Page 12 of The Billionaire's Assistant

The room spun as he ended the call.

I sank to the floor and Felix ran over to me to rub his face against my side. I picked him up and held him as I lost the battle to hold back my tears. I had to find a way out of this. I didn’t want to give my family anything, but I knew I’d be punished if I didn’t. Between rent and student loan payments, I had next to nothing left of my monthly paychecks, so I wasn’t in a position to go on the run. If I actually did get the information Jesse and my father wanted and got caught, I’d never have another decent job again.

It took me a long time to get myself together. I raced to get dressed and hurried out of the house after a quick goodbye to Felix. This was a terrible day to be late. Miles had an important meeting with his top executives. If he fired me for being late, I would have no money and no information to give my brother.

The meeting was in progress when I stepped into the board room. Everyone turned to look at me and heat rose up my neck and face. Miles glared at me and pointed to a chair next to him without stopping the dressing down he was giving Frank, the CFO.

“I expect you to figure out where the discrepancy is in our financials and when you do, if someone has done this deliberately, bring them directly to me so I can deal with them personally.”

Ford squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “Miles, remember I don’t do murder trials, so don’t put me in that position.”

Miles’s smile was pure evil. “I won’t be charged.”

Mr. Wainwright blew out a pained breath, and I winced. If Miles found out what I’d been sent here to do…would he murder me? How the hell was I going to get out of the trap I was in?

But before I could begin to think of any solutions, Miles pointed at me and barked, “We need to talk in my office.”

“So we’re done here?” Lisa, the COO, asked.

“We are. You all have your orders.”

Frank bristled, obviously not liking the expectation that he would take orders.

“Miles, I’d like to meet with you as soon as possible to go over the planning for our new lab,” Lisa said.

“Ben can get you on my calendar tomorrow.”

She turned to me. “I’ll email you later today.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I started to follow Miles from the room, but Frank stopped him. “You can’t seriously—”

The look Miles gave him made me shiver, and it wasn’t even directed my way.

“Forgive me.” The man didn’t sound the least bit apologetic. “I believe we can turn things around, but I would like to discuss how we will continue until we do. We need to make a statement to the board by next week.”

“I’ll handle that.”

“I have the latest reports here. If we take a few minutes—”

“I don’t have a few minutes. Send me the most pertinent items and only those.”

The man sighed as Miles walked out of the room. I followed him, not daring to refuse his command. I was far lower in the hierarchy than the other executives, and he didn’t even allow them the freedom to disagree with him.

I followed him into his office. He dropped a file folder on his desk and spun to face me. The look on his face confused me. He was angry, but there was something else there, something I couldn’t decipher though it felt like eagerness. Maybe he got off on firing employees.

Or maybe….

No. I’d fantasized plenty about being called to his office, bent over his desk, and fucked until I was screaming and begging for more, but that was a porn scenario, not real life. In real life, the boss was just a regular asshole, not one who fucked like a dream and who was a bad boy who could be reformed.

“Close the door and lock it,” he ordered.

My pulse accelerated. It wasn’t unusual for us to have a closed-door meeting, but something about his tone of voice had my hands shaking as I obeyed his command. I swallowed hard and turned the lock.

“Explain yourself.”

Heat rushed to my face, and I wasn’t sure I could speak. What did he know? Had he figured out my family connections? Anything I said could make things worse.

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