Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

CAROLINA

Welcome to Consequence.

Driving past the welcome sign for Consequence, North Carolina was nothing new.

I did it every day on my way to work. But I was headed in a different direction today.

Those bright blue letters against the weathered wood seemed almost ironic, given the circumstances.

Consequence was where I ended up after making the biggest mistake of my life.

Of course, it involved a man.

A little over a year ago, I was just like a million other Jersey Girls, thinking I’d make it in New York City.

Admittedly, I allowed myself to be flattered when I was headhunted by an up-and-coming tech firm.

And yeah, I let the big city lights, and the excitement of a new job woo me.

No, I had not planned to have a fling with my now ex-boss, who turned out to be married. God, it was awful. I felt awful.

He was a sleazy, worthless cheater. What was worse was that he made me one, too.

So, I skipped town, er , state, actually. I moved from New Jersey to North Carolina and found a new job.

That’s how I ended up here.

In Consequence .

Of course, I’d hoped my new role was going to take me far away, to places where I’d be able to forget my past blunders.

You see, I worked for Mitchell Knight, an eccentric billionaire and business tycoon.

But so far, the farthest away I’d gotten was Small Town, America . It was better than staying home, though.

No, really .

Consequence was a beautiful town, and the locals were warm and welcoming. But this job was proving to be a little insane.

Mr. Knight was by far the worst billionaire I’d ever met. Not that I’d met a bunch. He was just all over the place and he never confided in anyone.

It was impossible to guess what he was going to do or say next. Maybe that was the nature of genius. I had no idea. I sure as hell wasn’t one.

But I was supposed to be one of three personal assistants the man had working for him. And yet, for some reason, I was always the last to know what was going on.

Like now.

The weather app on my cell phone chimed, alerting me to inclement weather, and I rolled my eyes.

This was my first fall in North Carolina, and the storm warnings rang constantly.

But that didn’t worry me yet. It was the new assignment I received via email at three o’clock this morning.

I spent two hours just trying to wrap my brain around what I was supposed to do.

Bought a training facility complete with accommodations for my new Major League Rugby team. Make sure the boys are welcome. -MK

MK was Mitchell Knight. But the email came from Myrna the Mouth. How that woman kept her job, I had no idea. She was rude to everyone, and she dressed like she could be on one of the Real Housewives shows. Any of them, really.

Anyway, she intimidated the shit out of me. I was lucky if I slapped on some face powder, mascara, and lip gloss in the morning. She probably spent three hours contouring her face.

I mean, I wasn’t saying that like it was a bad thing. She could do her, and I would do me. It was more her poor attitude and rude behavior I had a problem with. But I was new here, so I just let it go.

What else could I do?

After she sent me the address, I spent the rest of the morning packing my own bags and double checking the electric and water companies had all been sent to this new training facility. Then I called the regular cleaning service Knight Global used regularly for all their buildings and made sure they got the place all neat and ready for move-in, which was supposed to be in about two hours.

FML.

We already had a bus on standby at the airport, which was one less thing for me to do. Then I made sure the orders for food, medical supplies, and sports equipment were already en route.

It seemed impossible that I would get all that finished by eight AM, but I did it. As per Mr. Knight’s orders. Sent to me by Myrna the Mouth. Last thing I had to do was get my ass there before the bus pulled up at nine.

Like my neighbor always said, he was an older gentleman, a widower named Milton Johnson, this should be easy as pie .