LOGINATLAS"Tell me you are not sitting in the dark staring at a folder like some kind of unhinged villain," Keelan said from the doorway.I was sitting in the dark staring at a folder."Close the door," I told him.He crossed the office, pulled the chair across from my desk without being invited and dropped into it with the ease of a man who had long stopped asking for permission in my spaces. He looked at the folder on my desk, then at me, then back at the folder."Is that the file your father gave you?""Yes.""And you are only opening it now?"I pushed it across the desk toward him without answering. He picked it up, opened the first page and read in silence for a while, his expression going from curious to still in the way that Keelan's expressions moved when something genuinely surprised him, which was rare enough that I watched it happen.He set the folder down. "Atlas.""I know.""This is not just Luke," he said, pressing two fingers against the page, "your father's legal team is i
ELENAThe apartment was on the fourteenth floor and it had floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the kind of Manhattan skyline that made people forget they were paying three million dollars for eight hundred square feet.I had forgotten that I was good at this.Not the real estate specifically, I had only been doing this for three weeks and Jeremy had been kind enough not to mention how many times I'd mispronounced escrow in my first week. But this, standing in a room with a stranger and making them feel something, reading what a person wanted before they said it out loud, I had always been good at this. Seven years in a place that stripped everything down to survival had made me forget that I had ever been a person with skills."The kitchen was renovated last year," I told the client, a woman named Patricia who wore the kind of quiet jewelry that cost more than my entire wardrobe. "European appliances, heated floors, the pantry alone is larger than most studio apartments i
ATLASA fucking ambush, this was what the fuck this was. Yes, I was a man who stalked and had an unhinged persona with no sense of boundaries but I hated when these cards were flipped. “Come on, Atlas take a seat or are you too dumbfounded to sit,” Luke smirked with that crooked smile announcing his presence. I glanced around the room and they were all there. My father, my Asshole step brother, Gerald; Rhoda’s father and Rhoda. What the fuck were they all doing here? I thought I was supposed to just be having a casual dinner with Rhoda and her father.Right now this seems more like a meeting than a dinner. With three cautious strides and my eyes still glancing around the room I made my way to the table, there were already meals laid out on the table. Some crabs, cauliflower, cheese, turkey and some greenish stuff in front of my father which looked fucking disgusting. “You don't keep time lately son, that is not how I raised you,” my father remarked, leaning gently back adjustin
ATLASMoments after Elena left the office..moments after I’d given her permission to go home, myself, I still felt this strange uneasiness in the pit of my stomach.It’d very much seemed like she was pissed about something, or something was on her mind. But those fierce green eyes of hers confused me as hell.I was so restless, trying to figure out what the problem was, and at the same time worrying about my father.No matter how much I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I’d stoop so low for him…like he was asking.I couldn’t do it…But I knew I wouldn’t be let off the hook easily if I didn’t do it.So, I was just caught in a tough spot.That aside, I was also worried about the fact that Luke and his mother wouldn’t just get off my back.What would I have to do to get them off? Heck, why was everyone coming at me all at once?So much was going on in my head I found it so difficult to concentrate..These days, I've been slacking with my shipments too. And I was nowhere near securing the d
ELENAThis wasn’t exactly news to me, but I still struggled to believe my ears.Atlas was really getting married to this woman.But what did I expect?I mean, I’d always known that all those gasps of pleasure and looks of love meant nothing. But deep down, I’d hoped that maybe..just maybe..“Listen, Rhoda,” I watched as he reached across the desk and covered his large palm over hers, “I really don’t want us skipping moments, you know. Things like this aren’t meant to be rushed. If you ask me, a wedding’s sort of a big deal, and I’d like to make it special for you, if you let me.” He stared so deep in her eyes I felt my heart give way to sheer pain. “Don’t you want our wedding to be the talk of the town?”“Of course I want that, Atlas,” she whined, leaning in closer, “but this is really not about me. It’s my father on my neck..besides, you seem to be delaying on purpose. Is there something you’re not telling me?”Atlas stared at her for a heartbeat too long before he responded. “What?”
ELENAI stared slack-jawed at Jeremy, who just sat there with a straight face, after what he’d said.Those words had shook me a tad bit, and I couldn’t believe he’d uttered them.What was his aim? Trying to jump-scare me or something? To sway me? I couldn’t understand it…So I did what was easiest for me.“Hmm,” I lifted the glass of marmalade and took a long sip, my gaze intent on his face. “Sounds like a fairytale to me.”“Wait,” he sat forward, narrowing his gaze on my face. “You don’t believe me? They—““God. Give it a rest, Jer. I’m really not interested in stories like that.”He stared at me a moment too long, like he was trying to figure out if I was being serious. A mix of confusion and disbelief painted across his face.Finally, he shrugged. “Fine. I’ll respect your wish.”But he didn’t look quite happy about that.***********A WEEK LATERI sat in my own secretarial space in the outer workings of Atlas’s private office—which was about a few miles away from me, but clearly in







