I Married My Enemy

Chapter Three — The Devil Works On The 39th floor

MAYA’S APARTMENT

Jessica Mills

Maya’s phone felt heavier than it should.

Jessica stood in the hallway outside Maya’s bedroom with her back against the wall and her heart already bracing for whatever was on the other end of the call. She dialed before she could lose her nerve.

Her mother picked up on the first ring. “Oh Jessica.” Her mother’s voice broke on her name.

“Mom.” She kept her voice steady. “Tell me everything.”

"Your father is very sick, baby. His kidneys are failing. The doctors say he needs dialysis now, or he won't see the end of the month. And Gideon the loan shark, showed up at the house that morning and threatened to seize everything we own if we didn't pay the fifty thousand debt and interest before next week.

The air left Jessica's lungs.

“Mom it’s going to be okay.” She told her mother. “I promise.” she ended the call.

Maya appeared in the doorway. One look at Jessica’s face and she crossed the room and pulled her into a hug so tight it hurt.

Debby appeared behind Maya with her hand pressed to her mouth. She had heard enough through the thin wall. Her eyes were already wet.

“How bad?” Maya asked.

Jessica looked at the floor. “Very bad.”

Debby sat down on the other side and put her arm around them both.

Jessica did the maths, she did not have that kind of money. Where the hell was she going to find fifty thousand from?

MONDAY

Her first day at work. She was nervous and excited at the same time. Cole Luxe made her feel small before she even pushed through the doors

Sixty floors of glass and steel rising out of Sterling City's financial district, the logo etched into the facade in letters so clean they looked cut from the sky.

The private elevator chimed on the 39th floor. She stepped out onto black marble so polished she could see her own nervous reflection under her feet. A glass door parted onto an executive suite that ran the length of the building, panoramic windows framing the whole glittering city.

But the view wasn't what caught her breath. It was the man standing at the glass.

Damon Cole didn't turn around at first. Six foot two of stillness in a midnight-black suit, broad shoulders blocking half the skyline. He finally faced her.

Oh no! Oh absolutely not. The universe, she thought, had a genuinely terrible sense of humor. 8.3billion people in the world and yet here she was standing in the office of the same jerk who splashed her puddle of water.

His storm-gray eyes moved over her. He definitely recognized her face immediately and for three full seconds neither of them spoke.

Then he looked down at his desk. Her file was open in front of him. He had already read it. He knew exactly who she was before she walked through that door. He crossed to his desk and dropped a thick leather-bound file onto it. He did not offer her a seat.

“Let’s get one thing straight.” He leaned both hands on the desk and looked down at her and the scent of him hit her without warning. It made her pulse stumble before her brain could forbid it. "I know why you're here. My stepbrother has a habit of collecting strays off the street and installing them in my building. He thinks he plays the hero. I think he's an idiot."

The insult stung. She kept her face still. “Mr. Adrian gave me the chance to show my value, sir. I passed the technical assessment.”

“You passed an entry-level check.” His voice was smooth. “You work for me now. I do not care about your background. I care even less about your connection to my brother. You will be flawless or I will remove you. Personally.”

He pointed to the glass-walled workstation in the corner of his office, in full view of his desk.

“Your station. You report to me and only me. Your desk is here because I do not trust the lower floors with our security data. If anything goes missing on your watch, I will end your career before it has properly started.” He picked up his phone and looked at it. “Get to work.”

Jessica swallowed hard.

“Understood, Mr. Cole.”

She walked to her station with her heart hammering. As her monitor booted, she could feel his gaze track her from the desk. A jerk. A gorgeous, brooding jerk, she thought. Half the city probably lusted after that face. She already despised the man behind it.

The first hour passed in silence till one of his executives entered his office and dropped his report on his table.

Damon did not look up from his tablet. He picked up the report with two fingers. Read exactly one page. Then he dropped it off the edge of the desk. It hit the floor and the pages scattered.“This is not analysis,” Damon said. “This is a summary of things I already know dressed in a font I did not approve.” He looked at the man. “I do not tolerate incompetence. Clean out your desk. Today.”

Hopefully she was not going to be next. She looked at her screen and kept working.

At four fifty-seven the borrowed phone lit up. Her mother’s number. Jessica glanced through the glass. Damon was on a video call, his back half-turned. She slipped out of the office quietly and found the service hallway just outside.

She answered.

“Jessica.” Her mother’s voice hit her like cold water. “Gideon came back this morning, baby.”

“Mom—”

“He moved it up. Four days now.” Grace’s voice cracked. “And your father collapsed. The clinic says they cannot keep him. If he does not reach the city specialist by the end of the week—”

A crash came through the phone. Splintering wood.

"Grace! Who's on the phone?" A man's voice, rough and close.

Please.” Her mother dropped to a whisper. “Please, Gideon. My daughter is trying to—”

“Tell her four days. Four days or I take everything starting with this house.”

The line went dead.

Jessica sat down on the floor and felt her world suffocating her. Her starting salary wouldn’t cover a fraction of it. She didn’t hear the door open or his footsteps, she only felt the shift in the air of someone watching her. She looked up

Damon Cole stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets. He had heard every word. "Get up, Miss Mills." The command filled the narrow space. "No one weeps on my floor."

Jessica scrubbed the tears off her cheeks and forced herself to stand, legs unsteady under his stare. "I'm sorry, Mr. Cole. It was a personal matter. It won't affect my work."

He held the door open and waited until she walked back into the office. Then he crossed to his desk and sat down and folded his hands on the surface and looked at her standing in front of him like she was the last item on an agenda he had been working through all day.

“I have a problem,” he said. “And you have a problem. I have been looking at your file since morning. I think our problems solve each other.”

Jessica stared at him. “What does that mean?”

He met her eyes. “Let’s get married.”