The Alpha's Hunger Read Free Page B

really expected her to find ten. Hell, he hadn’t expected her to find more than three. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
    Ashley picked up a piece of notebook paper where she’d made a list. “The first one is phasing out the NE3 Game Stations. A lot of money goes into maintaining them, when if you’d just refuse to service them any longer, everyone would buy the E6’s.”
    He nodded. The idea had occurred to him as well, but he hadn’t acted on it, mainly because the NE3 had been his brother’s first product, the platform for Robo Shooters, and the company, himself included, clung to it with a sentimental attachment. Hearing confirmation of his instinct from Ashley made up his mind. “Next.”
    “Um…” She looked down at her paper. “Costs on a number of these products seem too high, considering what we’re charging. The profit margin isn’t large enough. I suggest we institute a cost reduction team, awarding prizes to engineers or teams who can reduce by the most.”
    He liked the way she used the word ‘we,’ if they were already a team. It was presumptuous, yet it sounded right coming from her lips. “Good,” he said, throwing her a bone.
    She lifted her eyes at the compliment, then looked at her paper once more. “My third suggestion is to recover the market we lost to Suma Games last year. This is sort of a two-part suggestion, so I counted it as number three and number four.” She raised her gaze again, as if checking to see if he would allow it.
    He nodded.
    “So, the first would be an advertising campaign. And the second would be product development to compete with their D-boy unit. I understand both of those will require an outlay of capital, but I do think the investment would be worth it.”
    He didn’t comment.
    “Okay,” she said, drawing another breath. “Number five is to thin out some of middle management.” She stopped, watching his face for a reaction.
    “Reasoning?”
    “Right. Um, the reasoning is that you have an awful lot of people who sit around here and don’t do anything but tell others what to do and report further up the chain.”
    “Speaking from experience?”
    She hesitated. “Yes, sir.”
    He liked that she remembered to call him sir.
    “Number six?”
    She continued, describing her last three ideas, of which all but one seemed sound.
    When she finished, he let her sit for a moment while he contemplated her in silence.
    “So, as I said, I’m sure I can come up with two more—”
    “Yes. I will expect you to. You can think about it tonight. You’ll start tomorrow. Karen will show you your new office.”
    Her face split into a grin. “Mr. Stone! Thank you. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.”
    He tapped the table. “See that I’m not.” He started for the door and stopped when he reached it. “Type up those suggestions and send them to me in an email, along with the backup data.”
    “Yes, sir,” she said, still beaming.
    He walked out, shaking his head, not at her, but at himself. Inviting her into his personal space was courting disaster.

Chapter Two
     
     
    Ashley arrived at work the next morning by 7:15, since she knew Ben arrived at 7:30. Karen, his secretary, was already there, her French twist in perfect order, her manicured nails tapping on the keyboard.
    “Good morning,” Ashley said breathlessly. “I baked some banana bread.” She set it on the counter of the wet bar.
    “I don’t eat wheat,” Karen said without looking up.
    “Oh,” she said, deflating slightly. “I’ll make it with rice flour next time. It tastes just as good—even better, really.”
    “That’s all right. I don’t eat in the morning.”
    So eat it for lunch.
    She squared her shoulders and headed for her office. The top floor was set up with Ben’s large windowed office in the corner, and smaller offices all around, all empty, except for hers. Karen sat at the reception desk outside. From what she understood, when Leon Stone had worked here, these