Russian's Intense Love (Drobilka Family Series #2) Read Free Page B

night’s pay. When she received her envelope, she was surprised that it felt thicker. Looking up at Vadim in question, “The bachelor party enjoyed your toast and included an extra tip for you.” As Bethany nodded her head in thanks and started to leave, he grabbed her arm to stop her. “There’s a private party tomorrow, I need you here at three.”
    As Bethany drove home, she contemplated who would be at the club early tomorrow. Wondering if it was going to be members of the Chinese Triad again, she decided to go through what files the FBI had while she was on campus.

Chapter 4
    Bethany pulled into the Rubicon’s employee parking lot and looked around at the few cars. When she had gotten home last night, she had fallen into an exhausted sleep and had almost slept through her alarm that morning. When she arrived at her handler’s office, Marci was already headed to class, so Bethany went to her favorite coffee cart for a high-powered caffeine dose and a blueberry scone. As she stood with her eyes closed, enjoying her espresso, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise again. Looking around, she still couldn’t see anything amiss. Shrugging it off to being overly tired, she tossed her empties into the trash before heading to class. She would speak with Marci later.
    Before getting out of the car, she reached into her glove box for the sunglasses that Marci had given her. Walking inside, she went straight to the locker room to change into her uniform. Vadim met her inside to place a pendant around her neck. While he had told her it was required of all girls who worked the private parties, Bethany knew it housed a recording device, which would allow him to spy on his guests. As she turned around to look at him, she bit her lip.
    Grasping her chin, he lifted her head to look at him. “What is it?”
    Bethany shook her head. “It’s nothing, really,” she answered as she fingered the pendant.
    “Nyet. It’s something. Tell me,” he demanded.
    Bethany wasn’t entirely sure why she was helping him, but she felt the need to ask, “Well, given what happened last time, did you want me to spend time around any particular guests?”
    Leaning down to kiss her forehead, “All of them,” he told her before exiting the locker room.
    She walked out into the club and blinked her eyes a few times while they adjusted to the darkened room. Retrieving her tablet, she waved to Sasha who was behind the bar and looked as tired as she felt. Bethany made her way over to the private party to introduce herself and take their orders.
    She recognized many of the men from the previous party she worked as she told everyone hello in halting Chinese. Smiling at her, some of the older men spent a few moments correcting her pronunciation as she smiled. Since the majority of the guests were already familiar with her and didn’t know that she understood Chinese, they were speaking much more freely as she made her rounds seeing to their needs. The Rubicon had arranged for a small Dim Sum buffet and rather than making them get up, she ferried food to them, which allowed her to spend more time at the tables without appearing obtrusive.
    The private party wrapped up after a couple hours, and Bethany was heading back to the locker room to change into her street clothes. Vadim met her at the door to take the pendant from her. “Come to my office after you change,” he told her.
    As she changed into her street clothes, she pulled the sunglasses out and turned on the audio recording. Setting the glasses on her head, she walked into Vadim’s office. He had all three pendants on his desk and had downloaded the recordings to his computer. Motioning to a chair next to him, she joined him at the computer.
    “I will play the recordings, and I want you to translate,” he told her. For the next two hours, she listened to the various conversations in Chinese as she translated them into English while he occasionally stopped to have her clarify what