“You want my advice?” his sister had said before she’d headed back to her own house on Valkyrie territory. “Let her set the pace. At least in the beginning. Don’t push with this girl. Trust me.”

He had and now Kera was kissing him. Their tongues touched, stroked. She tasted like the peach pie he’d bought for dinner.

Then she pulled away. She smiled into his face. “See you in the morning.”

“Uh-huh,” was all he could manage, and then she was gone, the screen door softly closing behind her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Erin pulled up to the valet and handed over the keys. She headed into the enormous award-winning building and over to the front desk.

A woman who could easily be a supermodel smiled at her in welcome. “Hello. May I help you?”

“Erin Amsel to see Betty Lieberman please.”

“Sure. Hold on.”

The receptionist called in and after a few seconds that Erin knew would mean trouble, she disconnected the call.

“Ms. Lieberman asks that you come up in the elevator and barrel past her assistant’s desk and right into her office.”

Erin shook her head. “Seriously?”

All the receptionist could do was smirk and shrug.

Letting out a sigh, Erin made her way to the large glass elevator and went to the top floor. She walked out and stalked down the long hallway, not even looking at Betty’s assistant as she went by.

“Oh! Excuse me! Miss. Miss . . . uh . . . Amsel? Miss Amsel, please! If you could just . . .”

Erin walked into Betty’s office, and she had a second to see her old mentor smile—or maybe it was a vicious leer—before her assistant came running in.

“Ms. Amsel, please—”

“Goddamnit, Brianna! I said no interruptions!”

“I’m so sorry, Betty,” Brianna rushed to say, but she ended up ducking as Betty chucked a half-empty bottle of water across the room.

“Get out! Get the fuck out of my office! And not one more interruption!”

“Yes, ma’am. Yes.” Brianna charged out of the office, closing the door behind her and Betty sat back in her leather office chair.

Tongue stuck out between her teeth and swiveling back and forth, Betty grinned at Erin like a naughty child rather than a fifty-year-old woman with two grown sons and a third, much-younger husband.

“Hey, pretty girl,” Betty greeted. “What are you doing here?”

“Was that really necessary?” Erin asked. “You’ve made that poor girl into a mental case.”

“It’s the Betty Gauntlet. T.M.”

“T.M.?”

“Trademarked. If you survive the Betty Gauntlet, you go on to great things in this business. Remember my last girl?”

“The one who had to go to oneof our rehabs because she’d gotten addicted to her anxiety meds? That she only started taking after working for you?”

“Yeah. Her. She is now VP of Marketing at Benoff Studios. And do you know why she has that job? Because of me and the education I provided her. Because I’m that amazing.” She jumped up from her chair, her energy as boundless as ever. “Now come over here and give me a big hug!”

“Betty—”

“Hug!”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Erin complained, but she still walked around the way-too-big desk and into Betty’s open arms.

“Come here my little Irish-Catholic Jew.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Betty hugged Erin tight, then kissed her on the forehead before pushing her back. “Now, what’s going on? What do you need me for?”

“I need advice.”

“Oh, because you called the new girl a dog killer?”

“How did you hear about that already? Did Yardley tell you?”

“Yardley didn’t have to tell me shit, sweetheart.” She motioned for Erin to sit in the chair on the other side of the desk. “That little bit of information has already made the rounds of all the other Clans, much less the retired Crows.”

“Shit.” Erin dropped into the chair. “It escalated a little out of my control.”

“It’s never good when that happens to you.”

“I know. I know. And Tessa won’t let me out of being her mentor, but I may have gone too far this time.”

“Gee, ya think? If I recall correctly, I was never that mean to you.”

“Oh my God, Betty! You are such a liar.”

“Of course I’m a liar,” Betty admitted with a laugh. “I’m a Hollywood agent. All I do is fucking lie!”

“What am I going to do? Watson’s never going to trust me now. And I can’t say as I blame her.”

“Well, there is one thing you can do. I call it my ace in the hole when I’m really, really desperate.”

“What is it?”

Betty motioned Erin closer and they both leaned on the desk.

“Can you hear me?” Betty whispered.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. This is what I do when I’ve completely run out of choices. I . . .” Betty glanced to her left, then her right, then finished with “apologize.”

Erin reared back. “That’s your big secret?”

“It’s amazing what ‘I’m sorry’ can do in a really bad situation. I actually saved a hundred-and-eighty-million-dollar film by just saying ‘I’m sorry.’ Fucking tell the girl you’re sorry and get it over with.”