The Boss(hole)

by Bloom, Penelope

  “Quite the grip you have there,” she said.

  I made myself relax. I’d practically been crushing her small hand, which she was now swinging, forcing my arm to swing along with her. “Really?” I asked.

  “Sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all while we walked. “I like to frolic, too.”

  “This is just punishment for the way I make you work, isn’t it?”

  “No comment.”

  I shook my head. She was adorable. And a Coleton. That thought rose up out of the darkness in my mind like toxic sludge, tainting everything about this moment. She was Juliette Rose Coleton. I’d done some internet searching after I bent her over my desk. She had a brother named Michael Van Coleton and a small army of influential aunts and uncles. Her mother was Carianne Coleton, who grew up Carianne Adams. She’d been the daughter of a wealthy family with money that was several generations old and came from trans-Atlantic trading.

  It was a mixture of blue and green blood in her family. Privilege up to the ears.

  It all should’ve made me hate her, but here she was. She’d willingly peeled herself away from that life and came out here to slum it on principle. I’d even looked up her address and saw the shoebox she was calling home. By all appearances, Jules had broken free of the money and the influence her parents promised.

  But how much of that was a flight of fancy? Could I really trust her to still keep my secret if she knew the truth about what I was planning to do to her family business?

  “You alright up there?” she asked.

  “I’m good,” I said. “Just focusing on my form. I’m new to frolicking.”

  She laughed. It was a good laugh, and not one I’d heard enough from her. I could see now how much her secret had been weighing her down. Now that she’d told me the truth, she seemed even lighter than before with less of that occasionally acidic edge.

  We walked to a cafe that sold gyros and salads, which Jules seemed excited for. We both ordered a lamb gyro and sat by the window with our sandwiches wrapped in crinkly paper.

  Jules made plenty of happy noises while she ate and got sauce all over her face. She was constantly reaching for napkins and wiping it from the tip of her nose, her cheeks, and even her forehead at one point.

  “So,” she said once she’d made it about halfway through her gyro. “You left something out when you told me your real last name.”

  My stomach sank. Yeah. I did. I left out several very important somethings, and I’d been surprised she hadn’t pinned me on it the moment I told her. I shouldn’t have been surprised she was asking now. “Yes,” I said slowly.

  “You know why I used a fake name, but why did you? Do you have a criminal record or something?”

  She was offering me an easy out. I could’ve just taken the lie and run with it, but I couldn’t make myself do it. I decided I’d tell her only as much truth as I needed. Maybe I could avoid getting into the full depth of my plans. Yes, I should’ve ran this by the others, but I couldn’t lie to her anymore. “Well, I’ve actually spent the last ten years in a strange sort of business. We call it demolition.”

  She squinted. “Okay. But that’s not really strange. People demolish buildings all the time. Although I am wondering how you go from demolition to being the boss of a publishing company.”

  “We demolish companies. From the inside out. My team and I, I mean.”

  Her eyes widened. “I’m not sure I understand. Why would you do that? And how, exactly?

  “Because there are very large companies that are too big to get the punishment they deserve. They get big enough and they can bribe their way out of trouble. Environmental destruction, crimes against their employees, illegal business practices. There are all sorts of reasons, but that’s the ‘why’. Because they deserve it. The places we’ve brought down have all deserved every bit of it. We give good people a chance to fill in the gaps that crop up when we bring down the corrupt giants. And if another corrupt business takes their place, well, maybe we’ll come for them next.”

  I took a deep breath. That was more than I’d planned to say. My passion for this work had got the better of me, though. To tell the truth, I wasn’t even sure I really planned to hang it all up after the Coleton job. This all started as a crusade for revenge in my father’s name. Jordan had been game for obvious reasons, but Noah and Travis had been happy to join because they believed it was a good cause.

  Finishing this job wouldn’t mean the end of corrupt, twisted businesses. So why had I been thinking I’d be finished after this? Why wouldn’t I keep doing what I did?

  I dragged my thoughts back to the present, watching Jules as the gears in her head turned.

  “So you being at Coleton… Is it Coleton Central you’re trying to bring down, or is it just Coleton Publishing? Wait, no. You said you had to get the position at Central. You’re trying to bring the whole thing down?”

  I swallowed. Naturally, she’d seen straight to the truth. “Yes,” I said. I could’ve offered excuses or tried to explain myself, but I wanted her to have the naked truth. No qualifications this time. No deception. Just the truth.

  Jules looked down, eyes searching the table as she processed. Finally, she picked up her gyro and took a big bite. “Cool. Can I help?”

  I stared. “What?”

  “I want to help.”

  I’d already been infatuated with Jules. I’d been obsessed. But until that moment, I don’t know if I’d actually cracked open the iron curtain around my heart for her. But with those four words, I thought I felt something inside me open up.

  “You don’t know why I want to bring Coleton down,” I said.

  “My father runs the place,” she said simply. “You can’t imagine the things I heard at the dinner table. But I never thought anybody could do anything about it. It’s like you said. He just pays off anybody who starts to get bothered by the way he runs his business. It’s all political lobbying, payoffs, and no consequences. Believe me, if I had a button to blow the whole thing up in my room, I would’ve pressed it a long time ago. So, yeah. I’m absolutely in.”

  “You’re sure?”

  She nodded, wiping some sauce off the tip of her nose.

  “I’ve been waiting all this time to target Coleton,” I said. “Ten years. Everything until now has been like a practice run. We got a lot of good done with the places we took down, but it has all just been in preparation for this.”

  “What makes Coleton so special?” she asked.

  “My father. He worked for their agricultural division for his whole life. They had those guys spraying pesticides every day. He passed ten years ago from a type of cancer they linked to exposure to the pesticide he’d worked with every day. But he fought it for two years before the end. They gave him the bare minimum sick pay, then fired him as soon as he tried to come back to work because he couldn’t put in the same hours anymore. Thirty years with the company and they threw him away like a used-up battery.”

  Jules’ face twisted. I could see the anguish there and felt guilty for having to tell her about something her own father had taken part in. But she didn’t stop me. She wanted to hear all of it.

  “I did some digging,” I continued. “I found out that Russ Coleton paid to suppress medical studies that showed a link between the pesticide and cancer. He knew he was exposing thousands of employees to cancer causing chemicals and he didn’t give a shit. We tried to sue before my dad passed, but Russ had a team of lawyers who had been preparing for the cases they knew would come. It was ironclad. They’d tampered with evidence, bribed experts, and even influenced jurors when they needed to.

  “To Russ Coleton, my father wasn’t a human being. He was a number on a spreadsheet. A thousand good people getting cancer and unsuccessfully trying to sue was cheaper than what it would’ve cost to use a safer pesticide for a few decades. It was just one big calculation for maximum profit with no regard for anything else.” I shook my head, chest tight and hot. “Someone like that deserves to h
ave everything taken from them. Everything.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Jules said. She reached across the table and took my hand in hers. “I had no idea. I don’t even know what to say.”

  “You’re not responsible for your father’s choices. You don’t have to apologize for him.”

  “No,” she said. “But I can help you get back at him.”

  “Does he have any idea what kind of daughter he raised?” I asked. I was somewhere between amusement and awe with her.

  “No.” Jules picked up her sandwich again and took a big bite. “That’s the problem,” she said around her food. “But I think he’s going to find out.”

  22

  Juliette

  It was a warm Sunday morning, and I was happily eating a bagel in the park. Adrian was out of town until tomorrow for his trip to interview with Krause. I felt lighter than air ever since I’d come clean to him. After our conversation over lunch a couple days ago, Adrian had been different, too.

  It didn’t shock me. The guy was planning to destroy my father’s business and probably worried I would rat him out if he told me. But he had no idea what growing up in my family had been like. Being a Coleton felt more like being admitted against my will to an asylum full of insane people who had barred my windows. I never needed for material things, but when it came to emotional support and love, my life had been one giant vacuum of emptiness.

  So, yeah, if the plan was to crash daddy dearest’s business, I was in. If anything, I thought it might actually be the only thing that could get my dad to take an honest look at himself. That was a long shot, though, and I wasn’t going to bet on it.

  I didn’t even worry about my mother because I knew there was no level of destruction that would have her hurting for money. Even if father wound up in jail with his assets frozen, there was simply too much wealth for a few hundred million to not wind up in her hands.

  Adrian’s sister, Jordan came and sat next to me. “Hey,” she said. “Sorry I’m late.”

  Adrian had set up for me to meet with everybody on his team individually. He hadn’t said why, exactly, but I suspected he wanted them to get a chance to feel out how secure their futures were. I understood how many lines Adrian had crossed by bringing me in now, and I didn’t blame any of his friends for worrying about how I might ruin things.

  “So,” Jordan said. “My brother tells me you’re Russ’ daughter? And you really don’t have a problem helping us do what we’re trying to do?”

  “My father deserves what’s coming to him. I didn’t even know about what he did to your father, and I’m so sorry.”

  She smiled, shaking her head. She tried to blow it off, but I could see the same deep sadness in her eyes that had been in Adrian’s. What my father had done to their family and probably thousands of others was unforgivable, and I could tell both of them were driven every day by it. “It’s just how things went,” she said. “But I know I’ll sleep better at night if Russ pays for it.”

  “I promise, I’m not going to mess this up. I am a little worried about him noticing me if we start working at Coleton Central.”

  “Yeah,” Jordan said. “About that.” She tucked a perfectly straight lock of hair behind her ear, then looked toward the trees like she was waiting for the right words to come. Adrian’s sister really was gorgeous. She had the same narrow but wide eyes he had. They were just as intense, but her softer features made her gaze slightly less intimidating. “I talked with the team, and we don’t think you should officially work for Adrian once we move to Coleton Central in New York.”

  Her words came like a gut punch, but I smiled, hoping none of my disappointment showed. “I get it. If I was walking around with him there, it’d only be a matter of time until someone recognized me.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I’m sorry, Jules. But Adrian really fought for you to come. We outvoted him three to one. He’s still planning to pay you, and he wants you to come to New York, too. He just won’t be able to bring you to the office.”

  I smiled. “It’s fine, really.” Except I couldn’t help feeling a stab of panic to think of being back in New York and back in yet another cage. My captor would be holding me there for different reasons, but I’d once again be stuck in a cage and isolated from the outside world. I could feel it.

  “Thanks for understanding, Jules. I can see why my brother likes you so much.”

  Don’t make yourself look desperate and pry for info. Don’t do it. “Oh? Did he say something?” I asked. Damn it, Jules.

  Jordan grinned. “Several somethings. I think he’s really quite smitten. It’s not usual to see him like this. He’s had his flings here and there, but it had been a while since he got involved with anyone. A long while. I was actually starting to worry. Of course I would’ve rather it not been tied up with his work, but when all the man does is work, I guess it makes sense.”

  “Well, it sounds like the whole conflict of work interests thing is going to be behind us soon.”

  She gave my knee a sympathetic squeeze. “You still have a job. Just… a different one.”

  “Yep,” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “A new opportunity.”

  23

  Jules

  My last day at Coleton Publishing was bittersweet. I’d officially worked there for three weeks. Three lousy weeks. But over the last week I’d actually been chipping away at the iciness my coworkers had towards me. I’d started thinking of Lythe as a tentative friend. People weren’t even rushing out of the break room when I came to microwave my food. I had a feeling Lythe had put in a good word for me with them.

  And now I was going to leave all of it behind for New York, the exact place I swore I’d never go back to.

  But it was worth it for Adrian. I hoped.

  I let myself into his office after lunch, knocking once I’d opened the door and closing it behind me. “Hey, is it a bad time?” I asked.

  He got up from his desk without a word, closing the distance between us in just a few long strides. He slid a hand up from the base of my neck into my hair, giving it a quick and powerful squeeze that tilted my head back. “There you are,” he said, voice raspy.

  I chewed my lip. “I was actually thinking we could talk,” I said.

  Adrian’s smile came slowly, but it was as intoxicating as ever. “Talking is good.”

  “It’s usually done a little farther apart,” I said, pressing his chest back with my index finger.

  He chuckled and let me push him away. “If she wants it civilized, that’s what she’ll get.” Adrian walked back to his desk, sat down, and gestured for me to take the chair across from his desk.

  I sat and sighed. “I have to get something off my chest.”

  “Another secret?” he asked, smooth forehead crinkling with worry.

  “No. No. Nothing like that. I just have some reservations about coming to New York. I wanted to find out how much of a low profile you needed me to keep, exactly.”

  “Oh,” Adrian said, sounding relieved. “Well, the team wants you to stay in the apartment. I could get you a place of your own if you prefer, but I’d feel better if you were staying with me. I’d been planning to surprise you, but now’s as good a time as any.”

  I could see how excited he expected me to be, so I smiled for him. I wished I could stop being in my head so much these past few days, but ever since I’d learned I was going to be stuck at home and not really playing any part in what was to come, the whole thing had gone sour. I just didn’t know how to explain it to Adrian. Here he was after ten years of hard work and nearing the final stage of his plan. And there I was, the bitter daughter who wanted a turn giving daddy a figurative kick in the balls. It was childish, but no matter how much I told myself that, I still couldn’t dismiss the disappointment.

  I realized Adrian had been talking about plans for the move for a bit and I’d missed most of it. I planted another smile on my face and nodded, listening along.

  I was going to do this.

  “I
can’t wait,” I said once he’d finished.

  24

  Jules

  It was my last day in North Carolina when Mikey showed up again. I wasn’t worried anymore about him telling Adrian the truth, but I’d thought of a new thing to be afraid of. I now needed to worry about Mikey talking to father because of how it might screw up Adrian’s plans. I’d honestly forgotten about my brother in all the chaos that had come since me and Adrian swapped secrets.

  Mikey’s visit had made me realize I couldn’t wait anymore to tell Adrian the truth. I knew I wanted him to hear it from me and not my brother, but once I’d gotten it off my chest it was as if his only tool against me was gone.

  But I realized the moment I saw him that I’d been an idiot. There was still something he could do. If father knew I was working for one of his employees, let alone sleeping with one of his employees, all bets were off. He’d fire Adrian and his whole team in a heartbeat to teach me a lesson, and everything Adrian worked for would be ruined. It’d be exactly what he was afraid of, and it’d be all my fault.

  I needed to make sure I didn’t give any hint to Mikey of what I was really scared about. I needed him to keep thinking I was only worried about Adrian finding out my secret and firing me. If he still thought Adrian didn’t know the truth, he might choose to make the wrong move against me. Maybe. “You’re back,” I said.

  “As promised,” Mikey said. He pranced around my living room, chest puffed out. “I’ve decided I’m going to out you to your boss. It’s the most fitting. I’ve composed an email I’ll send as soon as I leave here. It reveals everything. Who you are. Who your father is. And in case he’s too dense to put it together, I’ve explained how your connection to him will ruin everything. I have no doubt he’ll fire you on the spot and you’ll have no choice but to come crawling back to father.”