Page 8 of Wrecked By You

Stan groaned. “And on a VIP night, too.”

“Look at it as a challenge, Stan. I’m sure you can train her up just fine.”

“And if she fucks up?”

“Then I’ll fire her.”

“And how will that help us tonight?”

I growled. Stan and I were always like this, but for some reason, his incessant questions were riding me today, like fire ants burrowing under my skin.

“Then I’ll tend bar. Jesus Christ. Back the fuck off, or you’ll find yourself out on your fucking ear.”

Stan’s hands shot up to either side of his face in an attempt to appease me. “Okay, okay. I’ll show her the ropes and keep an extra-close eye on her. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Stan wasn’t the only one who’d be keeping a close eye on the intriguing Ella… I bit my lip. What was her fucking surname?

Reyes! That was it. Ella Reyes.

“It will be. I don’t hire duds.” I paused. “Except for you.”

Stan rolling his eyes brought a faint smile to my lips.

“Go do whatever you need to do. I’ve got a bar to stock.”

I left him to it and returned to my office. I shifted the stacks of papers around on my desk so that they wouldn’t be in view when I joined the videoconference for today’s board meeting. One day soon, I really had to get around to filing this shit.

My phone buzzed against my ass. I leaned forward and retrieved it, frowning at the screen. Ash. What did he want? My brother had gotten married last year, but it hadn’t slowed him down in the slightest. If anything, having a wife had spurred him on to work harder, although he took every other weekend off these days, which was quite the improvement. Ash was a workaholic. He had been for as long as I could remember. Even at school, my elder brother was the studious one, the son who’d always achieved top marks, while my younger brother, Penn, and I had messed about getting into scrapes and, well, being boys.

I swiped at the screen, bringing the phone to my ear. “Is Dad suffering from selective hearing again?”

Ash’s familiar chuckle sounded in my ear. “Hello to you, too.”

“You know me. No time for pleasantries.”

He paused. I imagined him shaking his head. “What’s Dad done now?”

“He’s put a fucking board meeting in from five to six. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve told him that’s a busy time for me. It’s like he’s got wool in his ears or something.” Or he didn’t take my business as seriously as the others. Yet more motivation to put Kingcaid nightclubs on the map and prove this business was far more than an expensive hobby.

“Actually, that’s my fault.”

“Yours?” I rapped a pen on my desk. “Thought you’d want to get home to the little woman. Won’t she have your dinner on the table by six?”

He snickered. “Please let me be present when you say that to Kiana. I’ll bring popcorn and everything.”

I smiled despite a healthy dose of irritation crawling up the back of my neck. Ash’s wife and I had a tumultuous relationship, partly—okay, mainly—down to me. I’d played a trick on her before she and Ash had hooked up, and our interactions had gone downhill from there. Although, once, when she’d needed help, she’d come to me. But I got the impression she tolerated me for Ash’s sake rather than a desire to be friendly.

Suited me fine.

Now Penn’s fiancée… she was a different prospect altogether. Gia got me. She understood me on a level that even my family struggled with. No idea why, but from our very first meeting, we’d clicked. That wasn’t to say I didn’t give her shit most of the time, but Gia knew how to handle me and give it back tenfold.

I’d never, ever admit this to her or anyone else, but I fucking loved Gia like the sister I’d never had. How she and Kiana were best friends remained a mystery I didn’t care enough about to try to unravel.

“So, you gonna spill why you’re fucking up my day?”

“Charming,” Ash drawled. “And just for the record, I don’t sit in my office conjuring ideas for making your life a misery, Johannes. I’ve invited Garen Gauthier to the meeting to talk about expanding our business relationship, and this was the only time he had free.”

Gauthier was one of the CEOs of a rival business, ROGUES. They were diversified along similar lines to Kingcaid, and a while ago, Ash had signed a deal with them that benefited both companies. Gauthier handled the hotel business within ROGUES, just like Ash handled the hotel business for us. Still, I hadn’t a clue what this had to do with me.