“It’s not the happiest of stories, I don’t want to ruin the mood,” Ava told him.“Don’t worry about that,” Zane said and played with her hair. He just wanted to get to know her, see all the sides she had. “I was just out of nursing school and had landed my first real job in the E.R. I wasn’t new to working, I have been working since I was fifteen. I started as care assistant in a nursing home, and I continued working there until I graduated nursing school,” Ava started. “Was that what made you decide to go into nursing?” Zane asked. “Maybe a part of it. But then it was also a stable career where work would be easy to find, and I knew I would be able to gain my independence if I became a nurse. And I like to help people,” she told him. “Anyway, I was feeling grown up and I started dating this guy my last couple of months in school. I met him when me and some friends were out and it was my first real serious relationship.”“Why is that? You are gorgeous and warm-hearted, men should b
“I am,” Zane confirmed. Gabriel looked at Ava. She was just as surprised as he was. Zane found he was enjoying himself. Maybe it would be a bad idea to tie her best friend to his organisation when he had to let her go. But Zane was too much of a pragmatic to miss an opportunity like this. “Why?” Gabriel finally asked. “Yesterday you proved you were able to give me a better solution to my problem in five minutes whilst being drunk, than my accountant could give me after having hours to think about it sober. Your talent is waisted working in a hospital,” Zane said. “Right,” Gabriel nodded, trying to take everything in. “How would it work? What would I be doing?”“We would help you set up your own accounting agency. It’s up to you if you would like to bring on other clients or not. But we will make sure you financially won’t have to, and we would expect to be your priority at all times. You would handle our bookkeeping and everything that includes. Of course you would have to sign an
“How can I help you, miss A?” Ryder asked, glancing at Gabriel.“Gabriel and I are going for a walk and Zane asked me to take you or Tom with us, and here you are. Do you have time to accompany us?” “Sure, no problem,” he said and tried to steal a cookie and got a slap on the hand from Anna. “Thank you. Anna, could I ask something from you as well?” “Of course, miss Ava, what do you need?” “Gabriel and I were thinking of spending the afternoon by the pool, but Gabriel didn’t bring any swim shorts. Do you know if there is a way he could borrow some?” Ava asked.“Yes, we have some for guests. Let me guess,” Anna said, sizing Gabriel up. “Size 40?” “That’s spot on,” Gabriel said with surprise. “They will be in your room after your walk, miss Ava,” Anna said. She held out the platter with cookies for Ava and Gabriel while keeping an eye on Ryder.“Don’t I get one?” Ryder asked, sounding like a sad puppy.“No, you tried to steal one. This is your punishment. It will teach you to have
Zane had enjoyed the evening, the dinner with all of them had been fun. Tom, Jax and he had all placed bets on how long it would take Gabriel and Ryder to get anywhere. Ava had seemed to have fun and Zane couldn’t think of the last time he had such a relaxing evening. That was about to end, but at least it had lasted a couple of hours. He and Jax had been in his office for an hour. They had got a call saying something was off with one of their shipments. “I’ll just tell Ava I will be out tonight. I’ll be down in five minutes,” Zane told Jax as they left the office. Jax nodded as he headed down the stairs. Zane knocked on Ava’s door. There was no reply, and he frowned. He was just about to take out his phone and call her when he heard footsteps on the staircase. Zane turned around and saw Ava coming up the stairs, she had two books in her hand, and he relaxed.“Zane, did you need anything?” she asked as she saw him standing outside her room.“No, angel. I just wanted to let you know J
Ava had just drifted off to sleep when she was woken by loud voices and people moving around downstairs. She frowned and got up; she had gone to bed in one of her more risqué nightgowns after what Zane had told her. As she didn’t feel like showing it off to the rest of the house, she took one of Zanes hoodies and pulled it on. She opened the door and to her surprise she looked at Ryders back, he was standing in front of the door. “Ryder?” “Miss A, please go back inside the room and stay there,” he told her, only turning his head to glance down on her. “What’s going on?” “Nothing to worry about, go back to bed,” he said. Right, like Ava was some dumb bimbo. Something was obviously wrong, and Ava refused to be taken off guard again. If there was danger coming, she would be prepared for it. “Ryder, you are going to tell me what is going on or so help me god I will perform a vasectomy on you,” she said, she knew threats were how these men communicated to establish some kind of rank. She j
“I was needed,” Ava told Zane.“Who told you that?”“No one, but I’m not stupid. I knew something was wrong when people started behaving like ants, and then it was easy to figure out my help was needed.”“I have to punish Ryder for disobeying my orders,” Zane told her. “Don’t do that, Zane. He did try to make me stay upstairs. I just didn’t let him. It’s my fault,” she said.“Angel, he is twice your size. If he had wanted you to stay in a room, you wouldn’t have been able to get out,” Zane pointed out.“And if he hadn’t let me out, there is a possibility we would have lost Tom,” she countered. Zane gave her a hard look, but she refused to give in on this. After cleaning up his wound, she knew it didn’t need stitching, but some surgical glue would help the healing. “I’ll be right back,” she said as she walked over to the supply table and rummaged until she found what she was looking for. “Ava, this is serious. What if the people who ambushed us targeted the mansion?” he told her as s
Ava swallowed and stood up, walked the one step to the desk and placed her hands on the hard wooden surface. Zane followed her and stood beside her, placing a hand on her lower back.“Tell me why you are being punished,” he said.“Because I didn’t obey your orders,” she answered him.“That’s right. And why did I give those orders, angel?”“To keep me safe.”“So by not listening to my orders, you put yourself in danger. If one of my men would have put you in danger, do you know what I would have done to him?”“No.”“I would have killed him. No mercy.” Ava didn’t know what to say to that, so she stayed quiet, trying not to think about why it made her feel all warm and fussy inside. “I’m going to spank you as punishment. Since this is your first offence, I will use my hand. Don’t expect me to be so lenient in the future, understood?”“Yes.”“How many swats do you think you deserve?” Zane asked. Ava had no idea, this was unfamiliar territory for her.“Ten?” she hesitantly suggested. Zane
After waking up and joining Zane for lunch, Ava wanted to check on Tom. She walked to the guestroom he had been placed in and knocked on the door. The door was opened by a woman in her mid-thirties. She looked tired and surprised.“Hello, you must be Tom’s wife. I’m Ava. I’m sorry to disturb you. I just wanted to check to see how he is doing.”“Hello. Yes, I’m Samantha. Tom has told me about you, please come in.” Samantha told Ava and stepped to the side. “Thank you. How is he doing?” Ava asked.“Better, I think. He was a wake this morning for a couple of hours. But he has been sleeping since then.”“It’s normal. He lost a lot of blood. He will be tired for a while. May I?” Ava asked, nodding to Tom’s hand that was laying above the covers.“Yes.” Ava bent down and took his pulse. It was stable and strong and his skin felt warm but not heated. “He is doing much better than the last time I saw him. I’m happy. How about you? Is there something you need?” Ava asked.“Me? No, not really.