Page 70 of The Silent Night Stalker
* Age Gap
* Bisexuality
* Secret Crush
* Pining
Edged - Chapter 9
(Please note that I haven't had this edited yet.)
“This Atlas Stavros is a little young and inexperienced, don’t you think?”
I placed my elbow on the chair in front of my father’s desk and rested my chin on my fingers as I stared out the window and bounced my leg. Once again, I felt like a fucking child.
“You said Linden and I could hire who we wanted,” I replied.
“Your last PA was superior in experience, Hugh. You’re downgrading.”
“And look how that turned out?”
I could practically feel his eyes bore a hole into my head to get my attention. He was trying to give me one of his looks that said he wasn’t to be trifled with. I was a fucking grown adult, dammit. That was why I hated working here. I was good at my job, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life, and I was constantly under my father’s thumb.
Linden and I used to talk about starting our own home remodeling and design business, along with some house flipping. He was damn good at woodworking as a hobby, while I’d taken architectural design classes for fun back in college.
“Look,” I breathed. “Patricia was experienced, but she was rude, demanding, and too big for her panties.” Honestly, if she hadn’t quit, I would’ve eventually fired her. “This job isn’t complicated, and we wanted someone who meshed with us better.”
“So you replace her with incompetence?”
I snapped my head to him, feeling the anger burn. To be honest, I had no idea how well Atlas would work out. What I did know was that he would go out of his way to do a good job. I could tell right away what kind of person he was. He had been eager to please even after I’d gotten angry at him when he first showed up here.
“Atlas isn’t incompetent, but wearegiving him the benefit of the doubt and a chance. All his employers have spoken highly of him and his work ethic. It doesn’t matter what jobs he’s held. And all of them informed us he was a self-starter and a quick learner.” I sighed to cool my temper. I was coming across as too defensive. The last thing we needed was to arouse suspicion. “Linden and I need someone who has some experience, but a person we can mold into who and what we need. Patricia wasn’t that. She was stubborn and refused to bend in the slightest.” While that was true, in a sense, it wasn’t the reason we’d hired Atlas. I just hoped my words were enough to appease my father, since he’d be meeting Atlas soon.
“You had others to interview, and you dropped the rest of him to hire Mr. Stavros.”
Fuck, he was really going to push this. I knew he wouldn’t like it when we did just that, but I hadn’t expected the long lecture and scrutiny.
“Dad, you have pushed Linden and me to come work for you here at Cross Corp. We have done so without complaint. Have we not done our jobs well? Are you not raking in millions? Linden and I even scored the hospital job.” God, I wanted to tell him that he was never fucking happy, no matter what we did, but I was already pushing things with him. I didn’t need him diving deeper into my life more than he already was. “Have we let you down yet?” I raised my hand before he could remind me of the lawsuit. “Yes, you don’t need to remind me of Tamara. I’m just asking you to trust that Linden and I chose the right person forus.”
I inwardly winced that if I fucked up and my father found out about Atlas, that trust, or whatever was left between us, would be blown to smithereens. I wanted to care, but I was tired. Tired of never being good enough. My sister was braver than I was when she left to pursue her own dreams, even though it meant being cut off.
If I were forced to work here, why couldn’t I do what I wanted with the other parts of my life? What did it matter? But that went against my father’s control-freak nature. Mom just went along with whatever he wanted to keep the peace, though she wasn’t much better.
Before we could talk more, someone knocked on Dad’s office door.
“Come,” he said gruffly.
Liden opened the door and leaned against it to allow Atlas to enter first. He looked handsome… and a little green. Linden must have warned him about my father. But Atlas swallowed it back, squared his shoulders, and stepped forward with confidence, holding out his hand. I smiled at that. I knew he’d quickly adapt.
“Mr. Hanley, it’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. I’m Atlas Stavros. What an amazing company you’ve grown here, and I’m excited to be a part of it, even in my small way. My father is a construction foreman, so I have some insight into what you all do here at Cross Corp.”
Humble and professional. Christ on a cracker. I wanted to bend him over my desk and pound into him.
Dad took his hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you, Atlas. That’s a unique name you have there.” At least he was relatively polite, though he didn’t wear a smile.
Atlas beamed. “Thank you. My brothers and I have ‘A’ names. Greek parents,” he said, chuckling as if that explained everything. Perhaps it did.
Then his attention drew to me, and his smile stretched across his face. “Hello, Mr. Cross. I’m looking forward to my first day.”
