Chapter 6
I stare across the room, directly at her, unable to stop. I don’t even know the woman and yet I want to destroy her with my bare hands. She shouldn’t be here. Not even close. This feels like a setup. Like a ploy.
Too beautiful to ignore, my eyes scour every delicious inch of her, and that only fuels my ire more.
Even as she appears just as horrified as I am. A fact she proves when she mumbles something to the assistant on her right, whose name I can’t quite remember in this moment, and then attempts to bolt for the exit.
The girl stops her. I wish she had just let her flee.
More words and she’s shaking her head. Her long as fuck dark hair hanging loosely down her back snaps wildly around her waist. Images of wrapping it around my fist and commanding her gaze spring into my head and how on earth is this woman here?
Her. Of all the fucking people my mother hired.
Her . It doesn’t even make sense if the crap the girl was spewing at me in the car that morning is accurate.
She was supposed to be on her honeymoon. She just moved here.
There is no feasible way she could have applied and gotten the job as my new assistant when my mother never actually posted the job online. Hell, my mother told me she had the perfect person lined up that day at lunch, not even a half an hour after Bianca got out of my car.
Her brown eyes hit mine again only to immediately drop to the floor, her hands on her hips, and I find myself frowning along with her. There’s something about her. Something I’m unable to put my finger on. A familiarity almost. No longer streaked in makeup, it’s there in her perfect features.
I only spent thirty minutes of my life with her but somehow, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her in the two days since she ran into my car.
And I’ve had a lot of other shit to keep my mind occupied.
I’ve hated myself for my thoughts. For allowing them to form in the first place, but I told myself I’d never see her again so there was no harm in it.
Now she’s here.
Storms of enmity thrash violently within me. A tumor needing to be excised, she has to go.
“A word, Mom,” I demand because it’s not a question. I don’t give a fuck that she’s chatting shit up with Harold from HR. Dweeb can hold off his ass-kissing ways and wait five minutes.
My mother’s sharp gaze cuts over to me. Octavia Abbot-Fritz does not entertain poor manners or displays of rudeness, but the moment she registers my expression, she nods her head and excuses herself.
She hasn’t seen Curves for Days as I’ve been calling her in my head by the door yet and before she can, I gently grasp her arm and lead her into her office.
Soon to be my office.
I slam the door shut with a bit more force than I intend. “What did you do, Mom?”
She takes a seat on the cream silk sofa, crossing her legs in her pink St. John’s suit.
“Kaplan, if you’re going to throw a temper tantrum in front of your staff before whisking me away for a closed-door meeting, at least have the decency to use your words a little clearer so I understand what you’re asking. ”
“The new executive admin, Mom. The woman you hired.”
She tilts her head, her eyebrows pinching in. “What about her?”
“She’s here. How could you have hired her ?”
“What do you mean by her ? Do you know her?”
I shake my head. “No and that’s the problem. Something isn’t right with her. She shouldn’t be here. How could you have hired her?” I repeat.
“Bianca Barlow. Twenty-five. Graduated from UCLA with a master’s in business and finance. Just moved to Boston from LA. Comes from a very affluent family in Texas and has not one, but four trust funds.”
I blink at her, unimpressed. “That’s all you know about this woman you hired? How did you even meet her?”
She gives me the stern, motherly don’t give me that attitude young man glare she’s perfected over the years. “Kaplan Davis Abbot-Fritz, what is your problem here?”
“Her! That woman.” I pace a small circle, my hands through my hair only to land on my hips.
There is only so much I can say before Octavia runs away with herself.
“She’s crazy, Mom. I met her already, believe it or not.
She ran into my car— literally —while fleeing her wedding .
I gave her a ride to the hotel we ate lunch in. ”
A smile cracks clear across her face. “Well, I ran into her in the hotel prior to our lunch meeting and I thought she was lovely. Strong and brave for running out on a bad situation. Honest. And smart—she had a perfect GPA in graduate school and college.”
Jesus. I think I’m having a stroke.
My hands scrub up and down my face and I start to pace again, only to stop and turn toward the glass door.
Yep. People are watching us while pretending they’re working.
Fantastic. I flip one of the heavy wooden chairs sitting in front of the desk around and drop into it facing her, thighs parted, elbows digging into them, mind a fucking catastrophe.
“You’re telling me you hired this woman right before coming up and meeting with me?”
“No. I’m telling you I offered her the position then. I officially hired her after she emailed me several hours later. I liked her instantly and you know I don’t suffer fools or threats easily.”
My jaw unhinges itself. “There is absolutely no possible way you can know she’s neither of those. What experience does she have? Has she ever worked for a charitable foundation before?”
My mother shifts, leaning forward ever so subtly and holding my gaze. “Kaplan, I had to hire outside of the foundation for this. And it had to be someone very specific.”
“I’m not following.”
“The only person in this building with the right degree and experience to help you the way you need to be helped with this new role is Jenny.”
“Jenny,” I parrot because the name is familiar, but I’m drawing a blank on who exactly she is.
“The blonde pit bull who fawns all over you and your other brothers any time one of you enters the building. She was poised for this position, and she cannot have it. Short of firing her, which I will not do because she’s not only very good at her job, we have no actual grounds, I had no choice but to take measures into my own hands with this.
Jenny has been working here when I know she’s had other, more lucrative offers waiting for the day that you ”—she points at me—“would take over. I don’t believe I need to go into further explanation with that.
I told you this would happen with women.
It’s yet another reason why an arranged marriage is advantageous for you.
Bianca has plenty of money of her own. Is recently out of a jilted relationship.
Has the right degrees. And from my research into her social media accounts, only posts things about her art and her nieces.
Everything she’s said to me thus far has been one-hundred-percent truthful and her background check is pristine. ”
I fall back in the chair, running my hands through my hair before clasping them at the back of my head, my elbows butterflied out.
“You think I can’t handle a woman like Jenny? A woman after a throne she’ll never sit on?”
“I think thwarting her primary objective with you isn’t the best use of your already limited time here. Not to mention, I’m not sure given her desires with our family that she would be able to assist you properly in your new position.”
“Couldn’t we do a proper search? Convince Henrietta to stay on instead of retiring?
” My mother’s assistant, who had been with her practically since my mother took over the foundation from my grandfather is officially retiring along with my mother.
She was nearing seventy and only stayed on because she adamantly refused to leave Octavia Abbot-Fritz’s side.
But damn if I don’t need her now more than ever.
“She moved to Florida last week. Into a lovely condo in a fifty-five-plus community with Lance.”
“Let me guess, you bought it for her?”
“She deserved that and more. But back to your previous question. I had feelers out for weeks prior to Henrietta’s retirement. Bianca is who I hired.”
I squint. “Meaning what exactly?”
“Meaning you can’t fire her without going through the board that I’m still chairperson of for at least the next two months.
I know you, Kaplan. You clearly already don’t like this girl for your own reasons that are eluding me, but do me a favor?
Give her a chance. One month to prove herself.
If she hasn’t in that time or I’ve misread her intent with this position, then we’ll see about replacing her. ”
One month working with Bianca. Then I can get rid of her. Or better yet, make her life a living hell before that and get her to quit. If she doesn’t need the money, then why is she working here? How did she con my sharp-as-a-tack mother into this job?
She must have recognized me in the car.
She must have recognized my mother as well.
And somehow went in for the kill.
But why? It’s not even as though the position was public knowledge, which means my mother brought it up to her. So why did she look like she was ready to throw up her breakfast and make a break for it when she saw me?
Something isn’t adding up.
Regardless of whatever it is, I can’t work with that woman.
Not only do I not trust her or her intentions here, but my dick likes the way she looks far too much.
If my mother thinks dealing with Jenny will be a waste of my limited time here, then attempting to corral my dick into some kind of intelligent submission is equally such.
Still, I can be a cruel, ruthless bastard when properly motivated.
“One month,” I concede because I’ll make sure she doesn’t last a week.
“Excellent.” The relieved smile on my mother’s face is enough for me to hold my tongue on anything else. “I have a speech to make. After, let’s go get ourselves better acquainted with her, shall we?”
Yes. Let’s.