Page 15 of Vicious Rule

“No! I’m not going anywhere until we talk about this and a bunch of other things on my mind. So settle in because I’ve got some things to say.”

The rage that morphed into shock now changes to frustration, and like always, his expression shows all of it. Thank God he’s not a poker player because this man has never had an emotion that didn’t cross his face.

Almost as if he knows he has no choice if he still wants to have me working for him, Alex blows the air out of his lungs and sits down on the black leather couch on the other side of the room. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he says in a low voice, “Okay, talk.”

His disgust at having to hash things out makes me want to smack his face. I march over to right in front of him and set my hands on my hips. “Let’s start with the first thing. I’m supposed to be your right hand. If I were a man, you’d tell me everything because that’s what you do with someone who’s so important you call him your right hand. Instead, I know next to nothing about what’s going on, yet I’m expected to handle anything that pops up.”

Alex grimaces at my accurate description of how we’ve been working together. He’s probably unhappy I’m bringing it up at all, but too bad. I have things to say, and I’m going to say them.

“I tell you what you need to know,” he finally says.

That’s not going to be good enough. Not anymore.

“And it’s that kind of attitude that got me stuck in a very sticky situation with Nico Olivetti last night. I didn’t even know how long you told him we’d been together. And don’t say it doesn’t matter, Alex. It does. He doesn’t believe we’re a couple, which makes sense since we don’t act like one. I barely know anything about what you have going on.”

He shrugs and lets out another sigh. “Sounds like perfectly normal couple behavior, if you ask me. I don’t think my mother knew everything my father was always up to.”

“Then I feel bad for her because if she got put into the situations that you put me in, she must have spent her entire life unsure what to say.”

Another shrug. “She always seemed perfectly happy to me. My father gives her whatever she wants, and she doesn’t ask questions.”

I glare down at him in disbelief. How can he think that’s going to work in a business relationship?

“We aren’t married, Alex. I’m your assistant, your right hand, as you call me, and I don’t know half the time whether I’m supposed to tell the truth or lie. That’s not how I want to live my life, and work is a huge part of it.”

He looks up at me and smiles. “I find lying ninety-nine percent of the time is the best policy in life. That way no one knows shit about you. You should do that.”

Great. He’s not taking this seriously at all. Fine. If that’s the way he wants to play this, then I’m out of here.

Turning on my heel, I say to him as I head for the door, “Have a nice life, Alex. Full of lies. Good for you. I’m done.”

Behind me, he says, “What? No, you can’t go. You have to stay with me. You work for me.”

I look back and roll my eyes. “I can work for any part of the Rule organization. All I have to do is talk to your father. I’m sure Helix will be more than willing to put me somewhere in your family’s business where I can be happy.”

What I don’t say but actually think is I’ll ask Helix to let me come back to work for Gideon. Yes, he and Aria are together, but with a new baby coming, he’s going to need someone to help him here at the hotel, and there’s not a soul on this planet who knows how to run this place better than me. Gideon can spend all his time cooing over his new baby and taking care of the new mother, and I’ll be happy once again to be in a job that doesn’t involve never knowing a goddamned thing from one moment to the next.

Not that I won’t miss Alex. I will. I won’t deny there’s an attraction there, but the madness of his way of living isn’t what I want. I know that now. Actually, I think I knew it the moment I said yes to going to work for him, but I was so hurt by Gideon’s falling in love with Aria that I wasn’t thinking straight.

But I am now.

“Sasha, wait,” Alex says before stopping me by wrapping his hand around my forearm. “Come on. I was only joking a little. You know. Trying to lighten the mood.”

When I turn around to face him, I see pure worry in his eyes. Good. He should be worried.

“I’m not in the mood for joking, Alex.”

“Okay. I get that. But you can’t leave. You’re my right hand. I need you.”

Shaking my head, I say the truth that he won’t face. “You don’t need me. You make that perfectly clear every time you don’t tell me what I need to know to do my job. What you like is having me to do things you don’t want to do, like standing around at your orgies watching the people you invite to those damn things while you fuck anything that looks good.”

“Okay, I get that job isn’t great. Now that I’ve done it myself, I can honestly say there might not be a worse job in my business. What if I say you don’t have to do that anymore?”

His offer surprises me. I hadn’t expected him to make concessions this easily. Interesting.

Now let’s see if I can push him even further.

“Do I get to participate in the fun? Or is my reprieve from standing around as the unwilling chaperone to be replaced by my staying in my room while you and everyone else gets to enjoy themselves?”

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