Read Fierce for Free Online Page B

a hint. That one didn’t work either. But then, you clearly aren’t trying to make me feel special. As you say—it isn’t necessary. You follow your own rules. Hooray for you. But that doesn’t mean I have to follow them.”
    “It doesn’t, eh.” His eyes had kindled again, and there was no smile now.
    “No. It doesn’t.” I crouched down and picked up my notebook and pen from the floor, then stood again. “I don’t think it was very fair of you to let me quit my job and jeopardize my family’s security without telling me the rules, though. For the record.”
    “Who said I played fair?” His voice was dangerously quiet.
    “Nobody.” I faced him across the desk again. “Nobody. Congratulations.”
    I walked out. All that distance again in reverse, knowing he was watching me, half-expecting him to come after me, for the tiger to pounce from behind and drag me back.
    As a composure-maintaining exercise, the whole thing was pretty much a dead loss. And I still had to go back down to my office and wait for the axe to fall.
    Well, if all I had was my pride, I was going to hang onto it. Hemi didn’t follow me, and I marched through the doors of the Publicity Department and back to my cube. 
    When I passed Nathan, though, he wheeled himself rapidly across his plastic chair mat and hissed at me. 
    “Hope.” He jerked his head. “In here.”
    “What?” 
    “What happened? Martine’s in a mood, and she wants to see you right away.”
    That hadn’t taken long. I took a deep breath and, without bothering to stop at my cube, walked across to Martine’s office and rapped at the open door.
    She looked up. “Ah. Hope. Come in and shut the door, please.”
    My heart was pounding as I did as she said, then slid into a seat opposite her. 
    “Everything all right up there?” she asked.
    “Um…yes.” If she didn’t know yet, I wasn’t going to tell her. At least I might get paid for the day if I hung on here for another hour or two.
    “Good. Now, then. This schedule.” She reached beside her for the document and began to point out my errors. My many errors, which mainly amounted to not having read her mind. I took notes, nodded, and asked questions that she answered impatiently, but I was getting the hang of it, and despite everything, that felt good.
    “See that that’s finished right away, please,” she said. “I wanted it finalized this morning.” She glanced at her watch. “Take another pass at it, and try to get it right, please. Our time is limited.”
    Little did she know. “Of course.” 
    Nathan popped his Prairie Dog head over my cube when I came back. “What the hell is going on? ”
    I sighed. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. Go away. I have work to do.” 
    The next interruption came two hours later, after I’d turned in the schedule and was waiting to hear if I’d passed, unable to fret too much about it, as it would be almost the last thing I’d do for Te Mana. 
    “Hey, Hope.”
    I swiveled to find Danny, one of the mail guys, outside my cube. “Hey yourself.”
    He handed me a package in a giant interoffice envelope. Way too big to be a pink slip. “Got something for you. Looks like something good.”
    The second he was gone, I was opening it.
    A box. I pulled it out, lifted the lid, and found…shoes.
    Shoes?
    A pair of black pumps like mine, in the same ridiculously hard-to-find small size as mine. Five and a half. And yet nothing at all like mine. As different from mine as an Italian greyhound from a pit bull.
    I didn’t have to look at the label to know. Jimmy Choo. A beautifully pointed toe, the sides gracefully cut away, and a three-inch heel I could actually walk in. And, best of all, the gorgeous texture. Strands of glistening metallic leather laced through rich black in the subtlest of chevrons. 
    I craved them. I lusted after them. And I knew I couldn’t have them. 
    There was a note in the box.
    You could call it an apology.
    I was still looking at