The Boss(hole)

by Bloom, Penelope

  A lump formed in my throat, but I nodded. “Then I’ll see you both tomorrow night.” I lifted Jules’ hand and kissed it, giving her the faintest smile. “Until then,” I said.

  “Until then,” she replied, winking.

  37

  Juliette

  Everything seemed to be working out. Finally.

  I’d expected father to invite several other of his business friends to the dinner, but it was just myself, Mikey, Adrian, father, and my mother. We were all sitting at the ornate table in the dining room at father’s house. Thick drapes, tapestries, and lush carpets gave the room a muffled, suffocatingly lavish atmosphere I’d always hated. Then again, this was the place where I was most often forced to endure lectures from my father, so I supposed that could have something to do with it.

  Adrian was at my side picking at his salmon. We’d been served a five-course meal, and so far, the conversation had been going relatively well. I just hoped father would do what he normally did and excuse himself before long, giving Adrian a chance to possibly help me get to father’s laptop.

  Mikey had been giving Adrian the stink eye for the whole dinner. He clearly felt like he had dirt on us, and he was practically bursting with the desire to spill everything he knew. “Funny how well you two get on,” Mikey said. He had barely touched his food. He had one arm draped over the back of his chair as he lounged obnoxiously. “You two just met last night at the party, right? Seems like you’ve known each other for weeks.”

  “Yeah,” Adrian said easily. “Juliette and I really hit it off quickly.”

  I nodded.

  “Alright,” my father said. He pushed his plate away and wiped his mouth. He fixed his dark, hooded eyes on us. “It’s time I told you why I really invited you here, Adrian.”

  A cold fist gripped my insides. Shit. This was bad.

  “Alright,” Adrian said, meeting his gaze.

  “Your real name is Adrian Terranova. You’ve been fucking my daughter for months. The only reason you want a job at my company is to sabotage it, and I have no intention of letting any of that continue. You’re fired, and you’ll never see my daughter again.”

  Adrian stood up suddenly, chair screeching.

  It felt like all the air in my lungs was suddenly gone. The only sensation in my chest was my rapidly beating heart and the tightness in my throat. No. No, no, no.

  My father slowly folded his napkin and set it on the table in front of himself, looking up at Adrian with grim pleasure. “You’re wondering how I know. I can see it in your face. Well, what kind of father would I be if I didn’t have listening devices in place to learn about my daughter’s potential suitors? There was one on the balcony at the party, on Jules phone, and a few others. Once I knew you were lying, it wasn’t difficult to find out the rest. Your colorful past and various fake names. I’ll give you credit. It was hard to pin it all back to you, but once I knew something was there, I told my people to keep looking. If I hadn’t, I suspect they might’ve skimmed right over the truth.”

  Mikey got up suddenly, outrage written all over his face. “F-father, I-”

  My father silenced Mikey with a swipe of his arm. “You knew where she was, and you didn’t tell me. Once again, you’ve failed me. And you,” he said, pointing a gnarled finger at me. “All this nonsense is finished. You will marry for your family. You will stop embarrassing me. You will be a Coleton woman, and you will embrace your duty to this family.”

  I was about to stand up and tell him to go fuck himself, but Adrian was discreetly tapping my arm with the back of his finger. I didn’t understand what it meant, but then it hit me.

  I could almost picture his lips forming the words. Play nice. Get the laptop. We’ll get through this.

  I swallowed and looked down at my lap, even though it took every ounce of self-control I had not to try to flip the massive table and scream. I couldn’t believe I’d messed this up for Adrian. But if I could still get that laptop, I could fix this.

  “Well,” Adrian said. His voice sounded oddly flat. I could tell he was acting. Just like me, he was doing whatever it took to salvage this unexpected turn. To keep my father’s guard down and protect what slim chance we still had of finishing the mission. “Thank you for the dinner, Russ. I suppose I’ll be leaving now.”

  My father sneered, his voice stopping Adrian in his tracks. “You know, the reason you wanted to do this wasn’t obvious at first. But then we realized your father died after working for us. Fifty-seven and dead of cancer, no? Let me guess. You blame me for your father’s death, and this was your way of getting back at me?”

  Adrian had been controlling his rage, but I could see his control threatening to crack. His knuckles were pure white, and his hands were balled into fists. “Will you refuse to open the gates for my car unless I listen to the rest of your evil villain speech about how clever you are?”

  My father chuckled. My mother was doing what she always did in these situations. Sitting still, face blank as if she’d checked out to another plane of existence. Mikey was sulking over the way this had all soured on him.

  “You know,” my father said. “If you hadn’t been trying to destroy me, I think I could’ve found a place for you at my right hand.”

  “Does that mean the gate is still locked?” Adrian asked.

  “You’re free to leave. I should warn you that my legal team is drafting a case against you and your team as we speak.”

  Adrian turned to leave but paused with his back to my father. “Actually, there is something I want to say to you. Fifty-seven and dead of cancer?” he said, turning to face the table again. His jaw was flexed, showing a diagonal line of muscle down his cheek. “You should know he was a good man. Loyal to your company. Happy. A single father who always made time for his son. A father who taught his son how to follow through and finish what he started. He taught his son about honor and decency. He died, just like hundreds and maybe thousands of others because you wanted to save money. That’s the price of all this,” Adrian said, gesturing to the drapes hanging beside him and the oil painting on the wall. “This whole house is built on blood.”

  Adrian walked to a large painting of a man on a horse on some sort of battlefield. He pulled it from the wall and drove his knee through the canvas.

  “What did that painting cost you?” Adrian asked. “How much money of yours did I just waste?”

  My father regarded him with a calm expression. “Two point four million.”

  “Did you ever go back and check your math? Did you try to figure out how much you saved by using the pesticide you used instead of the more expensive one?”

  “We saved four hundred million dollars over twenty years. And some change.”

  “Four hundred million, three hundred forty thousand. And some change,” Adrian corrected. “But you spent three hundred of that suppressing the research against the pesticide. Eighty fighting the legal cases, including my father’s. Fifteen settling cases you knew you couldn’t win. Five was spent bribing jurors and judges. And two point three million for pissing off the son of a man you killed. If my math checks out, I just ruined what little profit you earned from poisoning your own employees.”

  I expected an angry outburst from my father, but he only grinned, then raised his hands and slowly clapped. “What showmanship. Now get the fuck out of my house. I’d say I’ll see you in court, but I have no interest in wasting my time with you. I’ll sign the checks, and my attorneys will hound you until the day you fucking die. I also plan to get every penny back for that painting you just destroyed.”

  “Sounds good,” Adrian said. He crossed the hall and pulled down another painting, running his knee through it. “This was the DeGasse. Russ Coleton paid seven point three million for this at a private auction in Dublin thirteen years ago. Add that one to my tab, asshole.”

  I put my hand to my mouth to cover my smile. The look on my father’s face was almost worth as much as it would’ve been to see his whole company destroyed. I�
�d never once seen someone stand up to him like that. And I could read the absolute rage in my father’s eyes.

  As soon as Adrian was gone, my father got up from the table. “In your room, Juliette. You will do as I command, and you will redeem yourself for your family as soon as I decide on a suitor for you.”

  “Yes, father,” I said.

  38

  Adrian

  The apartment felt wrong without Jules. Noah, Travis, and Jordan were gathered around the couch with drinks in their hands. We’d all had a few by now.

  “Man,” Travis said. “I can’t believe that bastard out-smarted us.”

  “He wasn’t trying to catch saboteurs,” I said. “He got lucky. He was just being a creep and trying to vet the guy he thought he might want to set his daughter up with. But we need to figure out if he’s already locking us out of his computer systems. Now that he knows what we’re trying to do, he could shut us out, right?”

  “Not quickly” Noah said. “I won’t bore you with the technicalities. To put it simply, I opened digital doors. If he knew what doors I’d opened, he would have closed them. But…” he pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times, waiting. “They’re still open. I expect we have at least a few days before he can get someone to trace my work and start undoing it.”

  “That’s good, right?” Jordan asked.

  “If Jules gets us the laptop, yes,” Noah said. “Without the laptop, I still only have half of what I need. If she doesn’t get that, there’s nothing we can do.”

  “I can’t believe you asked her to stay there,” Jordan said, shaking her head at me.

  “Jules knows what she’s doing. Besides, I didn’t say anything. I just gave her a subtle signal and she made her own choice. And I know her. She wants the chance to help us do this. I know she does. And,” I added, “If she takes longer than twenty-four hours, I’m going in after her.”

  “How are you going to do that, Rambo?” Travis asked.

  “However I have to. I’m not letting her stay there a day longer than that. One day.”

  “And what happens if she doesn’t get the laptop?” Noah asked.

  “Then I failed all of you. Russ Coleton gets to keep on being who he is and doing what he does.”

  Travis nodded. Noah looked solemn, and Jordan took another swig of her drink. This was the most personal for Jordan and I, but Travis and Noah had sacrificed just as much as all of us. We’d all sunk years of our effort and millions of our dollars into this mission. Nobody wanted to watch Russ Coleton get away unscathed, and I hated knowing I was very likely the one who brought this all about. If I hadn’t been willing to risk everything for Jules, we’d probably still be in the clear.

  And yet I couldn’t make myself regret it. No matter how many ways I looked at it, I would’ve selfishly done it again if I could go back. I wouldn’t trade her. Not even for this. Not even to destroy Russ Coleton.

  Jules was worth more than that. Revenge wouldn’t keep me warm at night. It wouldn’t help pull me back from the brink when I was at risk of losing myself. It wouldn’t make me smile or make me feel the way Jules did. If we failed, it’d be on me to find a way to make it up to the others.

  “How are you holding up with all of this?” Travis asked. “We know how much this meant to you.”

  “I’m more concerned about screwing this up for all of you, to be completely honest,” I said.

  “Seriously?” Travis asked. He blew a raspberry. “I don’t know about Noah, but I’ve just been doing all this to help you out. You brought me into Terranova Holdings and made me filthy rich, man. Feel free to bring me along for another impossible mission and then fuck it up at the last minute if you want. We’d still be good.”

  I grinned.

  Noah shrugged. “I’ve been retired for ten years, Adrian. I’m thirty-two. If I had anything better to be doing with my time, I’d be doing it. I think Russ deserved to be brought down, but we did a lot of good along the way, even if we don’t wind up getting the final prize.”

  “Thanks, guys.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Jordan said. “And I’m glad you found Jules in all this. I really am. But I know I’m still not going to rest until Russ Coleton has to feel at least some regret for what he did. I have no idea how I’ll make that happen if this falls through, but I’ll figure out a way.”

  “If Jules can’t get the laptop,” I said. “I’ll help you. As long as it takes, Jordan.”

  “Shit,” Travis said. “Count me in, then.”

  Noah nodded. “Still retired. Might as well.”

  I sat back in my chair, feeling relief wash over me. The real truth I’d been afraid to fully confront was that my own thirst for revenge had cooled. I spent ten years thinking about only one thing. Ten years letting revenge be the only emotion that got me out of bed in the morning. My future was nothing except a big ass target with Russ Coleton’s face in the center. I’d had no damn clue what I’d do once I struck the bullseye.

  Then Juliette came along. She gave me something else to care about. Little by little, my feelings for her filled the hole I’d been shoving my desire for revenge inside. In a matter of days or maybe weeks she’d become the only thing I really cared about protecting. Now that I knew my team was okay with how things had turned out, I felt like I could finally accept the way I felt.

  I just wanted Jules back. If she got the laptop, great. If she didn’t, also great.

  “Look at this asshole smiling,” Travis said. He shook his head. “What’s so funny?”

  I smirked. “Honestly? I was just thinking about how kicking my knee through two of Russ Coleton’s paintings was almost as satisfying as I imagined the whole demolition job would be. Getting to see the look on his fucking face,” I said, laughing. I was surprised with how much the memory made me laugh. The others joined in, chuckling at the idea of it.

  Once my amusement faded, my thoughts went straight back to Juliette. It took all my willpower not to get off my ass and drive to her house right at that moment. I wanted to storm through the gates and take her away from that place—to tell her it wasn’t worth the risk. But I knew that was selfishness talking. Juliette didn’t only care about bringing her father down for me and the team. This was personal for her, too. I had to give her a chance.

  Twenty-four hours. That was all I could stand to give.

  39

  Juliette

  The time for subtle, carefully calculated risk was over. My father had gone nuclear after Adrian left. I’d never seen him so angry. I’d seen him fume, glower with disappointment, and coldly lash out. But the rage he’d shown was entirely different. He had thrown his plate against the wall to shatter as soon as Adrian left the room. He pushed his chair over, then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me up to my room. He even locked the door and swore to me I was going to be in there until he had a suitor for me to marry.

  It was a ridiculous claim, I knew, but I also knew Adrian well enough to assume he wasn’t going to wait forever. Adrian wouldn’t wait weeks for me to let my father cool down and relax his guard on me. I had to figure Adrian was going to come get me before long and I had to act like I had no time to waste.

  I sat on the edge of my bed and assessed my situation. It had been about three hours since everything happened. My mother had tried to talk to me through the door and assure me she’d find a way to get my father to calm down. That was wonderful, except I knew she had no influence over him.

  I’d heard her speak to the man guarding my door before she left and noticed I didn’t recognize his voice. There was a bathroom in my room that I could access, so other than needing food and water, they probably assumed they didn’t need to let me out at all.

  I’d spent a few hours forming a very rough, very risky plan that I had a strong feeling was going to fail horribly. I spent the last hour trying to decide if there was any better, less risky way, and realized I only had one shot at this. I needed to think about which plan was most likely to get me to that l
aptop, not which one was the least scary.

  So I sucked in a deep breath, then went to my bathroom. I unrolled about half a roll of toilet paper and tried to flush it. As I hoped, the toilet clogged and water started to fill the bowl. After about a minute, water was splashing noisily on my bathroom tiles.

  “Uh, I have a small problem!” I shouted from the bathroom.

  “Deal with it,” called the unfamiliar man’s voice.

  “Not an option! The toilet is flooding and I’ve really got to go. Unless you want to tell my father you made me piss on the floor, I think you should get in here!”

  The man sighed heavily, then I heard a set of keys jingle. A moment later, he unlocked my door and started through the bedroom and toward the bathroom.

  The toilet was to the left once you came through the doorway, so I waited to the right. I was banking on him looking at the toilet first, which would hopefully expose his back to me. My father made me take jiu jitsu for self-defense until I was twelve. I had the muscle memory to take down a large man if the conditions were right. I hoped. Of course, I hadn’t practiced at all since then.

  Not the time to be thinking about that, Jules.

  The guy came through the doorway and my jaw dropped. He was huge. He actually had to duck his head slightly to get through. Worse. He didn’t look at the toilet. He looked to his right, where he saw me crouched with my hands out like I was getting ready to pounce.

  “What the-” he started.

  I cut him off by leaping for his neck. I’d been hoping to get on his back and get my arms around his neck. The idea was I’d choke him out, snag the keys, and run.

  But he stuck out a meaty palm and I felt like I hit a small, hand shaped brick wall. I bounced off, smacked into the wall, and slid to the ground to land hard on my ass. “Ugh,” I groaned.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he asked.