He’s so not ready to understand the rules. “When I was eight years old, my father explained these rules to me—”
“Don’t care about your daddy issues.”
I laugh. “A man never disrespects a woman.”
“Oh, I’m always ‘respectful’ to women.” There’s a leer in his voice that only a foolish teenage boy could manage.
“You never steal from family.” He’s definitely going to attempt to break that rule. It might actually be fun thwarting him.
“Not a problem. I don’t have any family.” A hollow pain runs across his face as he forces a false bravado into his tone.
You do. You just don’t understand what it means when Maddox welcomes you onto Willow Street. Whether you can count the Vincentis as family is yet to be determined.
“So, what’s the third? Because I ain’t taking a vow of chastity or something stupid like that.”
If only that could be part of our business contract. “Family lives and dies for each other.”
“Those are stupid rules.”
Probably for a person without a family. “Yet they’re ones you need to follow. If you can’t, walk out the door now.”
“Is this some sort of cult initiation or something? I can’t see Massimo Vincenti asking this of all his employees.”
“No, it’s not. But this mentorship isn’t standard. Maddox said you were on a different level. If you want a standardinternship, show up at the local office after lunch. If you want to be challenged, learn more than you ever thought possible, and play with all the latest tech before anyone else in the world, those are the terms.” Now it sounds like I’m training this kid to be my replacement. Am I? Hope certainly doesn’t want to run this monstrosity that I’ve built.
Is he really good enough that I could hand my company and thousands of people’s livelihoods to him?
Everett doesn’t move. “And if I break the rules, what are the consequences? Do I get put on probation?”
“No warnings. No trying again.” The first one you die for, but that rule should go unsaid for any man in the world.
“You people are nuts.”
Probably. “For you, I have one other rule.”
Everett rolls his eyes.
“You don’t ever touch my daughter.” And that’s probably like waving a red flag in front of a raging bull, but I don’t care. Now I can kill him without guilt…Though I really wouldn’t have had much before the warning.
“Your daughter?” He raises an eyebrow.
“Dad—” Mila rushes into the office. “—oh sorry, I didn’t know you had company over.” She turns to give Everett a smile.
The smarmy little idiot gives her a slow, toothy grin.
Maybe I should shove them down his throat.
Mila barely pauses. “Do you know where Dad is? Daire wants to go hike Dragon’s Ridge, but I told Dad I’d be home for lunch.”
“He should be back in a few minutes. He took Hope to work today.”
“OH. I forgot about that. Maybe Daire could take me to her job first, and then we could go for a hike.” She taps her foot on the ground. Mila never stops moving, even in her sleep. Shemade Hope look like a calm baby. “I’ll go talk to Mom.” She turns on her heel.
Everett steps in front of her. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Um, you too. Thanks, Max.” She waves as she walks off.
I really need to whap that smile off his face. “You can’t touch my sister either.”
