Page 46 of Take Me
Chapter 50
Rafe Crimson
The stupid errand my mother had sent me on had been a dud. There were no rogues on the other side of the town, even if the scent was slightly there. She had lied without lying. She was the best at it. She knew how to manipulate the truth to her advantage. It was why my father had been so intrigued by her when they first met. It was what kept him from walking away when he preferred blondes over brunettes.
It wasn’t until I returned to the Manor and heard typing in the office down the hall that I knew the reason for the trip. She had given father’s job to someone. She had interviewed them without my leave. A growl rumbled down my throat. She had probably brought a human here and she knew things were strained. The last thing we needed was a human lurking around. But then the scent hit me and I knew the damage that my mother had brought down. Sitting behind my father’s computer was Jade Rivers. She didn’t bother to look at me as she typed away.
“What are you doing in here?” My voice sounded harsh even for my ears.
She didn’t bother to look up. She kept typing away as one of her hands slid a folder to me across the desk. I opened it up and then closed it slowly. The number in there was for someone with a degree, not- not Jade. I blinked as I tried to get my thoughts together but I couldn’t.
My mother was waiting for me in the kitchen. I clenched and unclenched my jaw. “You had no right.”
My mother rolled her eyes. “You have no right. You are the Alpha, yet you know nothing about business. I have to do what I have to do in order to keep money flowing to our people. What would you have me do?”
I crossed my arms over my chest to hide how hard I was shaking, “How about you don’t meddle?”
Her laughter was diabolical but her words weren’t. “She applied at our HQ downtown. I came across the resume in my email. I didn’t even know it was her for a second. She is qualified for the position.”
Guilt ran down my spine and left a bad taste in my mouth. “She’s going to be living in Gran’s old cabin?”
The amusement that had been in my mother’s eyes was now gone. “Your Gran has been gone for a long time. You know that little cabin didn’t offer her much.”
I shook my head. That wasn’t the point. “What if she comes back?”
“There are ten bedrooms in this Manor. You act like we couldn’t make room.” My mother placed both of her hands on the island and leaned forward. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. What about Jade? What about what she needs?”
Something broke inside of me at that. “She won’t pledge to our pack. She needs nothing from us.”
Mom shoved off of the counter and marched to where I stood. “Don’t start all of that. You are the one that forced her to be a part of all of this. If you could have kept yourself from doing that, then you wouldn’t be dealing with all of this.”
The crack inside of my heart started to grow. There was going to be a gaping hole soon enough. “She was going to die.”
Her shoulders drooped and she wrapped her arms around my waist. She was a good foot shorter than me. “Oh, honey. Sometimes things are meant that way. We can’t prevent everyone from dying before we think it’s their time.”
“Would you have me die too, then?”
Chapter 51
Jade Rivers
After three days of going over everything in the Crimson Manor’s computer system, I felt like things were off to a good start. Alice Crimson had done a good job in the place of her husband over the years but I didn’t know how I could possibly accept the amount of money they were offering me, especially since some days I wouldn’t be working. I would go over documents, analyze budgets but then what would I do for the rest of the day? Alice had to leave on official pack business and the contract didn’t state whether or not I was working full-time.
I leaned back in the velvet chair and looked at the empty space around me. Alice had said that I was allowed to decorate it any way I wanted and with my salary, the budget was large. I closed my eyes and spun around.
“Uh hem,” I knew it was Rafe before I opened my eyes. I could smell him all the way from here. Pine and whiskey. My two favorite things before my life went to shit. “Are you okay?”
I nodded and went back to the computer. Did I need to look like I was busy? Technically Rafe was my boss too.
“Ya know that you don’t have to be here all day, right?” I didn’t even bother with looking at him. What was the point? I had heard what he had to say until he had stormed out of the house. I had felt the animosity coming off of him in waves as he realized that I was the one his mother hired to take his father’s place.
“I didn’t know how many hours your mother wanted me to work. The amount of money she is paying me would suggest that I am to be here twenty-four-seven.”
“You only need to be here when you’re doing work and if you want to bring it home with you, that’s okay too.”
I looked at the two monitors in front of me and wrinkled my nose. Yeah, that sounded easy enough. He laughed at my expression and walked around me. His scent wrapped around me and this time it made me dizzy as he bent over beside me. He was just a few inches from me but I couldn’t breathe. I was scared of what I would do if I inhaled his scent again. Since when was it this heavenly? I had been this close to him before, hadn’t I? A click sounded before he yanked open the bottom drawer on the filing cabinet.
“Mom upgraded all of our software and everything last year and she thought she needed a laptop. Everything is all synched so you don’t have to do anything but find your work and do it from home if you wish.” He placed the MacBook Pro on the desk beside me before he retreated to the other side of the office again.
