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“Yeah. I gotta do something, or they’re going to vote him out.”

“Well, you know what happened the last time we sent a girl there, sir.”

I sigh, thinking of the poor girl, Celia, I think her name was. “How’s she doing, anyhow?”

“We put her in the best mental institution possible. Just like you asked.”

I dig my fingers into my temples, trying to cool some of the throb building there. “What about Seraphine?”

Aria scoffs. “You’re going to take my best girl? I just got her.”

“Being that you just got her means she can’t be your best girl.”

“Being that I just got her means you shouldn’t already have plans to sully her.”

I know Aria means something different than what my mind just went to, but I can’t help but grin.

Aria finally sighs. “She’d be perfect, sir. She’s very organized and punctual. She’s redone the filing system we had, and it’s way easier to pull from. Not only that, she has a financial background. I think that would help her be able to fix your brother’s office right up.”

“Good. I’d like to meet with her. I’ll be out of the office the rest of the day. Let’s set it up soon. I have to get the board off my ass.”

“Gotta prepare the Demon of Ironwood for the new arrival, hm?” she jokes, tossing around the nickname for my brother a bit too easily for my liking.

“Something like that.”

3

GOING UP

SERAPHINE

Being late to work when it’s only my second week wasn’t part of the plan, but here I am, rushing through the door, hair askew, and coffee splashed down the front of my blouse as I slap my keycard over the kiosk and slam through the turnbuckles to get past Wallace’s desk.

“Have a great day!” he shouts, a joking lilt in his tone that makes me glower as I hit the elevator button too hard and more coffee splatters out of the sip lid onto my hand.

“Fuck, man. Come on!”

It’s not even Monday.

When I emerge from the elevator and breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of my desk, signaling that I can slow down, my face falls when my eyes meet my boss’s.

“Aria, hey! Good morning. Listen, I’m so sorry that I’m late, but⁠—”

She raises her hand, cutting me off. “Did you go out last night without me?”

“I—What?” That is not the reaction I expected when I flounced in here smelling like the inside of a Tito’s bottle.

“Listen, I can’t have employees stumbling in late if I’m not right beside them, looking equally as hungover. What does it say about me as a boss?”

Her joke lands, and my stomach finally unwinds. “Sorry, Boss. Won’t happen again.”

“Now that that’s cleared up. I need you in my office.”

“I thought you said I wasn’t in trouble. Well, you didn’t expressly say that, but the implication was there...”

She laughs. “I love hungover Seraphine. No, the reason I’m sitting out here is that the very intense Kyrin Valdrich is in my office, and the air was charged while we awaited your eventual blunder into work.”

I swallow. “He’s the boss, right? Like bossier than you.”