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Vidar reluctantly headed into his office on the Friday. He knew Charlie would be safe in the apartment, but Millard was still roaming around freely. Vidar intended to change that as soon as he could, but for now Charlie had to endure strict rules about when and how she could leave their home. Caine had doubled the number of men that were watching her. As he nodded towards the security guard at the front desk and took the elevator up to the top floor, Vidar repeated that Charlie was safe, over and over in his mind. He had suggested that she would come to work with him. But she refused until he made it official that she would be
there as part of her scholarship. He smiled at the thought. There was no scholarship, of course. It was just a way to make her accept his help. He stepped out on his floor and was met by miss Julien. She had been his secretary for a long time, long enough to know his
habits, and she had his coffee ready along with his mail.
“Morning, sir,” she said.
“Morning, miss Julien. Everything calm?” he asked.
“As calm as it gets around here,” she replied.
“Good. I need you to make miss Maynard’s access card permanent and could you call Lucas
and ask him to come by as soon as possible?”
“Yes, sir,” she told him and to Vidar’s surprise, he saw a knowing smile on her face.
“Anything to add, miss Julien?”
“No, sir. I’m looking forward to having miss Maynard around. She brightened up the place.” Vidar chuckled and walked into his office. He had finished his coffee and gone through his mail and was looking into his emails as the intercom buzzed and miss Julien let him know Lucas had arrived. Vidar asked her to send him through.
“Lucas, have a seat,” he said as his head of IT walked into his office. “I have arranged for Charlie to start an internship with us, starting Monday,” he told Lucas as he had taken a seat.
“Really?” Lucas asked, sounding excited.
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“Yes. she will continue her last three semesters at university starting next semester. Then we
will only have her part time. But until then she will be with us full time. I assume you have
work for her?”
“Yes, Mr Grim. I think I have just the thing to start her out with. Does this mean we need to get her all the equipment as well?”
“Pardon?”
“You know, consultants don’t receive computers, phones, and so on.”
“Right, right. Yes, she will be needing all of that. I have managed to secure that she will continue on with us after her degree is done.”
“Oh, this is excellent news.” Vidar watched the excited Lucas. He hadn’t discussed with
Charlie if they should disclose their relationship or keep it a secret in the office. Vidar probably should ask her, but he felt like there was no way he could pretend she didn’t belong to him. He got an image of her by the coffee machine, wearing one of the outfits he had given her, and how some random man came up to her and hit on her. No, that wouldn’t do.
“To be open and honest about it, Miss Maynard and I have started seeing each other,” he said.
to Lucas.
“Seeing each other?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, as in dating. It has nothing to do with her getting the job, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t have an issue with it.”
“Oh. No, I don’t have an issue. I know she is brilliant, so there is no need for me to worry,”
Lucas told Vidar. Vidar saw a quick expression moving over Lucas‘ face. It was regret. Did Lucas have an interest in Charlie? Not that Vidar would fault him for it. Charlie was amazing, brilliant and beautiful, and Vidar knew she spoke the same language as Lucas. Vidar understood how powerful that could be. At the same time, Vidar wasn’t worried that the two of them would work close to each other. Lucas was a catch if he would just put himself out.
there for women to find, But Charlie was loyal, it was one of the things Vidar loved about her.
So he nodded.
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“There have been certain threats made towards her. It’s not something that you need to
worry about, but you may notice an increase in security personnel in your department,” Vidar
told him.
“Should she be working? Wouldn’t it be safer for her to stay in a safe house or something?” Lucas asked. Vidar smiled.
“It would, but she won’t listen to me when I tell her. She is getting restless, and she made the point that she will be safer here than working someplace else. It’s a valid point.” It was Lucas‘ time to smile and nod.
“I have got a summons to testify at the trial regarding the spy wear.” In true form, Lucas switched the subject without a notice.
“Do you have an issue with testifying in accordance with what we told the police?” Vidar had to ask, he wanted to keep Charlie as far away from that train wreck as possible. She was already getting fallout damage from it.
“No boss.”
“Good. Keep me in the loop with what is happening. Anything else?”
“No. I’ll get things rolling for Charlie to come back.” After Lucas left, Vidar took a moment to think about how amazing his girlfriend was. She had been at the company for barely two weeks and people missed her when she had stopped coming. He took out his phone and sent her a message.
V: What are you doing?
The reply came almost at once.
C: None of your business.
Vidar smiled. She was up to something.
V: Don’t make me ask my men to break in and tell me.
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C: You wouldn’t.
V: I would.
C: Even if I said I was n*ked?
Vidar stared at the message. What?
V: Why are you n*ked in the apartment in the middle of the morning when I’m at work?
C: I’m not telling you.
V: I can be home in 5 minutes.
C: Oh no. That won’t do. You are supposed to work. Remember? You have an empire to run. So do what emperors do all day and leave my doings to me.
V: Will you be n*ked when I get home?
C: Probably not. It seems weird to go around n*ked all day.
V: I think we should make that a new rule. You should be n*ked all day. And night. Just all
the time.
C: Haha. I think I read in the contract you made me sign that we have strict rules about office attire. Will you write me a special note so I can be n*ked at work?
V: f**k no.
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V: You will be wearing clothes in the office, lilla lo.
V: Maybe we can make an exception in my office. I would quite like you n*ked in here.
C: Not going to happen. That woman you have guarding your door has ears like a bat. I’m not doing anything that can clue her in to us having S*x.
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V: Miss Julien? You don’t like her? She seems fond of you.
C: I didn’t say I don’t like her. I think she is awesome. Wouldn’t surprise me if you told me. she was really a dragon. That doesn’t mean I would like her to listen to us having S*x.
Vidar looked at the message and had to laugh. Charlie had taken the news about a whole magical world with stride. He loved how she had just adopted the new world view.
V: Fine, we’ll be quiet. I’ll be home around five, unless you want me to come home now?
C: Go do your work, run your empire and then come home to me and we will have dinner and we’ll see how much clothes we’ll need.
Vidar smirked as he put his phone down and tried to focus on his work. It was hard when hist mind kept drifting back to Charlie, wondering what she was up to. Caine called in to report on the latest news in hunting down Millard. The traitor had been surprisingly adept at vanishing without a trace. Caine thought it indicated he had been planning something like this for some time. Vidar agreed. They both knew Millard wasn’t good at thinking on his feet. That was why Vidar had believed they would catch him in an hour or two. This changed things. Vidar could no longer plan for Millard’s immediate apprehension. When he hung up with Caine, he got in contact with the others in the clan and arranged a call later in the evening. He didn’t want to worry Charlie. But she had a seat at the table and he knew she would cause him serious harm if she found out he called to a meeting about this and left her out. The same fire that made it impossible for him to keep his hands off her and to think of anything else but her for longer than two minutes also drove him insane as it fuelled her
stubbornness.