Page 39 of Rich and Bossy

It makes me laugh harder than before. “Come on. Lighten up. I want to take you somewhere.”

She stands there, arms folded, staring at me then back at the warehouse, then at me again. “This is insane. Why are you making me do this?”

“Enough questions. Come on.” I walk over and open the passenger door. “There are worse things in the world than getting paid to hang out with me.”

She narrows her eyes. “Fine, whatever.”

Something about her attitude, it does things to me. It’s her voice, her body, all of it working together.

She gets in and sees her fliers in the backseat. “Glad you brought these with you.”

I get in and start the car. “Yeah, you can have them back now.”

“Miscreant.” She mumbles the word under her breath, but she doesn’t sound as mad as she was a second ago, now that she’s in the car. “This thing sucks.” She stares ahead at the car, then starts laughing.

“Oh piss off.” I shift into gear and get us out of the parking lot, then hammer it at the first green light. Sure, it’s not the Charger, but this car still has some horsepower. It doesn’t deserve the abuse she’s hurling at it.

“Fine, fine, it’s okay, but the Charger is way better. Louder and meaner.”

“She accepts your apology.” I pat the steering wheel.

“Where are we going?” She folds her arms, eyeing me warily.

“You’ll see.” I steer us onto the highway. “It’s a surprise.”

CHAPTER 10

Hazel

Why doI keep letting him do this to me? Why do I keep walking headfirst into mistakes? He didn’t really give me a choice though.Yeah, go with that. Go along with all this crap, Hazel.

“I would really like to know where we are going.”

“Yeah, I know you would.” He laughs at me, again.

I can’t stand him over there, knowing he’s in charge, withholding information. This is so dumb. Would he really fire me for not going with him?

You’ll never know, because you caved instantly the second he smiled.

“It must be pretty important, to go to all this trouble. Getting me out of work and all.”

“Zip it. You’re getting no clues.”

He’s going to bribe you. To drop the union stuff.

This is what Campbell was talking about. He’s being nice to me, just to figure out what I’m up to. He’s using his good looks and charm and he’s laughing on the inside, knowing I’m falling for it. I’m just a kid to him, someone who can be manipulated easily with my hormones.

What if he’s taking me downtown to corporate? Geez, why did that just occur to me? What if he’s about to march me in front of a team of lawyers? My stomach starts to cramp up.

This was a horrible idea.

My fears must be written all over my face, because he snickers after glancing my way.

“It’ll be fine. I’m not driving you out to a field with a wood chipper ready.”

“Wow. I hadn’t gone that dark in my thoughts. Dang.”

“Dang.” He laughs. “You crack me up. What were we talking about last weekend, when we got together in that bar?”

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