Chapter 2

RAINI

”You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” I growled, tip-toeing into the grand lobby of the glass office where the wash of overhead conditioning hit me like a freight train.

Five months! That was how long I had been working at Giselle’s Fashion, And I was this close to sticking my head in the sewer pipes!

”Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” A woman’s sugary drawl had me tearing my lips from my teeth with trepidation and I turned to find that it was the impeccably dressed manager watching me with hawkish eyes.

Giselle Galloway was one of those plastic barbie dollies who based their entire personality around being the stuff of every man’s fantasies. Flaunting her luscious curves in her tight vomit-yellow gown that had some of the socialites swiveling to stare at her.

I was itching to tell her off before I caught the look on Trinity Fay’s ruddy face, my best friend from junior high.

The buxom redhead shook her head wildly to discourage my antics, her jade-green eyes swimming with fright.

Fine. Not today satan.

It was unnerving, the way everyone seemed to suck up to the botched surgery barbie, Giselle, when she wasn't the actual boss.

We all knew what she had done to get her position as manager. I had half the mind to cozy up to that sleazy bastard and get a fashion mall in my name too, after my lobotomy that is.

“Giselle! Didn't see you there! Sorry, I'm late-” I started in my sweetest voice, sounding more like a hungry pig than a somber employee.

It was obvious from the way Giselle’s neatly-plucked eyebrows shot up that I had surprised her.

I watched her large doe eyes roam over me disapprovingly and cranked my smile wider, crossing my fingers behind me as the murmur of the clients bumbling around rose louder.

The stiff lines on her face fell slack finally before she waved me off to the bling-lined isles and I let my smile fall, shuffling to the payout counter where my sister was settled with a wide grin.

The little shit had left me out to hang!

I’d found out the other day how she’d put me up for the billionaire’s soulmate draw, and I had not forgiven the gremlin for it yet, much to my mother's dismay.

I turned up my nose at River, trying to navigate the push of long-legged estate housewives and avoiding their piercing lizard gazes as I bagged their shiny jewels.

“One of these days suckers, I'm going to be up on that TV beside Zavier Cross,” Giselle announced proudly, looking up at the wide-set plasma television that was suspended above the isles where a muted version of the billionaire’s soul draw results was playing and I damn near choked on my spit, struggling to keep my eyes from twitching in their sockets.

“Say what now?”I murmured to Trinity, who had come up behind me, trying to cough through the cackle that scratched at my throat as I watched the raven-haired woman beside me.

She pointed a finger gun to her temple and let it rip, making me burst another giggle, which I stamped out when the blonde woman turned.

I wasn't looking to get backhanded.

“I'm not like the rest of you intellectual cripples, destined to live out your sad little lives in your dirty downtown cottages, I'm made for something bigger!” The blonde spoon of a woman chortled haughtily, and if I didn't know any better, I would have sworn I saw the hanger of Trinity’s shoulders sag.

Scarce before I had a chance to react, a woman shrieked loudly behind us and I damn near bolted out of my skin.

What was it with people screaming off their hats these days?

“Shit,” Trinity’s breathy gasp echoed dully in my ear as we watched the scene unfold and all eyes turned to the foyer.

My heart hammered wildly against my ribs as I noted the ugly brown stain that ran along the woman’s ivory-white dress, The expensive kind that you couldn't get at the salvation army or the dollar store downtown, and the empty slushie cup clutched tightly in my sister's shaky hands.

”Miss Laverne! What is the meaning of this?” Giselle commanded in a tone that had the blood rushing through my head to pool in my ears as the slap of her heels on the black glass of tiles filled the air.

Shit! This was bad. Giselle Fashion's clients were the elite of society. Spilling coffee on one of the socialites was as much a recipe for disaster as putting me in a kitchen.

Goddammit, we didn’t need this now! Not when our mortgage on the house was due and Ma’s health insurance cheques kept bouncing!

“Can we all just calm down here?” I reasoned, shrugging off Trinity’s iron hand as I stepped up to the scene, unable to help the pang that twisted in my heart when I saw the wobble of my sister’s pink mouth.

”Are you okay?” I cooed to River, cupping her tear-streaked face in my hands and cutting off her stream of apologies after I had tucked her solidly behind me, facing the mammoth crowd that towered over us.

“That girl scalded me with her cheap drink! It's practically assault!” The woman who was now surrounded by other porcelain-faced elites screamed, spigots of her spittle raining on my face.

“She already apologized Frankenstein! What else do you want of the poor girl?” I snapped loudly, clamping my mouth shut when I realized what I had done.

“What did you just say to me? Worthless urchin! I'll teach you!” The woman thundered, and everything else seemed to happen in slow motion as I watched the meaty shaft of her hand shoot up to barrel toward me.

I squeezed my eyes shut as a strangled scream burst through my lips, throwing up my hands to defend myself before I heard the din of the crowd gasping.

Something had changed, I could feel it.

“M-Mr. Zaviar Cross! M-My! It's an honor to see you!” The woman sputtered, flushing a beet-root red and my eyes snapped open like a can of firecrackers, catching on the ringed fingers that had warped around the meat of her wrist.

I peered between my arms to find that the billionaire overlord from the advertisement was here! At Giselle’s fashion!

“Mrs. Spat, it would do you good to keep your hands well away from my wife.” The man rumbled in a deep baritone, and you could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed.