Chapter 2 - The Severance
Maeve stared at the fifty-thousand-dollar check in her hand.
“Why am I being fired?” Maeve asked, keeping her voice completely steady despite the panic rising in her throat.
“I cleaned the blood. I didn't open the desk drawer. I cooked breakfast.”
Declan laughed, a low, gravelly sound.
“That’s exactly why you’re leaving,” Declan said, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“People who survive in this house are either terrified or corrupt.”
“You aren't terrified, and you aren't corrupt.”
Gabriel leaned his elbows on the marble island, resting his chin on his hands.
“You’re a civilian, Maeve,” Gabriel murmured, his eyes locking onto hers.
“This house is about to become a warzone.”
“Our enemies know the perimeter is weak, and they know the staff is gone.”
“If you stay here, you will die.”
Maeve looked at the three identical faces staring back at her.
They weren't firing her out of cruelty.
They were firing her to protect her.
She looked down at the check.
It was a lifeline she desperately needed.
But poverty had taught her one incredibly cruel lesson.
Debts paid with dirty money never truly disappeared.
The people who gave you the money always came back to collect something worse.
She reached across the counter and picked up the silver pen.
She flipped the check over, signed her name on the back, and wrote a single word beneath it.
Void.
She slid the check back to Roman.
“I signed a contract with the staffing agency for a 30-day placement,” Maeve stated firmly.
“If I quit, or if I am fired without cause, I lose my security deposit and my agency standing.”
“I cannot afford to lose my agency standing.”
Roman stared at the voided check, his jaw tightening slightly.
He was entirely unused to people rejecting his money or his orders.
“I am telling you that your life is in danger,” Roman said, his voice dropping an octave.
“I am telling you that I have to clean the 3rd-floor bathrooms before lunch,” Maeve replied.
She grabbed the dirty plates from the island and turned back to the sink.
The brothers exchanged a long, silent look.
Declan suddenly stood up, the chair scraping loudly against the tiles.
He walked over to the sink, standing so close that Maeve could feel the heat radiating off his muscular chest.
He reached past her and turned the water off.
“You don't understand,” Declan growled softly near her ear.
“The men coming for us don't care if you’re just the maid.”
May you like
Before he could finish his sentence, a massive explosion shook the foundation of the house.
The heavy glass windows of the kitchen shattered violently inward.
