Page 10 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

“Fuck your job,” Ace said.

He abruptly ended the call, leaving me staring at my phone’s blank screen. Well, I had my answer. I would call him back when the sun was up. He couldn’t stay mad at me forever. He knew it was my due diligence to cross the T’s and dot the I’s.

Instinctively, I found myself dialing Miles’s number next. The clock now read 2:18 a.m. Oliver would’ve gone to bed the minute he got home, but I knew that Miles was likely lounging around having his last beer, kind of like I was—sans the beer.

He answered immediately.

“Tsup, bro. You gonna come over for a drink?”

“What? Right now?”

“When else?” he replied happily.

“That’s not why I’m calling,” I said. “I just spoke to Ace. Asked him about Ecclestone.”

“What the fuck, bro? Didn’t we say we weren’t gonna do exactly that?”

“I know, I know,” I rumbled.

“So, what’d he say?”

“He called it a ‘bullshit question.’”

“Well, there’s your answer.” I could hear him opening the fridge.

“Hang on. Before he denied it, there was an awkward pause. A long one. I don’t think he knew what to tell me. It was like he was buying time to come up with an answer.”

“Or maybe he fell asleep, man.” Miles snorted, and I could hear him shuffling in the fridge. “It’s almost two in the morning.”

“Actually, it’s well past two in the morning.”

“Is it? Damn.”

“I was thinking we could put Harris on him,” I suggested, a sense of urgency shooting through my veins.

“No way, dude.” Miles sounded shockingly more sober than he had seconds earlier. I heard the fridge door close. “Too late. If you put Harris on it now, Dad will find out about it. If Dad detects we set up a merger, and now we’re having doubts? Man, he will bepissed. Shit has already leaked to the press—it will look shittier. You know how Dad is about our reputation.”

“Better late than never.”

“That’s not how Dad thinks. And you know it.”

“We don’t know that Harris will definitely tell your father about it.”

“Are you kidding me? He’ll definitely tell him,” he said. “But if your Spidey-sense rings true, then—”

“We’re fucked.”

There was a pause. “I’ve got an idea,” Miles said.

“What?”

“Your sister. What was her name again?”

“Stella. What about her?”

“You need to ensure Stella gets that job at Ace’s company…”

“Be…cause?” I asked, already guessing where this was going. “So she can spy on Ace? Are you fuckingnuts?”

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