Page 16 of Heartless
“I thought about what you said. I agree. I did my part of the deal and you should, too. You should plan five weddings at The Gem.”
Madison didn’t tear her eyes away from the papers. “Great. And what’s that?”
“That, Miss Hartley, is your contract of employment.” I waved the papers between us, as I watched all the color draining from her face.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not letting you walk around with no accountability. So if you want to plan those five weddings, you will have to do it as my employee.” She opened her mouth, no doubt to argue, but I cut her off. “If you don’t sign this contract, I will have to call Annie Foster, tell her you refused to become a part of our team and that I am hiring a new wedding planner that would love to organize her wedding. Let’s face it. You would sign if she was that important to you as a client.”
I offered Madison the contract, and she snatched it out of my hand. Her face screamed murder, and I found myself eager to find out what her next move would be, which was fucked up in an entirely different way. When did she start to interestme so much?
“Is there somewhere I could read this in private?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, surprised she gave in so fast. “Of course. Katie, please guide Ms. Hartley to The Pink Diamond.”
Katie whipped her head in my direction so fast she might have pulled out her neck. “Sir?” I just glared at her and she nodded. “Yes, sir.”
She led my potential new employee towards The Pink Diamond while I walked into the main building and headed to my office.
I hadn’t planned on sending Madison to The Pink Diamond beforehand. But it was a good call. She would be isolated there, while in the main building, she would have access to the staff. I didn’t trust her not to pull some shit in retaliation.
Katie joined me in my office ten minutes later and we waited. An hour passed and nothing happened. She didn’t come looking for me. I started checking my phone for what seemed like every other minute. Nothing.
I faced Katie. “She’s plotting something.”
“What could she be plotting?”
“I don’t know. But that contract is not that long, nor is it complicated enough for her to take an entire hour to read it.”
“Would you like me to go check up on her?”
“Sure,” I snorted. “Like I would send you there and give her an opportunity to do something.”
Katie’s eyebrows lifted. “Okay,” she mouthed as if I was a crazy person she didn’t want to talk to.
Madison was a way bigger problem for me than the attitude of my current personal assistant, so I ignored Katie’s reaction and got out of my office.
I tried to catch a noise as I approached The Pink Diamond. Any noise. I couldn’t hear a fucking thing.
I reached down into my pocket, pulled out a card that unlocked every door on the property, and invited myself in. That was something I would never do if a guest occupied the villa, but Madison wasn’t a guest and I wasn’t disturbing her. It was the other way around. She disturbed me more than I ever thought possible from the day I first heard her obnoxious voice on the phone.
I walked in, determined to catch her in the act of whatever she was doing. As I reached the living room area, I noticed the contract on the couch. Madison was nowhere to be seen.
The bedroom door was ajar. Maybe she was using the bathroom. I stood up next to the couch and waited. Still no sound.
I pushed the bedroom door open and found it empty. It looked like someone had laid on the bed, though.
What. The. Fuck?
Anger mixed with fascination made me walk in and check the bathroom. She wasn’t there either.
Returning to the living room, I glanced out the floor to ceiling windows and spotted her sprawled out on a lounge chair by the pool. That was the moment I got worried about how all this would end.
Because that was the first time in my life that I fantasized about drowning someone.
Chapter Six
Madison
