Page 6 of His Scarlette Obsession

The one whose corporate takeovers I compared to a wolf devouring innocent businesses?

That can’t be right.

“Are you still there, Miss Hood?”

That voice again. Like rough velvet. Like being awakened to sensations I never knew existed until this very moment.

“Yes,” I manage. “I’m here. I just wasn’t expecting...you,” I finish lamely.

“No, I imagine you weren’t.”

I glance at my computer screen in horror. At the half-finished newsletter with its thinly veiled attack on his business practices. The one where I specifically called out his downtown project as “predatory opportunism masquerading as urban renewal.”

Please God.

I know Lykan Qahiri is a lot of things.

But let him not be a hacker who knows what I’m writing.

Because if he was, then I’m doomed.

And fired.

Calm down, Scar!

My fingers tighten around the receiver. “How can I help you, Sheikh Qahiri?”

“As of ten minutes ago, I acquired Vista Lending.”

I blink. Then blink again, waiting for the punchline.

Calm down.

Anytime now, he’s going to tell me this is a prank.

“And the building you’re sitting in, in case that matters.”

What in the world is happening?

“You...I...” What do I even say to that? “Congra—”

My new boss (or boss’s boss?) doesn’t even let me finish.

“I’m calling because what you’re currently working on has caught my attention.”

Okay, seriously.

Somebody kill me.

NOW.

“Corporate wolves versus sharks, isn’t it?”

My stomach drops through the floor.

Actually, forget about finding someone to kill me...since I’m already dead.

Completely, utterly dead.