From behind the reception desk, I could feel Alexandra watching when I emerged from my conference call to get coffee. The other parties on the call were talking about something so very specific, and so mind-numbingly boring, that I was free to zone out on mute for a few minutes. I’d been listening to Rosie singing on her YouTube channel and had decided that the only thing that could improve the moment was some coffee.

My mood was promptly shattered by the expression on Alexandra’s face. She’d been weirdly quiet this morning. And, even more bizarrely, she’d also been precisely on time. Something was definitely up with her.

“What is it?” I finally asked. She was practically vibrating in her seat and radiating waves of discomfort. I couldn’t enjoy my coffee, Rosie’s singing, or the blissful afterglow of getting laid last night with her staring at me like that.

She pursed her lips. “Mr. Ross called me yesterday evening.” Alexandra sounded like she was confessing to doing something horrible. “He wanted me to do something… kind of weird.”

Now that I was thinking about it, I wasn’t all that surprised. I knew someone had been the conduit of information between my brother and Calvin Ross last night. The only logical person to do that, besides me, was Alexandra. It was a good thing that Calvin Ross was in California, because I really wanted to punch him. He could mess with me, and I couldn’t seem to be able to stop him from messing with Rosie, but my staff was off-limits.

“What did he want?” I asked her. I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible. I didn’t want Alexandra to think I was angry with her.

She stared down at her long, pointy, red manicure. “It was really weird. He asked me to figure out where his daughter was—like cyberstalk her basically—and then send that information to your brother with a message that you wanted him to meet her there. He also asked me to send his daughter’s YouTube channel to your brother.” Her frown deepened. “I didn’t feel comfortable doing it, but he’s the boss… right?”

Right. I nodded miserably. “I’m really sorry Alexandra. I know he’s technically the boss of everything around here, but he shouldn’t have dragged you into his weird schemes. He’s a really strange guy.”

Her expression wavered. “He told me it was part of your plan. That you asked him to reach out to me.”

“Yeah, well, he lied.”

More likely, he couldn’t get anyone from the LA staff to answer the phone. Calvin Ross was extremely good at scheming, and extremely good at delegating, but executing on his devious plans required the assistance someone that could actually use technology. Last night Alexandra had been that unlucky someone.

I was seriously getting annoyed at Rosie’s parents. It felt like Rosie and I couldn’t spend five minutes without at least one of them throwing us a curve ball. This was one more thing I’d have to tell Rosie when her Uber dropped her off. I pinched the bridge of my nose. The afterglow was officially gone.

Alexandra looked up from her manicure. She seemed torn. “If he asks me to do something like that again, what should I do? I don’t like stalking people. I especially don’t like getting involved in whatever weird thing is going on with him with his daughter. I mean… tracking his adult daughter’s movements on a Sunday night and arranging meetings between her and strange men? That’s… well, it’s just not ok.” She sighed. “I really don’t want to do anything like that ever again, even if it is my job.”

“It’s not your job,” I reassured her. “You report to me, not Calvin Ross. You know I’d never ask you to do something that weird, right? If he calls you again, tell him you have to talk to me about it and then get off the phone as fast as you can.” This was all getting wildly out of control.

Alexandra’s head bobbed up and down. “Ok.” She looked slightly less upset. “I can do that.” She even smirked after a moment. “Shutting people down on the phone is kind of my thing.”

That was for sure. Speaking of which… “Rosie Ross is going to be here in a couple of hours,” I told Alexandra. “Please let me know right away when she gets here.”

“She’s coming here?” Alexandra’s eyes were wide, and guilty. She didn’t look excited about meeting the woman she’d cyberstalked.

“Don’t worry,” I told Alexandra. “She doesn’t know about your part in any of this, and I won’t tell her unless I have to.”

Rosie didn’t know about any of this yet. She had no idea about the conspiracy her father had engineered to control her… yet. I was going to tell her—at this point I had to tell her everything—but Alexandra would just get freaked out if I told her so.

Alexandra looked relieved. I shuffled back to my office, wondering how long I could keep these plates spinning. My hands were feeling awfully full at the moment.

“Conroe, do you agree?” A voice chirped from my speakerphone when I sat down back behind my desk. “Conroe?”

I froze. I hadn’t remotely been paying attention. I didn’t even know what we were discussing anymore. Adrenaline shot through me.

“Sorry about that, I was talking away on mute,” I lied. “I want to see everything in writing before agreeing to anything.” I was hedging, but it was a good, reasonable, lawyerly response. What lawyer doesn’t want to see things in writing? There was a general noise of agreement on the other end of the line.

I exhaled in silent relief. On Friday, I felt like I had a handle on my life. Then I met Rosie. What a big difference a weekend can make.