Page 5 of Hard Limits

His new assistant walked right into him, and he grabbed her arm as she stumbled. Why had she come back?

“You need to learn to look where you’re going.”

“You just appeared from nowhere.”

“Isn’t that my line?” he asked, referring to the earlier parking lot incident.

She bit her bottom lip as she looked up at him, and somewhere deep inside, Brax began to wonder if he might have made a terrible mistake in hiring her. Later, he’d wish that he’d paid more attention to his subconscious, to that little voice telling him to wake the fuck up. Maybe he was the one who needed more coffee?

“I thought the door would close by itself.”

When Meera tried to take a step back, Brax realised he was still holding onto her arm. He released her, and one step turned into a dozen.

“We start work at eleven a.m. tomorrow,” Brax called after her. “Don’t be late.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, just closed the door and headed back to his desk. His laptop was open, and he typed out an email, copied to five of his oldest friends and one new one.

From: Brax

To: Dawson, Zach, Justin, Nolan, Alexa, Ari

Subject: Assistant #27

Her name is Meera. So far, she’s told me to go screw myself and called my car a gas-guzzling penis extension. Place your bets, folks.

B

The first response came from Alexa. As far as Brax could work out, she never slept.

Two weeks. And I’m going to need her surname, date of birth, and social security number.

Brax could get those from Rhonda. He hadn’t asked Alexa to start running background checks, but three or four years ago, she’d taken it upon herself to help and discovered that his former finance director was embezzling funds, so Brax wasn’t going to stop her. She also read all his emails. Some might have resented the intrusion, but short of disconnecting from the internet entirely, there was no way to keep her out, and in her own strange way, she cared.

Dawson’s answer came next. Ten days. If she doesn’t like your car, she’ll hate your boat.

Quickly followed by a message from Justin: Three weeks. Did she see your dick already? I thought that was against the rules?

Brax tapped out a quick reply. Ha-ha. Very funny.

And the boat was only a small cabin cruiser, not a super yacht. He needed a hobby to distract him from the Carissa nightmare, so he’d begun escaping to the water.

Nolan: Five weeks. Why don’t you grow some willpower and hire an assistant who doesn’t hate you?

Willpower? He thought Brax hadn’t tried that? Even the hypnotherapist had given up on him.

Ari: One month. Women are tough, but should we really be betting on them this way? Why don’t you look for a guy like Chase instead? P.S. Zach says six weeks.

Ah, Chase. Alexa’s assistant was a true unicorn. If there was the slightest chance he might be looking for a new job, Brax would offer the man any salary he asked for. But Chase would never leave Alexa. Their arrangement had grown from employer-employee into a deep friendship that had withstood the test of time. Plus there was the fact that Alexa would erase every last byte from Dunnvale’s network if he tried to mess with her.

Brax: If you stumble across Chase’s twin, let me know. I’ve given up hope.

CHAPTER 3

THE ASSISTANT

Indi

I got a new job! Call me when you can x

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