Cyrus Colten

I’m staring out the passenger side window, watching the unknowing humans going about their boring lives as we drive to work. We own the biggest tech company in the country and work alongside humans, yet I can’t tolerate them. I sneer as I watch them, disgusted; I hardly remember what it felt like to be human, nor do I want to be that weak again.

Revolting things, humans. I’ve always hated this part of our job, hated that I had to tolerate these disgusting beings. I only have to tolerate them for a few meetings, I try to remind myself. Usually, I send Eli. He is better at dealing with humans than me, and he doesn’t crave their blood, nor does he have a hunger for their deaths and the urges I have.

Eli is a Lycan. Before meeting me, he had his own pack, but I couldn’t handle being around them. Too much for my bloodlust, an insatiable hunger, enough to send one mad. Yet here I am, about to get out of the car and entertain a bunch of morons. The things you do for your mate… Though he did sacrifice his entire pack to remain with me so I could do this for him.

“Will you stop fidgeting and working yourself up?” Eli says to me as he pulls onto the main street, heading toward work.

I growl at him. He doesn’t have to put up with their blood calling to him. Doesn’t have to put up with hearing the chatter in their heads as I do.

“Seriously, stop, Cyrus. You can’t go in there in a bad mood. The last thing I need right now is to try to cover up that you killed an employee again. Remember the drama last time?”

I sigh, trying to calm my nerves.

The traffic is horrendous today when suddenly, a little red car cuts us off before jamming on the brakes, making Eli rip up the handbrake to stop in time before rear-ending the idiot. Eli honks the horn, holding his hand on it, muttering under his breath. When suddenly, the window winds down, and the human in front then has the audacity to flip us off for honking the horn, and she cuts us off.

How dare she?! I growl, reaching for the door handle, wanting to teach this woman some manners.

Eli grabs my arm and shakes his head, the little car zipping off and weaving in and out of traffic, more cars honking at her as she races to her destination. Eli also moves over a lane when I notice the car pull into the very parking lot we are going to, the staff parking lot. Hmm, I will enjoy making her cry for her rudeness.

“Hmm, interesting. I wonder which of our employees just cut and flipped us off,” Eli chuckles.

I smirk, knowing her day will get a lot worse once Eli unleashes on this inconsiderate woman. Eli parks, and I notice the little red car rush toward the back while we take our reserved parking spot near the elevator. Our usual elevator is broken, so I dread using the main elevator to bring us to the foyer instead of our office floor.

Getting out of the car, I head in the direction I’ve seen the woman’s car go.

“Cyrus, leave it. We can check the cameras and find out who the woman is,” Eli says.

I growl but follow after him. Yes, he is right. Making her come to us will put the fear of God into her. I chuckle at the thought. We are rarely here, but no one likes to cross our paths.

I head to the elevator, Eli by my side as I step inside, fixing his gray suit jacket. I can smell the leftover scents of people’s perfumes and their sweat. My nose is burning as I try not to inhale the foul odors. Eli presses the button, but before the doors close, I hear someone running. I smile, knowing it has to be the woman who cut us off. A growl escapes me, and I am about to stop the doors from closing, intending to teach her a lesson she will never forget, when a hand catches the door. I am hit with her scent, my entire body going tense as the pretty little thing steps into the elevator, unaware she is being watched by two predators in the midst of losing control.

She is on the phone barefoot and clearly in a hurry, as she doesn’t even look up. I am glad she doesn’t because her scent overwhelms me, and I can feel my eyes changing. My gums are tingling, and I watch as she tries to put her shoes on, completely unaware she has her ass pressed against my front as she bends over, slipping her heels on, my cock twitching in my pants. I fight the urge to groan and claim her.

“Mate,” I hear Eli whisper, too low for her to hear, my thoughts consumed with the pretty little thing within arm’s reach. Her chocolate brown hair falls over her shoulders as she struggles to do the clasp on her shoe and holds the phone to her ear.

I desperately want her to turn around, to see the woman who has enticed my senses and made my pants suddenly uncomfortable. She is completely oblivious to the struggle I am having behind her. Eli grabs my arm as I fight the urge to touch her, my eyes snapping to him standing on the other side of her.

She has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down because she will not escape us. No, this woman will be ours whether she likes it or not. My hand moves on its own as I fight the urge to claim her. She jumps when my hand comes in contact with her soft, delicate skin. I feel like I am in a trance as I run my hand up her side, sparks rushing over my palm before she jerks away from my touch, a shriek leaving her plump lips. I know she can feel it. She stares at me and mutters an apology; her instincts will be telling her something is off with us. Humans just don’t understand why they feel that way when near us, and it is clear I’ve scared her by the thumping of her heart and the goosebumps on her arms. We are predators, and she’s just become our prey. I will devour her. She will be ours.

Adeline Paisley

Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse. Why, oh why, do you intend to fuck me over, god? Did I do something in a past life? Did I kill puppies? Surely it can’t just be my poor time-management skills. No one can be this late all the time. I am running late, and this isn’t the first time and probably not the last with my record of attendance. My floor manager is going to murder me.

I am stuck in traffic, seeing a small opening as I try to pull onto the main street. I zip out into traffic, only for the prick in the Mercedes behind me to honk his horn. I glare at him in the rearview mirror. I have been stuck at that turn-off for ages. Winding my window down, I flip him off before cutting into the next lane, smiling at his shocked face, like no one has ever dared flip him off before.

I pull into the parking lot. Why are there never any free spots? Probably because you are always late, Adeline, I mentally scold myself. I drive past the elevator, groaning. Only reserved parking. I am nearly tempted to park there before seeing a spot up the back, and I race toward it.

Parking my car, it scrapes the bollard. Fuck! I rush from the car only to realize I have left my heels on the passenger side footwell and have to race back to retrieve them. Grabbing them, I slam the door.

My bare feet are slapping the concrete floor toward the elevator doors that are closing. Reaching my hand out and stopping the doors from closing, I force my way in. My phone starts ringing loudly in my pocket.

The man in the elevator moves away as I reach around him, hitting the button to the ground floor of the building. Ignoring him, I see Bella’s name pop up on my phone screen when I retrieve it. She is the other secretary at the front counter with me. I answer it as I bend down, trying to place those goddamn heels on my feet and do up the clasp.

“I know, I know. I am late. Has Troy been by yet?”

“Not yet, but get your ass up here, girl. You gonna make the rest of his hair fall out,” she says in a rushed, hushed voice.

I hang up, pocketing my phone. I have been working for Colten Enterprises, a well-known tech company, and barely hanging onto my job thanks to Troy.

I continue fiddling with the clasp on my shoes when I feel my ass brush against something before a hand touches my side under my blouse, making me jump as a strange static sensation runs over my side and up my ribs where his hand’s come in contact with my skin under the blouse. A squeaking sound leaves my lips. I haven’t noticed another man in the elevator in my haste, and I am very embarrassingly brushing my ass against him, practically sitting on the man’s lap. Awkward!

“Sorry,” I squeak out, and he drops his hand back to his side, his hand clenched tightly.

“Mate,” I hear him mutter, making me turn to the man on the other side of me before realizing he must have been talking to him, and I have rudely shoved between them. But that’s not all; I recognize him as the man I have flipped off. Maybe he doesn’t recognize me; I pray he doesn’t. They are clearly high up the chain with how they dress.

Clearly, both are important, but that isn’t what makes me nervous. It’s the blood-red color of the man’s eyes I was practically sitting on as I did up my shoes. His gaze lingers like he is looking at a piece of meat he wants to rip into. I shrink under his gaze, wishing the elevator would hurry up. Praying I’d get out of this elevator without them recognizing me for cutting them off and my rude hand gesture.

The red-eyed man has some serious serial-killer vibes going on. He is gorgeous, and my god, is he tall. I am short, not midget-short, but short. I know that. But both are towering over me by at least two feet. His glare makes me a little uneasy as I move over toward the doors, giving him more space and trying to melt into the stainless-steel walls of the tin can we are stuck in together.

However, the other man is looking anywhere but at me: looking at the ceiling as if something interesting has captured his attention before he suddenly looks down, catching me staring. He has dark-brown eyes, so dark they almost look black. If it weren’t for the light, I wouldn’t have noticed the flecks of caramel in them. His lips tug up into a smirk as he runs his eyes up and down my length, making me hop from one foot to another awkwardly.

Is it hot in here? My temperature is rising dramatically. Turning to the other man, he is staring at me still; his red eyes are creeping me the fuck out. I pull at the collar of my blouse, feeling like it is slowly strangling me, a bead of sweat running down the nape of my neck. Of course, I had to become trapped in the dinosaur elevator; the thing was so goddamn slow. I knew I should have run for the other one. At least then, I wouldn’t have been suffering under their deadly watchful eyes.

“Nice contact lenses,” I say awkwardly, trying to break the strange tension between us.

His lips turn up in a smirk, his eyes flickering oddly, making me jump and press closer to the wall, his eyes taking on more of a predator-watching-its-prey vibe. I step away to the side, bumping into the man with brown eyes and the gray suit. His hand goes to my hip, holding me steady, his hand warm and also electrocuting me. What was up with this pair of creeps? I must be seeing shit. What was in that coffee I had this morning? He continues to stare, though he isn’t as tense now.

Okay, then. Silent and creepy. But hot as fuck with his five o’clock shadow and dark hair. He is wide, too. His tailored suit does nothing to hide the bulk of muscle it covers, both of them huge next to my small frame, and I feel like a deer in headlights as I am squished between them. I step forward when I realize I am still pressed tight against the man behind me. The heat of his body so close seeped into my back, warming me.

The door dings, and I turn around and rush out before it even opens fully, needing to escape the men I’ve been trapped with, my heart pounding as I escape their watchful gaze.

Troy is standing next to the foyer desk, arms folded over his chest, wearing an ugly green polka-dotted tie and a blue suit, his jacket impossible to button up over his potbelly. Slowing my pace, I groan when I realize I got busted yet again, coming in late. Bella gives me a sympathetic smile, pretending to be doing something on the computer.

“Adeline, this is the hundredth time you have been late,” Troy scolds me as I approach the desk.

“Bit dramatic there, Troy. I haven’t even worked here a hundred days yet,” I retort.

His eyes narrow. Since being here, he has made my life hell; not my fault I got the job over his niece. The man is determined to get me fired or make me quit.

His balding head and comb-over make his angry red face brighter. He technically can’t fire me, but he is great at whining to the bosses upstairs and getting me reprimanded. If it weren’t for Mason upstairs, I am fairly sure I would have been fired the third time I was late. Mason is a little sweet on me; it’s cute, but he definitely isn’t my type. I am not even sure I really had a type, but I know he isn’t it.

Troy’s gray eyes dart behind me, and he straightens up, removing his arm from the top of the desk. I look over my shoulder and see the godlike men I’ve been trapped in the elevator with. Both of them walk toward us with confused looks on their gorgeous faces. They both ooze authority, Troy instantly turning nervous, which also makes me nervous. He straightens out his suit, wiping his hands on his pants.

“Mr. Eli and Cyrus Colten, lovely to see you’re in today,” Troy says, using his brown-noser voice. Wait, that’s them. Shit. I was trapped in the elevator with the company owners, and I flipped them off. I am so fired.

I turn, forcing a smile that I knew looked pained or constipated.

“Troy, come see me upstairs,” the man with red eyes says, his tone harsh, not even glancing at me.

The other man watches me carefully before stepping forward. “What is your name?” he asks, his voice deep and rough. Great, I am definitely fired.

“Adeline, sir,” I sputter, his lips turning up in the corners before he nods, turning to the other man who is watching me again with that intimidating look on his face. I feel like prey when he stares at me like that, like a cornered little mouse. One thing I know for sure is that I want to stay the hell away from them. They are intimidating; something is severely off about them, blood-chilling and spine-tingling off about them, especially the one with the red eyes.

My heart is pounding so hard that I am surprised everyone can’t hear it as they walk past. Their cold demeanors set off my anxiety and put my brain into overdrive.

“Yes, Cyrus, sir. I will be right up,” Troy stutters nervously to the man with red eyes, also clearly intimidated by him.

So, the scarier-looking one is named Cyrus. That means that the man who’s asked my name has to be Eli.

Troy turns and glares at me, pointing his finger before he groans, knowing he can’t leave the men waiting. He turns on his heel and stalks off toward the other elevator.

I let out the breath I’ve been holding before ducking behind the counter and putting my bag in the drawer.

“You were in an elevator with Cyrus and Eli Colten. Damn, those men are fine but so scary,” Bella says, fanning herself with a piece of paper dramatically, her auburn hair blowing over her shoulder.

“Indeed, they are. I am fairly sure I am about to be fired or found in an alleyway murdered by them.”

“What? What did you do?” she squeaks out nervously, glancing at the now-closed foyer elevator they have disappeared into.

“First of all, I cut them off on the way here and gave them the finger when they honked their horn. Then I stopped their elevator, and they heard me on the phone to you.” I facepalm myself, internally cringing. “I told… I think Cyrus Troy was his name, that he had nice contact lenses.”

“Contact lenses?” Bella chuckles, her green eyes sparkling with humor.

“Yeah, he must be wearing contacts. No one has red eyes. I swear I saw them change, or am I losing it?”

“Red eyes?” Bella says, shaking her head, and I nod, knowing I am right about them being contacts. There can be no other explanation.

“So, what sort of flowers do you like?” Bella asks, making me look at her. Huh?

“For your grave, you better hope they don’t recognize you for cutting them off. They will destroy you,” she says.

At first, I thought she was joking, but the nervous look on her face scares the crap out of me.

“You wouldn’t be the first girl to go running from their wrath out of this building,” she adds, making my stomach drop. Great, just great.

The morning goes by quickly in a blur of answering phones and taking messages. Troy suddenly waltzes over to the desk with a huge triumphant grin. He leans on the desk, looking down at me before reaching down and taking the phone from my ear and hanging it up.

“You are so screwed,” he says in a sing-song voice.

“Why is that, Troy?” I ask, bored of his annoying little games. How does he even have a job here? I am yet to see him do anything that resembles work.

“Grab your stuff,” he says, not giving me any indication of what is going on.

I pick up the phone, only for him to take it from me again and hang it up.

“I am busy, Troy. Go annoy someone else,” I tell him, jotting down a message I’ve been listening to on the voicemail before he hangs the phone up on me.

“You don’t work here anymore,” he says with a big Cheshire-cat grin on his face, his beady eyes sparkling with mischief.

“What?” I ask worriedly. I can’t lose this job. I have my twin sister’s daughter to help raise. My mother would kill me if I got fired right now, especially with my sister doing a runner from the rehab clinic and dumping her kid on us.

“I said grab your stuff. You are moving upstairs,” he repeats.

“Upstairs?” I ask. Wouldn’t that be a promotion, then? I think to myself, but the sly grin on his face makes me nervous. I have a bad feeling that whatever is happening, I won’t like it.

“Oh, you think I am an asshole? Wait till you see who your new bosses are,” he drawls.

Oh no, I pushed the old fool too far. What has he gone and done now?

“Who?” I ask, and Bella stands up, also looking at him worriedly as she chews on the end of her pen, trying to figure out what is going on.

“Grab your stuff now, or I will fire that tight little ass of yours for good,” he says, looking around the corner of my desk and staring at my bubble butt. Eww, gross.

“And I will have your ass for sexual harassment,” I spit at him, grossed out as he licks his old dried-out lips. God, this old creeper infuriates me. Bella is glaring daggers at him.

I grab my bag and step around the desk, following him to the elevator. The doors close, and he stands silently, smiling. I want to wipe that smug grin off his face. He hits the twelfth-floor button, and my stomach drops, plummeting somewhere deep inside me.

Twelfth floor? My heart starts racing, and I feel like I am about to have a panic attack. He can’t be serious. Troy smiles brighter at my panic while I feel on the verge of throwing up.

“Yep, that’s right. You are now Cyrus and Eli’s new bitch,” Troy announces.

My stomach drops.

You hardly saw them, but I heard the whispers. No one wanted to work for them; they were a nightmare apparently, explosively angry, and just overall strange. Today was the first time I had ever come across them here; their presence was rare at the building. Was this punishment for cutting them off? Did they recognize me?

Their last secretary left crying hysterically. Bella told me she had apparently ended up in a psych ward muttering about demons and monsters, and she hadn’t returned since.

The doors open, and Troy shoves me out, nearly making me stumble. I turn, trying to get back in the elevator, the doors closing in my face.

“Adeline Paisley?” I hear a deep husky voice behind me.

My body tenses, fear running through me, and I gulp, goosebumps rising on my flesh. Troy’s really fucked me over this time.

I hesitantly turn around to find Cyrus directly behind me with the other man, Eli, who is just as equally imposing. I step back, both their eyes on me, and I suddenly feel tiny, like a mouse being watched by a lion, and I am about to become their new toy to torture. I actually would have preferred it if they fired me.

“We met in the elevator,” he says, raising an eyebrow at me. I feel the blood rush to my face at the memory. Wait, has he removed his contacts? His eyes are no longer red but a caramel, almost amber color.

“About that, I am so sorry. I am just going to go,” I tell them, about to hit the button on the elevator and run for my life.

“Did I say you could leave?” Eli says, making me jump before I turn around.

He is definitely more terrifying. His impenetrable gaze is watching me, and I feel the blood leave my face.

“You belong to us now,” he says.

Belong to them? What a weird choice of wording, I think to myself.

“You mean, I work here now?” I ask.

“Yes, you belong to us now,” he says simply, and I watch his eyes flicker.

I shake my head, a shiver running up my spine. Stress, it has to be. The only thing I can think of. Or the lighting.

I stand there awkwardly, rubbing my sweaty hands on my black slacks, my feet killing me as they continue to stare. Cyrus steps to the side, pointing at the desk. Eli is now sitting on the end. How did he move so fast? My feet feel like they are glued to the floor and weigh a ton as I stand frozen.

“I’m sure someone else would be better suited to work for you. I will go find them,” I offer, about to make a run for it.

Cyrus folds his arms over his chest. “No, we have already decided. We need a personal assistant, and you are it.”

I shake my head when he suddenly grabs my arm, pulling me toward the desk. He pulls the chair out, dumping me in it.

“Oh, and don’t be late,” he says over his shoulder as he walks off down the corridor to his office.

Eli turns around, perched on the end of the desk, and faces me. “Now, for the rules.”

“Rules?” I ask, confused.

He stares at me like I am mentally challenged, and I lean back as he leans closer. His eyes darken under the light. He sniffs the air slightly, and I feel my heart rate pick up at his closeness, feel his breath fan my lips. He is that close as he towers over me even while sitting. He smells good, manly like sandalwood and pine needles, and I find myself involuntarily leaning in.

“Yes, rules. You know what they are?”

I nod, snapping out of my strange trance, and he leans back with a smirk on his lips like he knows how much his being this close affects me.

“Always knock before entering our offices, no personal phone calls, no drama, and no snooping. You will also have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and fill out an employee questionnaire,” he says in a rush, my mind reeling at his words.

“A non-disclosure agreement?”

“Are you hard of hearing? Do I need to repeat everything again?” he asks.

I shake my head, pressing my lips in a line.

“Good. I will bring the paperwork out. Also, we will need your contact details and banking information.”

“HR has all that,” I blurt. He glares at me, and I quickly nod, shutting my mouth.

“As I was saying, I will need your banking information so I can organize your salary. There are also some other documents that need to be filled in. You will be our personal assistant, not just here but outside of work as well. You won’t be paid by the company but by us personally. Like I said earlier, you belong to us now,” he says, his lips tugging up deviously.

His words ring in my head on repeat. My mother is going to kill me. I can’t be someone’s on-call bitch. Who will get Maya to and from school? This is a nightmare. But if I say no, won’t my mother still kill me for getting fired?

Eli brings out the documents, dumping them on the desk in front of me. The pile looks daunting; exactly what they are hiding or worried about getting leaked makes me nervous. Maybe that is why the other woman ended up going nuts. What if they are secretly up to something sinister?

By the time I finish filling out the never-ending pile of documents, my hand is cramping. Like seriously, why they need to know how many sexual partners I’ve had, or my allergies and medical history is beyond me. There seem to be a lot of personal questions to be asked of an assistant.

Eli comes out, retrieving them before stalking off back to his office, and thankfully I don’t see either of them for the rest of the day. Today is my mother’s turn to pick up Maya from school, as today is her day off, meaning I don’t have to take my lunch break at her pick-up time.

When it hits five o’clock, I pack up my bag before darting to the elevator. What a day it has been, and I can’t wait to get home and sink into a hot bath.

Adeline

When I reach the lobby floor, though, my phone starts ringing. I look at the screen and don’t recognize the number. Quickly answering it, I hold the phone to my ear.

“Where are you?” his booming voice comes through the phone, making me jump.

I stop dead in my tracks. What does he mean? It is time to go home, and they are already beginning to lock the building. I look around, wondering if they are watching me on the camera. They never said I couldn’t leave.

“Adeline, hello?” Cyrus’s voice sounds impatient.

“I’m in the lobby,” I stutter nervously.

Was I not supposed to leave? They didn’t exactly tell me when I was supposed to finish, so I just assumed I finished when everyone else did.

“Get back up here now! You have two minutes to be back up here, or you are fired!” he says, hanging up abruptly.

I stare at my phone screen. Shit! Two minutes? I press the button to the elevator, which is again on the top floor. I look nervously at my watch before my eyes dart to the stairs. Fuck it! Kicking off my heels, I start running up the stairs. The backs of my legs are burning by the time I get halfway up, and I am out of breath. I really need to exercise. I am so unfit.

Glancing at my watch, I have 30 seconds left and two more flights of stairs. I race up to them, my lungs feeling like they are about to burst inside my chest as I push through the door of their floor. Puffing and panting like I am about to drop dead or have a heart attack.

Eli looks at his watch and smirks while I feel like I am about to have a heart attack. I can feel how hot my face is as I grip my knees that now feel like jelly and are about to collapse from under me. I glance up at them.

They both smile like they find it funny. Is this a game to them? I have never felt such rage in all my life; I want to punch their beautiful masculine faces.

“I can’t believe she actually made it.” Cyrus chuckles at Eli, who also has the same stupid smirk on his face.

My heels clang to the ground when they slip from my fingers as my ass finds the cool surface. My entire body is aching from the exercise. I hold up a finger, telling them to give me a second. I lie back, the coldness of the tiles helping me cool down. I don’t even care about how unprofessional I look; they’ve just made me run up twelve levels of stairs. I need time to recuperate.

Cyrus walks over, looking down at me on the floor, my chest rising and falling heavily as I try to catch my breath. He crouches beside me, brushing my hair from my eyes before gripping my chin.

“Now, if only you ran like that this morning, you wouldn’t have been late,” he says before standing up.

Is this asshat for real? Is this some kind of endurance test?

He offers me his hand, and I reluctantly take it, sparks rushing up my arm. I jerk my hand away, looking at my palm before shaking my head. Cyrus, though, has a strange, knowing look on his face. Has he felt it too? Maybe it’s static from my run.

“So, what did you need me for?” I pant out, trying to catch my breath still.

Eli steps forward, handing me some paperwork, and I snatch it off him. I look down at it; it’s paperwork with numbers, addresses, and information on working for them. I quickly scan over the documents.

My eyes go wide when I see the time they expected me to start and finish. 7AM till 7PM. And they expect me to be on call in between those hours and be available on weekends. Like, do I get a day off? I shake my head; I can’t do these sorts of hours. Who will watch Maya when my mother is on shift?

“Something wrong?” Eli asks.

I press my lips into a line and grit my teeth. How could my life get any more hectic? As if my workload isn’t already enough, and now they are adding ridiculous hours on top. The building shuts at 5PM. Why do I have to stay behind two hours after everyone goes home, and why two before work starts? Is this punishment for flipping them off? They have to know; they have to. Why else make me do these hours?

“Something is definitely wrong,” Cyrus hums.

My eyes dart to them, watching me. “I can’t do these hours. I have other commitments,” I tell them honestly, knowing full well I am about to be fired.

“Like what?” Eli demands to know.

Geez, I don’t know, a life? But I don’t say that out loud. There is no way I am about to tell him about my life or my family’s situation. I don’t need their judgmental stares or comments.

“It’s fine. I will work it out,” I sigh. “I need to take my lunch break at 2:30PM, though.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I need to get Maya from school.”

They both seem shocked for a second, looking at each other.

“Maya?” Cyrus asks, his voice cold while glaring at me like I’ve done something wrong, making me furrow my eyebrows.

“My sister’s kid,” I tell him, and he actually looks relieved, letting out a breath, and I see Eli nudge him.

“Fine, but keep your phone on you,” Cyrus says, walking off.

I nod.

“You can go now,” Eli says, looking at his watch. “Be here on time in the morning.”

He hands me a set of keys and a security code written on a piece of paper.

“Memorize that code. It stops the alarms from going off when you come in the side entrance. And for god’s sake, don’t give it to anyone,” Eli says before he turns and stalks off.

I press the button to the elevator, slipping my shoes on while I wait for it to arrive, glaring at his back as he walks off.

Great, now I have to rearrange mine and my mother’s daily routines for them.