me here when I was a boy. Before she got sick. It is... it is the only place I still feel like myself."
Allie watches him order, speaking rapid Italian to the owner, laughing at something the old man says. He is different here. Younger. Softer. The weight on his shoulders seems lighter.
"Tell me about her," Allie says. "Your mother."
Dom is quiet for a moment. The food arrives, simple pasta, perfect bread, and he eats slowly, gathering his thoughts.
"She was kind," he finally says. "In a world that did not value kindness. She would take me to museums, to parks, to places where we could pretend we were normal. She wanted me to have a life outside the family. A choice." He sets down his fork. "She died when I was ten. Cancer. My father... he changed after. It became harder. Colder. It became harder too. It was the only way to survive."
"I am sorry," Allie says. And she means it. She thinks of her own mother, gone too soon, the loneliness of growing up without that soft place to land.
"Do not be sorry. Be..." Dom looks at her, intense and vulnerable. "Be here. That is all I ask. Just... be here. Let me know you. Let me show you who I am, underneath all this. Who I want to be."
Allie thinks of the twins at home. Of Leo's serious face and Luna's wild heart. Of the life she has built, alone, surviving.
"I am here," she says. "For now. That is all I can promise."
"For now is enough," Dom says. "For now is everything."
They finish lunch in comfortable silence. Dom walks her back to the office, close beside her but not touching, giving her space.
At the elevator, he stops. "Allie. The afternoon meeting. The board will be... difficult. They do not like me. They like my money, my power, but they do not like that I want to change things. To make us legitimate. They will test you, because you are with me."
"I am not with you," Allie corrects. "I work for you."
Dom smiles, sad and knowing. "For now," he agrees. "But they will test you anyway. Be ready."
"I am always ready," Allie says. And for the first time, she believes it.
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