The Butcher (Fifth Republic Series #1) Read Online Penelope Sky

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Contemporary, Crime, Dark, Mafia, Suspense Tags Authors: Series: Fifth Republic Series Series by Penelope Sky
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Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 68688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
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He watched me for a while, his arms still crossed over his chest. “You’re scared.”

“I’m not scared. I just… It’s hard to start over.” I’d lost most of my friends. I loved his parents, but now they would never speak to me again, even though I was the victim in the marriage. I loved his entire family, felt like they were my family, and now I would never see them again. It fucking sucked.

“It’s okay to be scared, sweetheart. You can’t be brave if you aren’t scared—and you are brave.”

All the pain I felt was replaced by warmth, warmth that he put there. “How do you do that?”

“What?” He cocked his head slightly.

“You always know what to say.”

He gave a slight shrug. “I don’t bullshit, so you know I mean everything I say.”

“Maybe…” Maybe it was because I could trust him. He was the only person in my life I had to trust.

He took another puff of his cigar before he kept it in his mouth, let the taste absorb into his tongue. He let the smoke out from the crack between his lips.

I finished my cigarette and put it out, knowing I needed to stop the habit again. It’d gotten worse over the last few weeks. When I thought Bastien was trying to shake me, it got worse, going from one cigarette a day to at least five. “I had a couple job interviews. I didn’t get any of them.”

“They answered you that quickly?”

“No, but I could tell they weren’t interested. I wasn’t qualified for most of the jobs, so I’m not sure why they interviewed me in the first place.”

“What kind of work are you looking for?”

I shrugged. “Anything with decent pay, really. I’m tired of working nights too. Hard to believe, but I used to be a morning person before I started at Silencio.”

“Are you decent with computers? Spreadsheets, Excel, shit like that?”

“I suppose.” I owned a laptop, but I didn’t use it much. Had never worked in an office before. “I’m a fast learner, whatever is thrown at me.”

“I can get you a position at one of my investment firms. One of my finance guys needs an executive assistant—and he’s gay.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

He smirked. “You think I’m gonna let my girl work for some asshole, wearing a tight pencil skirt all day? That ass is mine.” He took another puff of his cigar, and when he spoke, the smoke billowed out of his mouth. “It’s yours if you want it.”

“Your girl?” I asked without thinking, surprised that he’d said that.

He rested the cigar between his relaxed fingertips, lounging in the chair like he wasn’t the least bit stressed about the label he’d used so effortlessly. “I said what I said.” With confidence in his stare, he looked at me like he didn’t care how I felt about that. He didn’t give a damn what anyone thought of him, and that included me. “So?”

His words made my heart race in excitement, made my palms warm despite the cold night air. But it also made the fear worse, because the last thing I wanted was to be in the same position as the one I’d just left. “That’s really sweet of you to do that, but it wouldn’t be right.”

“How so?”

“I would be taking the job from someone actually qualified for it.”

“Let me give you a life lesson, sweetheart. When someone opens a door, you just walk through it. Don’t wait for it to close because it might be locked the next time you try to open it. Life is fucking hard, and you should use every advantage you have at your disposal. The advantage you have right now is me. Use me.”

Every moment I spent with him made me more attracted to him. The words he spoke, the confidence he showed, the straightforward, no-bullshit way he handled his life and everyone in it. The pull between us grew in intensity and had the strength of a black hole, sucking me further into his soul. I’d loved Adrien with all my heart and wanted to spend my life with him, but I’d never felt for him the way I felt for Bastien, a man I still considered a stranger in a lot of ways. I didn’t know how to process these feelings. I didn’t know if I should see it through or pull the plug while I still had the strength.

“I’ll tell him you’ll be there on Monday.” He tapped his cigar into the ashtray and let the ashes sprinkle the bowl before he took another puff, his jawline sharpening when he pulled the smoke into his mouth.

I was desperate for a job, desperate to be out of that bar where all the sleazebags hit on me all night long. I wanted to be in bed at a reasonable hour, not at four a.m., not unless I was with Bastien. “Thank you.”


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