1
THAT’S NOT WHAT ‘UNLOAD’ MEANS
“Hell Master,are you looking at baby pictures again?”
Duke tensed, hurriedly stuffing the pictures into his expenditure report. “No.”
His butler, Hubrie, waltzed into the office without knocking. “Don’t lie. I saw that!”
“You saw nothing.” Duke rolled his eyes and opened another report on his computer, trying not to feel embarrassed. “I have eight reports needing signatures, three meetings this afternoon, and Teddy’s play at seven. If you have nothing on your schedule, I need you to pick Mallie up from piano class and drop by the fire station.”
“Do you need me to stop by the animal shelter, while you’re on a roll?” Hubrie asked dryly.
Duke breathed through his ever-present stress and scrubbed a hand through his thick hair. “Yes, actually. Thanks for the reminder. They insisted on giving the kids some donated cookies.”
Hubrie gave him a flat look. “You can’t keep doing this.”
“I’ve been managing.”
“Look.” Hubrie counted off on his fingers. “You’re a CEO. You’re also a volunteer firefighter, an animal shelter volunteer, a foster dad, and now you’re coordinating all the post-rescue cleanup. No one in their right mind doesfive jobsat the same time.”
“The kidnappings don’t happen all that often. So the cleanup is just a one-off event—”
“And you’re just going to do it again the next time someone else gets kidnapped.” Hubrie propped his hands on his hips.
“You’ve been helping me with everything else,” Duke pointed out.
“You have me doing both your butlerandpersonal assistant duties. You pay me a lot, Hell Master, but I need some time off for pranks. And you need someone who can helpyoumanage your time better.” Hubrie pulled out a scroll from his suit jacket, unraveling all four feet of it. He tapped on a paragraph in the middle. “You’re close to violating the Butler Brothers hiring rules.”
Duke leaned back in his comfortable leather chair, rubbing his temples. “Damn it. It’s just—The rescue we did last month, in Wyoming. I haven’t gotten all the shifters settled in yet.”
The mere thought made his shoulder muscles bunch up. If only he hadmore time.
The thing was, Duke knew the ins and outs of his jobs. He did good work. He just didn’t trust anyone else to do them right.
“You know what?” Hubrie said slyly. “You have too many duties. I think you need someone to help youunload.”
Duke looked up. “What?”
“You need to relax a little. Get those knots out.”
“I assume you mean the knots in my shoulders.” Not Duke’s... other knots.
The butler’s smile grew. “You need to trust someone else.”
“I trust my friends.”
“You should be letting Raptor and the rest deal with the poaching victims,” Hubrie said. “But more importantly, you need a massage. Squirt the stress out.”
“Squirt...?” Duke frowned.
Hubrie settled in the chair on the other side of Duke’s desk, pulling out his tablet. “I shall place an ad. For your new personal assistant.”
“I’m not sure about this.”
Hubrie jabbed at a different paragraph on his employment contract. “Clause 134 says I have the right to hire extra help, if you need it.”
Fuck, Duke had forgotten about that.
