Mr. Ruthless (Kings of Boston #2)

Prologue

ADRIANNA

Today is not a good day.

I knew it the moment I stepped into work, something was off.

Then I hear it.

Gloria is here.

Gloria Williamson is a force to be reckoned with. She is a shrewd businesswoman who treats her employees like shit. The turnover rate here is astronomical.

Her name holds weight, though. The Williamson family is well known in the top social circles for being wealthy and influential. If I can impress Gloria even a little bit, I will have a door open that most people could only dream of.

I just have to deal with her mercurial moods.

One day, she is the smart, savvy businesswoman who made a name for herself outside of her husband by starting and maintaining this foundation for the past two decades.

That’s the woman who hired me as her right hand.

She’s taught me valuable skills and lessons that I needed to learn to succeed in this business.

The next day, she is the dragon lady. The one whom everyone avoids when she comes in for fear that one wrong move will cost them their job.

The same woman who fires me almost every time she shows up because I refuse to bend to her will.

I refuse to let her derail projects that we have had in the works for months because she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Unfortunately, over the past three years, it’s been the dragon lady showing up. I haven’t seen the smart businesswoman for far too long.

Steeling myself, I make my way to my desk. It’s right outside of her office. It’s like she senses me there because after I set my things down, the phone rings.

“Good morning, Gloria,” I say as I answer.

“My office. Now.”

That’s it. Nothing pleasant, not that she’s ever pleasant even when she’s not the dragon lady.

I make my way into her office quickly, not willing to make her wait today. I know what I can and cannot get away with.

She looks disheveled. As if she haphazardly threw clothes on this morning. Not like the woman I’ve come to know. Even on a dragon lady day, she isn’t this out of sorts.

“What can I do?” I ask, afraid there is something seriously wrong.

“You can go back in time and abort that no-good son of mine. He is going to throw away his entire life. We can’t let that happen. We must stop him.”

Internally, I’m cringing at her words. The fact that she would even voice those words, even if it is not possible, is horrid. It’s the first time in the five years I have worked here that I have questioned if I can continue to work for this woman.

Then I think about all the employees who look to me to help keep her in line. The ones who need this job to keep their families fed. Or the fact that this has become my whole life. Where am I without this job?

“Which son are we angry with today?” I ask, needing more information to navigate.

“Mason. That little slut found her way back into our lives. She thinks she’s slick getting a job at the hotel and pretending like she didn’t know Mason would go there at some point.

She is manipulating him, and he cannot even see it.

Now that he knows about the child, I guess we will have to keep it, but I won’t let her worm her way into his bed. We need to get rid of her.”

My spine straightens. “Get rid of her?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Adrianna. We need to convince her to move away. She wouldn’t accept money before. What could we do to get her to leave?” She hums.

“What do you mean she wouldn’t take money before?” I ask, afraid of the answer.

She waves her hand through the air like it’s nothing.

“Years ago, I tried to pay her off to leave. She wouldn’t take the money but left anyway.

Now I see the error of my ways. She found a way to snake back into our lives.

I swear it’s like these people think they deserve to live in our world. Quite inconvenient.”

My mouth falls open. I happen to be one of those people she is talking about. She didn’t come right out and say it, but she means people who live below her tax bracket.

I want to tell her to leave her son alone. That it is his life to live and she should mind her own business. Especially since it sounds like he had a child with this woman. One that this vile woman has tried to keep from him.

I always knew that Gloria had a personality that made it hard for her to relate to others, but I didn’t realize how bad she truly was.

When I don’t say anything, she looks over at me. “Well, what are you doing standing there? We need to come up with a plan.”

I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be involved with anything this woman is planning.

“I have the budget meeting to get to unless you are planning to attend?”

She sneers at me. “As if. You know what? You are useless. I came here because I thought you would be an asset on this project. You usually have such good ideas, but I guess you ran all out of them in that pea brain of yours. You’re fired. Get out of my office.”

“I’ll be in the budget meeting. Then I’m going to go run the marketing meeting. You know, all the things you are supposed to do. Try to fire me if you want, but we both know that if you do, this place goes to hell.” I spin on my heel, leaving her office.

She doesn’t say a word.

She won’t. She knows I’m right. Over the past five years, she has slowly added more and more to my plate. At this point, she doesn’t have anything to do with anything we are doing here. She’s a figurehead. Someone that the world sees as the leader, but she’s not.

I am the one who goes to all the meetings and signs all the paperwork.

I’ve gotten really good at forging her signature.

Everyone comes to me for approvals for the galas and events that we put on.

In fact, for the past two years, Gloria has attended all of the events I put on her calendar, taking all the credit for the work that goes into it when I doubt she even knew it was happening until she received the reminder.

So no, Gloria won’t fire me. She will threaten to because she might want to in that moment, but she knows the truth. I am her one weak spot.

She needs me.

Without me, the entire facade she is putting up falls, and leaves her exposed. She would never allow that to happen.

So I go to the budget meeting as planned. By the end of the day, Gloria is gone, taking the dragon lady with her, and I still have my job.

Just another day.