Jacey was so ill during the bus ride back to her apartment, she had to hop off midway to dry heave over a public trashcan. Which meant she had to wait a full twenty minutes for the next bus. By then, her overheated state was dissipating, and she was freezing again. Wishing she’d brought a jacket, she buttoned her shirt all the way to her throat and crossed her arms to hold in as much body heat as possible.

Oddly enough, she no longer felt like vomiting by the time she arrived home. Quickest flu in the world. Or maybe she was just too tired to feel the symptoms anymore. She heated a cup of tea in the microwave and sipped on it while munching a few salty crackers. The tea warmed her insides, and the crackers finished settling her stomach. Forget work! She needed a nap.

She set her alarm and forced her groggy self out of bed an hour later. She succeeded in making a few more hours of progress on her laptop before bedtime. She turned in early and picked up where she left off first thing in the morning, plowing through one recording after another while perched at her tiny breakfast bar in the kitchenette. The sickness slammed into her again mid-morning, making her glad she’d decided to work from home.

It wasn’t until just before bedtime she discovered the notes LeAnne had typed and saved in another folder on the hard drive. For a moment, she didn’t believe what she was looking at. She clicked open the first file and scrolled through a few pages.

No. Way. Heat flooded her cheeks.

Luca had purposefully wasted her weekend. Not only had LeAnne transcribed all the meeting notes, she’d already plugged the basic information into his presentation slides. All Jacey really needed to do was add a few charts and graphs, jazz it up, and make it beautiful.

A scream worked its way up her throat as she slapped her laptop closed. She hadn’t felt so humiliated, so invalidated in years. Not since the day she’d finally worked up the courage to walk away from her family and their stifling expectations of her. She’d grown tired of their constant criticism and their conviction she’d been born broken because she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings, content to walk in their parents’ shadows and patsy up to their every whim in order to keep the funds flowing freely through their trust funds.

In all Luca’s arrogance and lofty expectations of her up to this point, it was the first time he’d treated her like she was completely worthless. Like her contribution didn’t matter. Like she herself didn’t matter. And it hurt. Deeply.

Before this weekend, he had driven her mercilessly but had always included her work in his presentations, had always kept her by his side, had always briefed and debriefed her.

This was a side of him she absolutely and utterly hated discovering. He was acting just like her parents. Grasping and ambitious, willing to run over anyone or anything that stood in the way of their mighty corporate machine. Why oh why oh why had she expected more of him?

Something in her snapped. To heck with subjecting herself daily to the impenetrable and unforgiving Luca Calcagni. She would find some other way to wrestle her inner demons. Some other way to atone for all past crimes, sins, and mistakes.

She was done with Luca. Quitting Genesis and Sons. Bye bye, suckers! The good Lord himself couldn’t expect any more from her. She’d begged His forgiveness again and again. Shed tried to turn over a new life. Tried to be a better person, but they Calcagnis had refused to let her.

She no longer cared about the PR nightmare it would create for their family when she walked out on her job. That was their problem. She would march up those stony stairs one last time in the morning and toss her resignation in their CEO’s smug face.

Jacey’s decision didn’t help her sleep. She stared at the ceiling all Sunday night, mulling over her resignation speech and coming up with nothing satisfying. She rose early and, on an angry whim, tucked a black leather skirt in her duffle, a daringly high set of red stiletto platform shoes, and a creamy lace blouse with a waterfall of ruffles that accentuated her assets even more. There was no way she was passing up the opportunity to torment Luca one last time. Might as well give him a full taste of what he’d be missing when she was gone.

She arrived forty-five minutes early, loving how the extra-high stilettos made her hips swing. Her outfit wasn’t the most professional, but she wasn’t gunning for professional today. The leather and lace ensemble showcased her height, slenderness, and curves to perfection. Luca wouldn’t be able to ignore her today, and she greedily anticipated the advantage it would give her over him.

For once, the front desk was empty. Excellent. She didn’t need Waverly trying to guilt her out of resigning again. Unfortunately, the woman had worked her way into her affections. Avoiding her would make it easier to walk away.

She debated and discarded the idea of using Luca’s private elevator. Preferring to catch him off guard, she rode the main elevator to the fifteenth floor and walked the final five flights of stairs to give her time to finish composing her exit speech. By now, she knew the layout of the building. Every elevator. Every stairwell. Every side hallway.

It gave her time to finish deciding the exact angle of her exit speech. Luca probably wouldn’t believe her, but she was going to confess her real reason for coming to work for his family. She was also going to tell him she’d finally discovered why Easton had found it so easy to leave the almighty Genesis and Sons. She would point out how the Calcagnis’ refusal to properly fund and train him made every surviving Calcagni as much to blame for his death as she was. All she had done was encouraged him to follow his dreams and pick up the tab when they had refused to finance them. She’d toss her brief exit speech in Luca’s lap like a dirty bomb and make her grand exit before he had the chance to regroup.

Reaching the top floor, she tiptoed her way across the landing and quietly let herself through the side entrance into Luca’s office. Her chest leaped at the sight of him at his desk. He was present. So far, so good. That would allow her to get her rapid-fire resignation speech over with and be gone before the other employees arrived.

A fierce sniffling sound assailed her ears. Luca Calcagni lounged deep in his chair, facing away from her, a large ragged square of paper clutched between his thumb and forefinger. She crept closer and stopped mid-stride.

It was a photo, a much faded and dog-eared one, of him and Easton. They were younger. She’d known Easton most of her life, so she guessed he was no more than fourteen or fifteen in the picture, a good ten years ago. The two brothers had their arms slung around each other, holding up an enormous string of bass between them. They were grinning straight at the camera, the kind of goofy pride reserved for fishermen and their whopping fishing stories. A pride she couldn’t relate to. She’d never seen anything exciting about holding up a bunch of icky, smelly, scaly dead fish.

Luca reached up and pinched a hand over his eyes. His long fingers came away wet at the pads, and Jacey’s breath shuddered out of her. Only one other time had she ached so profusely on behalf of another human being. It had been for the inconsolable Waverly at Easton’s funeral.

He spun his chair around at the sound, staring at her in confusion for one tortured, unguarded moment.

“Luca?” she whispered, unable to bear the sight of him so agonized.

Though his eyes were red-rimmed, his mouth immediately tightened in anger. He stood and yanked open a desk drawer. Tossing in the photo, he slammed it shut.

“What are you doing here so early, Ms. Maddox? I expected you to call in sick.”

It suddenly seemed like an awful time to turn in her resignation. In the midst of his grief, Luca no longer came across as the unfeeling monster she’d made him out to be. Like herself, he was hurting, and hurting people did stupid things like lashing out at the nearest person. In this case, her.

She raised and lowered her hands. The zip drive containing the phony work assignments were clasped in her palm. “I wanted to get an early start. Seems like LeAnne already transcribed your meeting notes. I’m afraid I wasted a lot of time re-transcribing them when I should have been building the presentation. My mistake.” With a not-so-helpful nudge from you to set me in the wrong direction. “For this reason, I won’t be turning in a timecard for my work this weekend.”

His lips thinned. “Exactly how many hours did you waste reinventing the proverbial wheel, Ms. Maddox?”

She stared at him, incredulous. How dare he try to pin this mistake on her! He’d set her up; she was sure of it. “Twelve, Mr. Calcagni.” Her voice grew brittle as she studied him for a reaction. Twelve hours of honest effort despite how ill I was because I can really use the income. “But I refuse to accept a penny of what isn’t due me. I should have checked all the files on the disk.” Not just the one you mentioned on Friday afternoon. She’d fallen for his trick way too easily. Normally she was more on top of her game.

His expression didn’t change. Disappointed at his lack of remorse, she swayed to her desk on her dangerously high heels. Not the best choice of footwear after a weekend punctuated by acute bouts of dizziness and nausea. She was fortunate she had a spare pair of more practical shoes in her desk to change into.

She sat and yanked her lower desk drawer open to swap out her shoes. So much for her rush of empathy for Luca Calcagni. Apparently, her brief glimpse into his human side was over. The monster in him had returned and was raring for a fight. Her brain gave a mental shiver. She really didn’t feel well enough to spar with him, but she was no longer in the mood to resign either. He was like a wounded bear in his grief, swinging and dangerous. She would just have to stay out of striking range.

Now that she was seated, she might as well put in another day’s work. At least she’d get paid for this one.

A tall shadow fell over her desk. “You will receive two full days of overtime pay, Ms. Maddox. We do not take advantage of sick employees at Genesis and Sons.”

Her head jerked up in surprise. His gesture was better than an apology, both generous and unexpected. Maybe there was hope for the man after all.

He dropped a file of folders on her desk with a resounding slap. “As soon as you decide which pair of shoes you’re going to wear for the day, here’s another pile of presentations that aren’t going to prepare themselves.”

Nope. There was no hope for the man. None whatsoever.

He turned away abruptly, or she might have thrown something at him.

It was like attending boot camp beneath the never-wavering stare of a raging drill sergeant. That was the only way to describe her next five days. Despite working through her lunches and taking files home each night, Jacey couldn’t seem to fall into a new rhythm, couldn’t get caught up with her new workload. She waffled between blaming her rusty office skills and blaming Luca for the unreasonable increase in his demands.

Every day he handed her a new mountain of work. There were no smiles. No thank you’s at the end of any project. Just more work. Her energy level continued to drop. She knew she couldn’t maintain her current pace much longer on rat wheel Luca had crafted for her. Not even with the carrot of a bigger paycheck dangling before her.

She squinted at the time stamp on her monitor. Less than an hour from closing time. She’d made it to Friday. She rubbed her eyes and tried to stifle a yawn. Hibernation was sounding very attractive right now. She could easily sleep through the coming winter months and not return to work until next spring.

“Tired, Ms. Maddox?” Luca’s mocking voice sliced through her thoughts.

She lowered her hands, too exhausted to work up a mad anymore at his absolute lack of compassion. Or his unwillingness to recognize her endless efforts to please him with her performance. Bed. It was the only thing she needed right now.

“Do you need my assistance with something, Mr. Calcagni?”

Irritation flashed across his dark features. Not the personal kind. More of a distant, distracted kind. By now, she knew the difference. “Our board meeting starts in ten minutes. I’d like you to attend it with me.”

She winced and scanned his face. Surely he was joking. Some of their board meetings lasted for hours, and she didn’t have that kind of steam left in her. No amount of coffee would keep her eyelids open for several more hours.

He was no longer looking at her, his movements jerky and impatient as he tossed paperwork inside his briefcase. “Bring the Pillmeyer file. During his golf outing today, Edric claims he learned something new about their account transfer that might prove significant.”

Dread coursed through her limbs. She drew on the small burst of negative energy to mobilize herself to retrieve the requested file. What could there possibly be to rehash about the account they’d lost to DRAW Corporation? Unless Luca planned to humiliate her all over again. This time it would be in front of his entire family.