Small Town Girl (Pink Springs 1)

Richard seethes as he glares at me. “You’re fired.”

At his words, a cool calm falls over me, and I straighten up and tuck my hands in my pockets. “No, I’m not, and for a couple of reasons.” I wait as he presses his lips together, and I smile. “One, you have no grounds to fire me other than I won’t do your dirty work, so don’t even think about it.” I can almost hear Richard grinding his teeth. “Two, I know too many secrets for you to cut me loose on a scandal. You think one little bunny incident is enough to bring this company down? You have no idea the information I’ve gathered in the last five years that would make our former CEO look like a choir boy.”

Richard opens his mouth to speak, but when I smile brightly at him, he closes it and then lowers his eyes. He’s knows I’ve got him.

“And three, which is my personal favorite, I quit.”

“You can’t quit,” Richard is quick to say, and I know it’s because he is realizing that I do know too many secrets to be let go. Richard is the type of man that would have put me in situations to invent dirt just so that he’d have something over my head. But he never thought I was an actual threat and left me alone. I can tell with the clouds in his eyes at this very second that he's realized his mistake.

“Watch me,” I say smugly as I turn to walk out of the room. But before I leave, I have one more thought, and I turn to face him. “Oh, and I’m taking Lux and my sister with me.”

As soon as the elevator doors close, I hear Richard shouting on the other side of them. I can’t help but smile to myself because for the first time in a long time, I’m happy.

13

Lux

I stare at the clock on my computer, tapping my fingers on the desk. Time is dragging on today, but it’s like that all the time now. All I can think about when I’m away from Bastian is, when am I getting out of here so I can be alone with him again?

I have no clue how Bastian can sit at a desk all day, because it drives me crazy. I don’t want to be a bunny girl, and I don’t care for working in an office, so what’s left at this point? Should I be an astronaut? I’m probably too short, and I’m running out of ideas here.

“Katie!” A woman comes running out of the elevator and runs over to Bastian’s secretary.

I pretend to type on my keyboard while I eavesdrop, but in my defense, it's hard not to. They are only a few feet from me, and I’m not hiding behind a plant or under the desk. Maybe it’s just office gossip, which was probably my favorite part of working at the diner back home. When Juno and I were really bored we’d make up silly crap and see how far we could get it to spread.

“Something big is going on upstairs,” I hear her say and pause my fingers.

Bastian is upstairs right now, and I wonder if this has something to do with him. He sent me a quick text telling me he was going up and it might be a minute.

“It’s something with Bastian. What’s going on?” she asks, clearly here for gossip and has none of her own. I’ve been here for a little over a week, and I know there isn't a chance in hell Katie is going to tell this girl anything.

“Everything is fine.” Katie smiles up at the woman, who huffs in response.

“Fine, but you’re the worst.” Katie only laughs as the woman goes back to the elevator and gets on.

“She really thought she was going to get you to talk about Bastian?” I say when the elevator doors close.

“Sometimes I’ll let a few small things slip. That way she’s always spreading what I want shared. It’s one of the many ways I keep my eyes on the staff here.”

“That’s brilliant,” I admit as Katie goes back to work.

My worry begins to grow, and I wonder how she doesn't want to know what’s going on up there.

“So…” I say after a long minute, bringing Katie’s attention back to me. “What’s going on? You think they know about Bastian and me? Is this against the rules? Could I be getting him in trouble?” I fire off one question after the other, clearly starting to panic.

The first day we came back to the office together, I told Bastian we had to keep it professional around here. That lasted about ten minutes. We both cracked because it’s hard to keep my hands off him. It’s his fault that my body knows what he can do to it, and I’m addicted now.