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I uncross my legs and prepare to stand.
“No. They may as well be chasing their own fucking tails. Useless pigs,” he hisses.
Abort.
Maybe if I stay seated, he’ll leave and never know I was here.
Chapter 4
Dax
Iendthecalland toss the phone on my desk.
Fucking Marcus. He has one simple job. Make sure the crates get picked up. It’s all been arranged. All he has to do is help load them onto the truck and then fuck off home. He reckons he saw a cop car near his house earlier and now he’s pissing himself. Stupid fucker. He needs to grow balls. Happy enough to spend his cut, flashing it around like a complete dickhead. But one little squad car passing and he’s ready to run home for Mommy. And he wonders why he’s given all the shit jobs. Something I’ve learned about this world over the past few years—you’ve got to earn respect. And with that comes trust. Fortunately for me, I’ve got both.
I flick through some papers on my desk without taking a seat. My spine straightens as a scent catches my attention.Sweet and feminine.It’s suspended in the air like an image on a Polaroid before it has time to develop.
Whoever she is, she was here recently.
“There you are.” Jasmin waltzes in and stalls, flicking her eyes around as if she’s looking for something before she walks over to me. I wrap an arm around her and kiss her on the cheek; the phone call and Marcus’s incompetence forgotten.
I inhale before she pulls away. Jasmin’s wearing her usual scent today—Tom Ford. It’s not the one I smelled a moment ago. That alluring scent has drifted away with the displacement of the air.Shame.
Two and a half years in a men’s only jail and you get good at recognizing when something smells like a vanilla fucking cookie wrapped in petals is nearby.
“She was here. I left her here.” She looks around again. “Rose?”
I lean back against my desk, wrapping my palms around the wooden edge.
Rose Jacobs.Logan said he had dropped her off last night. The latest addition to the Silver Estate’s staff. A more unusual hiring, but I was asked to repay a favor I owed, and I’m a man of my word.
I look around my office, my eyes landing on the chair by the window.
“New girl!” I snap, my sudden outburst echoing off the walls and making Jasmin jump. She turns to scowl at me, and I curl my lips into a smile. She may be twenty-five now, but I still love to mess with her sometimes.
Be nice, she mouths, as movement in my peripheral draws my attention back to the chair and the tall blonde emerging from behind it.
“Dax. This is Rose.”
I stare at the woman in front of me. Her long hair falls in waves over her shoulders, framing a face that has an elegant beauty to it, a slightly upturned nose, soft-looking lips, and large blue eyes.
“Nice to meet you,” she says as she reaches me. I inhale sharply, my grip on the desk tightening.Vanilla and petals…
Frowning, I take in her outfit. A dress that probably should be longer, but due to her height, falls mid-thigh, showing a hint of smooth, tanned skin, before meeting a pair of black over-the-knee boots.
Jasmin coughs and I snap my eyes back up, reaching my hand out.
“Dax Silver.”
As our skin connects, a spark of static electricity jolts us.
“Rose Jacobs,” she replies with a furrowed brow.
“You know how to balance books?” I ask, gripping her hand in mine. Jasmin sighs. She hates me cutting to the chase with business. She’s much more of a relationship builder with our staff. She wants to make them feel at home, ensure they’re happy here. I think it stems from her being left so many times over her life. She hates it when people leave. This is her way of trying to make sure they never want to.
But this is business. Most people only want you to believe they’re your friend. They only care about themselves and their own agenda.
“Yes.” She holds my gaze, tightening her grip on my hand. “You have no worries there.”
