The Boss(hole)

by Bloom, Penelope

  “That sounds wonderful,” Adrian said. But he sounded stiffer than he had before. He was worried just like I was. I don’t think either of us had wanted to rub shoulders with my father for an extended period. Passing as a stranger behind a mask for a brief conversation was one thing but surviving a sit down meal without giving myself away would be another task entirely.

  We went upstairs and moved away from the murmur of voices on the lower level. There was a half balcony section overlooking the party below. A chef had a cooktop set up where several men and women were sitting on stools with plates in front of them. People wordlessly moved and cleared three seats in a row when they saw my father approaching with us.

  I winced when my father decided to sit right beside me. He was wearing a black feathered mask that covered his eyes and almost none of his long, hooked nose.

  The chef set down some sizzling cuts of raw, marbled meat in front of us on the cooktop. It crackled, immediately releasing a delicious scent. He followed the meat with a few knobs of butter, which he tossed on the cooktop and followed with a pile of vegetables.

  “So,” my father said. “I’ve heard from people I trust that Adrian here is very picky with his women. The rumor is he hasn’t so much as dated in years. I wonder what magical charm a creature would need to have to seduce him?”

  I smiled. I did my best to modify my voice just enough that it wouldn’t sound faked but would hopefully fool my father. I’d practiced this with Adrian, but in my panic, I used a British accent instead of the slightly sultrier voice I’d worked on.

  “I was in the right place at the right time,” I said.

  “What part of England are you from?” my father asked. “You’ve got quite the unusual accent there. It sounds a little posh and street rat at the same time.”

  I started to sweat. I knew my father well enough to know that almost nobody ever got something past him. He was shrewd to an absolute fault.

  I could do this.

  “We moved all around when I was a young… bloke,” I said. Dammit. I suddenly wished I’d watched way more British TV dramas. I could feel Adrain as tightly strung as a bow beside me.

  My father’s mouth twitched into the suggestion of a smile. “I see. And how did you find your way to the States?”

  “I interned for a business leadership program.” I made sure to pronounce “program” more like “pro-grum”. To my untrained ear, I sounded very British, but I could see the suspicion in my father’s prying eyes. “It wound up getting me connected to a man who was able to fly me over for a summer interning at Coleton in North Carolina. It went well enough that I decided to come make the change permanent.”

  “So you worked for Adrian at his North Carolina position?”

  Shit. We’d specifically talked about not letting that little fact come to light and I’d just handed it to him.

  “No, actually,” Adrian said. “She didn’t land the job with Coleton. She got hired at a place across the street, and we kept running into each other at the coffee shop between both buildings.”

  That was good, I thought. But my father regarded Adrian icily. “When I ask someone a question, I expect the person I ask to answer. Don’t interrupt us again.”

  My skin went cold. This was bad. My father suspected something and he had just risked pissing off Adrian. I halfway expected Adrian to burst out angrily, but I was surprised to see he looked completely calm and collected.

  “Well,” I said. “I think Adrian liked me because I had a head for business like he does.”

  “Is that so?” my father asked, laughing. It was clear from his tone that he thought the idea of a woman being able to contribute anything meaningful in his world was a grand joke.

  “She’s brilliant,” Adrian said, risking my father’s wrath.

  My father stared him down. I’d seen that stare a thousand times, and it always ended with the person on the other end studying the ground in defeat after a few seconds at most. But Adrian held his gaze, refusing to back down.

  After several long, uncomfortable seconds, my father laughed again. “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that.”

  As if some silent test had been passed, my father relaxed and started working on the fried bread appetizer the cook had set in front of us. The bread was broken into little chunks and drizzled with a peach-colored sauce and a dark, sticky sweet sauce.

  Adrian met my gaze, then winked. He slowly stirred up a conversation about business, and I listened in utter amazement as he worked his magic again. Except this time, it was my father he was charming, and I couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone make a good impression on my father.

  “It was honestly genius,” Adrian said, wiping his mouth with the napkin and setting it down. “That was when I knew I wanted to be a Coleton man. Any company with that sort of leadership was where I needed to be.”

  My father sat up a little straighter, looking pleased with himself. “The business world isn’t so different from the animal kingdom. Some people don’t see that. They think there’s room for us all to co-exist. But at Coleton, we are the lions. We use the carcasses of their failed businesses to grow more dominant. We will take any advantage we can to keep expanding and increasing our grip on the market.”

  Adrian nodded, even though I could imagine the rage he probably felt boiling inside at that sentiment. “Exactly. It’s too bad Pulse is still out there.”

  My father’s lip curled. Pulse was Coleton’s main competitor. They were a similarly minded company that had branched out into hundreds of submarkets. At the moment, they weren’t as large as Coleton, but they were growing faster than Coleton was and I’d heard my father rant about wanting to take them down dozens of times.

  “Pulse is nothing,” my father said.

  “I agree. But I know a guy who works there near the top. By the end of this month, they will be publicly traded.”

  My father scratched his chin. “You’re sure about this?”

  “Positive.”

  “Does your friend know anything about how happy the shareholders and board of directors are with the leadership?”

  “I’ll find out for you, Mr. Coleton,” Adrian said.

  My father clapped him on the back, flashing a rare smile. “I think you and I are going to get along just fine, Adrian.”

  33

  Adrian

  Things were moving along nicely with work. I probably should’ve been in the office even on the weekend, but I found myself making an excuse and asking Jordan if she’d cover the calls I needed to make.

  I wanted to be with Jules.

  On Saturday morning I woke her with an orgasm, then I had my driver come pick us up and take us half an hour to my favorite coffee and bagel shop. Jules was drowsy and cuddled on my lap for most of the drive there.

  Afterwards, I let my driver have the day after he dropped us off at my garage. I took a simple, but comfortable SUV and drove us to a butterfly exhibit.

  Jules was unbuckling her seatbelt once we arrived, and the morning sun was in her eyes. She had her blonde hair pulled back in two girlish braids and was wearing a thin orange dress with black shoes. “I didn’t take you for the type of guy to road trip for butterflies,” she said.

  “I think you’ll like this place. It’s peaceful.”

  The truth was I’d learned more about Jules and how horrible her childhood had been. Yes, if you’d asked me when I was a kid if I would want to trade places with the daughter of a billionaire who lived in huge mansions and had every material thing she could ever want, I would’ve done it in a heartbeat. But I knew that wasn’t the life for a kid. Kids needed parents who cared about them. Friends. Opportunities to play and explore.

  Jules’ childhood was a veritable prison, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to show her the world she’d been missing out on. I wanted to see it fresh again through her eyes, and I loved how excited she was to experience new things.

  Besides, I’d always had a fascination with butterflies. The ide
a of a creature that could transform itself into something categorically different was always intriguing to me. I couldn’t help thinking how Jules was like a cocoon for me. She was a place I could go to let loose of the ways I’d needed to be the past ten years. I could start to shed some of that coldness, but I had to be careful I didn’t let it all go before the job was done.

  We walked through the early sections of the place, which were mostly displays of preserved butterflies held with their wings out by pins. The highlight was the greenhouse, which was a massive space enclosed by heat-trapping glass. It was filled with greenery. There were hardly any other people in the exhibit.

  “This is beautiful,” Jules said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, giving her hand a squeeze. “If we sit down some of them will come land on us.”

  We found a bench near a bridge that went over a little stream of water. Within minutes, we had dozens of different types of butterflies fluttering around and landing on our knees and hands. Jules broke into giggles when they tickled her with their legs and antennae.

  We grabbed a below average meal of sandwiches on dry bread with fountain drinks at the exhibit, then headed for a water park where I planned for us to spend the rest of our day.

  “What got into you, exactly?” Jules asked. We had stopped at a clothing store on the way to the park so we could pick up swimsuits. I hadn’t exactly planned out the day before we left, so we needed to stock up on a little sunscreen, too.

  “You make me want to do all the things I never made time for,” I said. It wasn’t entirely a lie, anyway. She was my real motivation, but it was true that I’d been neglecting my own experiences for a very long time, too. I collected a pair of board shorts from a rack of clothing for my swimsuit.

  “Why not wait until this Coleton stuff is finished?” She looked worried, and I could see all the uncertainty she’d been hiding well until that moment. “What if all this stuff with me distracts you and things don’t go well?”

  “You do distract me,” I said. I walked across the aisle to the women’s section and held up a particularly skimpy swimsuit. “And I’d love for you to distract me by wearing this.”

  She gave me a wry smile and snatched it out of my hands. “I’m serious, Adrian. It’s important to me that you finish what you started. I know how important it is to you, and I don’t want to be the reason you forget. Eventually, you’ll look back and wish you finished this. And what will you think of me then? I’ll be the reason you forgot. The reason things didn’t happen like you wanted.”

  “No,” I said, pulling her close and hugging her. “You’re the thing I never expected to happen because I didn’t deserve it. No matter what happens, I wouldn’t regret this. I couldn’t.”

  She smiled up at me. “Just promise you won’t forget what you’re trying to accomplish because of me, okay?”

  “It’s a promise.”

  By that evening, we were both tired from the sun, water, and the long day. I felt happier than I’d felt since I could remember. I felt normal. It wasn’t the first time I wished I could just drop my persona as Mr. White and live this new life instead.

  But that night Jules fell asleep early, exhausted from the long day we’d had. I sat out on the balcony of our apartment and looked through an old photo album. I saw all the pictures of my father and I camping. My mom died when I was young, so it was always just me and dad. He took me everywhere and tried to teach me as much as he could. He came to every baseball game, every event. He was great, and Russ Coleton took him away from me because of his greed.

  I ran my fingertips across an image of my father smiling. I felt my resolve harden. I’d come this far, and Jules stood behind me finishing this. I wasn’t going to let my determination waver now. Russ Coleton was still going to pay. I was going to make sure of it.

  34

  Juliette

  Adrian’s whole team was in our apartment. It was a foggy night, and I could barely see out the huge windows to the city, save for some blurry impressions of lights creeping by on the road below. On clear days, the view was a blue-tinged wonder. I could usually see the giant rectangle of green trails making up Central Park stretching out in front of the building. I could look at all the buildings hemming in the little slice of nature. If I looked close enough, I could see the little dots of people winding through the trails there.

  I turned my attention to the conversation. I’d been essentially starved of involvement until now, save for my brief visit to the masquerade party, which had been more like a tease than anything. I’d also nearly screwed that up with my random British accent that Adrian refused to let me live down. Still, it was nice to get to sit down with the group and listen to a state of affairs directly from them, instead of filtered through Adrian.

  We were all spread out on the couches and love seats in the living room. Adrian was beside me in one of his suits with his fingers templed under his chin and his brow furrowed. He was in work mode, and I realized how long it’d been since I’d seen that version of him. Around me he was so much softer now. So much kinder. But I remembered all the ruthlessness he seemed to radiate in those first days we’d met when I still only knew him as Mr. White.

  I could hardly believe it had been three months now. I’d called Mikey after a week in New York and told him I quit, just like we’d agreed. Except my brother wanted me to go back to father with my tail between my legs. He wanted to be able to claim credit for bringing me back, but when I’d told Adrian about the situation, he’d asked me to do whatever I could to buy time. So I’d had to promise Mikey I wouldn’t just come back if he gave me more time. I’d come back and tell my father how Mikey had found me, convinced me against all odds to come back, and how he’d also convinced me to “behave” this time. In other words, I was supposed to go back and dutifully allow myself to get married off while giving my brother all the credit for my turnaround.

  I had no intentions of things getting that far, but Mikey had greedily accepted my terms. I got four months and he got his promise. He knew I was a lot of things, but someone who outright lied and broke promises wasn’t one of them.

  With the issue of my brother temporarily settled, time in New York had been flying. Adrian was finding a better balance with work that meant we spent most evenings together and almost every weekend. He still worked crazy hours, but he’d started to find things for me to help him with and also gave me his full attention on weekends. I’d even gone back to North Carolina twice already to visit Anastasia and Lythe.

  But I knew this was coming. The job was always looming over everything, and I always kind of knew it wasn’t just going to happen in the background. Somehow, I was going to have to get my hands dirty.

  “I’m not getting it,” Travis said after Noah tried to explain the problem.

  Noah sighed. “Okay, I’ll explain it for those of us who went back for seconds when they were giving out stupid.”

  Jordan stifled a laugh and Travis glared.

  “The grand plan had dozens of smaller moving parts, but the real catalyst for everything was Pulse. That’s why we spent four months of our lives working there a couple years back. We set the necessary steps in motion for them to move to be publicly traded, which they’re planning to do. We also undermined the shareholder’s trust in the CEO and his people, and we got to most of the people we think would land positions in a board of directors.”

  “Translation?” Travis asked, sounding bored.

  “We made sure they were ripe to be acquired by Coleton when we were ready to pull the trigger.”

  “Remind me again why we want Coleton to acquire their biggest competitor?” Travis asked.

  “Jesus,” Noah sighed. “If you’re just going to forget it all again, why do I bother constantly explaining this to you?”

  “Humor me,” Travis said.

  Personally, I was glad he was asking so many questions because I’d been lost until now and was only starting to grasp the plan.

  “Because we rigged it t
o screw them,” Noah explained. “Pulse has been growing so fast because they’re breaking almost every law they can to speed things up. So far, they’ve done an excellent job of hiding that,” Noah said.

  “And once Coleton leverages a significant chunk of its finances to take over Pulse, we anonymously provide enough information to sink the company for its fraudulent practices,” Adrian said.

  Noah leaned forward, grinning. “Which further screws Coleton because it’ll open the door for all the shit we’re going to pin on them. We were going to let Pulse dent their reputation and bank accounts. Then we’d follow it up by leaking all the dirt we have on Coleton to hit them for a knockout blow.”

  “But?” Travis said.

  “But I need one more thing to make sure it’ll work. Russ Coleton has a personally encrypted file, probably at his house. What I have right now is half of the key, and I need those files to finish it. Without both, we don’t have enough on Coleton,” Noah said. “There’s a treasure trove of shit I can unleash if I have the right tax forms. That’s what that key will unlock for me. Without them, our case is shaky and it’s not a guarantee it’ll work.”

  “Why is this only now a problem?” Travis asked.

  “Because the plan was for Jordan to get the file,” Noah said. “And Jordan just got fired.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  She sighed. “One of Russ’ right-hand men kept making passes at me. I was using him to get closer to Russ, but he just wouldn’t let me go. He wanted to sleep with me, and I told him to go fuck someone in his league, like his hand.”

  I snorted, and Jordan grinned back.

  “Naturally,” Adrian said. “She was let go. By extension, our team just got dinged. We’re all going to seem a little less trustworthy now.”

  “I’m sorry, guys,” Jordan said.

  Adrian shook his head. “Don’t apologize. We’ll just fuck them even harder for employing that asshole.”