Keep ’em comin’.
Eli had become adept at running off PAs. In fact, he’d become even more creative about the ways he could get them to quit.
If poor Melanie had her way, he’d reside in a creepy mansion atop a hill. The gossip rags would murmur about the beastly Crane brother no one dared bother lest they suffer his wrath. He let out a dry laugh, amused by the bend of his thoughts.
After the year he’d had, that sounded a lot like heaven.
* * *
The phone was ringing off the hook today, which normally would be a good sign. But the caller on hold sent Isabella Sawyer’s stomach on a one-way trip to her toes.
“Isa?” her assistant called again from her desk. “Do you want me to take a message?”
“No, Chloe, I’ll take it.” She didn’t want to take it, but she’d take it. She shut her office door and in the minimizing crack watched as her friend’s face morphed into concern. Isa gave Chloe a thumbs-up she didn’t quite feel. Lifting the handset of her desk phone was like facing a firing squad.
“Bobbie, hello,” she said to Reese Crane’s secretary.
“Hold for Mr. Crane,” Bobbie clipped in her usual curt manner.
She’d had similar conversations with Reese several times already. Nine other times, to be exact. One for each of the personal assistants she’d sent over to work with his brother. Isa was pretty sure this was the “you’re fired” call she’d been expecting three assistants ago. At least she had a prepared response this time.
“Isa. Here we are again,” came Reese’s smooth voice.
She’d met him once in passing, at an event she’d attended on behalf of her personal assistant company, Sable Concierge. Reese Crane was tall, intimidating, handsome, and professional.
And married. Not that he was Isa’s type. Business guys in suits for clients, yes. Business guys in suits for dating potential, no thanks. She’d been there, done that, and picked up the dry cleaning.
“Mr. Crane, I’m sorry we aren’t speaking under better circumstances.”
“So am I. You promised me you’d found the ideal PA for Eli this time around.”
Melanie hadn’t been second string, but Isa had already gone through her top choices. Elijah Crane had chased off every last one of them. They were down to her assistant Chloe, whom Isa needed here in the office, or a new hire named Joey. No way would he last thirty seconds.
Isa refused to pull her other PAs off current assignments to cater to Elijah Crane. If she lost the Crane business, she’d need her current roster of clients or they’d all starve.
“Solve my problem.” Reese’s commanding tone brooked no argument, nor should it. Isa was at his beck and call for one simple reason: his seal of approval would help her budding business advance to the next level, or, if she continued failing to provide a suitable assistant for his brother, could tank it. She wanted to wedge a foot in the door with the elite in Chicago, and since her parents weren’t supportive of her choice in vocation, Reese Crane held the key to that door.
“I have a solution. A PA who has over three years experience at my company and a decade prior working as right-hand woman to Sawyer Financial Group. I can guarantee your brother will absolutely not scare her away.”
“Who is this maven?” he asked, but the lilt of his voice suggested he’d already figured out.
“Me.”
A quiet grunt that could have been a laugh came through the phone. “I take it you’re not much of a wilter.”
“No. I’m tenacious and stubborn.”
“An exact match for Eli.”
“Once I convince him to get more involved in Crane Hotels, I’m sure I can place one of our many qualified assistants in my stead. I do have a company to run.”
Afraid she’d overstepped boundaries with her confidence, she cleared her throat, her mother’s scolding voice in the back of her mind whispering, Be polite, Isabella. No man appreciates a woman who disrespects him.
“My foray as his assistant will be brief,” she continued. “But there’s no need for him to know I’m top brass.”
“Right. Let’s not give him a challenge he’ll embrace,” Reese muttered.
“Exactly. I’ll act as if the company sent me. Like I’m a nameless number eleven. But trust me when I say, I’ll exceed your expectations.”
“Eleven,” Reese muttered.
She could have kicked herself for reminding him how many assistants they’d run through already.
“I apologize for the lack of professionalism you’ve seen so far. I appreciate you giving Sable Concierge another chance. My company is one I want you to lean on any time you’re in need of help.”
“Your company came highly recommended, Ms. Sawyer.” Reese said, his voice taking on a gentle quality. His voice did that whenever the topic of his wife came up.
“Thank Merina for me again,” Isa told him.
“I will. Your success is imminent, I presume.”
“You can bank on it.” She said her goodbyes and hung up the phone, pulling in a steady breath. One more shot. She had one more shot to pull this off. No, Reese hadn’t said it, but he hadn’t needed to. She’d fire her if she were he. Wife-recommended or not.
Last fall, Isa randomly scored a position for one of her assistants at the Van Heusen Hotel with Merina. The other woman had suggested Isa’s company for Elijah’s transition from Marine to Crane COO. In comparison to what Merina’s brother-in-law had been through serving his country, placing a PA was supposed to be easy. Eli had been through the physical hoops to regain his mobility using a prosthetic leg, and his warehouse home was equipped to accommodate his working from there as well.
The assistant’s job was to help Eli field Crane Hotels’s conference calls, answer and forward e-mails, and tend to the light load of work Reese had handed down to Eli to oversee.
Eli had done none of it.
Isa sent in seasoned help, and a startling number of her employees left either in tears or so angry Isa nearly lost them altogether. Elijah Crane, regardless of the team’s sensitivity training and the day they’d spent with a rehabilitation expert for amputees, was not an easy guy to feel sorry for.
He was “mean,” according to one of her employees, “miserable” according to another, and poor Melanie, who unfortunately had turned in her notice after her first and only day at Eli’s, had referred to him as a “monster” on her way out the door.
Well. The scourge of Eli Crane ended here. Isa wasn’t accustomed to buckling under pressure. If Eli was determined to be miserable, he could ruin his own life, but she wouldn’t allow him to tank her company’s future. Despite the reassurance she’d given Reese, Isa had expected Melanie to last two or three days. She’d lasted one.
Chloe had been trained to run the office in case Isa was away, so Isa had no doubts she could handle Eli during the day, then tend to Sable Concierge after hours. Answering e-mails could be done at any time of night, and she could return phone calls during lunch or early in the morning.
As owner and operator, Isa was willing to do whatever it took to make her business a success in Chicago. If she had to work two jobs for the short term, so be it.