The Man Who Has No Sight (Soulless 4)

She shook her head slightly. “I was recently fired because of transgressions I take full responsibility for, and I think it’s unwise to ask for a raise after that.”

“But he should have given you a raise a long time ago. He knows you’re too polite to ask, and he’s taking advantage of that. He’s gotta make a million dollars off you every single month in fees alone.”

“Yes, but he’s the one who owns the building.”

“But you’re the single biggest reason people want to live here. Yes, the condos are nice, always updated, are in a great location, but there are condos everywhere. You guys have turned it into a resort where we get to live. Ask for the raise.”

“Even if I asked, he would only give me five percent—”

“You go in there with the number you want. Tell him to take it or leave it.”

Now her eyes widened in disbelief. “He could replace me with someone for a fraction of the cost.”

“But we both know he’ll never find anyone who can hustle the way you do. That last person he hired didn’t even last a month. I had a signature from every client in the building saying they would leave if you weren’t reinstated. Use that to your advantage.”

She sighed quietly, starting to fidget with her hair.

“He’s still making a killing even if he pays you double. He just sits on his ass at his beach house and cashes the checks. His life wouldn’t change.”

“But he gave me a chance in the beginning, and that was really generous. I was really young at the time, but he took the chance.”

“And you’ve paid him back a million times over. Look, you could leave and start your own company.”

“I have a noncompete clause—”

“That only lasts so many years.”

“Deacon—”

“Ask him for the salary you want, and then you can move in next door.”

“Geez, that would be a lot of money…”

“How will you know unless you try? I’m not exactly sure how much you get paid now, but I know it should be much higher for what you do and how much he’s benefiting from all your long nights and weekends. Honestly, I can’t believe you work so hard for someone else. With that kind of dedication, you should work for yourself.”

She shrugged. “Honestly, I really like my job. I’m not just saying that. There’re a lot of clients in this building that I consider to be friends, not just people I work for. The salary has never been that important, because I had a nice apartment someone my age could never afford in a million years.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t deserve that financial security. Do it, Cleo.”

She dropped her gaze. “I don’t know…”

“I can do it for you.”

Her chin lifted immediately. “No.” When she realized she’d snapped, she quieted. “I mean, I don’t need you to do that for me.”

I pushed the paper back to her. “I want you to have everything you deserve. I know I’m biased, but you shouldn’t have to hunt for an apartment that’s twenty minutes out of the way. You deserve a place with a doorman, with someone to pick up your mail for you, a place that’s just across the street.”

She smiled slightly. “I know. That’s sweet.”

“So, talk to him first before you jump the gun. There’s no rush to leave anyway.” I liked having her there. I liked coming home to her. I liked having her in my bed every night. I liked the easy companionship and the fact that it didn’t need to be a secret anymore. She got ready for work and went downstairs. I probably spent more time outdoors in the cold than she did. I would ask her to move in with me permanently, but that was too fast. Our relationship was new again. Didn’t make sense to force it to accelerate.

“I’ll think about it.” She took the paper back and returned it to her folder.

I kept eating.

She opened up a different folder and turned it toward me. “I thought about what you said, running the business side of things so you could spend more time doing your research. Well, without actually seeing the way you run things, I thought this could be a start.” She showed me how she would organize everything. “I think it’s best to protect your privacy as much as possible, so I talked to one of my clients about coding and encryption. He said we could set it up in a way where I would organize all your numbers in a spreadsheet, do all your organizing with it encrypted, and when I send it to you, you just turn it off and you can see the real numbers. That would give you most of the information you need to make decisions about your company. For payroll, there’s no way around that one. I can work directly with your accountant to handle all of that. But that eliminates most of the work for you.”