I fucking hated people who stole from me. Which was ironic,
considering the only thing that had kept me from starving as a kid had been
picking pockets and snatching purses. I dropped my elbows to the desk and
rubbed a hand over my buzzed head.
“Goddamn, karma’s a bitch.”
“She the bitch you fucked last night, bro?” The leather of
my office couch creaked as Mathieu sank his tall, lanky frame into it.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to call women
‘bitches,’ boy?”
My words were met with a long sigh from Mathieu. Ever since
he’d walked into Chains and tried to grab a guitar and run back out the
door—only to be tackled to the ground by yours truly—he’d been a fixture in my
life. To be fair, his choices had been to work off the price of what he’d
attempted to steal, or go directly to the nearest cop shop. The entire
situation had been such a blast from the past, I’d caught myself smiling when I
should’ve been glaring and scaring the piss out of the kid. But apparently I’d
done an okay job of it because he’d decided starting a rap sheet at seventeen
wasn’t a good plan. Thank fuck. Almost two years later, the kid was my right
hand.
And now that Chains was mine, someone was stealing from
me—but not just someone. An employee. Someone I should’ve been able to trust.
The cameras I had installed on her day off had already paid for themselves.
I rolled my head from side to side, cracking my neck. I
hated firing people. It never got easier. And this time? This time it was going
to be even worse … because there would be tears. And quite possibly claws.
Pushing up from the chair, I strode to the door without
looking at Mathieu. Over my shoulder, I tossed, “You might want to stay here;
Brianna’s ass is about to get canned.”
“For real?” His words followed me out, but I didn’t bother
to reply.
Every time I stepped foot onto the shop floor, a feeling of
pride surged through me—pride that I’d helped build this business into one that
was not only honest, but profitable. At least, it was profitable when one of my
employees wasn’t skimming off the till and messing with my bank deposits.
Finger twirling in her long, dark extensions and gum
snapping between her teeth, Brianna flipped the pages of a magazine with a
giant black Sharpie in one hand, circling shit. Probably shit she wanted to buy
with the money she’d been stealing from me. The store was empty, which made
what I was about to do a little easier.
“Bree, need a few minutes.”
Her head popped up, lips pursing as she took me in. “You can
have all the time you need, boss.” Her gaudy fake eyelashes batted at me in
what I assumed was supposed to be a sexy move. I stowed the urge to tell her to
save it for someone whose dick got hard at the sight of her … but since I was
about to fire her, why add insult to injury? The woman had been unsuccessfully
trying to add her notch to my bedpost since I’d hired her. Bringing her on had
been a mistake, and I’d known it from the minute she’d walked in the door, but
a friend had called in a favor.
“Boss? You had something to say?” she prompted.
I watched her, not speaking.
She stopped the hair twirling and capped the Sharpie,
resituating herself on the stool and folding her hands in her lap.
Bree’s dark eyes flew wide. “Done? You mean done for the
day?”
“Done. For good. Get your shit and get out.”
Bree lost the innocent pose as she crossed her arms and
stared me down. “Not until you tell me why.”
In two long strides, I closed the distance between the
register and me and pressed my hands to the counter.
“I gave you a job. Gave you a paycheck you didn’t have to
suck a dick to get. But that wasn’t enough for you. You had to have more, and
instead of coming to me and asking for a raise, you decided to make it happen
yourself.”
The color faded from her face, leaving her mocha-colored
skin sallow. “Wh-what?”
“Don’t fucking lie to me. I can show you the tape if you
want to see what I saw.”
Her lower lip started to wobble. It wasn’t going to work.
I’d given her the benefit of the doubt, hoped I was wrong or it was just a
one-time thing. But she’d gotten too bold.
I cut her off. She
wasn’t even going to deny it. Not that she could. We both knew she’d done it,
and I wasn’t in the mood to listen to her beg or justify her actions. Even
though she didn’t know it, I’d already given her a second chance. And all that
had done was cost me even more than I could afford to lose. “I needed someone
to work the shop—someone who wasn’t going to fuck me over and steal from me.
You weren’t capable of that, so you’re out. Now get your shit.”
“Save your breath, Bree. I ain’t listening unless you’re
here to tell me you’ve got all the money you’ve taken, and you’re putting it
right back where it belongs.”
Her face twisted into an angry glare even as the tears
started falling. “You … you don’t understand.”
“No, I really don’t understand.” I crossed my arms and
waited her out. When she realized the water works weren’t changing my decision,
she spun off the stool, grabbed her giant purple purse from behind the counter,
and stalked toward the door.
“You get all self-righteous with me about a little cash
while you basically steal from people? Giving ‘em twenty dollars for their
shit? Like you’re one to judge.”
A little cash? She’d skimmed enough to buy a nice used car,
and I’d been too trusting to even realize it until the numbers hadn’t added up
in a big way.
She slowed near the guitars at the front of the store and
malicious glee lit her eyes.
Bree grabbed a guitar and swung it toward the rack as the
chimes above the front door jangled. Wood crashed against wood, and two female
screeches erupted.
Shit … if she injured a customer…
I charged Bree and ripped the guitar from her hands before
she could swing again. A swirl of red hair caught my attention as the other
woman dodged out of the strike zone.
Bree struggled against my hold, and I wondered if I was
going to end up with a face full of the acrylic claws tearing at my arms. “Let
go of me, you asshole!”
“Whoa, boss. Getting
the door for ya.” Mathieu bolted across the shop and yanked the door open
again. I hustled Bree out and set her free on the sidewalk.
She spun to face Mathieu and me. “You’re gonna regret this,”
she hissed. “I swear, you will.”
A soft laugh came from the open door. “From what I’ve seen,
I highly doubt it.”
Bree opened her mouth to spew something else, but I shut her
down. “Get gone. I don’t ever wanna see you near my shop again.”
Bree’s flinty eyes narrowed as she shouldered her purse.
“Fuck you, Lord. You think you’re better than me? Not a chance. You’re just
thievin’ street scum. Fuck you.”
“And now she’s getting repetitious,” the husky female voice
commented from behind me.
Lip curling in disgust, Bree turned and marched toward the
corner, never looking back.
“Her exit could totally use some work, but all-in-all, that
was one hell of a welcome.”
I turned to survey the woman standing in the doorway of
Chains. Even without a photographic memory, I didn’t think I’d ever forget this
particular pose: one arm braced on the doorframe and the other propped on her
hip, a green dress hugging curves that had my entire body sitting up and taking
notice. Matched with her long, curling red hair, she was a goddamn knockout.
What the hell is she doing here?
She stepped onto the sidewalk and tore the HELP WANTED sign
off the bottom corner of the front window. Holding it between two fingers, she
smiled. “Nope. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m your newest employee.”
Title: The Emerald Virgin (Gem Apocalypse, #1) 
