Chapter 1 Damian

I swear I’m the only one holding this place together. First Ty Dalton almost screws up the White Williams turnaround by bringing in Milly Wells- the employee they forgot about and paid to do no work. I’m the one who had to smooth that with the Board of Directors. Not Ty, he does things and I live with the consequences.

He was right about her, she’s smart, does good work, but he’s still an asshole. It was worse that she was good, that meant the board had fucked up even more, by wasting a good employee. And what do we do? Rub their faces in it. Somehow we got through it and White and Williams is a thriving company again- until they screw it up.

My brother Grayson was a miracle worker. We may be twins, but he got all the charm. Everybody loved him effortlessly, since we were kids. He made the board accept Milly, even made me stop being pissed at Ty after a month or so.

As is tradition we all went our separate ways for a six month vacation. Well, they got six months, I took three since I’m the managing partner and it’s my job to find new clients. I was sure Ty would split with Milly over those 6 months, but nope. They’re still together, and I have to leave the office before 5 or else I might hear them fucking somewhere.

Now, my own brother has caught the love disease too. Except he didn’t return with the girl. He returned a depressed, whiny loafer who doesn’t show up to work until 10 if I’m lucky, noon if I’m not, and never if it’s a really shitty day.

Today is a real shitty day.

But I’m planning tomorrow will be different. I can’t do anything about Ty, but I can wake Grayson up.

I have three women to interview as his assistant today; I tried to ask the temp agency to send the hottest ones they have- ones that can wake Grayson up and get him back to being the handsome charming, eligible bachelor he is. And back to work. I should have called up a strip club instead of a temp agency- I don’t give two shits if the person I hire can type or even speak English. If she can breathe and can fuck the life back into Grayson, she’s hired.

I walk down to the reception area and see the three candidates.

Nope.

Problem is I know his type- and these aren’t it. I keep walking, by them, and into Grayson’s office. Mrs. Silver greets me with a cool smile, she’s never surprised. Unflappable.

“Cora, I need you to interview the three ladies waiting at reception for your job.”

“To be Mr. Reed’s assistant?”

“To be Grayson’s assistant, yes. They’re not what I had in mind for him. But see if they’re fits somewhere else can you?”

“Yes, Mr. Reed.”

She was fiercely loyal to Grayson, maternal loyalty- at least mostly- she was near retirement age and married forever and happily, but every now and then she looked at him the way a mother never looks at a son.

Cora had been planning a month long trip to Europe for years with her husband. Now they were finally cashing in the chips.

“We might need two people to fill in for me.”

“Does he keep you that busy?”

“No, but if he gets back to normal he does. I can grab someone internal from the pool for now, and we can hire external too if you think we should.”

That might be a good idea. Someone to do some actual work and someone to take care of play.

“Okay. You find someone adequate internally and I’ll find an outside hire, I’ll give you more notice if you need to interview them.”

“I hate to leave when Grayson is not at his best.”

“He’ll be fine, and your husband will kill me and Grayson if we stop this trip. This is about the best timing in the world considering how much Grayson shows up, and then is in the mood to actually do some work.”

“Again no Grayson?” Ty poked his head in Grayson’s office.

“He’ll be back and better than ever.” I left Mrs. Silver to her work and walked with ty down the hallway.

“Do you know the girl who did this to him?” he asks.

“I never had the pleasure.” This woman had destroyed my brother for no good reason it seems- at least none he was willing to admit. It bothered me I had never met her too. If it was serious enough to send him into a tail dive like this, she should have been introduced to me. Besides Ty, we’re the only family we’ve got. And his secrecy about her and what happened seemed like an insult to me. Except that’s a really selfish way to think about it, and Grayson is incapable of insulting, or purposefully hurting the people he loves.

“He’ll forget about her. I’m hiring a knockout for his assistant. Someone he can’t keep his eyes or his hands off of. I just need to find her.”

“If what he’s heartbroken over is real, I don’t think it’ll be that easy.” There was an arrogant, condescending air about the way he said that, that made me want to punch him. Ever since he and Milly were a thing he’s gotten to be a real prick. He was before, but somehow a prick in love is so much worse than a prick not in love.

“Once in a while things are that easy, they have to be right? Besides, I know my brother.”

I used to know him.

I walked away before he started explaining whatever he looked like he was about to- I stopped myself once from punching him. There’s only so much will power we get each day.

I took a walk. Pacing is how I deal with stress. But if you do it in your office, around your desk or something you look crazy. So I take a long walk around the building, our two floors of employees. When you’re the boss and you’re walking fast with a stressful, pissed off look, nobody bothers you. They seem to shrink away and become invisible. The noise and the action of the assistant’s floor relaxes me.

As if the day can’t get any worse, I smell smoke. It’s coming from the half-kitchen at the far end of the floor. Nobody uses that breakroom, but where’s there’s smoke. . .

I slapped the door open and saw a slight young woman wrestling with the window. “Don’t give a fire air.” She jumped at my voice like a scared rabbit.

“It’s only smoke.”

“Those windows don’t open all the way.” I found the exhaust fan switch and flipped it and walked towards the window and her for some fresh air.

The front of her blouse was wet and clung around her breasts, showing the outlines of her nipples and I forgot how to speak for a moment, like a punch to the stomach, or a lightning bolt from the sky.

This day just got much better.

All it took was a fire.