Axton Read online

  “Are we getting off here?” she said.

  Her words made him think of something else.

  Instead, he grabbed her arm, leading her out into the mail room.

  “You know I can follow. I don’t need to constantly be led everywhere,” she said.

  He looked at where he held her. He liked touching her.

  Releasing her, he waited.

  “Wow, you do listen.”

  “You have reason to believe I don’t?”

  “I remember what I heard in school,” she said. “You were all take, and no one told you any differently.”

  “Not much has changed.”

  “You still take.”

  “Always.”

  “Good to know. So, this is the mail room that you grew up in.”

  “Yes.”

  She stepped away from him. “It’s huge. I would have loved it down here.”

  “Why?”

  “You know, being alone. I mean, people will probably think it sucks. No windows and it has that dusty smell, but there’s not a lot of people here.”

  “They arrive in an hour.”

  “They’re not here before you?”

  “I need my workers to get on with business that is important to them. That’s the stuff right in front of them, right now, nothing else.”

  “Interesting,” she said.

  “What?”

  “I figured you’d be the kind of boss that would demand their employees do everything at once.”

  “I’m not a bad boss.”

  “How does one take a company from near ruin and make it what it is today?” she asked.

  His paranoia came back tenfold. “How do you know about that?”

  “Not long after I left King’s Ridge, I heard about the scandal that hit your dad’s company. It was a big deal, right? Investments went down the drain. People wanted to pull out. Stocks plummeted.”

  “You’ve done your homework?”

  “It’s business, and of course it’s juicy gossip.”

  “You like gossip?”

  “Sometimes. Depends on who it’s about. Remember, I’ve heard some of the bad stuff that’s been talked about.”

  Not long after Carla’s suicide, the school had been rife with rumors. Some had even suggested Taylor and Carla had a pact to end their lives together.

  It was the kind of shit people said to make themselves more important. He’d nipped all the rumors he heard in the bud. There was no time for shit like that, not on his watch.

  “This is pretty awesome.” She lifted up some envelopes before placing them down.

  “I take loyalty very seriously.”

  “Okay. As I’m sure most companies do.”

  “I will not tolerate you going to the competition or trying to sell company secrets or anything.”

  She held her hands up. “Wow, I really don’t know where that came from right now. I have no intention of doing anything like that.”

  “You’d be surprised what people are willing to do for money.”

  Her mouth formed into a perfect O. He couldn’t help but imagine his cock sliding deep into her mouth, hearing her moan.

  His cock tightened even more. The scent of vanilla was heavy in the air, and he wanted her so much.

  “You know what, I’d rather have Louise take me for a tour.”

  Any lust he felt instantly died. “Wait, what?”

  “I will continue to work for you, but there is no way I’m going to be subjected to that. I don’t know what kind of women you’ve been around, but I won’t do stuff like that for money. I’m a damn good worker, and you have my references. Is this how you treat all of the people that work here, or is this just personal to me because we grew up in the same town? Wow, I mean, what happened to you? Have you always been this way and I never saw it?” She shook her head. “You know what, forget it. I have never been so insulted in my life. I’m your employee, Mr. Farris. This is not what I signed up for.”

  He’d pushed her, and now he’d fucked up.

  “Taylor.” He went to grab her, but she pulled away.

  “No. You don’t know me. I’ve been here a matter of hours, and what you knew about me back in high school doesn’t count. What you said, that was wrong. I can’t even believe you’d think that kind of stuff.”

  “I’m your boss, Taylor.”

  “Then start acting like it. I know my place. I don’t want to talk to you right now. I just want to get back to Louise and let her handle everything.”

  He was tempted to stop her, but he watched her as the elevator took her away. He hated watching her walk away. She was right though. He didn’t react like this with Holly after she’d signed her employee agreement. It was all pretty standard stuff. The agreement was signed and understood. With Taylor though, the lines blurred. He wasn’t just a boss with her. The past was getting to him, making him react stupidly.

  “Well, that was interesting to listen to,” Karson said, surprising him.

  “What are you doing down here?”

  “The best way to learn about someone is to know what they’re getting in the mail.” Karson shoved his hands into his pockets. “What’s the deal with Taylor?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Your bullshit may work on everyone else, but it doesn’t with me. I remember in high school. I knew what you wanted.”

  “Fuck off, Karson, this is not your concern.”

  “This is my company as well. My neck is on the line. You don’t think I know about what happened ten years ago? What we all know. What we all could have been part of.”

  He stared at his friend. Between him and Karson, they’d been the ones to make the toughest decisions yet.

  “What’s the deal with Taylor?” Karson asked again.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You clearly have your doubts about why she’s working here. So why don’t you tell me from the start? You think she’s working for the opposition? Our enemies? What?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  Karson snorted. “She’s clearly got a bad temper. Out of all of the candidates, Taylor is the best one, except for that. She knows us, and she’s more than qualified. All of her references check out. If you want to fire her, be my guest, but that decision is yours to make.”

  “You know as well as I that there are a lot of people that would love to see us fail. I’m not going to make any mistakes.”

  Karson stepped forward. “I forgot how good the scent of vanilla was.” He closed his eyes and breathed in deep. “You know this bullshit you’ve got going on where you make sacrifices, it doesn’t make you a better person. Maybe I’ll let Taylor know what’s she’s been missing all these years.”

  He wrapped his fingers around Karson’s neck and pressed him against the wall. “You’ll stay away from her.”

  “Come on, Axton. Don’t you want to know how good that pussy will feel wrapped around our dicks? You can take her ass, and I’ll fuck her tight little snatch.”

  He slammed his fist in Karson’s face, pushing away.

  His friend was laughing at him.

  “You see, Axton, when someone makes you want to hit them over saying shit they don’t really mean, you’ve got to acknowledge you have a problem.”

  “Leave her alone.”

  “You have to admit, she’s turned into a really nice piece of ass.”

  “Fuck off, Karson.”

  “Maybe I will fuck her. Tape it and let you see. Romeo, Easton, and I are looking for a bit of action. It would only make sense to fuck her. To give her the real Four Kings treatment.”

  Axton grabbed Karson and drew his knee up, winding his friend in the process.

  Karson didn’t fight back, just kept on laughing.

  He didn’t get his friend’s sense of humor. He was pissed off, and he wanted the asshole’s blood so badly.

  Axton pulled away.

  “She must really mean a lot if you’re willing to go for blood, Axton.”
>
  “Fuck you.”

  “Nah, I think you’d like that a little too much.” Karson winked. “Damn, it has been a long time since you hit like that. This woman has an effect on you.”

  He watched as his friend got up from where he’d pushed him on the floor. Karson pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the blood from his lip.

  “Stay away from her.”

  “You don’t think she’ll put it all together while she works here? Who you are? What you did?” Karson asked.

  Axton had his back on Karson, but now he turned around, looking at his friend.

  Karson shrugged. “You’ve got to understand that you put yourself at risk with this.”

  “She’ll never know anything.”

  “Why don’t you just tell her? Why do you have to keep everything a secret?”

  “Because it’s for her own safety.”

  “Our parents stayed together.”

  Axton smiled. “All of our parents were power-hungry whores, Karson. That’s the difference. They all knew what they were getting themselves into at the start. I’m not going to do that. Don’t keep lurking in the mailroom. It looks creepy.”

  “I’ll stop working in the mailroom when you admit your feelings and stop sounding like a complete asshole. Are you going to fire her?”

  “No.”

  “Then let’s try and stop pretending we’re back in high school. Taylor gets to you. She always has, I get it. You got your suspicions, I’ll follow your lead. I will always do that. Just keep your head on straight.”

  “Got it.” Axton saluted his friend and stepped onto the elevator. He needed to get back to work.

  It was rather interesting.

  Over the years he’d pulled together little tests that helped him to determine their true intentions.

  He was rather surprised that she’d not passed the test. He didn’t expect such a reaction from her, but clearly, she was passionate about it. Not what he remembered from high school.

  Before they hired Holly, he’d gone through a lot of women, seeing past the façade they liked to show. When he asked them clearly, they’d tried to seduce him or they would have different reactions. He wasn’t interested in hiring a woman that was highly emotional or prone to screwing to get what they wanted. What he tried to find out was how they would react to certain questions. Sometimes he was sure some women truly believed he’d give up his empire’s secrets for a bit of pussy. The empire was everything to him.

  Just because she’d been insulted with his honesty didn’t mean that he was going to let her off the hook easily. Taylor wanted to work for the Four Kings’ Empire, then he was more than happy to show her how fucking hard she had to work.

  They didn’t take laziness here, or work that wasn’t up to standard.

  Stepping off the elevator at his floor, he saw that her desk was clear. Her bag, which she kept on her at all times, sat by her chair.

  Louise would keep her busy for the next hour.

  Without an ounce of guilt, he picked up her bag and made his way into his office. Closing the door, he walked toward his desk and opened it up.

  A bag was supposed to be sacred for women, at least that was what propriety told him. Pulling out her purse, he found a small bag, a bottle of water, her lunch, and other few items. He checked through the bag, looking for a camera. To get into the building she had to pass security, but even now, people found ways of getting cameras inside, trying to get into his building to locate shit that he didn’t want anyone to know.

  Checking through the whole bag, he saw it was just an innocent label knockoff, which was fine. Next, he placed her lunch back inside, followed by her makeup after checking through them.

  Opening up her purse, he saw her bank cards, and he pulled them out, seeing there were no credit cards. A picture of her from high school with Carla and Paul caught his attention. All three of them seemed to be in a field of some kind and were smiling up at the camera.

  He didn’t recognize it, but he didn’t like that anger he felt either.

  Closing her purse, he put that inside the bag then her cell phone.

  She didn’t have it password protected.

  Turning it on, he checked through her last calls, seeing nothing of any value.

  Her messages were next. He saw only two contacts. David and Paul.

  Clicking on them, he quickly read through. It seemed she’d deleted her messages prior to this day.

  David: Good luck. Have a lot of fun. Remember, be sexy.

  Paul: You know what you’re doing.

  Tapping his fingers on the desk, he was curious about both messages but saw that his time was running out. With everything back in her bag, he left his office, and placed it back by her chair just as he heard the elevator open up.

  Without waiting to see her, he left and found Romeo in his office as he entered.

  “You know, rummaging about in a woman’s bag is kind of creepy.”

  “It’s necessary. What do you want?”

  “Are you going to do this to her every single time she enters the building? Just because you have suspicions?”

  “What do you want?” Axton asked. He never liked to repeat himself.

  Romeo sighed. “You know, you could actually be causing this shit.”

  “How do you figure that out?”

  “Quite simple, you’re not keeping it in the past. What happened back then should stay there. Taylor’s been nowhere near us between then and now. You got to learn to let shit go.”

  Axton laughed. “You remember that last day in school when the parents cleaned out the locker?”

  “Vaguely.”

  “Taylor was doing the same with hers. She stopped what she was doing and walked over to Carla’s locker and finished doing what the janitor clearly didn’t want to do.”

  “Your point being?”

  “The way she looked at all of us as she walked back to her own locker. That’s my point. She knew something or suspected something.”

  “Maybe Carla told her all about her relationship with Easton.”

  “And maybe she knew about the baby. Paul can find shit out. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the Four Kings’ Empire paid off the guy. There’s always a paper trail. Even on internet transactions. Someone will always find out your business.”

  “For fuck’s sake, Axton. You need to go and see someone. You’re fucking paranoid. No one can touch us. No one but you. Think about that. We all know you’ve got files on each and every single one of us. You’re the one that holds all the power here, and we’re okay with that. So long as that fucking power stays with one person, got it.”

  There was a knock at the door.

  Looking over Romeo’s shoulder, he saw Taylor waiting.

  “I’m here for the morning debrief. Louise said that to get started, Holly always got her orders from you first.”

  “We’ll talk later.”

  “Come in,” he said. “Close the door.”

  Taylor closed the door. He saw her hands clasped in front of her, and she bit her lip.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  This was not what he expected. “About what?”

  “Down in the mailroom. This is your company, and you have a right to protect this place as you see fit. I was … shocked and a little put out by the way you asked, and I shouldn’t have flown off the handle like that. I accept if you wish to fire me. It’s what you should do. I shouldn’t have acted that way. We’re not in high school anymore, and I do apologize. I accept all responsibility.”

  He tilted his head, watching her, seeing if there were any signs of false sincerity.

  There was none.

  To him it appeared she meant every single word.

  “I’m not going to fire you, but you’re on a warning.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Good, let’s get to work.”

  ****

  For the next week, Taylor didn’t even have time to think about what
she’d heard or what she’d learned so far. All four men kept her occupied. Between writing letters, setting up meetings, handling clients, getting coffee, fetching lunch, and then going through everything again, from sitting in on telephone conferences and being an actual living computer, making notes on everything. It was all crazy.

  Axton was the worst.

  No matter how perfect her letter was that she’d typed out, he’d have a red pen at the ready, reading through it and marking through it.

  His anger knew no bounds.

  He’d even called her stupid and demanded to know where she got her business degree if she couldn’t write a simple letter from them. She’d written the letter, but he found fault with it, changing it, marking it. Making her feel like a child, but that was fine. This was his company. He could act like he wanted to.

  There was one letter at the start of the week. He’d made her type it out six different times before he finally came out, sat at her desk, and did it himself. Once he was done, he glared at her and told her that was why he ran a company, and she just worked for him.

  She’d wanted to fucking slug him.

  She’d rather feel this way though, than when she nearly screwed everything up on her first day. Reacting the way she did, she’d expected to get fired, so when he didn’t, she was so damn relieved. Ten years of her life down the drain. That wasn’t happening. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

  When she got home, Paul had been waiting for his regular update, but she’d needed a drink before she could even bring herself to speak.

  She was going to turn her into an alcoholic before her mission was complete. She fucking hated Axton. Despised him.

  So much so she’d found herself wondering how women were even attracted to him.

  Sure, he had all this money, but that didn’t make the man, far from it.

  Not only that, he was a complete and total fucking asshole!

  No amount of money would ever make her ride his fucking dick.

  She’d been tempted on many occasions in one week alone to quit. No amount of justice deserved this kind of treatment.

  Not only that, she was sick over the fact she’d been attracted to him. No matter what he said, whenever he entered a room, she found herself getting wet, wanting him.

  All of her life she’d never wanted anyone.