by Nikki Wild
The driver frowned. “Mr. Harvey asked me not to bring you to the office until eight-thirty, miss. I think he has some sort of meeting to attend to before then, and he doesn’t want you waiting around.”
“I’m fine with waiting,” I assured him. I met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “I’m sorry—we haven’t really been introduced.”
“I’m Gordon, miss. Or Mr. Fletcher. Whichever you’d prefer.” He was an older man, white-haired and rugged, but when he spoke it was like listening to pure velvet. “And if you don’t mind my saying so, if Mr. Harvey offered me a free breakfast, I wouldn’t waste the opportunity. There’s a place downtown called Nero’s that does a fantastic omelet, or if you’d prefer, we could stop at one of the chains…”
I smiled at him. “Really, it’s not necessary. I’ll let Preston… er, Mr. Harvey know that he can treat me to lunch, instead. Besides, if I get in a little early, I can get the lay of the land before he gets out of his meeting. I’d count that as an advantage, wouldn’t you?”
Mr. Fletcher shrugged. “I suppose so. If you insist, Miss Hearst…”
I leaned back and relaxed as Mr. Fletcher pulled away from the curb and turned out of my apartment complex. It calmed me to know that I might have some time to myself in the office before Preston knew I was there. His previous assistant might have left some notes I could go over while I was waiting, something that could give me a head start on performing my new job duties. I always liked having a leg up, and for the first time since Preston had offered me the position, I felt confident.
It was a deceptively long ride to his office. Maybe it just felt that way because he wasn’t in the car to have a conversation with to pass the time, although Mr. Fletcher did a good enough job of keeping me entertained. He was a really kind man, and I felt a little guilty that he had to come all the way out to my apartment so early in the morning to ensure I made it to work. I’d have to look into getting a car sometime soon—a used one. I didn’t want to blow my signing bonus all in one place.
Mr. Fletcher pulled up to a building that didn’t look at all like an office. In fact, it reminded me of a small Tuscan villa more than anything else. It had those terracotta roof tiles I’d always seen in pictures and columns out front that seemed way too majestic for a mere base of operations. With the gate out front and the fountain gushing beyond it, it was definitely not what I was expecting.
Hell, I could fit my apartment in there five times over, I thought as I looked up at it. And I owned a two-bedroom.
Mr. Fletcher waited at the gate as it opened, prompted by the transponder attached to the visor of his car. “Mr. Harvey likes to keep things… homey,” he explained, driving through. “He spends a lot of time here. He’s even got a small bedroom set up for those nights when he just can’t get away. There’s a kitchen, too. Do you cook?”
“Yes,” I answered. “But only for myself…” I thought my skills were adequate, but what if Preston didn’t? Was that something he expected out of a PA? It wasn’t even something I had considered.
A new level of apprehension washed over me as Mr. Fletcher made his way up the circular drive to the front of the office. He parked, looking over his shoulder at me as he said, “You’ll be fine, miss. Mr. Harvey’s not a bad guy, and you seem like a smart girl. You’ll do well.”
“Thanks,” I said, though I was sure my lips were trembling. I let him open the door for me before stepping out of the car and mounting the stone steps leading up to Preston’s office-cum-villa.
Two beautiful wooden double doors towered above me at the entryway. As I neared, I saw they were marked by an intricate set of carvings, filigree mostly, but with a touch of vines and grapes here and there. They were beautiful yet imposing, just like the office itself was, and I found myself turning over my shoulder to look down at Mr. Fletcher and his car once again.
Mr. Fletcher nodded reassuringly. I could see confidence in his eyes, a confidence I myself no longer had. But it was enough to spur me forward, and I took a deep breath before pulling on one of the great handles and letting myself in to Preston Harvey’s inner sanctum.
The inside was just as impressive as the outside, a gleaming chamber of earth-tone walls and rustic stone tile. It felt so warm, so inviting, not at all like I’d expected his office to be. Not that Preston wasn’t a warm and inviting man, perhaps in more ways than I wanted to admit right then, but I’d always figured a billionaire’s office for something cold and harsh, a testament to his power and authority. Mr. Fletcher was right. This felt like a home.
“Hello?” I called out, unsure of where I ought to turn to next. I was a little overwhelmed by the size of it all. Should I have ascended the stairs up to the second floor, or stay on the first and poke my head into all the rooms in search of what I was looking for? Someone else had to be working there other than me, surely. I walked in a bit farther after not receiving an answer.
I froze as I heard a door slamming, followed immediately by the unmistakable sounds of a woman crying. Then the door in front of me burst open, and I saw the source of all the sobbing.
“You bastard!” she screamed, her voice already hoarse from what must have been a prolonged outburst. “You unimaginable bastard! I can’t fucking believe you! You can’t do this. You need me!”
I wanted to duck around the corner and hide, but there was no use. My knees were jelly and my high heels would give me away besides. I stayed still, hoping that somehow the red-haired woman screaming at who I could only imagine to be Preston wouldn’t see me.
“Fuck you!” she added as black rivers of mascara poured down her face. “You fucking used me. I swear to God, Preston, I’ll make you sorry if it’s the last thing I do!”
And with that she turned, barreling straight toward me. I thought she might crash into me, but as I backed up a pace, she seemed to realize where she was and stopped.
Her big brown eyes widened even further, though her brow furrowed first in shock, then in rage. I could see her clutching the strap of her very expensive purse so tightly that her nails were digging into her palms.
“Oh,” she said. “I fucking get it. It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one who’s replacing me.”
I opened my mouth to speak, unsure of what I was supposed to say. My cheeks burned. I’m such an idiot. I should have gotten breakfast.
“I’m sorry,” I managed, my heart racing. “I… I didn’t know…”
“I’ll bet you didn’t,” she hissed, taking a quick step toward me. I backed up, but she continued advancing. “You’re not anything special, you know. You don’t mean anything to him. He used me up and threw me away like I was… like I was trash to him, and trust me when I say he’ll do the same to a bitch like you.”
My back was almost to the front door. I had no idea what would happen when I reached it. The look in this woman’s eyes was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was like staring at a rabid animal.
“I’m warning you. Run. Run away right now. Just… get the fuck out of here and don’t look back. Preston Harvey will destroy you, just like he destroyed me. You don’t really matter to him. No one does.”
The moment I’d been dreading finally arrived. My shoulders touched the hard wood of the door behind me, and I cringed, holding onto my clutch tightly as the woman stopped and looked me up and down. She made a face of utter disgust, as if she couldn’t bear the sight of what she saw.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “Why aren’t you leaving? Do you want to get hurt—is that it?” She brought her face inches from mine. “Because if that’s what you want, I’m happy to oblige…”
“Jane!” Preston bellowed so loud that for a moment, I wasn’t sure what he’d said had been a word at all. It sounded more like a clap of thunder shaking the walls, threatening to knock down every picture and piece of décor surrounding me. “Get away from her. Now!”
The woman—Jane, I presumed—didn’t look like she was going to follow the order. But then she finally did take a step back an
d I let out a breath, my whole body trembling in the face of her cold rage.
Preston strode toward us. He was coming so fast and so hard that for a second I thought he was going to plow straight into Jane and knock her off her crystal-embellished Louboutins. But she stood her ground even as he threw open the door behind her, putting himself between the two of us and allowing me to scamper behind his back.
“Get out,” he snarled with such ferocity it sent chills down my spine. “Do not ever come back, and do not ever think that you can speak to my sister like that.”
Jane snorted. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she said, but Preston didn’t entertain it. He took her by the arm, firmly but not roughly, and dragged her outside over the threshold, leaving her on the stoop.
“The next time you show up here, or anywhere else that belongs to me, I’m calling security,” he said. “You’re fucking crazy, Jane. That’s what got you fired, not her.”
“Fine,” she sneered. “That’s just great, Preston. Because you know what? I’m calling the cops!” She rubbed her arm where he’d touched her, wincing like he’d pulled it out of place, though it was clear he hadn’t. “This is assault!”
“Leave,” he said before slamming the door right in her face and locking it from the inside. I heard her pound on it a few times before she finally gave up, letting out one last scream as the staccato beat of her heels descended the steps toward Mr. Fletcher’s car.
I looked up at Preston as he turned. The veins in his neck were bulging, as were his muscles. I could see the immense bulge of his biceps, especially under the short sleeves of the t-shirt he was wearing. It draped nicely around his waist, but even so, with his heavy breathing a teasing glimpse of his abs were visible. He was the picture of raw power, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
Slowly, his gaze shifted to meet mine. He asked, “Are you all right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.” I looked toward the doors again. “I just feel bad for Mr. Fletcher…”
Preston laughed softly. It wasn’t a happy sound, but he did seem at least darkly amused. “Yeah. Me too.”
I watched as he left the front door, making his way toward one of the rooms I hadn’t explored yet. I followed him, watching as he sat down on a very expensive-looking sofa and put his face in his hands, snarling into them. It was a deep, primal sound.
“I take it you wanted me to get breakfast because of that,” I said softly, standing awkwardly in the archway. He nodded without looking up at me. “Was that the woman you were talking about in the car—the one who doesn’t respect your boundaries?”
“Or yours, apparently,” he muttered, running both hands through his hair as he leaned back against the cushions with a sigh. He shook his head. “I’m just glad it’s over, but it’s eight-fifteen and I already need a drink.”
I smiled uneasily. “Do you have a bar? I make a mean Bloody Mary.”
“Not here,” he told me. “This is a place of business, after all. It’s not like in the Sixties, when we did that kind of thing…” Preston hadn’t been alive in the Sixties, and yet he somehow seemed wistful. He waved his hand after a moment. “Coffee would do, if you wouldn’t mind.”
I set my clutch down on one of the armchairs near him. “Where’s the kitchen?” I asked.
“Just through here,” he answered, pointing at a door at the far side of the room. He relaxed while I went through it and entered one of the most glorious kitchens I’d ever seen.
Though it was keeping in style with the Italian countryside theme Preston had going on, it was a gourmet ensemble if I’d ever seen one. The stove looked state-of-the-art and the cabinets, though made of dark wood, all had transparent doors that let one see their contents without having to open them first. The fridge was massive, a French door model with a separate, pull-out freezer down below. Everything was gleaming steel against wood, except for the copper pot rack hanging above a kitchen island with a marble countertop.
I found the coffee machine easily enough. As expected, Preston had an expensive brew tucked away near the filters. The smell alone did more to wake me up than my own cup back at my apartment had, and I brewed enough for two before returning to the sitting room and offering a mug to my stepbrother.
“Look, Maddy, I know this probably looks bad,” he started, clearly still caught up on my arrival. “You weren’t supposed to see any of that. She wasn’t even supposed to be here.”
“Relax. It’s none of my business, and I’m not one to judge,” I replied, thinking back to a little short term office fling I’d had with one of the mail runners in my earlier days at ExecuSpace. “I’m just glad to have this opportunity…”
He smiled. “Well, it looks like your first official duty as my new personal assistant was to get me post-breakup coffee. How’s it feel?”
I laughed. “Patronizing,” I said, sitting down on the same armchair I’d set my clutch onto. Its deep, cocoa-colored leather upholstery was firm, yet soft enough to be comfortable, and the tufted back gave me more support than I’d thought it would. “Still, it’s good to have a job. I do have a question, though.”
Preston took a sip of his coffee. He winced, as if he’d never learned not to let a hot beverage cool. “What’s that?”
I blew on the surface of my own mug, my lips moving before the wiser half of my brain could stop me.
“Do you fuck all of your secretaries?”
Preston stared at me with an almost shocked look on his face, choking on his drink.
I felt my face flush and my stomach plummet, then fill with the wingbeats of a thousand butterflies as Preston laughed nervously and turned away.
Why the hell did I say that?
7
Maddy’s first day as my new assistant became a lot more boring after Jane had finally stopped storming around the front lawn. Most of it was spent having her fill out all the appropriate paperwork and letting her look over Jane’s notes, most of which I’d managed to salvage after she’d torn through her desk like a demon in an effort to destroy as much company property as she could. Though I’d been dreading that moment for months, now that it had passed, I felt relieved. Maddy had been right. It was good to let go, especially before Jane was in a position to do anything worse.
“Are you concerned about what she said?” she asked me at lunch. I’d taken her to a bistro on the lake behind my property. “About the ‘assault,’ I mean?”
I shrugged. “Not really. Jane has anger issues, that’s true, but I doubt she’d go so far as to actually file a police report against me. And even if she did, she’s got no proof. I didn’t grab her that hard. And besides,” I added with a grin, “I have witnesses.”
“A witness, anyway,” Maddy said. “But that’s probably good enough.”
Although I put on an appearance of confidence, I certainly hoped we were right, the last thing I needed was that kind of publicity… Regardless of what was going to happen with Jane, by the end of the first day Maddy was already pretty comfortably settled in. Things almost felt… Normal.
Except that I couldn’t get Maddy’s words out of my head…
Do you fuck all of your secretaries?
Sure, it had been a joke. All in good fun… But it had my wheels moving in ways they shouldn’t have been moving.
I did my best to ignore it.
When weeks went by without hearing anything from Jane, both of us breathed a collective sigh of relief. I immediately forbade any more talk of her, fearful that invoking her name might make the demon return. I’d have to write up a rule somewhere that disallowed anyone from going into a bathroom with the lights off and saying “Jane Turner” three times in front of a mirror, but as it so happened, my attention was far more focused on Maddy.
I’d had every confidence in her that she’d turn out to be the perfect new personal assistant, and I’d been right. I’d just had no idea how right I would be. She was amazingly good at her job, meticulous and detail-oriented, always taking the initiative
to organize and get things done. She’d memorized my particular way of doing things in practically no time at all, and by the end of our first month together, I couldn’t believe the stark contrast between her and Jane.
“I think I’m ready to pronounce you a permanent hire,” I teased her one day as she made me coffee. She’d finally figured out the French press, which was far more preferable than the automatic swill I got out of the machine.
She had smiled and looked at me through her lashes in that smug, know-it-all way I’d come to love. “Oh, please. I’ve been permanent since day one. At this stage, I don’t think you could live without me.”
“Too true,” I’d told her. But neither of us realized how much I’d meant it until a week later when she overheard me on the phone. At the time, I had no idea how that seemingly innocuous moment would change everything between us forever.
8
“Yes, I realize that’s prime real estate. Yes, I know what’s there now, and I’m sure it can be done. I know my father wants this to go forward, but I’m just asking you, man to man… Do you really want to do this? What your asking crosses an ethical line. It may be, in fact, a bit… Extrajudicial.”
I stood on my bedroom balcony overlooking the distant lake. I could see the water gently rippling as a lazy breeze swept over it, just barely disturbing the otherwise placid surface. It was late and the sun was setting, but Mr. Verger wasn’t letting me off the phone without a fight. I watched the sky turn from orange to red, then a hazy purple as my high-strung client stammered on the other end of the line.
I sighed, hoping my Bluetooth earpiece didn’t pick it up. I had explained this at least a dozen times, but Harold wasn’t getting it. I understood why he’d gotten my father involved in this, I just didn’t want to be part of it. With the company in my hands during the windup to my father’s wedding, he’d dropped this entire sordid affair on my lap.
