Page 14 of Heathen

"Beauty?"

"Kaylee," I correct. "Does Alena no longer work here?"

He leans back, scraping the paperwork into the top drawer of his desk as he does so. "Alena was promoted to another position within the company."

"I like the idea of upward movement in the company," I say, as I begin to wonder if this is really a bad thing.

Promotions aren't something I'll ever get at the grocery store.

"It's the goal for all our employees," he says as he pulls a clipboard with paperwork on it from a shelf behind his desk. "How about you complete this questionnaire and we can see if you'll be a good fit?"

I take the clipboard and the pen he offers, grateful to have something else to focus on other than his smiling face.

I fill in the requisite information, realizing a little too late to scratch through them and change the information that I probably should've lied about, like my name and home address.

The next set of questions makes me snap my eyes up to him. "Why in the world would you need to know my body measurements?"

"For your uniform, Beauty," he answers without hesitation.

"Kaylee," I correct. "My name is Kaylee."

"Kaylee," he says with an easy smile. "Of course."

I finish the paperwork, skipping over the lengthy paragraphs of fine print because, honestly, who reads that stuff?

I hand the clipboard back to him, and he immediately goes right to the last page, grinning down at my signature.

"You read this?" he challenges.

"I did," I lie.

"And you're in agreement with the terms?"

"I am," I tell him, but my hands start to shake again.

"Do you think you can fake an accent?"

I tilt my head in confusion. "Why would I need to do that?"

"The men looking for wives can easily find an American, Beauty."

"Looking for a wife?" I ask in confusion. "You've got to be kidding me."

"No jokes here," Dima says. "You said you read the paperwork."

"This is a bad idea," I mutter as I stand. "Thank you for your time."

"Where are you going?" the big burly guy from earlier asks as he blocks the doorway of the office. "You belong to A-1 Janitorial now."

Chapter 7

Heathen

"I need to apologize to you," Rooster says the second I step into the kitchen.

I rub the backs of my hands over tired eyes, a yawn escaping before I can ask him why.

"Really?" I ask. "Do you make apologies often?"

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