Avery wants to nail the man responsible for her sister's disappearance, CEO Carter Thebes, but the last thing she expects is to feel sorry for him, or worse, develop feelings. Can she unearth his secret before her emotions undo her efforts?
***
Aver...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"How many left?" Colton eyed the grey sky reflected on his computer screen—heard it battering the large glass windows overlooking the city, or what little of the city anyone could see through the haze of rain—with far more interest than the happenings in the executive office.
He craved to feel the droplets smatter on his tired face than sit through another tedious interview he didn't care for. It's not like he was going to be 'Carter' for a long time so any assistant would do. So couldn't they pick it? Why had he agreed to this? Why hadn't he just told Pops 'no' then and there last week and meant it?
I wanna go home and take this ridiculous suit off now.
He pulled at the tie knot as if a noose strangling him. That, and the stiff collared shirt, courtesy of Carter's wardrobe.
'You have to dress like him, eat like him, walk like him, hell, even fuck like him if you have to. Just keep the show going—for the time being. The future of the company is in your hands.'
No pressure.
Even now, Pops' words, spoken in that early morning fog shrouding the village—though the locals didn't let that stop them—slithered in his ear like an earworm. An earworm he couldn't dig out. He'd been surprised to see Pops there, strikingly out of place in his Armani black suit, and ill-advised leather shoes, dropping onto the village chautari in a chopper. The noise had pulled sleepy children from their beds, and they'd gathered to watch the scene.
Colton hadn't realised who had disrupted the peaceful morning until a local kid rushed to fetch him, mid-morning tea. He'd been sitting on the clay porch of the small double-storey clay house, with ceilings so low he had to crouch to move around it. A place he'd called home for the past few months while he helped build a local school. It was a better use of his damn mind and his damn money.
'Anything to keep the vultures at bay. The moment they find out the truth [they, being the Board] hell will break loose.'
Thanks, Pops, for that lousy image.
He loosened the top button, despite Amy Vance, one of his father's personal assistants, loaned out to him for a week or two, glaring daggers at him from across the desk. Perhaps thinking, How dare you! Don't you remember what Mr Thebes, your father, advised?
But Pops wasn't here to witness him 'stepping out of character' so he went as far as to strip it clean off his neck.
"You're gonna tell on me?" He couldn't help it, a smile curved at the corner of his lips. "It's just a tie, Amy. Just a tie."
"Tell that to your father." A twitch touched her face. If she was loathed to being loaned out to help him cover for his brother, Colton couldn't tell. But they both had a job to do today: play a charade of sorts.
Since Carter's old assistant had failed to show up for work as long as Carter's been on 'unexplained leave,' it was up to him now, to interview for a new assistant so the ruse could be maintained. Here he was, the CEO of Thebes & Thebes Luxury Realty, without his minion. It was the only reason why he'd failed to show up at meetings or missed calls and whatnot the past month, all because his assistant had quit without warning. And not because he, Carter Thebes, the oft irresponsible of the two brothers had decided to go somewhere without warning anybody.
