“I could simply sell, you know that? If no one came to the store, it’s no big loss. This property was worth triple what I paid for it. Even empty, with no profit in the books, it would make me a nice chunk of change.”
Whoa. Those eyes widened and then narrowed again and the look Teela sent could have eviscerated him on the spot if looks could actually kill. What was wrong with him that his balls practically rammed him right in the stomach? Probably a lot. There is probably a hell of a lot wrong with me.
“I’ll be sure that I tell everyone that too.” Teela slammed to her feet. She gave him one more withering look before she whirled and slammed out of the room. Literally. The whole building vibrated with the force of the door slamming.
That’s just great. Not a good start at all. Even if what he’d said was true, Ross wanted peace in his organization. He hadn’t come to ruin lives. He still had a few heart strings left and they were already being pulled. He didn’t like firing people. He just couldn’t get around it. If he kept all the useless jobs on, he’d be broke. He wouldn’t have a company at all. In the end, being in business was about profit.
Even if it meant tears and sweat and blood and hurting people and breaking hearts and disappointing people who depended on him for their livelihood.
Even if it made him feel like a monster, he couldn’t change a damn thing.
Or he wouldn’t be in business at all.
CHAPTER 3
Teela
“He’s the devil. The straight up, red, horns, pointy fork, asshole of a devil. Satan himself. The-”
“I think I get it,” Amy said softly. She raised a brow. “Are you sure you should have marshalled all the troops and actually quit?” She glanced pointedly at Teela’s stomach.
Teela did her best not to think of the devil’s far too handsome face. She’d upped her game on the comparisons. Ross Day wasn’t a troll like she’d first thought. No, he was much, much lower than that. Lower than worms, lower than dirt. Way, way lower. All the way down to hell itself lower. Why did he have to have those sharp, chiseled features, the kind of thing straight out of a cartoon or a romance novel? Why did he have to have those piercing blue eyes and that hard jawline? Those high cheekbones? Those perfectly symmetrical features and the gorgeous tan skin that had never seen a pimple or blemish in its life?
“You have a baby in there,” Amy went on. She lowered her voice, even though it was just them in Teela’s living room and the condo was an end unit, so only one room had ears and her neighbor just happened to be a ninety-year-old woman who was beyond deaf. “A baby we put in there illegally.”
“I know, I know. Don’t worry. I haven’t told a soul and I never will.”
What was wrong with her that she couldn’t stop hearing Ross’ smooth voice, that deep, easy tone. That she couldn’t stop seeing the sparkle in his eye that could be so much more than anger if she hadn’t resorted so quickly to threats? Worse, what was wrong with her that she actually wanted to see if his lips filled out when he smiled?
She should not be wondering those things. She should not have spent a sleepless night tossing and turning and imagining the devil’s face. She was possessed. His evil magic had rubbed off on her right along with his evil presence. He was straight up bad. Bad for the company. Wrong in every way. That saying she’d read in high school about beauty not actually being correlated with goodness was true in every single case.
Thankfully, Amy decided to break the silence and derail Teela’s horrible train of thought. “I trust you. You’re my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were two years old. We don’t even remember our first meeting, that’s how long we’ve known each other. I just… it’s crazy. I keep looking over my shoulder. I keep thinking that I’m going to be fired.”
“You took everything when the power went out,” Teela insisted. “It was a spur of the moment decision. No one is going to miss a few samples here and there and a few- uh- supplies. They get thrown out all the time. It’s easy to miscount. And you said you wrote the sample off as being too old the next day. You had the original canister. No one could tell that we put in shavings off the soap bar and water. It looked exactly the same.”
“No, no one would believe that I took it because no one does that!” Amy leaned back against the couch. She looked anything but relaxed.