“You’ve got less than five minutes to convince me why I shouldn’t fire you.”

He didn't even flinch. “Miss Isadora gave me the name of her new assistant just this morning.” His gaze flicked to my desk. “Once she told me she’d hired somebody without speaking with you first, I started the background check. I sent you an email as well, but you must not have received it.”

Feeling a little deflated, I skirted around my desk and saw the file folder sitting in front of my computer. I flipped the file open and saw the answers to the same routine background check I did on all my employees. Well, maybe not exactly routine. It was a bit more thorough than average, but for good reason.

I hadn’t allowed anybody near my little sister without an extensive background check since she was ten. I’d always been protective, but an incident during her birthday party had made me realize that I hadn't done enough to keep her safe. When she'd been coming downstairs before the guests had begun arriving, a new employee – one of the grounds crew – had approached her and started talking to her. Later, she'd told me that it had been innocent at first, but then he'd become crude and vulgar. Then he’d exposed himself, and grabbed her hand, tried to make her touch him. I'd beaten the shit out of him and then called the cops, but the damage had already been done.

Isadora hadn’t talked for a month after that.

She’d been so outgoing and happy as a child up until our parents died. Then, just as she'd started to come out of her shell, that sick fuck had twisted her up again.

I'd gotten her the best help money could buy and I'd promised her that I'd never let anyone hurt her again.

Since then, I'd made sure I knew the dirt on anybody and everybody coming in contact with her. And I made sure all of them were intimidated by me, if not terrified.

The file on Toni wasn't complete, but if Doug had just started it, there would be more coming. I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to calm myself.

“Okay,” I said tiredly. “I should know you’d be on top of things.”

“Mr. Lang, if I may…” Doug’s words were solicitous. His tone was blunt. He’d been my father’s right-hand man for several years before my parents died, and he'd stayed on to help the overwhelmed and grieving nineteen year-old I'd been. He was the closest thing to family Isadora and I had. I trusted him more than I trusted myself sometimes.

“You may.”

He was quiet for a moment, and then his eyes met mine. His voice was soft as he spoke, “At some point, you will have to let Isadora live her life.”

“She is living it.” I flipped the folder closed. He was the only person I'd let make such an observation.

“No,” he countered. “She’s existing. She goes to parties only after you’ve approved the guest lists. She has dates only once you’ve made sure you’re aware of the itinerary, and only with a driver you've vetted.”

“I'm protecting her.”

“Ashford.”

I started at his use of my first name. He'd been allowed to use it for years, but he rarely ever did. Usually it was when he wanted to make a point.

“When you found out she’d left the house to see a man she’d recently met, you made her feel like she isn't smart enough to know her own mind. That you don't trust her or her judgement. She feels like you treat her like a child.”

I ignored the majority of his statements and focused on the one I had a response for. “That idiot doesn’t deserve her.”

“He makes her happy.” Doug inclined his head. “Is that worth so little? Where he comes from matters more than Isadora’s happiness?”

If it had been anyone but Doug making these observations, he would have been on his ass as soon as he'd opened his mouth. As it was, I turned away and braced my hands on the flat surface of the file cabinets that ran along the wall behind my desk. I couldn’t quite put a name to the emotions surging inside me. It stung, I realized. It stung a lot, and the worst part was, I knew he was right.

“She’s dated a lot of men who’ve made her happy.” The words sounded hollow.

“Not like this.” I heard the weariness in Doug’s voice.

I heard it, and understood it. We’d had this sort of argument more than once. We’d have it again, because I couldn’t stop trying to protect my sister. We’d lost our parents. All we had was each other. I knew he wanted to protect her too, but it was different. He was like family, but he had his own. Isadora was all I had.

“Finish the check on the Gallagher woman. As long as she’s clean, she can stay.” I shoved away from the cabinets and headed toward the door.

Toni made Isadora happy.

Doug wasn’t wrong. That should count for something.

It didn't mean that I had to like her.

Chapter 4

Toni

He was entirely too pretty and entirely too bossy.

He was also an asshole.

That pretty much summed up my opinion of Ashford Lang.

Ashford. The name itself made me smirk. I could see why Isadora called him Ash. Ashford made me think of snooty men in striped coats with boater hats who walked around twirling canes as they talked about their trophy wives, Muffin and Cupcake, or whatever random pastry they were named after.

He’d brought Isadora to our lunch meeting instead of letting her take a cab or town car. Not that it was much of a meeting. We’d talked for maybe two minutes about a party she was thinking of having, and she asked if I’d ever planned a party. I told her I had planned a surprise party for my parent’s fortieth anniversary just last month, and if I could wrangle my family, I could do almost anything.

She laughed, then asked me about my family and the conversation had devolved from there.

And Ash – no, I wasn't allowed to call him that – Mr. Lang had watched us from the elegance of the bar. He didn’t even have the decency to pretend he wasn’t watching, either.

A few times, I glanced up and he’d been checking his email on his phone. Or maybe he'd been watching internet porn or checking the stocks. I couldn’t tell from the arrogant and slightly bored expression on his face. But for the most part, all he did was stare at me.

Determined not to let it get to me, I kept my attention focused on Isadora.

She ate some sort of fish entrée that looked more like art than food, while I nibbled on pasta that hadn’t had a price on the menu. I was secretly thankful she’d told me it was her treat. I was smart enough to know that if there wasn’t a price, then I couldn’t afford it. Not even on what she was paying me. Since I had only three weeks between finals and the start of my summer session, I had to save everything I had to buy more books.

“Four brothers…” Isadora blew out a breath.

I'd just finished telling her how I’d brought home my first date to find all of them strategically waiting in front of the house. My date hadn’t even tried to kiss me, he’d been so nervous. He hadn't called me after that either.

I wished I could say it had been an isolated incident, but it had been more like a regular occurrence. My brothers, except Vic, were all under six feet tall, but that never seemed to make them any less scary to the few guys I'd dated over the years.

And the few that had managed to get past my brothers hadn't lasted long either. In one way or another, I ended up overshadowing them. I didn’t know how else to put it. I was too smart. Too straight forward. Too...something.

I hadn’t had a serious boyfriend since I was nineteen, and I’d dumped that shit when I'd found out he was sleeping with me just to copy my schoolwork.

My experience had made me somewhat leery of guys in general. I still held out hope that, at some point, I could find a man who was strong enough to handle someone like me. At the moment, I wasn't looking though. I had enough on my plate to worry about without having to deal with some asshole who felt like his manhood was threatened because I was smart and didn't back down from a fight.