Chapter 3
***Kyrin***
“Is Blake seriously so desperate that sending his woman to us seemed like a good idea? We could chew her up and spit her out before lunch.” I stared out the floor to ceiling windows in Zander’s office and shook my head. “I would have considered it if she didn’t look ready to rip our faces off.”
Zander tapped one of his favorite gold pens against his mouth and frowned. “The handful of times I’ve seen them together, he looked like he was clinging to her. I don’t know if I believe he’d send her to us.”
“So, what?” Knight tossed his glasses on the desk and sighed. “You think she was legit?”
“Not a chance in hell. You saw her portfolio. No way in hell is she as talented as she claims. Blake is a lot of things, but he’s not dumb enough to send away anyone so talented.
” Zander dropped his pen and stood up. “If he had that kind of power in his pocket, he wouldn’t be pulling his idiotic spy shit so often. ”
I focused across the skyline at the Blake Corp building and scowled at the modern monstrosity. “I’m still a big fan of the idea of just handling this the old way. Give me two minutes with that piece of shit on the back forty of our property and I’ll set him straight.”
“You can have your time with the man, if I can have some time with his woman.” Knight surprised both of us with his crude honesty.
“It’s been a long time for me and there’s something about the hard set of her jaw that makes me want to bend her over.
She’ll be a pain in the ass of anyone she ends up with, that much is clear. ”
My mind snapped back to the angry look on Ms. Young's face and I nearly groaned at the memory of her green eyes burning with fury.
Eyes as big as hers were usually innocent, at least in apperance, but hers were anything but.
There was a challenge in every glance, a demand for the object of her focus to explain themselves or feel her wrath.
With full cheeks and a cute little nose, she had all the makings of a Disney princess.
I'd bet her hair flowed down her back in gentle waves and she'd fit perfectly in a glass slipper, but with anger like hers, there weren't going to be any birds circling around her to lend a hand anytime soon.
She'd strike fear in an alligator with one look.
I shook my head. Having a kid around was fucking with the way I thought. Why the hell was I thinking about princesses and glass slippers?
I gave myself a moment more to fondly recall the way her pencil skirt had hugged her ass and showcased a killer pair of legs. Seeing her leave in a huff had been enjoyable in more ways than one. “Speaking of asses...”
Zander grunted and rapped his knuckles against his desk. “She’s with Blake. No matter how fucking perfect her ass is, she’s off-limits.”
I chuckled. “I was going to say that we need to find another donkey. A female one. Chuck’s orders.”
Knight grabbed his glasses while laughing. “Glad to know I wasn’t the only one thinking about the curves of Ms. Young’s body.”
The intercom system buzzed and Beth’s frantic voice filled the office, followed shortly by the sound of Gracie screaming. “We need you down here now!”
I didn’t take the moment I needed to gather myself before running out to find Gracie.
Zander and Knight were at my heels, the three of us taking the stairs to the floor below where Gracie was supposed to be hanging out with Beth at the executive level reception desk.
My heart raced painfully, the same way it did every time I heard Gracie scream.
I wasn’t sure my heart had ever settled back down fully after the first time we’d heard Gracie scream that night in the hospital.
She’d been hurt in the accident that killed her parents, but her screams hadn’t been over the pain she felt.
The three of us had never looked less professional as we slid to a stop in front of Beth’s desk.
Gracie was on her back in the middle of the lobby, throwing the tantrum of all tantrums. Her legs and arms were flying about and her face was bright red.
Her screams were so shrill that my head instantly throbbed painfully.
Gracie’s tantrums were exactly why we’d been going through nannies. No one could handle her. Least of all me. I could break a wild stallion in less time than it took to calm Gracie down.
Standing over her, I frowned. “What’s wrong, Gracie?”
She screamed something unintelligible and kicked her legs harder. I was uncomfortably aware of the people milling about, staring in at our private life. I hated exposing Gracie to it when she’d already been through so much.
She squeaked when I grabbed her by the front of her dress and lifted her off the ground. “Put me down, Uncle Ky!”
I carried her flailing body to the stairwell and winced as her screams bounced around the smaller space. “Not until we get up to our office.”
Zander moved around me on the stairs and opened the door for us. “I’ve got to say, I was having a better time discussing Ms. Young.”
Gracie continued to scream until I dropped her on the couch in Zander’s office. Then, she curled up and glared at the three of us.
“Look here, Gracie. You can’t keep screaming in the office like that.
If you’re upset, you have to use your words.
We can’t read your mind.” I sat on the coffee table in front of her and rested my forearms on my legs.
“We’re going to find you a new nanny as soon as possible.
Someone who will work for the next month.
So, they don’t even have to be perfect.”
“I don’t want a new nanny! I want Aggie!” Gracie sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. “I only want Aggie!”
Zander grunted. “Excuse me?”
“I like Aggie! I want her to be my nanny!” With a look of stubbornness on her face that came straight from her mother, Gracie laid out her demands in a way that wasn’t unlike a bank robber.
“Aggie can be my nanny and I won’t ever have to stay with Beth again.
I don’t like Beth. She’s mean and boring and just tells me to sit still and be quiet. ”
The three of us, the adults, stayed silent and looked at each other in concern. She wanted Aggie. The only Aggie I knew was the Aggie we’d just interviewed. Agatha Young, ex-girlfriend of Monroe Blake and latest person to be turned down for a job at TGC. Agatha Young, suspected spy.
Knight sank into the couch next to Gracie after grabbing his laptop from Zander’s desk. He tapped a few buttons and then stared at his screen with a scowl morphing his features. “Gracie approached Ms. Young while she was waiting for us to see her.”
Zander moved around to see the screen and frowned. “What are they doing?”
With another tap of a button, Gracie and Aggie’s conversation could be heard. Aggie was speaking animatedly to Gracie while simultaneously teaching her how to work out a crossword puzzle. “Show me the face once more. The one you’ll make when that punk pulls your hair again.”
Gracie from the past made a funny face and giggled. It’d been so long since I’d heard her giggle that I felt the air leave my lungs.
“Oh, lord, kid. No, not like that. You don’t want this bully to think you have to pee, do you?
You want him to be scared of you. You want him to take one look at you and run away crying.
” Aggie watched Gracie run through a series of faces and then gasped.
“Yes! That one! The next time that kid touches you, you show him that face. And tell him that if he does it again, you know an adult who isn’t against hitting mean little boys.
Don’t get me wrong. I know I’m not supposed to hit kids, but I just feel like if more men had been knocked down a peg when they were just mean little boys, I wouldn’t be sitting here as a pawn in three rich dudes’ power play. ”
“Fucking hell.” Zander shook his head and sent a sharp look Gracie’s way. “You want that insane woman as your nanny?”
Gracie made the face Aggie had encouraged her to make and narrowed her eyes. “Aggie is nice. I don’t want anyone else.”
“You don’t always get what you want, Gracie.” Zander stood up and paced to his desk and back. “That woman is nuts. She told you she’d hit a child!”
“This is boys’ club bull-crap, Uncle Zander.”
I pressed my fist to my mouth and fought the urge to laugh as our tiny niece railroaded us.
We needed a nanny. Desperately. The idea of Aggie Young in our house, spending all her time with our niece, though?
It was insane. There was no way it would work.
Gracie would be beating up kids in no time under Aggie’s guidance.
“Gracie. You’re the kid. We’re the adults. You don’t get to scream and kick to get your way. We know that you’ve been having a hard—”
As if to prove a point, Gracie started screaming again. There were no tears, just sheer determination and willingness to rip her throat to shreds to get what she wanted.
Knight groaned. “Remember the time Zella didn’t shower for a week straight to prove a point to Mom? She went to prom with greasy hair. This kid has her mother’s ability to wreck us. Let’s just do it.”
I shrugged. “I can’t listen to this screaming.”
Zander knelt in front of Gracie and gave her a hard stare.
“This is not how you get things you want from now on, Gracie. If we let you grow into a brat who throws tantrums to get what she wants, we’ll never forgive ourselves.
We’ll ask Ms. Young is she’d be interested in the job, but she isn’t a nanny, Gracie.
She probably won’t want to work as one.”
Gracie threw her arms around Zander’s neck and screamed, this time in excitement. “Thank you! Aggie is so cool! She taught me how to do a crossword puzzle, Uncle Knight. Even though you said I was too little.”
Knight sighed and muttered under his breath as he walked away. “Fuck me.”