Chapter 3

A M A R A

Groggily, I woke up and aggressively shut off my alarm. It had just turned twelve in the afternoon and I needed to start looking for jobs-despite my antagonizing headache.

+

I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a shower. I was sure Sebastian could smell me from his room.

After showering, I put on one of my interview outfits. Hopefully there would still be some going on today, and hopefully they would take me without scheduling one prior.

"Well don't you just look delicious," Seb jokingly flirted.

I smirked. "Thanks Seb. Are you ready to go?"

"Do you want anything to eat? I'm sure you're hungry."

My stomach churned. "Ah- I'm ok. I'll pick something up along Mag."

He nodded and we left. I dropped him off at work and drove farther downtown to the business district.

After about ten minutes, I finally managed to find a parking spot. One of the downsides of living in the Windy City was the traffic.

I walked down the street completely oblivious to where I was going and what I was looking for.

While in college I minored in economics, and then majored in information technology. I was a pretty smart lady, but it seemed everyone already had enough of those on their staffs.

I went to company after company, my application rejected each time. I was going to give up, until I came across one last building.

It was at the end of the street. The complex demanded attention, and it was probably the largest one here. It was made completely of gold, and the windows were black, adding a modern touch. I looked up and guessed that it had to have been over 200 stories tall. At the top, there were large letters that read, 'Moretti Enterprises.'

+

The name seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on where I had heard it from.

I walked inside, praying for some kind of miracle, but the receptionist didn't look too happy to see me.

She was blonde, and I could tell her botox was starting to fade. Before speaking, she scoffed at me and eyed me up and down. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you had any open positions or interviews available?" I was trying to remain as professional as I could. I really needed a job.

She smacked her gum and her fake nails clicked on the keys of her keyboard. "Unfortunately, we don't have any openings," she started while gave me a fake smile, "maybe next time."

Just as I was about to turn and leave, a woman who couldn't have been older than 30 ran out of a tall doorway, crying.

She stopped when she saw me, "Whatever you do, don't work for him. I'm the sixth personal assistant he's fired this week."

An opening. Completely disregarding what she said, I turned my head back to the receptionist and smirked. "It appears a job just opened up."

She glared at me. The phone on her desk starting ringing just as she was about to bite back. She sighed heavily and picked up the phone, "Moretti Enterprises, this is Jacy."

She continued to nod into the phone and agree with whoever was talking repeatedly. After the call ended, she aggressively slammed the device down and smiled at me while gripping it. "Congratulations, you just got yourself an interview."

I geeked. "When is it?"

"Now. Did you bring your resume?" She asked, slightly nicer than before.

I nodded eagerly and grabbed it out of my purse.

"I'll need to take a look at it before you go in, just to make sure you're qualified."

I reached over the marble island and gave it to her. She nodded while reading. "It seems I underestimated you. Mr. Moretti's office is the second door on the right just down that hall." She pointed the direction I was to go, "good luck. Every person who steps foot in that room needs it."

"Thanks," I responded with a genuine smile.

I walked towards the large double doors confidently and knocked lightly. "Come in."

I grabbed the handle and entered the room. When I laid eyes on the man I was hoping to work for, my mouth dropped.

+

The guy from last night.

"Are you done gawking?" He sneered at me.

Rude. I wasn't gawking. Just shocked. I walked further into the room.

"Take a seat." His eyes travelled to my resume. "Miss Hale."

Acting like he doesn't remember I see. "It says here you were recently fired for misconduct. Would you like to explain that?"

I sighed and started to explain, "My old boss, James Cline, sexually harassed me after one of our meetings ended. I went to tell my supervisors and they obviously sided with my old boss and I was fired immediately."

+

"James Cline? I do business with him. We might have to have a little chat," he nonchalantly replied.

I raised an eyebrow at his change in demeanor. "You would seriously do that.

"My business doesn't support men or women like that. I take those matters very seriously," he stated.

I nodded in approval.

He looked like he was thinking. "If I hire you for this job, you don't speak of last night to anyone. I cant have anyone knowing I hired an absolute train wreck to my staff."

I glared at him. "Clearly, you don't actually think of my as a train wreck if you're willing to hire me on the spot," I blurted.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You sure have a lot of confidence speaking like that to someone like me. I can guarantee you'll never get another job in this city again with one wave of my hand."

"And I'll do it again. You don't have the right to assume things about me," I sneered before leaning back into the chair.

He seemed to be having an internal argument with himself, "I'll give you one chance. One screw up and you're done."

I smirked, "When do I start?"

"Now."

"Now?" I was confused. He already needed an assistant that bad?

"Yes, now. Is there a problem with that?" I shook my head no at him.

"Good. In addition to being my personal assistant, you're also going to be my secretary. You will be given a work cellphone for calls that you receive when you are running errands or doing things for me that don't take place in the office."

I listened intently. There was a lot of shit to take in. After a few minutes, he wrapped up the conversation.

+

"Your office is the one attached to mine, right over there." I looked to where he pointed. Looks nice.

"And no relationships with coworkers from this department. It's against policy and I don't like distractions. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

He looked at me with a questioning look, "Don't call me sir. Mr. Moretti only."

"Sounds good." I started to get out of my seat. "When will I have time to move my stuff in?"

"I'll have one of my guys get it for you. Before you go get settled, I need your number." He looked at me sternly.

"Why?" I probed, confused.

"As my assistant, there might be times you need to get up during the night to help me with things and tend to my needs," He informed. My mind wandered. What kind of needs? I shook it off and listened again. "I will forward my schedules and all my business inquiries to you."

I told him my number and exited to my new office. It was big, with large white bookshelves covering an entire wall. They were filled to the brim with novels she could only dream of reading. On another wall was a large window, allowing enormous amount of natural light to brighten up the placed even more. The only dark thing in the room was the flooring. Wow...

I stood in front of the window and looked at the view. I could get used to this.

Just as I was relaxing, the phone on my desk rang. I headed over to pick it up.

I addressed the caller how Jacy, the receptionist did, "Moretti Enterprises this is Amara."

"Another new assistant? Christ, he got bored of that old one quick," A man with a thick Italian accent spoke through the phone. My father was Italian, and I was actually almost completely fluent in the language.

"Who is this?" I asked impatiently.

"Straight to business, I see? Anyways, I'm Gabe, I need to make an appointment with Lucian. It's about the new shipment of gu- laptops. The new laptops."

Was he about to say guns? I prayed that I was only overthinking. "I'll get his schedule cleared if the meeting is okayed with him."

"Thanks love. Hope you're as sexy as your voice is," he flirted before hanging up.

I put the phone down with a shocked expression and smiled to myself before sitting down to look at his schedule. He had multiple meetings already scheduled for today. The only way this Gabe guy was going to get a spot was if he was a really really important dude.

I continued to glaze over his meetings.

Hm. Lots of meetings with solo buyers... This is a technology company though. What would they be selling that wouldn't go in a store?

1

I got out of my bare desk and went to ask about Gabe. When I opened the door and was greeted with a ginger woman sucking the face off of Mr. Moretti, I almost gagged.

Seriously? What happened to no relationships? "Ehem..."

He pulled away from her face and glared at me, "What?"

"A man named Gabe called. He wants a meeting scheduled to talk about new shipments of.., laptops," I trailed off.

"Make room for it in my schedule today," he demanded.

I checked my watch. "You have a meeting with Adrian Rossi in about 5 minutes. He'll be here soon."

He turned to the girl, "Tell Jacy to send Mr. Rossi to Miss Hale first."

"Yes sir," she seductively said while trailing her fingers down his chest. He looked uninterested.

"Go back to your desk. I'm bored with you," he commanded. The woman willingly complied to his disrespect.

Dickhead. I turned around to go back to my office. She called him sir. Why can't I say sir? Does my accent sound weird? Mr. Moretti spoke.

"I like the way you say Mr. Moretti."

I turned to face him, "What?"

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"I like the way you say my name. Like how you said it at the bar. That's why I told you to call me that only."

"Oh.. um. Thanks?" I said, awkwardly.

He left out a small laugh a waved me out of the room. The hell does that mean?

I sat at my desk and waited for the knock of Adrian Rossi to fill my ears.

When the 15 minutes late mark came, I heard a knock. "Come in."

A tall, tan man walked in. His hair was blonde and he had a small tattoo on the side of his neck. "Well hello there... Who might you be? I must say, Lucian has stepped up with his personal assistants."

"My name is Amara and that's not a compliment. I'll take you to his office."

He raised an eyebrow and followed me through Mr. Moretti's door. "Mr. Rossi is here," I informed him.

"Call me Adrian babe. You'll be seeing a lot of me."

I smirked and Lucian sent a glare his way.

L U C I A N

"You can go, Miss Hale."

She nodded and closed the door behind her.

Adrian snickered, "Man, she's hot. Where did you find her?"

"She found me, but that's not the point. Gabe is going to be here later today. We need to talk about the shipments. We can't have another mistake like last time. I'm not going to have my own and the mafia's reputation ruined because of some imbeciles."

"What about that assistant? She could be a distraction. And if she dies on the job we're not going to miss her anyways."

I was dumbfounded. We didn't bring innocents into our business. Adrian knew that. "Are you stupid? We don't use innocents, and even if we did, she wouldn't be able to pull it off."

"I wouldn't underestimate her man. I know a couple of Hale's in Italy that are in hiding. If she's related, she'll know exactly what she's doing."

Because of how quick the interview was, I never had time to do a complete and thorough background check on Amara. If she really was related to the Hale's, she could be a good asset to the team, if not, it could end badly for her.

The Hale family was a popular underground fighting family in Italy known for their outrageously skilled and smart fighters. Giovanni Hale ran the ring most recently, but it's rumored he died. The whole Hale family went into hiding because of it.

1

Because the Hale's weren't associated with any particular gang, they would work with whoever, so that could cause an issue with trust as well.

"Sorry, man. I'm not taking a chance on my useless assistant. All she's good for is scheduling meetings anyways," I finalized.