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My eyes narrowed as she called my bluff—who the fuck was this girl?
“What do you want?”
Her answer came instantly, like she didn’t even have to think about it. “Job security, my pick of hours, the shift of my choice, and a pay raise.”
Liar.
I didn’t let her words impress me as I raked my gaze over her frame and raised a brow.
“Is that really what you want?”
She skimmed my body before her eyes met mine. “There’s nothing else you could offer me.”
I grinned, reluctantly, debating whether or not I could hire an actress to bartend for a short time—at least long enough for Ariana to see and lose.
“Fine.” Hole, meet shovel. “And if I win?”
“You won’t.”
I couldn’t wait to drown her with her confidence.
My eyes returned to the screen as I continued reading Emily’s employee file, “Candy Lane is TriBeCa born and raised, has a bachelor’s degree in Communications, and is pursuing her MBA part-time at Columbia, which she assures will not get in the way of her bartending hours.”
I cocked a brow at Ariana, noting how easy bluffing came to me.
She laughed and began pushing the cart to the door. Once she reached the threshold, she turned to me, a smirk lining her full lips.
“I didn’t know Emily changed her name to Candy Lane. Would ‘Lane’ be the last name or does the stripper of your fantasies have two first names? Like the Mary Jane of your delusions? Fancy.”
This girl.
I didn’t bother holding in my laugh.
“When’d you make me?”
“It wasn’t you, per se. It was the file. It was obvious you were talking about Emily.”
“You’ve been here four days. How was I supposed to know you know Emily that well?” I tilted my head slightly. “How do you know her, by the way? You’ve never had a shift on the restaurant side.”
Something flashed in her eyes. She smothered it like cheap condiments on a curbside hotdog.
“You know, your Royal Highness, if you’d leave your throne every now and then and talk to your subjects, you’d be surprised by how much you’d learn.”
“Are you telling me how to run my business?”
“I’m telling you how to run Asher Black’s.”
“I sign your paychecks.”
“Speaking of, I look forward to my raise.”
She left before I could answer, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d stayed anyway.
I didn’t have anything to say. Ariana blazed into my life uninvited, infatuated my sister, and left me speechless. If she kept this up, I wouldn’t recognize my life.
Elsa pushed her way into my mind, the word betrayal tattooed up and down the milky skin of her arms.
Is that really a bad thing? I heard the ghost of her whisper.
