Page 90 of No Longer Safe

ACE-Father is requesting your presence.

Grimacing, I picked my phone up. “I need to call Ace, I’m sorry.”

She waved her hand as she unlocked her phone. “I have a few emails I can reply to while I wait.”

She was going to be the next big editor at James & Evers. I already knew it. She was going to surprise the socks off of all those old nerds.

The cool air hit my face as I exited to the terrace. It looked over the city, it was one of the nicest restaurants I could bring my girlfriend. The thought made me smile.

“What?” I barked at my brother. “What could he possibly want?”

I was doing my duty. He wanted me to settle down, I was doing exactly that. I was dating. I was in the press. I was showing myself off in a good light. I’d even planned for us to attend a few fundraisers so we could really look good. The second Cristof son was getting serious. I wanted it known to everyone, especially the men. Audrey Wilde was off-limits.

“This isn’t something I could tell you about, he hasn’t pulled me in as a confidant.”

I wanted to call him out on his bullshit. It was on the tip of my tongue. I could feel it in my gut that I wasn’t going to like what my father had to say.

“When?” It would need to happen sooner than later. I couldn’t have this hanging over my head and the longer I left my father waiting, the worse it would be. No matter what it was.

“Friday.”

We had a fundraiser to attend Friday but there was no point in arguing. “Time?”

“He will let you know.”

Of course. I ended the call. Eventually, I would tell him where he could shove everything, but unfortunately I wasn’t quite there yet. I wanted more territory. I wanted more money. I needed better insurance before I told him to fuck off. But it was coming.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Audrey

It wasn’ta requirement to attend work every day but I did regardless. In the folder I’d been given, I could do whatever I wanted within reason. I could work from anywhere as long as all of my deadlines were met but I also didn’t mind going in. I loved the structure of having somewhere to go to spend my working hours. It also meant that I didn’t have to police myself to get work done. My office wasn’t anything special. It was a tiny closet with a desk and I had to bring my own laptop. I tried to spruce it up with a plant but it felt too cramped after I stuck it on my little desk. It wasn’t much, but I knew I would work up to where Lu was. Her office looked over the city and her desk spanned across the impressive windows. Her hippie self didn’t seem to fit in the space and it made sense why she went to Central Park for most of her work day.

Even though I didn’t care for my office very much, I absolutely loved my co-workers and James—Lu’s dad and my boss— was really kind even if he was pissed off about Lu giving me a job the way she did.

When we first met he’d sighed like this wasn’t the first time Lu had done something like this. But he was still kind to me and told me all he could offer was a small broom closet convertedinto an office space at the moment as he hadn’t planned to hire anyone anytime soon. My bag clunked onto the ground beside my desk chair and I smiled. It wasn’t much but it was better than taking up space in either Alexei or Ace’s penthouse. I enjoyed being in both places, but I felt like I needed a purpose, and being a bump on a log around their homes wasn’t ideal for my mental health.

I opened my laptop and immediately got to work. An hour flashed by as I typed away on my computer. I answered a few emails from the author I was working with and sent a few to Lu. By the time it was lunch my eyes were burning and my head was starting to ache but I’d gotten through a huge chunk of the manuscript and was satisfied with the amount of work I’d done in the day. I rolled my shoulders back, closed my laptop, and rubbed my eyes.

“Are you going to Central Park with Lu?” Tavon poked his head into my office and one of the earrings in his ears twinkled in the low lighting of my broom closet. Even though I was considered a newbie, no one treated me any differently. He wrinkled his nose. “I can’t believe they’re treating you like the red-headed stepchild in here.”

I shrugged. “I’m just thrilled to have the job.”

Tavon rolled his eyes. “You’re going to be one of the top paid editors around here when this book is finished and they couldn’t have upgraded you?”

I pushed my laptop into my shoulder bag and shook my head. “I really don’t mind. James told me I didn’t have to come in to work anyway. I could stay home.”

He waggled his thick, dark brows. “Which penthouse?”

Uh oh.

“What do you mean?”

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and pushed it almost to my nose. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know aboutthe tabloids snapping pictures of you leaving a club with Alexei Cristof last week when we went out for drinks! He is coiled around you like a snake! I don’t know how I missed him whisking you away from us!”

I’d kept his name out of my mouth. When asked if I was seeing someone, I’d said yes, but left it at that. I didn’t want to be treated any differently.

“And your best friend is marrying his brother!” He swiped on his phone and held up a picture of Ace and Carina leaving a small children’s boutique in upper Manhattan the day before. I didn’t follow gossip sites so I peered closer to his phone. She hadn’t told me they were planning babies or anything like that. Why were they at a baby store?

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