But I couldn’t shake the fury clinging to my skin like an oil slick. I always felt this way when control slipped from my grasp, when things didn’t go exactly as I’d planned, when disaster seemed to lurk just around the corner. I was jittery and edgy, and I needed this woman gone.
Either that, or I needed her under me. But that didn’t seem likely based on the thinly veiled hostility lurking in the shadows of her eyes.
“Where should I send my invoice?” she asked. Her eyes went wide and innocent, and she tilted her head to blink at me. She was mocking me even now, but no one else in the room would be able to tell. This irreverence was a special gift, just for me. “Miranda was my main point of contact, but now…”
Now my assistant had quit, which meant once again, I’d be looking for someone new to replace her. She was my third assistant in as many months. Infuriating. Predictable. How could it be so hard to find someone competent? I demanded excellence, but the job wasn’t rocket science.
I tugged open a drawer and pulled out a business card. “Send your invoice to me.”
She was careful not to touch my fingers as she took the card, and as she tucked it into her purse, I thought I caught the slightest trembling in her fingertips.
“Will do. Good day, Mr. Frost.” She nodded at me, then at the rest of the team, and then she was gone. Thankfully.
THREE
DEENA
Three weeks later,only a few days into the new year, my phone buzzed. An unknown number flashed onto my screen.
UNKNOWN
I need to get to Tokyo ASAP.
I lay back onto my pillows and glanced at the time. It was after eleven o’clock at night, and the world outside my studio apartment window was all darkness, snow, and cold.
I knew it was him without having to verify his phone number. Callum Frost was as annoying over text as he’d been in person—demanding and arrogant and expecting me to thank him for the opportunity to kiss his feet. He’d paid my invoice early, though. That was rare.
Typically, if someone gave me their business card—especially someone who paid their bills on time—I copied their contact details into my phone. But as soon as I received the payment from Frost’s venture capital firm, I mentally crossed him off my potential client list. I was deep in debt, still drowning in student loans that neverseemed to go down despite nearly a decade of regular payments, and I couldn’t afford to turn down a client. I’d taken on credit card debt to get my business off the ground, and then more to cover some cost of living expenses I hadn’t factored in, and that debt lingered like a bad smell. With just a few more big clients, I’d be able to get rid of the credit card and attack the student loans. Then I could save up, and maybe, someday, sock some away for retirement. I could do it—if I took advantage of every new client that came my way.
But working for Frost, in particular, felt risky in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
My phone buzzed again.
UNKNOWN
Are you there?
Eyes narrowing at the screen, I couldn’t help the huff that slipped out of me. This man had a lot of nerve. But what else could I expect from a rich, handsome white man who’d probably been given everything in life? I’d grown up with one as a brother and another as a father; I knew just how deep their entitlement burrowed. Their privilege was an invasive weed that kept popping up even when you’d nuked your entire garden. Impossible to get rid of.
And maybe it was a character flaw that I couldn’t just let it go. Maybe it was the memory of the energy in the room when I’d stood in front of him, that feeling of being so alive it felt like I could taste my own death. Maybe I was just a fool for a handsome, demanding man, but I didn’t block him and move on with my life. My fingers flew over my phone screen, and I answered his text.
DEENA
I’m sorry. Whois this?
My lips curled despite myself, because even though we were nowhere near each other, two near-strangers hidden in their own little corners in New York City, I could feel the lance of annoyance that pierced him when he read my message.
UNKNOWN
Callum Frost
I gave you my card.
My eyes rolled so hard I got a headache.
DEENA
Of course. Was I meant to frame it?
