The Boss(hole) by Penelope Bloom
Juliette
I’d been back home for less than three days and I was already feeling like I needed another semi vacation. Adrian was a slave driver. Worse, he seemed to be a slavedriver who was intent on pretending we’d never kissed or spoken about forming some kind of relationship.
In New Orleans, he’d kissed me and very clearly said we would give having a relationship a try. But now something had changed, and he was avoiding me and the office so I couldn’t ask him what it was. All he was doing was bombarding me with tasks via email and texts, both of which were curt and professional.
I was mulling all of this over while I ate a pizza using the money I’d saved by not having to spend a dime in New Orleans. My first check from Coleton hadn’t come in yet and still wasn’t due for two weeks.
I was mid bite when someone knocked at my door. I set down the slice and went to the door. I quickly pulled my wild hair back. A stupid hopeful part of me thought maybe it was Adrian showing up to apologize and explain.
I pulled the door open and almost had a heart attack. My younger brother was standing there, proud and tall in a suit like he’d just popped right out of the gardens at our estate in New York. “Mikey?” I asked.
He spread his palms, grinning. “Found you. You always were good at hide and seek, and I was always better.”
“What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “This place is kind of nice. Shitty, but in a quaint way. Look. You’re even eating pizza out of a box.” He lifted up a slice like it was a prop on a movie set, laughing. He gave it a sniff, then wrinkled his nose and tossed it back down with a wet thud.
Mikey, A.K.A. Michael Van Coleton, was like my father’s hound dog. For a panic-induced moment, I actually considered clubbing him over the head with my shoe and locking him in a closet. It was probably the only way to stop my father from finding out where I was at this point.
“Relax,” he said, noticing the look on my face. Mikey had a blade of a nose and a mouth that was permanently pressed outward in a self-satisfied smirk. He regarded me with hooded, blue eyes like I was a worm squirming between his talons. “I’m not planning to rat you out to father. Yet.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I haven’t quite decided. I do know father’s men aren’t having any luck turning you up. But I had a feeling you would be too stupid to take a fake name. Once I searched for mother’s maiden name, it was just a game of narrowing down possibilities. And here we are.”
“You must be so proud,” I said. I took up a slice of pizza and angrily chewed off a bite. I’d paid for the damn thing and I was going to eat it, even if my slug of a brother was prancing around my apartment.
“Father will be. I’m sure. Giving you back to him would certainly put me in his good graces.”
“Do you get tired of licking his balls, Mikey?”
My brother’s lips curled up. “You’ve been living in squalor too long. You’re talking like some sort of gutter rat.”
“How’s this for gutter rat? You look like you’ve got something shoved up your ass and you’re enjoying every second of it.”
He made a disgusted noise. He’d been running his fingertips along my countertop and suddenly seemed to think better of it. “You should be more careful how you speak to me. Your fate is entirely in my hands.”
“Is that what this is about? You get off on having power over me?”
“I can make a call to father and you’ll be collected within the hour. Or I could make a call to that boss of yours, Mr. Adrian White? I wonder what he’d think if he knew Russ Coleton’s own daughter was his personal assistant?”
“Leave him out of this,” I blurted. Except I realized I’d made a mistake as soon as I spoke. Mikey was fishing for weaknesses, and I’d just handed him exactly what he wanted.
His smug smile widened. “Hmm. I imagine we could cause quite a lot of havoc with this, couldn’t we? I could have him fired and blacklisted. Or better, I could see that he’s promoted. That’d mean both of you would wind up in New York bumping elbows with father in the office. I wonder how long you could keep your lie up, then?”
“What do you want?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Maybe I just want this. Seeing the ever-confident Juliette Coleton squirm. You always thought you were too good for us. Maybe this will teach you to respect the way things are.”
“I never thought I was too good for you. I only wanted the same choice everyone else in the family got.”
He just scoffed in response, then went to my door. “I’ll give you a few days to think about everything, sis.”