* * *
Hearing murmured voices in the waiting room was the most nerve-racking, irritating, and frustrating experience of her life. The jet lag did not help, and the stomach cramps didn’t either. It must have been something she’d eaten on the plane because she had definitely eaten her feelings—fear, dread, anger, and sadness were devoured in steak, potatoes, salad, brownies, and ice cream on the jet with Marchellis as company, who forgot to mention that he was at the party as one of the spokespeople for Creative Chaos and he was in the company jet.
Right now she wanted to bowl over or twist into a pretzel to relieve the stitch in her side, the throbbing in her lower back, and the knifelike pains in her pelvis. It wasn’t time for her cycle—she was on top of it and had even downloaded an app to keep track of it after that last debacle. She was probably just dehydrated from not having enough water, instead opting for way too much champagne last night along with the Karuizawa Vintage 50 in honor of Akchiro on the flight back to New York. The almost thirteen-hour flight had truly taken a toll on her. She just needed to get through this. She concentrated on the fact this time next year, none of this would be an issue, a little trick she learned when she was little and afraid.
“Are you alright? Mom’s looking at you like she’s about to come over here,” Ghadi whispered into his steepled his hands, pressing them to his face almost as if in prayer—which wouldn’t fool anybody, Flower thought.
“Cramping up from the flight, I must be dehydrated.” Leaning back, she let her head fall back against the headrest of the waiting room chair. She tried to concentrate on breathing out the pain that seemed only to increase. Sweat broke out on her forehead, her hands felt clammy, and her body felt like a furnace. This was the first time that she had ever had a bad experience after a long flight. She had flown many times with her family and her with brothers when they toured. This was the first time she had ever been under so much stress. Added to that was the silence from Akchiro. The note she left was insufficient, so she’d called him on her flight but had not gotten an answer, only to call Takara and be told that he was unavailable. Since she hadn’t called him since the very first time, she assumed he’d return her call, but he hadn’t.
She knew he had returned to the flat by now and seen all of her things were gone, with her having Bridget and Evangelina get what remained since she hadn’t had time. If she had been worried that he was upset, she needn’t. Him not calling her back was evidence that he was glad to be rid of her and probably had found out all he needed to know about her anyway and didn’t want to be further involved. Especially now that her brother’s shooting was making headlines all over the world. He of course would do nothing that would reflect badly upon his family’s name or their company. And what would be worse than being associated with a Westerner whose family looked to be connected to some kind of crime element? She could almost understand because she loved her family more than anything and would sacrifice anything for them. Still, it hurt as bad as the pain lancing through body right now.
“I’ll get up in a sec and stretch and walk around. I just need to rest my head for a moment.” She closed her eyes against the glare of the dimmed florescent lights. Yeah, she’d really overdone it if this cool, limited lit waiting room that was clearly designed to lessen one’s anxiety was triggering this type of reaction. Hungover—which she never was—and tired did not mix well with Flower Carrington, that was for sure.
“I’ll walk with you when you’re ready.” Ghadi threw his arm around her should hugging her to his side a little.
“You don’t have to do that, I’m…” Her words trailed off as she saw a whole team of white coats enter the waiting area. The whole family rose seemingly in unison, coming together in front of the assembled group, which Flower realized now also included several men and women in suits. Hospital administrators, she assumed, her mind instantly going to the worst-case scenario if they were there. They must want to make a public statement after giving her family the dire news.
Covering her mouth to stifle the sob that threatened to burst forth, she looked wildly from her parents and siblings to the doctors and staff before them. She felt her hand tugged down and gripped tightly. She knew just from his touch that it was Ghadi, that was all she could process at the moment. The words filtered in as if they were muffled as she stared at the surgeon who had Dr. Padma Smythe stitched into her white coat.
“We retrieved all the bullets, six total, rather quickly. However, they did cause quite a bit of bleeding that took us a great deal of time to get under control. Unfortunately that caused his heart to stop, and we had to preform life-saving measures on two separate occasions.” Cries and sobs caused the doctor to pause. “But.” Dr. Smythe raised her hand in the air and lifted her voice several octaves to be heard over the den of wailing. “Our efforts proved to be successful. Mr. Carrington pulled through very strong.” Hushes, pats, and soft cries mingled with praises to God. “Now, we wait, keep him comfortable, and get him back home to you.” She gave them a small smile. “The University Hospital team would now like to speak to you about what you’d like to tell the press and update you on security for Mr. Carrington.”
Ghadi let her go then stepped forward to talk, which really was her job now that she had returned. She was supposed to reclaim her position as the COO of the company. He’d stepped in while she was on sabbatical, for that she was grateful now. Relief filled her just as blinding pain tore through her abdomen. She didn’t know if she cried out as warmth seemed to drain from her. She figured she must have as she saw her brother whip around and the look of horror on his, the doctors’, and administrators’ faces. She briefly registered him rushing toward her but didn’t know if she was stepping back or floating away as darkness overtook her.
Part II
Chapter 14
A little over a year later…
“What is this about?” Flower didn’t even bother looking up from her screen to her executive assistant, Zana. She was the one who called the staff meetings, never her brothers. “Are you sure it’s not just for creatives or tech? You know, Ghadi’s, and FADE’s departments? General staff meetings are every morning at nine a.m. sharp, which was two hours ago. I have another appointment with development in half an hour, and then I am leaving for the day,” She didn’t bother to say that she about to go interview with a banker to secure funding for her own venture. That could wait. She was not revealing her plans to anyone until after she was done establishing her indie film company.
She had everything on board, her proposal ready, and she was good to go once she got this deal locked in today. Then she would begin her transition as her own boss. She had promised her brother as he recovered that she would do nothing—make no moves to leave—until he was back full-time, taking the helm of his company and she’d kept her word. He’d been back five months going on six. He was recovering great, in the best shape of his life and not to mention had found the love of his life, his wife, Delightful. Yet every time she broached the subject, one or both of her brothers shot her down. Well, she knew why and loved them more for it, however, she’d put the incident behind her, and she’d plunged full force ahead with her life. She wished they’d do the same. They acted like she was the one who had been shot six times, not FADE. She’d stealthily made moves to forge her own path, and they’d be fine once they got over their pout.
“No, ma’am. The meeting was called by the Mc2 people.”
Flower looked up then and swiveled in her seat to focus on her assistant. She closed her laptop with a snap. “They are here?” Surprise made her snappier than usual. “They didn’t even bother to meet with our team when they bought into the company. They said they would leave the business to us and they’d see us at yearly board meetings and to send them quarterly reports, which we did here recently—the very first set, in fact.” She gasped. “Was there any talk of discrepancies? Do I need to call the finance team in?” Flower stood then, smoothing down the material of her St. Laurent pantsuit.
Wondering if she made some type of mistake—again.
“No, they only want the heads of all departments, you and your brothers.” The cool words that greeted her gave her pause. This was not the normal protocol—they were about to fire someone. “They are about to start in ten minutes—eleven a.m. sharp. That will give you just enough time to make it there without being late.”
Nodding, Flower stepped into her private bathroom to freshen up, grabbed her laptop, then hurried to catch a ride up to the executive board suite.
The silent swish of the elevator threatened to bring back long-ago but never forgotten memories of her last elevator ride with Akchiro—the night she left him. She pushed those inconvenient thoughts down as far as they would go into the recesses of her mind. She didn’t have the time or capacity to put in the emotional labor right now that reminiscing about Japan or the man required. That was what she’d been telling herself for much of the past year. Keep moving forward to the next endeavor, give the past no energy, and it won’t have any power. None.
The doors opened, and she and her assistant stepped out into the foyer that led to the conference room that covered the whole floor. “I’m glad to see you made it right on time, I hear they look down heavily on tardiness.” Ghadi smiled down at her, giving her a quick smooch on her cheek.
“Hmm, where’s FADE then?” Flower looked around for emphasis, “Does he get a pass because he’s the boss?”
“Nope, he’s already been in there an hour with the head of Mc2 and their bosses.” He arched his eyebrows and lowered his voice. “These people mean business. They like what we are doing here, but we took a huge hit last year and they want to know why.”
“Well, that hit was temporary and we are on an upswing now,” Flower shot back, ready to defend her position. The hard work she and her team did to get the company back on the right footing after the PR disaster that erupted when FADE had been shot and her having to recover from the “incident” had taken months of long nights, weekends, and every favor owed to their family as well as asking for a few. She hadn’t let anything get in the way of her work performance. She got right back to work assembling a team to deal with the damage. FADE’s wedding did the trick. People loved a love story and once the story of how he put everything on the line for his new bride, Delightful, people went crazy supporting them. Clients came back, and they were now in the midst of a major turnaround, which is why she felt it was a good time to leave. She would have never considered such a thing if her brothers’ company and all they worked for were still in jeopardy.
Why Mc2 chose now as the time to launch a review, she would soon find out, because one of FADE’s assistants had just stepped out of the conference room with a grim look on his face, motioning for them to come in.
“Looks like they are ready.” Flower hung back for a moment as the other executives filed ahead of her and Ghadi.
“Don’t worry. You did a kick-ass job setting the ship right.” He grabbed her cheeks and looked her right in the eye, just as he’d done whenever she fell off her bike as a kid. But this was so not a scraped knee.
“Yes, I set it right after my being gone on sabbatical and not handling things properly almost sunk it.” She waved him away, “And stop doing that! It’s so unprofessional. If the Mc2 people see that, they are going to know I only have this job because I’m you guys’ baby sister.”
“Yeah, that’s why you got the job right out of university, but that sure isn’t why you have kept it, Flower. You have been one of the top entertainment executives for the last five years. People were swarming us with calls when you were on your sabbatical hoping you’d gotten sick of us or wised up enough to quit and they made no attempts to hide it either. So, come on, let them do their worst.” Ghadi patted her back as they walked forward through the wood gained double doors, making her smile at his sweet words.
“What the f—Flower? You okay?” Ghadi whisper yelled as he caught her after damn near knocking her to the ground as she stood rooted inside the door.
“Umm, yes.” She looked over to him, briefly, but her eyes drew back to the tall Japanese man standing with his back to them looking out at the New York skyline and a woman in a severe yet exquisitely tailored suit spoke to him hushed tones. Flower’s eyes darted wildly around the room then she turned a little, thinking maybe she could still sneak past Ghadi and get the hell out of that room. She took one step.
“Flower…”
She shot Ghadi the hardest shut-the-fucking-fuck-up look she could muster then stepped around him to the door that was clicked shut by a huge Japanese security officer.
“Good, it seems as if everyone is here.” This came from Takara, who flicked them a dispassionate glance, “Everyone please have a seat so that we may get started, Misters Takeda have a very tight schedule.”
All three of them were here? Her lips pressed closed, hard. She closed her eyes and turned back to the table where everyone was sitting or attempting to. It seemed as if name tags had been placed in front of the seats. She watched as Ghadi looked around and took his seat near the head of the table and motioned for her pointing at her name plate with long fingers.
She felt like she was on her way to an execution, the clicks of her heels sounding like gunshots against the polished concrete floor. Still, he stood at the window. She could see the tense lines of his shoulders as she approached. They were the only two not sitting, with him looking like an avenging angel looming over the city as she walked toward him like some wayward demoness ready for judgement. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to get out and don’t bother looking back, only the love of her family made her stay. She knew now that there was nothing Akchiro would not do to exact his retribution. The only recourse she had was to minimize the damage.
Just as she approached, he turned. The cold onyx of his gaze penetrated deep into the core of her heart. He hated her. She had never been so glad that she was dark skinned at that moment, for the searing heat burning her cheeks would have been a dead giveaway and her brothers still had no inkling what exactly transpired in Japan. They knew something happen based on the state she was in when she returned. The gritty details, she’d never discussed, and they respected her privacy. Discretion would be out the window if she gave herself away now.
She slid into the seat beside Ghadi as Akchiro sat directly opposite her. She looked at him, refusing to cower. He instead focused on FADE, who sat at the head of the table.
“Today we would like to welcome Mc2 and the Takeda Group. The Misters Takeda came from Tokyo to oversee the finalization of the merger of their subsidiary and the launching of the IPO. May I introduce our creative director, Ghadi Carrington, and our COO, Flower Carrington.” The men nodded in their direction. She noticed the subtle glances his brothers gave Akchiro. They knew her, of course, but they obviously had not been privy to the fact she worked for this company. She wondered what he told them to get them here. She scoffed at her own mistake. He would have to tell them nothing; he was the head of the family, and at Takeda Industries, his word was law.
“It has come to our attention that Creative Chaos has fallen into disarray this last year and a half.” Takara was doing the speaking for the company. So, she had been promoted. Good, Flower thought. “As the COO, how would you explain this, Ms. Carrington?” Takara speared Flower with a laser focus.
“After my brother was shot through no fault of his own, the company suffered a financial set back due to the public relations disaster from speculation about him being criminally affiliated. We took this head on with a series of interviews, the debut film about his life, then he got married and that offset a lot of the disaster.” Proud that her voice was clear, and she had hit all the points she had given to lenders and friends alike. She made eye contact with Takashi and Riyu then looked at Akchiro, whose expression stopped her in her tracks. Shards of glass wouldn’t have cut her more. Turning slightly, she glanced her brothers’ way to see if they noticed, but they had their attention on the PowerPoint tha
t Takara had pulled up on the whiteboard while she was talking.
She closed her eyes briefly at what she saw there. It all fell to her, and she had failed. Now it was before her in cold black and white. She let the company and her family down. She swallowed against the dryness in her throat and blinked against the sting in her eyes.
It all came crowding back into her mind. Those traumatic weeks—no, months that followed FADE’s shooting, his recovery, and rehab. All of which she oversaw, never leaving his side until his wife, Delightful, came barging back into his life. Then Flower focused fully on the task at hand and took some time for self-care. Yet, looking at her work product from the lens of a company wanting to merge a subsidiary with them, she even found herself wanting.
“We understand much of this, but with Takeda and Mc2, we like to see the driving force behind failures so that they may be eradicated. What was the catalyst for all of this? Inadequate security. A person such as Mr. Carrington should have security that is top notch. That was not the case. The cleanup is irrelevant.”
“My sister was on sabbatical.” Flower closed her eyes against the gritted anger in FADE’s voice.
“Ah…” A small, almost relieved smile curved Takara’s face, “And who did you hand your duties over to, Ms. Carrington?”
“No one. We had good people in place and they did their jobs. If there was anything urgent, they could contact me in Japan.” Flower finished her statement with finality. Her eyes betraying her a little as they darted to Akchiro because he more than anyone knew what she was doing in Japan.
Lotus Flower Bomb: The Mogul Series Book Two Page 12
