AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why not?”
I gape at her again. Chloe doesn’t know everything about the complicated history between her brother and me but she knows we’ve never gotten along. And she knows that Maddox Reign would never in a million years deign to give me a job.
He's the owner of the top real estate agency in the entire country. But he's also a coldhearted bastard.
And I would never ask him. No matter what, I couldn't work for Maddox Reign. I'm to avoid Maddox at all costs.
“He pays well,” Chloe is saying because she's trying to be helpful. “His secretary just bought a brand new Mercedes last month and all his agents own million-dollar houses."
“I don’t care if he pays them a billion dollars, Chloe,” I say. “Your brother is an arrogant asshat who works his agents to death. We hear all about it at the conferences.” Every few years, real estate agents from around the country join together to attend a conference in New York to meet and schmooze. And Maddox’s agents are notorious for having dark eyebags and short tempers, probably because he gives them less than four hours of sleep at a time. In some of the Facebook groups, we call them Zoomers, because they move so fast, always hurrying to the next room so they can get out as fast as possible.
Reign Real Estate might be the best agency in the country, but at what cost? So I can work for a slave driver?
”He treats his employees well,” Chloe insists.
“That’s not what I’ve heard,” I says. "Because I’ve heard that he forces them to meet ridiculous quotas all year round. Someone even told me that he specifically studies Russian torture methods for his agents who don't make the cut every month.” I lean in and tap the table for emphasis. “He also asks his agents to spy on other companies for him. And let's face it, even if all those things aren’t true, I’ve met your brother, remember? The last time, he barely even looked at me or remembered my name even though we’d spoken several times before. And the way he talks to his employees on the phone, like they're little monkeys just there to do his bidding..."
“Um, Ava..."
“No, Chloe. I don't care if he pays me in gold. Never in a million years would I work for that pompous asshat."
"Good to know,” comes a deep voice that could shake the earth, a voice that sounds almost rusty from lack of use. A voice that triggers something deep within. Fear. But also something else. Something I refuse to entertain.
I turn around and come face to face with the stone-faced giant that is Maddox Reign.
Chapter Two
Maddox
Onmywaytomy sister’s house, I reflect on the predictability of my days. This endless routine that is comforting but empty somehow.
The fact that my day has no surprises is both a blessing and a curse. I pretty much always know how things are going to go. To every last dull detail. I wake up a seven AM and go to the gym for an hour. Then I return and answer urgent texts and emails from my PA. Urgent issues sometimes arise out of business hours, and though Natasha handles most of it on her own, I’m still the owner and some things are ultimately up to me. Then it’s either a visit to my sister like now, my little way to break the routine that has become a routine in and of itself, or straight to work where I’ll remain until I’m exhausted enough to drag myself home and sleep, just to start all over again the next day.
Life has thrown challenge after challenge at me, and I’ve overcome every single one. The one thing I haven’t conquered yet is love. Though I still have living parents, I avoid them as much as I can. My sister is the only one I really love, the one I care about the most and sometimes I wonder what it would be like to come home to a warm body, a welcoming hug, a friend, a lover, a partner.
These musings have become a bit of a nuisance lately. Now that my company is top dog around here, I find myself wanting a new challenge. A new goal. And though love is the ultimate challenge, it is also the ultimate distraction. And I can’t afford a distraction if I want to remain being number one.
So, it is quite the conundrum. I could try and conquer love, try to see if it is what is missing in my empty life, but for that, I’d have to sacrifice something. However, by not wanting to sacrifice anything, I’m sacrificing my chance at a life with someone. At love. If that is in fact what I need. My ultimate goal.
There is a hole in me that nothing has been able to fill yet, and I’ve tried everything else. I’ve conquered everything else. So…
For a long time, I was content. I was the king of the fucking world. I’m at a point in my life where I’ve cracked the fucking code. I know the solution to everything before they even tell me the problem. I can read people like the back of my hand and intimidate them without even intending to. No one steps up to me. No one challenges me. No one surprises me. And that is… frustrating.
Until I walk through my sister’s kitchen and catch my name in the tail end of a bitter-toned conversation. “Because you did not just recommend that I call up the Maddox Reign and ask him for a job.”
I pause for a second, listening. I consider the speaker. I’ve been called worse things than my name, but it’s not necessarily the words that get to me. It's the familiarity in her tone, the assuredness.
Whatever she's saying about me, she isn't saying it because someone else told her.
Nah. It sounds personal. Like she knows me.
She looks familiar too. I can only see the back of her, currently, but something tells me that I know this girl.
One of Chloe’s friends? My sister is smiling at her, indulgent. There is clear affection in her gaze. Hmm, I should know the speaker, then. My sister doesn’t have many friends. Like me, she inherently mistrusts people, a side effect of how we were raised.
Since she left home, Chloe has turned to religion and a lot of other odd things to cover her pain, but sometimes I can still see it lurking beneath the surface. Not now, though. Right now, my sister seems totally relaxed, without her usual watchfulness. She’s just enjoying this girl's company even as the girl continues ranting.
"Your brother is an arrogant asshat who works his agents to death. We hear all about it at the conferences..."
