Since it helped with his end game, he allowed it, but once she came back he was going to have to make sure that they understand that he didn’t give second chances.

“Mr. Bradford?” Jon, his newly promoted supervisor, said, getting his attention. “There’s another one on hold for you.”

Nodding, he held the clipboard out to Jon and ignored the collective sigh of relief. “Can you take over?” he asked, shooting a glare at his staff that looked a little too happy to see him go.

“Yes,” Jon said, stepping into the room to take over.

Promoting Jon had been a good idea, he decided as he walked to his office. He was well respected among the staff and was a fair man. He was also more liked than Adam had been.

Closing the door behind him, he sat down behind his desk and picked up the phone. “Can I help you?”

“Is this Mr. Bradford?” the woman on the other line asked.

“Yes, it is. How can I help you?” he said, sighing as he leaned back in his chair.

“I’m calling for a reference for one of your employees, a Miss Rebecca Shaw. Do you have a moment to answer some questions?”

Smiling, he answered, “Yes, yes I do.”

 

 

Chapter 42

“Mind moving your fat ass off my notebook?” Melanie asked around a bite of Hostess chocolate pie.

Sighing heavily, Rebecca shifted to the side, grabbed the notebook and threw it at the insensitive bitch.

“Thanks!” Melanie said cheerfully as she leaned over and picked the notebook off the floor where it had landed after hitting her in the arm.

“You’re welcome,” she muttered moodily, knowing that she was being a bitch and not really caring.

“No luck today?” Melanie asked, finishing off the last bite of her delicious looking pie and making Rebecca hate her to the very core of her soul.

She really missed being able to binge on junk food during times like this.

“No,” she said, still wondering what she was doing wrong.

She knew that her resume wasn’t going to land her a position as a CEO, but it should have been enough to land her a few interviews. So far, she hadn’t received one single call and she doubted that today would be any different.

“You could always work for me,” Melanie said, offering her a pity job, which was sweet.

“You don’t need me,” she reminded her annoyingly helpful best friend as she picked up the remote and selected an oldie but goodie.

“Nightmare on Elm Street? Really?” Melanie asked, shaking her head in disgust as she grabbed another Hostess pie and took a bite.

“I need it,” Rebecca muttered pathetically as she sat back and settled in for a long night of pretending that she wasn’t staring at her phone and waiting for it to ring.

“Why don’t you just go back to work for Lucifer? We both know that’s what you want,” the know-it-all-bitch said as she devoured her pie.

“Because…”

“Because, why?” Melanie asked a bit distractedly as she searched the empty wrappers on the coffee table for another pie.

“Just because,” she said, in no mood to get into this argument again.

“Because you’re a stubborn bitch with too much pride and not enough common sense to realize that you’ll never be happy anywhere else?” Melanie said, earning a furious glare.

“I really hate you,” she said, deciding that if Melanie managed to find another pie that she was going to take it from her and stomp the shit out of it.

“You love me and you know it,” Melanie said with a sigh and a shrug as she gave up on her search for more junk food and returned her attention to her laptop.

“You’re lucky that I do,” she said as she glanced down at her phone and felt her stomach sink when she saw that she didn’t have any missed calls.

“That’s what I tell myself everyday,” Melanie said with a smile and a wink for the sole purpose of trying to make her forget that no one was calling.

Feeling even more depressed than she had this morning, she tossed her phone aside and forced her lazy ass to get up. “I’m going to the bathroom. Let me know if anyone calls.”

“Will do,” Melanie mumbled, already lost in whatever code she was working on.

Deciding that tonight’s theme was going to be self-pity, she stepped over Mojo, who had fallen asleep by her feet in the hopes that Melanie would share her junk food with him, and walked to the bathroom, replaying all the conversations that she’d had today in her head. She’d been polite, smiled and had taken her time filling out all the applications. So, why wasn’t anyone calling her?

Shutting the bathroom door behind her, she walked over to the sink, looked at her reflection in the mirror and-

Screamed somewhat hysterically.

*-*-*-*

“Could I ask you a few questions about Rebecca Shaw?”

He sighed heavily for effect. “I don’t think my wife would like me talking about her. Not with the trial around the corner.”

“I’m sorry?” came the confused response after a heavy pause.

“So am I, but if you’re calling about getting me to drop the charges I’m afraid that you’re out of luck. My wife is determined to see this thing through.”

“I-I’m just calling for a reference.”

“That’s how it starts. She comes in with this adorable little smile, neatly typed resume and then before you know it you’re trying to remember the safe word and hoping that your wife doesn’t figure out where all the olive oil is going,” he said as he scrolled through next week’s schedule, seeing if any changes needed to be made.

“I think I’m going to hang up now,” Rebecca’s latest interested job prospect whispered nervously.

“It’s probably for the best,” he agreed, clicking Save.

Satisfied that he’d saved Rebecca from making a terrible mistake, he pushed his chair back and left his office. It was time to check on the stubborn woman and make sure that she hadn’t been offered any jobs on the spot, because if she had then he was going to have to figure out a way to get her fired before her first day.

So far today he’d helped her dodge five-perspective jobs. He wasn’t counting the jobs that he’d threatened his relatives not to give her. They knew better then to do something that would encourage him to focus his attention on them. While Uncle Jared would normally take any threat of revenge as a challenge, he knew exactly what Lucifer was capable of. While most of his brothers and cousins would try to annoy the shit out their uncle, he usually took the more subtle route and found a way to turn someone’s life upside down to the point where his intended victim would start to wonder if they were going insane.