Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160684 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
He shot her a look that clearly told her to try. What was she going to do in a few years when he went off to college?
She didn’t want to think about that.
She yawned. Tonight had been exhausting.
Brooks took the mug from her hand. “You need to go to sleep. I’ll get your heating pad.”
“Thanks, kid,” she murmured as she reached into her handbag and pulled out Slowly. “You’re my favorite kid, you know that?”
“I’m your only kid.”
And he was her kid. Blood or not. And she’d do whatever it took to take care of him.
8
“You gonna tell me what that was all about?” Steele asked.
Grady didn’t bother looking up from his phone. They needed a new alcohol rep, their current one was shit.
He was someone that Lucy had put them on to. So Grady didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him.
“What?”
A large hand landed on his phone, tugging it away.
“Hey!” He scowled up at Steele. His best friend. The most important person in his life.
And he wished he could touch the other man like he wanted to.
He didn’t let that thought show. He’d learned long ago to put on a mask, wearing it so much that sometimes he wasn’t sure what he looked like underneath that mask.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
He straightened his suit jacket and stared up at Steele. “You might want to reword what you just said and the way you said it. Because you might be the big man in charge, but you are not in charge of me, and I am most definitely not your sub.”
Steele glared back before closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath. “Fuck. Sorry.”
“My phone?”
Steele handed it over, then sat in the chair across the desk from him. Pinkies had just opened and they were in Grady’s office. Typically, Steele would head upstairs to keep an eye on things. Or he’d be out, keeping track of other parts of his operation.
So Grady knew he had something pressing that he needed to discuss.
And he knew what it was about.
Her.
“Why’d you offer her a job when we never discussed getting you an assistant?”
“Are you saying you don’t think I need one?”
Steele frowned. “You never mentioned it. But if you need help, why don’t you give Lucy more responsibility or hire her as your assistant? Better than taking on a stranger who we know nothing about.”
“I’m doing a background check on her,” he said, pointing to his computer. “But if you’re worried that Effie won’t be good with everything that goes on here, I intend to keep her working on the legitimate side of things. Oh, and I wouldn’t hire Lucy if you held a hot poker to my balls.”
“You want to expand on that?” Steele asked.
“Not sure there’s much to say. She’s a bitch. A bitch who thinks she can be sweet as pie to your face and you’ll open up your pants and your wallet to her while behind your back, she’s horrible to everyone else. And I’m pretty sure she’s after your fat bank balance more than your fat cock.”
“She thinks she’s getting in with me?” Steele frowned.
“Uh, yeah. Have you not noticed how fake she is around you?”
“I noticed. Figured it was because I was her boss.”
“Lucy is a bitch who is trying to hide that she’s a bitch in front of you to get hold of your fat cock and wallet.”
“Guess I wasn’t really paying her much attention.”
Something that would shock and anger Lucy, but Grady knew that was precisely what was happening. Lucy didn’t matter to Steele. She didn’t even register on his radar when she wasn’t in his direct sight. She wasn’t ever getting in there.
“I’ll get rid of her. If she annoys you, that’s good enough for me.”
That was part of the reason he loved the big bastard.
Because he always had his back. No matter what.
“I can deal with Lucy.” Because Steele might be the big man, but Grady was still a man.
“Right, so you need some help and you don’t want Lucy. Still doesn’t explain why want to hire her.”
Didn’t he see it? Grady thought he would.
“You really don’t know why?”
Steele’s gaze narrowed. “I know what I wanted from her and now that you’ve hired her, I won’t be able to get that.”
Because Steele had a policy against fucking employees.
“She’s not a one-night stand kind of girl,” Grady warned.
“I wasn’t thinking of just one night.”
“Fine. She’s not a weekend type of girl either.”
“You barely know her.”
“I know that she had scuffed shoes that were a size too small for her.”
Steele frowned.
“And that her coat was threadbare.”
“Fuck.”
“She didn’t drive here. And she wasn’t waiting around for an Uber. She was walking down the street. With no hat, scarf, or gloves, and in a threadbare coat.”
“Grady,” Steele said in a low voice.