Dirty Addiction (Dirty 2)

Tony frowns. “That’s where you are wrong. It’s yours. Your father always made sure of that.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not my place to say.”

A knock interrupts us.

“Hey, Tony.” A young man sticks his head into Tony’s office. “Have you seen Killian?”

Tony shakes his head. “No, sorry. I think he’s at a meeting at the Felton Red Waves. He won’t be back until later this evening.”

“Shit,” the man says. “Is Lee around?”

I glance down at my phone. “I don’t think he is going to be in for another hour.”

“Shit,” the man says again. “I need someone to sign these, approving the initial demolition, and I need it now. They already showed up. If I don’t give them these forms, like, right now, they are going to leave. Then, who knows when the construction will start?”

“I’ll sign them,” I say without thinking.

The man looks at me in confusion. “Who are you?”

“I’m Kinsley Felton. I’ll sign them. It’s no big deal really,” I say. Although I don’t have authority to sign anything, not really. Grandfather won’t care though. I already know he wants the expansion to happen, and it’s the same with Killian. It won’t hurt anything for my signature to be on it instead of theirs.

The man looks to Tony, who nods his head and smiles.

The man still looks concerned, but he knows his ass is on the line if the project doesn’t start today. He rushes the papers over to me and shows me where to sign. I sign and initial each spot, barely glancing at the papers. I should probably read them before signing, but this man is in an obvious rush. I don’t want to give him a heart attack by waiting for me to read them. And it feels good to be making a decision for the company even if it is one that has already been agreed upon.

“Thanks,” the man says, rushing back out of Tony’s office.

When I turn back to Tony, his sly smile is plastered on his lips.

“What?”

He shakes his head as he tries to lose the smile, but he can’t. “I think, with a little training, you would make an excellent CEO. You probably shouldn’t start off in that position, but I think a few years under your belt would get you ready.”

“You’re crazy. All I did was sign some papers. I didn’t do anything.”

“You did more tha

n just sign some papers. You convinced a man who has never met you that you were in charge. And don’t think I didn’t notice that, after you left last time, you didn’t just change one small thing about my numbers. You completely redid everything to make it work. You saw trends that no one else saw. That’s impressive. You are obviously a natural when it comes to numbers and finance. We could use someone like you in this department.”

I smile weakly. “Thanks.” But I don’t feel like I’m capable of doing anything.

Tony stands, returning back to his chair. “Killian is good-looking, too, though. He wouldn’t be a terrible choice either.” He winks at me.

I frown. I don’t want him giving me dating advice. I don’t want anyone giving me dating advice. He doesn’t understand what’s going on in Killian’s head.

“He doesn’t care about me. He just wants to marry me to get the position.”

Tony narrows his eyes. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Word is, he just got promoted without marrying you. He might care more about you than you think.”

But all I hear is that Killian got promoted to CEO. Last night, he knew the decision my grandfather had made. And Killian chose not to tell me that my time was already up.

I no longer get a choice.

“I need to go,” I say.

Tony nods as I stand and leave without a good-bye.