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And it’s starting to get more than a little irritating.
“Look, I have a lot of work today, so…”
“Oh, I know,” she says waving her hand. “I didn’t come to bother you. I know you’re a very busy man.”
There she is again with that veneer of reasonability. But somehow, I can still sense the crazy in her. The same crazy that had her stalking me across state lines the last time we met.
But that’s on me for sticking my dick in crazy.
“I just wanted to see if you wanted to catch lunch. Since I’ll be in town kind of long term.”
Great, just what I need.
Luckily, my phone rings at the right moment saving me from a drawn-out conversation.
“I’ll check my schedule and have Natasha reach out to you,” I say noncommittally as I'm already striding away. I answer my phone and wave absently at her called out goodbye.
"Reign here," I say into the phone.
“How are you doing, Reign?"
I have Nina to blame for the fact that I didn't check the caller ID before I answered.
"Paulino." Yet another person I don't want to talk to. This day is off to quite the start already and I’m not even in my office yet. "I know you have a lot of time on your hands seeing as how your company is a joke, but I really don't have time to fuck around with you, princess."
"Haha, so funny. And ironic of you of all people to say." Victor Paulino is a business rival who I enjoyed beating out of contracts. I especially enjoyed rubbing it in his face.
“I didn’t think you’d have the balls to answer me. Seeing as how you just lost three of your major prospects of the year to me."
I stop in step. Victor may exaggerate, but he doesn't lie. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Nothing." He sounds so pleased that I want to smash his weaselly little face. "It's just that this is the third billion-dollar client you've lost to me. And the year’s just started. Have you checked with accounting lately? Because something tells me your numbers are not looking so hot. You might just have become the second or third most profitable real estate agency in the city."
"You’re full of shit."
"Oh yeah?" he laughs. "Then call my bluff. Check your numbers and then get back to me."
And with that, he hangs up, like the weaselly little bastard that he is.
The minute I walk into my office suite I gesture toward Natasha who instantly gets off the phone.
“Yes, sir?”
“Have accounting send up a quarterly report by the end of the day.”
“But the quarter just started.”
“I know. But I need to prove a point.”
She doesn’t ask anything else and goes to do what I ask. Ever efficient Natasha. It’s why she gets the big bonuses.
The reports arrive midafternoon and my mood falls all the way into hell.
Because not only do I discover that we’re behind target by at least twenty percent, but I also find out that Victor fucking Paulino is right.
We’re no longer the number one Real Estate Agency in the state.
Fuck.
