I let go of his tie, reached for my wallet, and pulled out my personal credit card before handing it to him. He looked down at it, not moving.
“Is that the company card?”
“No, Atlas. It’s mine. Go buy yourself a couple of suits, some dress shirts, ties… whatever you want.”
He shook his head, making his curls bounce. “No… that’s a lot… I can’t.”
“You can. You will.” I leaned forward to put my mouth close to his ear. He stiffened, but his hand landed on my hip. “Maybe you can buy a pretty blouse to wear under the new suit, or… some pretty panties.”
He looked up at me with uncertain eyes, but he plucked the card from between my fingers. “It doesn’t seem right.”
“Hugh and I told you we’d take care of you. That wasn’t a suggestion. It was a promise. As long as you’re with us, we’ll make sure you have all that you need.”
“Okay. Thank you, but I’d like to pay it back.”
“No,” I said, leaving no room for negotiation or debate. “Now, let’s go see my uncle. He would like to meet you. He’s… gruff and very controlling, but he’s taken good care of Hugh andme. Don’t let him make you nervous. You work for us, not him. We’ll watch over you.”
“Okay,” he said again with a trembling voice.
Chapter 9
Hugh
“ThisAtlasStavrosisa little young and inexperienced, don’t you think?”
I placed my elbow on the chair in front of my father’s desk and rested my chin on my fingers as I stared out the window and bounced my leg. Once again, I felt like a fucking child.
“You said Linden and I could hire who we wanted,” I replied.
“Your last PA was superior in experience, Hugh. You’re downgrading.”
“And look how that turned out?”
I could practically sense his eyes boring a hole in my head to get my attention. He was trying to give me one of his looks that said he wasn’t to be trifled with. I was a fucking grown adult, dammit. That was why I hated working here. I was good at my job, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life, and I was constantly under my father’s thumb.
Linden and I used to talk about starting our own home remodeling and design business, along with some houseflipping. He was damn good at woodworking as a hobby, while I’d taken architectural design classes for fun back in college.
“Look,” I breathed. “Patricia was experienced, but she was rude, demanding, and too big for her panties.” Honestly, if she hadn’t quit, I would’ve eventually fired her. “This job isn’t complicated, and we wanted someone who meshed with us better.”
“So you replace her with incompetence?”
I snapped my head to him, feeling the anger burn. To be honest, I had no idea how well Atlas would work out. What I did know was that he would go out of his way to do a good job. I could tell right away what kind of person he was. He had been eager to please even after I’d gotten angry at him when he first showed up here.
“Atlas isn’t incompetent, but wearegiving him the benefit of the doubt and a chance. All his employers have spoken highly of him and his work ethic. It doesn’t matter what jobs he’s held. And all of them informed us he was a self-starter and a quick learner.” I sighed to cool my temper. I was coming across as too defensive. The last thing we needed was to arouse suspicion. “Linden and I need someone who has some experience, but also a person we can mold into who and what we need. Patricia wasn’t that. She was stubborn and refused to bend in the slightest.” While that was true in a sense, it wasn’t the reason we’d hired Atlas. I just hoped my words were enough to appease my father, since he’d be meeting Atlas soon.
“You had others to interview, and you dropped the rest of them to hire Mr. Stavros.”
Fuck, he was really going to push this. I knew he wouldn’t like it when we did exactly that, but I hadn’t expected the long lecture and scrutiny.
“Dad, you have pushed Linden and me to come work for you here at Cross Corp. We have done so without complaint.Have we not done our jobs well? Are you not raking in millions? Linden and I even scored the hospital job.” God, I wanted to tell him he was never fucking happy, no matter what we did, but I was already pushing it. I didn’t need him diving deeper into my life more than he already was. “Have we let you down yet?” I raised my hand before he could remind me of the lawsuit. “Yes, you don’t need to remind me of Tamara. I’m simply asking you to trust that Linden and I chose the right person forus.”
I inwardly winced. If I fucked up and my father found out about Atlas, that trust, or whatever was left between us, would be blown to smithereens. I should’ve cared, but I was tired. Tired of never being good enough. My sister was braver than I was when she left to pursue her own dreams, even though it meant being cut off.
If I were forced to work here, why couldn’t I do what I wanted with the other parts of my life? What did it matter? But that went against my father’s control-freak nature. Mom just went along with whatever my dad said to keep the peace, though she wasn’t much better.
Before we could talk more, someone knocked on Dad’s office door.
“Come,” he said gruffly.
