EmberCraig tried to lighten the mood by saying, “He’s not usually quite so brash. Don’t worry too much about it. He’s a fair boss and a good person.”The raised eyebrows around me were enough to convince that no one believed a word of what Craig said. Moving along swiftly, he finished his presentation and sent us out to our cubicles.Gracie and I snagged two next to each other and started packing away our purses and the few odds and ends we’d brought with us. For me, it was a small stuffed elephant Ryan had won for me at a fair when I was four.It was ratty, but clean, and the same good luck charm I’d had with me throughout every single phase of life, from the day he proudly presented it to me at that fair. He was eight at the time, missing a few teeth, and when he handed it over, his chest was swollen with pride for having won it.“Okay, everyone.” Craig’s voice boomed from the front of the massive office—bullpen, I corrected myself mentally. “Insert your name as a username, and a c

KadenEmber followed me without needing to be told or waiting for an invitation. Good. She didn’t need to be coddled. She was shaping up to be exactly the kind of recruit we needed more of in the firm.“You have a bit of an accent,” I told her as I motioned for her to precede me into the elevator. “Where are you from?”“Texas,” she replied, seemingly holding back laughter. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, amusement shining in her eyes. The more I looked at her, the more familiar she was.Cheekiness wasn’t something I valued in underlings at all, but in her, it felt kind of natural. The quality made me want to smile instead of pointing her to the door.“Texas, huh?” I smirked. “I’ve spent some time in Texas.”“Imagine that.” She bit her lip, but not in the wannabe sexy “I’m trying to draw attention to my mouth” way that some women did. It was in a genuine “Oh god, I’m about to crack up laughing” kind of way.It was a young, almost carefree reaction most recruits wouldn’t dare show in

EmberWhen I finally reached my stop, it was a short walk to his office—made slightly longer by the fact that I made two wrong turns. But I was proud of myself when I found his building.“I’m here for Ryan Jordan,” I announced to a stone-faced receptionist.She clicked a few things on her computer then frowned. “Do you have an appointment?”“No,” I said, suddenly feeling stupid that I hadn’t thought to call ahead. But that was the point of a surprise, right? “I’m his sister. I came to say hi.”Her cold expression thawed, but she still looked puzzled. “I didn’t know Ryan had a sister, but hang on. Let me put a call through to his office.”A short while later, Ryan came striding into the reception area. There was a wide smile on his face as he opened his arms to envelop me in a huge bear hug. “Little sis. This is a surprise.”Even though I was still pissed at him, I walked right into his hug. Ryan smelled like home to me. He wore the same cologne he’d discovered in high school and never

EMBERKaden got an office set up for me in the time it took me to get lunch and rush back to the office. I didn’t know if I was going to get to keep it after Monday morning, and it was little more than a glorified storage closet at the end of the hall, but it was my glorified storage closet.Recruits never got offices. In fact, there weren’t even many on our floor. Some of the trainers had offices, and I was pretty sure what now qualified as my office was the couple of squares left over after the other offices had been installed.But that didn’t matter to me. When I agreed to help him for the weekend, I didn’t expect anything in return. I was willing to do it to prove to him and to everyone else that I was committed to this job. I wanted everyone to know I wasn’t afraid of hard work, and also, I wanted a little extra credit in the bag just in case I screwed up somewhere along the line.I was Marx Inc. material, and I wanted everyone to know it. The job meant a lot to me, and while I w

KADEN The sun was setting outside, closing out the weekend on Sunday night. It was like the universe announcing that the weekend was over. Cue the Sunday blues and put away your dancing shoes because it would be back to work soon.Not that it made a single bit of difference to me this weekend. Ember and I had both been here from sunrise to sunset on Saturday and Sunday. Frankly, I was looking forward to Monday for once in my life. At least I would be able to come in at a decent hour again.No one normal started work before seven in the morning, except Ember. When she told me on Friday she would see me at six on Saturday morning, I was close to telling her she was crazy and I would see her at seven.I liked working out before coming to the office and grabbing breakfast somewhere. But seeing as how I was the one who had impressed the importance of getting this done over the weekend to her, I couldn’t very well tell her to start later.So, six in the morning it was. Though I didn’t know