The Boss Assignment (Rogue Protectors Book 3) Victoria Paige (top 100 novels of all time TXT) 📖

in her quickly? Antonio worried about this possibility because Charly was not his type at all. He liked his women very feminine. He liked indulging their vanity. Seemed easier than giving his time and attention. Missed a dinner date? Forgot a birthday? Usually, a Cartier bracelet would do the trick, or one of those Alhambra jewelry pieces that had the price tag of a car. He paid his secretary well to keep the women he was seeing happy. Once they got pouty and more demanding of his time and hinted at commitment, that usually indicated the end of their relationship.

He glanced at Charly again and bit back a smile when he saw her give him the side-eye. Yes, she was very aware of him. He scooted closer to her side, felt her freeze, and deliberately leaned over her shoulder to look at the view.

“That’s the Sugarloaf Mountain,” Antonio said.

“I know. It’s beautiful when the sun hits it that way.”

Antonio withdrew slightly, the sun glinted off her blond hair. It was like corn silk and in a ponytail again.

“You should let your hair down.”

“It gets in the way of my work.”

“You’re not at work now.”

“The ends are a mess. I haven’t had a haircut in four months.”

Antonio did the math. “You were with Carillo for nine months. Who cut your hair then?”

Even with her face turned away, he could see her grimace. “Don’t ask.”

“Come on,” he cajoled. “I’m curious.”

“It got so long. I was desperate.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense,” Antonio said dryly.

She turned away from the window and glared at him.

He held up his hands in supplication, but he was trying not to grin.

“Carillo had an office in the mansion. It’s kind of a stash house and his man would come in and do the accounts. So it had a well-equipped office and it had a paper cutter.”

Antonio chuckled. “You didn’t.”

“Oh, yes, I did. One of his men gave me the idea. Said he saw it on YouTube. Just tape part of the hair on the chopping board …”

“Oh, Charly, minha querida.” Amusement started up from the base of his gut and worked its way up his throat until he was giving a full-on bark of laughter.

His bodyguard/driver snorted a laugh too.

Charly shot him an aggrieved look and Antonio couldn’t help it. Even as he convinced himself not to be too liberal with touching her, the reluctant figure she presented just begged for a hug. And so he did it. Put his arm around her and drew her close, giving her a kiss on the temple. “You’re a very brave woman. Right, Oscar?”

“Sim, Senhor.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” she sniffed.

He unwound his arms from around her and let her go back to looking out her window. They were on their way to Andrade Industries. Antonio didn’t know why he brought Charly with him. He had to meet with the board in preparation for the unveiling tomorrow, and she would probably be bored in his office. If he wanted to take her to Ipanema after, he could have picked her up from the villa on the way there. He really did trust her not to do anything stupid in the lab.

So what was it?

Did he want to prove something to her? Show her the pinnacle of his success. Charly’s mother was a Carrington, blue-bloods from Boston. Old money. Antonio’s net worth was a hundred times all her relatives combined—he wasn’t the boy from the slums anymore. Was his feeling of inferiority stemming from his mongrel blood? All he knew about his father was that he was a Greek/Italian tourist. Antonio’s blue eyes came from his mother’s Russian roots common to the Brazilians from the South. And yet, imagining Charly alone in his office, staring down Rio’s financial district left him cold. Soothing his own ego left a bad taste in his mouth.

Oscar had changed lanes and was lined up for their exit, so Antonio quickly checked his emails. Renata already sent him the initial numbers. Anriotech was on track for a twenty percent revenue growth over the prior year. The only thing hanging over his head as well as getting worldwide recognition for their company was the XZite pills. It was the only thing keeping him from fully breaking into the North American market. And why? Because he didn’t want his enemies to know he had lost his edge? He wasn’t willing to let go of his ties to the Mexican cartels. But were they still worth it? The PNO had proven useless, unless they’d made a deal with his unknown enemies.

One thing was for sure, someone was trying to frame him, destroy his good work in a spectacular way. If a bioweapon linked to his labs had been released in Los Angeles, one of the most recognizable zip-codes in the world, he could certainly kiss his entry into the American market goodbye.

He called Renata.

“I’m going to be at the meeting,” she answered on the first ring. She sounded tired.

“You didn’t come to dinner last night.”

“I decided to stay at my condo,” his friend said. “Only so much I can take of Ida. By the way, nice of you to check on me after being harassed at the station.”

He ignored her sarcasm. “Martinez’s group gave you a hard time?”

“They wanted to know about this new variant of the Z-9 series virus.”

“BOPE and the bioterrorism agency are doing contact tracing. I’ve offered my help.”

“From what I gathered, we’re still suspects.”

“Charly can prove that Anriotech was framed. Martinez already has our findings,” Antonio said confidently, glancing at the doctor, who returned his look and gave him a thumbs up. He didn’t want to bring it up because he needed a big favor, but he said it anyway, “You’ll need to come clean about what you know about Pierre’s dealings. I know you know something.”

Silence.

“Renata.”

“I can’t talk about this right now,” she said. “What time will you be here?”

“Ahh … about that…” He slanted his gaze at Charly again who had a brow raised. “You’ll have to take