Glancing back up, she caught Rhys’s gaze and simply stared at him. This wasn’t her problem. Growing up in Las Vegas, she knew the world wasn’t always roses and rainbows. Over her life, she had seen a lot of shit happen and it had stopped shocking her a long time ago.
Her parents, lovely as they were, had some very shady friends. Maybe that’s why she was drawn to Rhys. There was something dark inside of him that she couldn’t help but relate to.
Rhys continued to stare at Hyacinth for another second before he nodded his head at one guy standing to the side. “I want him removed from these premises.” He turned back to the guy who was whimpering and apologizing for making a mistake. His pleas for forgiveness and promises to never do it again seemed to fall on deaf ears. “You will never work in this city again. Hell, I’ll make sure you never work in the restaurant business again. You should have known better than to fuck with my business, Peter.” With a flick of his wrist, Rhys released the man and threw him to the side. “Take care of the trash,” he said to his goons. Bodyguards? Security?
Either way, they looked scary as shit.
Not moving from her spot, Hyacinth continued to listen to everything happening on the other side of the room. Without acknowledging her, Rhys turned to the staff. “I’m a fair boss. I pay you well. When you’ve come to me for help, I never turned any of you away. If you give me an honest day’s work, I will give you an honest day’s pay. My family’s restaurants have a reputation to uphold. No one will be allowed to tarnish that. Not only did Peter steal from our patrons by copying their credit card information, but he also stole money directly from each of you by taking tips and other cash payments that came through over the past two days. That, I cannot allow. Some of you may wonder why this was so public. The only answer I can give is that I wanted you to see that the trash removed.”
He glanced over his shoulder to see Hyacinth still standing there. She didn’t seem afraid. Reserved was probably a better word to describe the look on her face.
“Boss, we know. Because he’d been here so long, he said you would believe him over us. He-he said that if anyone spoke up, we’d be fired.”
Rhys dropped his head, briefly closing his eyes before looking at the crew again. “New rule. No one makes decisions about this team or this restaurant without you hearing it explicitly from me. Peter did not speak for me. None of your jobs are in jeopardy. If anyone, and I do mean anyone, approaches any of you and tries to imply something that I said, or something I would do, then you come to me. Understand?”
A chorus of ‘yes, sirs’ came from the group before they dispersed.
Turning to his two guys who were standing over the old restaurant manager, Peter, Rhys spoke a few silent words as he motioned to the man; who was still crying. After that was done and they hauled the man out, Hyacinth waited with bated breath as he came back towards her.
Now that she’d seen a different side to Rhys, her attraction to him was even stronger. That was even more reason for her to keep her distance. Maintain a professional relationship only and then move on once her job was done.
Her eyes traveled up and down his body as he strolled over in her direction. “Hyacinth…” he began, but she interrupted him.
“Clearly, he fucked around and found out. Don’t worry about me, Mr. Mannetti. I heard what you said to your employees. If they take care of you, you’ll take care of them. Thieves have no place here. I get it. I understand. Now, since you’re down another employee,” she paused for emphasis, “for the long-term, maybe we can talk about how I can help with some other things around here. For a fee, of course.”
His green gaze stared at her for a few moments, making her uncomfortable. Had she said too much? In the end, it didn’t matter, because what she said was the truth. And she was going to look at this as an opportunity. The only remaining question was, would she be able to survive working with Rhys without falling for her boss?
Chapter 5
The man was a fucking tyrant.
After two-weeks of working with Rhys, Hyacinth was ready to walk out. Now a full month into working at Mannetti’s, things have settled into a bit of a rhythm. There were still some questions she had about him, but he’d shown her he was kind to his employees, and he listened to her opinions. For now, that was enough.
After that first day, all signs of the nice guy who saved her from being hit by a random car and offered her sweet part-time job had disappeared. Every order was barked out in a near yell. He never said please and thank you. He expected perfection from every single member of his team and would accept nothing less.
Plus, Hyacinth was tired. She worked full-time at her day job every weekday. Then she rushed to Mannetti’s each night to begin work by six o’clock. They didn’t close until eleven at night. While it wasn’t her responsibility to help the clean-up crew, she usually stayed at least an extra thirty to forty-five minutes to clean up her area and do what she could. She didn’t need to work on Mondays or Sundays, but here she was.
Walking through the front door, she saw one of the other employees standing at the front. Mateo was a young man trying to break into restaurant management. He had worked for Rhys for going on five years now. He explained that he was going to school in the evening and wanted to be at home to tuck his kids into bed at night as often as possible, which is why he didn’t work the late shift. When he told Hyacinth that Rhys never gave him grief about his schedule and always made sure he was off by six each night, her respect for Rhys increased even more.
She smiled at Mateo as she walked up to him. “Hey, Mateo. How’s it going?”
“Hey, Hyacinth. I thought you were off tonight. Wasn’t the boss going to give Missy a shot at hosting tonight?”
“I was bored. Figured I would come help. Plus, I could give Missy a few pointers that I’ve picked up on. That way, you don’t have to stay beyond six. I know you need to get home to your little ones.”
“You’re a lifesaver. I don’t know what we did before you joined. Just know that everyone notices how much you help around here, even when you don’t have to.”
A blush came over her cheeks at his kind words. Of course, her hard work was praised before, but she recognized that everyone at Mannetti’s worked extra hard. Not because they had to, but because they were happy. Even if their boss was overly demanding and mean as a fucking snake sometimes. Then again, he smiled at his employees. Greeted them when they came in and as they were heading out. But with her, he would snarl half the time, snapping orders, and slamming doors whenever she came too close. Did he no longer want her working here but didn’t know how to tell her not to come back?
No, she didn’t think that would be an issue for him. If he wanted to fire her, he would do it in a heartbeat. Hopefully, her departure would be less of a scene than Peter’s.
“Thank you, Mateo,” she said with a smile. “I do it because I’m here to help the team. We’re all in this together. Now that I’m here, you can wrap up and head home.”
Fifteen minutes later, there was a lull in the activity at the front reception area. Rhys walked in the front door, a woman on his arm.
Brunette. Slim. Tall. Gorgeous.
Of course.