Under His Care by Kelly Favor Read Free Book Online Page B

idyllic lives and making them uncomfortable with her presence.
    “Red,” Nicole said, breaking a protracted silence. “Do you want to talk to Kennedy about that other thing now?”
    Red turned to her, surprised for a moment, but then it seemed to dawn on him. “Oh. Right. I almost forgot.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked at Kennedy. “Look, let’s be honest, Kennedy. Someone with your background was never meant for the role of an assistant.”
    She nodded her head in agreement, but her pride was wounded. “I suppose that’s true. I wish I could’ve done better. I really did try my best.”
    “I’m not saying you did a poor job,” he clarified.
    Nicole looked at her. “It’s not criticism. We’re just saying that your talents were wasted in that position.”
    “Yeah.” Kennedy sighed. “I guess this is the sign I was looking for to make a change. I mean, I knew eventually I’d have to go back to Boston and now it seems clear that I was never supposed to stay in New York.”
    “Wait a minute,” Nicole said, leaning forward. “You want to leave New York?”
    “Well isn’t that the point? I’m not cut out for this city. I’m not cut out for that job. I should be back at MIT crunching numbers. I took my shot, and now I have my answer.”
    Red and Nicole exchanged glances.
    “I think you misinterpreted what I was saying,” Red told her. “I want you to stay in New York and continue working for my company.”
    Now Kennedy was well and truly stumped. What was he talking about? She blinked, confused, speechless.
    “Go on,” Nicole said, patting Red’s arm. “Just explain the rest of it to her.”
    Red loosened his tie. “I looked a bit into your history and the kind of work you did at MIT,” he said.
    “You looked into my history?” Kennedy said, surprised and flattered, but also scared.
    “I did.” Red grinned. “It’s pretty damn impressive stuff. There probably aren’t a thousand people in this entire country who could understand the things that you understand.”
    “I don’t know about that.”
    “The fact is, we need people like you in my company, Kennedy, but we don’t need them making coffee and sending faxes or running around checking on plane reservations and taking meeting minutes.” He pushed his plate away and folded his hands on the countertop. “What we need is a really good analyst who can take in tremendous amounts of information and find patterns.”
    “What kinds of patterns?”
    “My business is evolving,” Red told her, “and I need to be ahead of the curve. You know that maniac, Kane Wright? The one who helped us out the other day?”
    “Yeah,” Kennedy said, not wanting to think too much about him.
    “Well, guys like him are my competition. We might be friendly in our off hours, but when we’re at work, he’s my mortal enemy. And there are plenty of other guys and women like Kane, who are trying to take business away from me and gain market share for themselves. I need to think ten moves ahead of those people, and I think you could help me do that.”
    Kennedy was taken aback, but also pleased that Red would even consider her for such a position. But then it occurred to her. “Are you doing this as a…I don’t know…a favor to Nicole?”
    Nicole’s mouth dropped open. “No, Kennedy. Red would never give someone a job just because I asked him to do it.”
    Red put a hand on Nicole’s shoulder. “It’s not completely beyond reason to wonder if Nicole asked me to do this,” he said, smiling. “And obviously you being family has a little to do with it. But Nicole’s right that I wouldn’t make an offer, and certainly not something of this magnitude and strategic importance to my company, unless I was personally convinced that you’d do an outstanding job.”
    “I’m flattered,” Kennedy said. “But I’m not sure. So much has happened.”
    “You’d be working directly for me,” Red told her, “so you wouldn’t have any