“Yes, Leo has pushed companies to the brink to get what he wanted from them or on others he sent Dmitri Markhoff in to close out a company. Markhoff and Leo’s working partnership has netted them billions together, and some want to say they flirt with being unethical, they aren’t. It’s business. Exousia has thirty billion dollars in assets under management because of his kind of business. It made Leo a billionaire by the time he was thirty-seven, and now at forty-one, he is nearing double-digit billionaire status. Is it the kind of business you can handle, dear? You need to know before you go on.”

I don’t need to think about it, I already know. “Yes.”

“Good, now tell me about yourself. You keep fussing with those rings of yours. Are they new?”

I’m a deer caught in headlights. “No, I—uh I’ve been married for years.”

“Really? How long?”

I blink. “Five years, no, we’ve been together for five years and married, we got married two years ago. Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night and then no coffee this morning. How long have you been married?”

Through narrowed eyes, she studies me, I can’t breathe. “Forty-two years. We were married six weeks after we met. I’m aware Leo has had problems keeping assistants. Your husband...”

“Felix, my husband’s name is Felix.” I hate Natalie for making my fake husband’s name my cat’s. Her excuse of it being a name I wouldn’t forget and not a rude cat lady jab is something I’m still not buying.

“He won’t have a problem with you working late and being available to Leo at all hours, every day?”

“No, he’s fine. He’s very supportive, very understanding. I really want to work for Leo, working for Leandros Kaplan is a once in a lifetime chance I want to take.”

“Hmm, then listen closely,  my dear. I’ll tell you everything you need to know to get the job.”

3

The ringing of the phone pulls me out of the report I’m buried in. I answer and give permission to the building security in the main floor lobby for Alexandra Clark to be allowed up. I stand and stretch while ignoring the hunger pains starting.

Pulling out her file from under the others I have been working through today I wonder where the file I was promised from Diego is. Diego has always delivered on time. The knock on my door brings my head up from the file I’ve already committed to memory. “Come in.”