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Once inside the building, I walk through rows of clanging slot machines to yet another elevator Twenty-five floors later, I exit to a lobby that screams of money and luxury, froany desk

The pretty blond receptionist, who I guess to be twenty-three, or ly siet, and I aht to recover slips away Suddenly I ah

“Kali?” she asks hopefully

“Yes, I’m Kali”

“I’ her hand to her chest, and her genuine friendliness begins to ease my tension She waves me toward a hallway and I follow as she adds, “I’ for Mr Ward instead of , and I’ll help you”

“Oh Thanks Why didn’t you want to work for him?”

She snorts “Too good-looking and intense for me” I barely have time to process that anse enter a second lobby, with leather chairs, fancy art on the walls, and a secretarial desk that looks as if six or seven files exploded on top of it

“Good grief,” I whisper, but before I can ask what happened, Dana motions to the door directly behind the mess “That’s his office,” she whispers, as if it’s a secret, then rushes forward and grabs the phone in the midst of the piles of papers “Mr Ward,” she says into the receiver, “your new secretary has arrived” A brief pause, then, “I’ll send her right in”

Dana hangs up and turns to me “Good luck”

“I’m supposed to just walk in?”

“Yes”

“Knock first?”

She gives an uncertain shrug “Whatever feels right” She waggles her fingers at htails it in the other direction

I sigh and walk behind the desk, intending to take the liberty of placing my purse in the drawer of what I assuape at how le The papers that have erupted on the desk are scribbled on with a blackmalicious And childish

I study the for one, I freeze when the door behind me creaks, followed by, “Ms Miller?”