All Chapters of HIRED THE WRONG BILLIONAIRE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Chapter 2 I was ninety seconds late and my phone was at four percent and the lobby of the Brennan Hotel was full of men in dark suits.None of them had a red pocket square. That was the thing I'd checked in the elevator, twice, reading the email I hadn't read at the bar. Your date will be in a dark suit. No red accessories. Weird rule. Weird agency. But fine — I had a rule now. I had a system. I had a plan and a dress that cost more than my electric bill and a phone that was going to die in the middle of the best night of my life."Come on," I said to nobody, to the doorman, to the marble.Three men in dark suits. The first one by the elevator had a red tie. The second one at the front desk had a red pocket square, folded like a flag. The third was on his phone by the window with a red enamel pin on his lapel, and I stood there watching the three of them like a woman reading a menu she couldn't afford.No red. That was the instruction. No red.There was no fourth man in a dark suit.

Chapter 4 The valet had stopped. The doorman had his hand on the door. Everybody was watching."Get in," he said again, and I got in.Not because he told me to. Because it was eleven degrees and my coat was open and my clutch was in both hands like a shield and if I stood there one more second I was going to say something I couldn't take back in front of a man whose job was to open doors.The car was warm. That was the first thing. Warm, and black, and so quiet that when the door shut it sounded like a safe closing."Where to," the driver said."My place," I said. "Baxter and Ninth. The gray building with the bad awning.""Baxter and Ninth," the driver said, and pulled out.Daniel didn't say anything. He sat on his side of the seat with his coat open and his hands on his knees and he looked out the window at the hotel going by, and I sat on mine with my arms crossed and my heart going like a rabbit and my mouth tasting like his mouth."You're not going to say anything," I said."Shou

Chapter 6 "Say that again," I said, and my hand was already reaching for my coat."Your date never showed up," the woman said. "Daniel? Daniel Vance? Six-two, dark hair, navy suit, red pocket square — he was booked for eight o'clock at the Brennan, and at eight-forty he called in sick, and by then, ma'am, we'd already been trying your phone for twenty minutes and it was dead."My phone had been at four percent in a hotel lobby."Refund's processed," she went on. "Two thousand two hundred, back on the card in three to five business days. We're real sorry. We've never had a no-show, we're going to have a conversation with Daniel about—""Stop.""Ma'am?""Stop saying his name."I was in the hallway by then. Coat half on. Keys in my hand. The elevator took eleven floors and I stood in it staring at the mirror and my own face looked like it belonged to somebody else.The lobby was bright and loud on a Sunday. Two women coming back from a run. An old man with a paper. Luis behind the desk

Chapter 8 The knock came before I got my coat off.Dani said, "Don't," and I said, "It's Mrs. Delgado," and I opened the door.It was not Mrs. Delgado.He was standing in my hallway in a black coat with his hands at his sides, and behind him, halfway down the corridor, the delivery kid from the bodega was frozen with a bag in his arms. Across the hall, Mrs. Delgado's door was open the width of its chain.I put my body in the doorway."No," I said."Mia.""That's my name. Congratulations. How do you know my address?""You gave it to the driver.""The driver didn't tell you where I live — the driver drove me, he didn't announce me—""You told him Baxter and Ninth. The gray building with the bad awning." He said it flat, like a man reading back a receipt. "I came up the service elevator."The delivery kid said, "Uh.""Give it here," I said, and took the bag, and put it inside the door, and shut the door on the delivery kid's face because I did not have one single dollar of change in my

Chapter 10 I went down after him with the folder in one hand and the eviction notice in the other, and the elevator took eleven floors like it had all the time in the world.Dani was behind me saying my name. Mrs. Delgado was behind Dani saying something about how a body shouldn't ride an elevator in her socks. The delivery kid was on the stairs, three floors down, taking pictures.The lobby doors opened onto Sunday afternoon. Luis at the desk. The old man with his paper, still there, four hours later, like he lived in that chair. Two women in tennis clothes. A doorman holding the glass.And through the glass, across the street, the black car."Miss Brennan," Luis said. "Don't.""Luis, open the door.""Miss Brennan—""Open the door."He opened the door.I went out onto the sidewalk in my socks with a manila folder and a government envelope and the whole lobby behind me at the glass, and I walked up to the back window of that car and I knocked on it with my knuckle, twice, loud.The w