Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 164(@200wpm)___ 131(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 164(@200wpm)___ 131(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
She walked close to him, making sure he didn’t pass out. There was a lot of blood, but he didn’t sway, didn’t even seem to go pale. Harper offered to pour him a whiskey, which he declined. There was nothing she could do that would make him see sense. She grabbed a couple of towels in an attempt to stop him from getting blood on the couch.
It was not lost on her that she was bossing her boss around, and there was a chance she might lose her job.
Kent arrived and made his way straight to Enzo’s office. This was not the first time it had happened.
While Kent got to work fixing Enzo, she made her way into the kitchen to get coffee. The cook, for some odd reason, hadn’t arrived, and she didn’t know why. In fact, the rest of the staff hadn’t arrived. They tended to come after Enzo had left in the morning. She was the only one with a live-in position.
She was not going to say anything to Enzo and run the risk of them getting fired. They might need this job. For her, it was the only thing she had. There was no way she was going to run back to her parents. That was out of the question. She had a horrible feeling if she lost this job, her father was going to marry her off to someone she already hated. She wouldn’t let that happen.
With coffee prepared, she carried them through to the office and was shocked to find Kent already done.
“That was fast,” Harper said.
“You acted quickly, and it didn’t hit any major arteries.” Kent grabbed the coffee and blew across the surface. “You’re going to be seen for a few weeks, but you know the drill. I take it you don’t want anything for the pain.”
“No.”
Kent took another sip, and his cell phone started to ring. “That’s my cue to go.”
“Wait, take your coffee, I can put it in a to-go cup,” she said.
Kent looked toward Enzo, but she didn’t get a chance to see what he said. The doctor nodded his agreement, and she quickly went and got it in a cup ready for him to take.
Within minutes, the doctor was gone, and reality slapped her in the face. This was her first meeting with her boss, and she had told him what to do and offered a to-go cup to his doctor. She tried not to wince at what she had done, but it was next to impossible. This was not what she intended. She liked to stay invisible.
“So, you’re Harper Taylor.”
He was in the doorway of his office, and she turned to look at him. He had a glass of whiskey in his hand, and he smiled at her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
She had a horrible feeling that was not really the case.
****
Enzo knew exactly who Harper Taylor was. There was no fucking way he was having anyone work for him who was not heavily vetted.
Her father, Bradley Taylor, was a piece of shit, constantly trying to buy favor amongst the Villa Mafia. Enzo knew he was in a long line of men Bradley wanted to impress. His greed knew no bounds.
Bradley offered up his daughter as if she was nothing more than a piece of meat. He had even hinted at using her for other things, but Enzo hadn’t been interested in that kind of shit. At least, not two years ago when she was nothing more than a child. Over the last two years, he’d watched her flourish. There was no way he would let a person related to Bradley Taylor have free reign in his home.
Harper had shocked him, because not once had she stolen. In fact, other than sneaking into the library to take his books, which she read, made notes, and then slid right back onto the shelf, she was nothing like her father.
There were cameras in every part of his home. It was how he caught the good from the weak. He’d lost a few items over the years to thieves that came to work for him. Some he’d gotten back, others he’d made pay for the theft, and then there were ones he let slip. Unlike today, where his cook, Murphy, had decided to fall into the hands of the enemy for a quick buck. That had cost him a chef. It was why, before arriving back home, he fired every single person, besides Harper. Not once did her loyalty sway.
There was a time he thought she had stolen something, and he’d been on a rampage. It was an ornament that went missing on a shelf. He never blew anything out of proportion, but he went to the supply room, and that was where he found the ornament, soaking in a solution, with a note telling people not to touch it for twenty-four hours as she was attempting to get the rust off it. A few days later, the ornament was back on the mantel, the rust gone, and it looked better than ever. Harper proved herself. Everyone else had not.