Page 81 of Reckless Hearts

“I…” I drum my fingers on the tabletop and then slowly raise my gaze to hers. “Yes, I hate this place. Present company excluded, of course.”

She sighs, shaking her head. “Of course, I’m always happiest when all of you are near me and not across the Atlantic…”

“I sense a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

She smirks. “You want me to inquire as to why it is you’re here? To try and peek past those walls of yours?” She snorts. “Please, Deimos. I’m an old woman. I don’t have the time, patience, or strength to tear those down. I doubt even Hercules does.”

I say nothing, slowly sipping my tea.

“And besides,” she says, lifting a bird-like shoulder beneath her shawl. “I don’t need to inquire why you’re here. I know.”

That gets my attention. I glance at her, making a point to keep my face neutral. “Is that so?”

She smirks. “How’s your new company doing,engonós?”

“Quite well, thank you.”

“And your hiring process?”

“Marching slowly onward. I’m going to begin bringing on an executive team next month.”

Her lips curl. “I was more curious about yourcurrentstaff.”

“I have no current—”

Goddammit.

It takes a miracle to catch me unawares, or get me to walk into shit over the course of a conversation.

A miracle, or Ya-ya.

“You mean Callie’s friend.”

“I do mean Callie’s friend,” she says, with the slightest hint of smile.

I shrug. “I’m doing her a favor, is all. She’s at Columbia School of Business with Eilish and needed to land an internship as part of her semester coursework.”

“Is that so.”

I spread my arms wide. “I’m not sure what you’re looking for here, Ya-ya. But yes, that’s so.” I take a sip of tea as the hawkish woman across from me flays me open under her gaze while managing somehow never to once be aggressive about it.

“And the only company this girl could find at which to intern in a city like this was yours, currently consisting of zero staff but yourself?”

“I do much better with direct questioning if it’s before noon, Ya-ya. And I would assume there were no other companies interested in her because, well…” I clear my throat and lean forward conspiratorially, lowering my voice. “She’s…not very qualified, if we’re being honest.”

“Ahh, I see,” Ya-ya smiles to herself. “So it’s charity, then.”

“Exactly.”

She keeps that calm, warm, grandmotherly smile on me for precisely three more seconds before she snorts in a most unladylike way and rolls her eyes. She laughs quietly as she shakes her head and looks away.

“I see everything,engonós.You do know that, yes?”

I arch a sharp brow upward.

“Would you please care to fill me in, then? Because I seem not to have the same gift.”

“That’s the second time you’ve lied to your own grandmother in the last five minutes.”

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