“What the fuck is this?” I felt amazed at how vicious the words were as the woman I would be working with for the next few months, spat them out. They were like bullets firing rapidly from a gun, murdering everyone crossing their path. “Why the fuck do you think I need looking after?”

“Because, Hannah,” her father, my new boss, replied as calmly as he could manage. This was Joe Ricks, the man with a reputation for being ruthless in business, an alpha male who could get anyone to do what he wanted, but it seemed like his daughter was his Achilles heel. “You have been acting crazy recently. Just last night you burst in at about two AM, wasted and yelling. You smashed three priceless vases, and defaced my favorite painting.”

“I did not!”

“I don’t want to argue with you Hannah, I have a very long day ahead of me.” I couldn’t help but notice the way that her face fell at the sight of her dad checking his watch in the middle of their conversation. “Parker Jones is your new guardian, and that’s the end of it.”

“But I don’t want him around.” She turned to glare at me, her eyes running up and down my body, so I sent her a smirk as my response. I didn’t care what she did or didn’t want, I was being paid for watching her parade around, that was all that mattered to me. “I am a damn adult, I’m nearly twenty-nine years old for crying out loud.”

“You have been acting like it ever since...”

A pregnant pause filled the air, a tension so thick that it made it a little difficult to breathe. I almost inadvertently took a step back, before the crux of the issue came spilling past Hannah’s lips.

“Ever since Mom died? Oh well, I’m sorry if the one parent who actually gave a shit about me isn’t here anymore.” Her eyes filled with tears, and I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for her. Maybe Hannah was acting a little crazy, but it was obvious that she’s been through a lot of trauma in her life. Anyone would act out. “I’m sorry that I’ll never be good enough for you. You know, maybe if you didn’t spend your whole life obsessed with work you would notice that I’m struggling.”

Joe held up his hand to stop her in her tracks, giving me a little glimpse of how his presence could command a room if he demanded it. “Now you just hold it there, young lady. If I didn’t have my company then you wouldn’t have any of this. I know it’s horrible that your mom was killed in a car accident, I feel it too, every damn day, you have no idea how much, but I need to keep working. I’ve paid for the mansion you live in, I bought the sports car you drive, every item of designer clothing in your wardrobe was paid for by me.”

“Yeah well, I’d rather not have any of it.”

Hannah folded her arms defensively across her chest, which didn’t help her point. Sure, she had the body of a woman with her slim hips and large cleavage which she was doing nothing to disguise, but her expression made her look a lot like a petulant child. She wasn’t going to be easy to work with, but I’ve spent the last few years of my life in the army. Compared to that, this year off from combat would be a breeze. As soon as I worked out how to manipulate her, everything would be fine.

“Hannah, I don’t have time for this. Now I’m going to suggest that you’re nice to Parker because he’s going to be around you for the foreseeable future. I know you might not want to hear it, but that’s how it is.”

She opened up her mouth to say something else, but slid it shut once more as Joe turned on his heels to leave. He probably should’ve stayed, to hear out his daughter a little more, but it wasn’t up to me to judge. I had no idea what was going on in this family, I simply got called into an interview in Rick’s Enterprises this morning, and told that I would be needed to start right away.

“So, do you want to show me around?” I indicated widely to the massive house surrounding us. “I suppose I better get to know this place a little if I’m going to be spending most of my time here.”

Hannah sent me the most dreadful look under her eyelashes. “You will not be here for much longer. As soon as Carson hears about this, he’ll see you out in a heartbeat.”

“Right, and who’s Carson?” I racked my brain quickly, but I couldn’t remember Joe mentioning any Carson.

“Oh, he’s my boyfriend, and he’s lovely. Older than me, and super hot. He’s rich and powerful.” The way she fired those details out to me was so defensive. Clearly, this was yet another touchy subject that I would have to navigate in this house. I was going to have to start making notes soon!

“Right, well your dad didn’t mention any boyfriend. He just told me to keep an eye on you, to keep you safe.”

“No, he didn’t. He told you to watch me like a hawk ‘cuz I’m a screw-up. He probably told you that I’m always drunk and high and that I need babysitting if I don’t want to throw my whole life down the toilet.”

Her feet slapped as she stomped off into the kitchen, so I followed her closely behind. In a way, she was right. Her father had hinted all of those things to me without saying it outright, but that didn’t mean I needed to express all of that aloud. I got the distinct impression that there were enough issues in this family. The last thing I wanted to do was to add more to them.

“So, this is the kitchen?” I asked, with a bright smile playing on my lips instead. “Well while we’re in here, I might as well make a coffee. Do you want one? It might help with your hangover?”

“I don’t have a hangover!”

I raised my eyebrows at her, telling her that she sure as hell looked hungover, even if she didn’t want to admit it.

“Okay, maybe I do feel a bit sick,” she shrugged, cracking a lot faster than I expected her to. “But I wasn’t as bad as dad is making out, he’s always been so dramatic.”

“So you didn’t wreck the whole house in a drunken rampage?” This was good, she was communicating with me in quite a constructive way. If I could keep getting her to open up to me, then maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Well, maybe I did break one thing, but still... who doesn’t have the odd crazy night? It was my friend’s birthday, and Bunny has always been a little insane...”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I held up my hands to shut her up for a second. “You have a friend named Bunny?”

These people were on another planet, Hannah seemed a little unreal to me. My background was totally different, I came from a single-parent family. My mom and I had always struggled just to get by. The people I fought alongside in the military were just like me, so to see this whole other universe was a lot more than I’ve bargained for.

“Yeah... well her real name is Bex, but she hates that. She has everyone call her Bunny to piss off her father. Anyway, she’s my wild, bad influence friend so it isn’t my fault that things got a little much last night.”

There was a smile on her lips, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. That wasn’t the truth, I felt certain that the drinking and partying had much more to do with the pain she felt inside. The version of Hannah I saw yelling at her dad was the truthful one, this was probably the person she presented to the outside world.

“You know, it’s okay to be hurt,” I reassured her as I handed her the drink I’ve just made. “I know it must be difficult to keep going without your mom here, but that doesn’t mean you have to block everything out. Maybe some counseling would help, I know a lot of guys in the military have...”

“Are you serious?” she screamed, scraping her chair back noisily. “Who the fuck do you think you are? Just because my dad hired you, doesn’t mean you have to spin his bullshit lines at me too. You don’t know me, you have no idea what my life is like. Don’t you dare come in here judging me.”

As she stormed off and I heard a multitude of doors slamming, I sighed deeply in disappointment. Okay, maybe I did go in a little too fast then, maybe I should’ve been more sensitive, I just thought that we were connecting.

This was going to be a whole lot harder than I first assumed...