The gossip spread the way all good gossip does — faster than facts, louder than truth, and straight into exactly the ears Sloane needed it to reach.
By ten a.m., she'd heard three separate variations of her own words echoing through the forty-second floor like a game of telephone played by people with nothing to lose.
She said she wanted to be Mrs. Pierce.
She said Kai Torres's job looked interesting.
She said men prefer mature women.
That last one she hadn't actually said, but she appreciated the creative addition.
✦✦✦✦✦
Kai Torres summoned her at ten-fifteen.
His office was smaller than Declan's and twice as organized — everything at right angles, nothing out of place, the desk of a man
who controlled chaos by refusing to let it through the door. He looked at her for a full fiv
