“And yet, Ms. Carrington, we have phone records and emails showing that you were in fact not as easy to reach as you should’ve been. There are instances when it took more than twenty-four hours for a response from you. Many calls and texts from the CEO, Mr. FADE Carrington, went unanswered for days or entirely.” Flower looked at the evidence as it was stacked against her, speechless. Saying he just being her big brother and checking up on her would reflect poorly on them both. She would not allow him to be diminished in their eyes.
“As we said, she was on sabbatical. That she even chose to respond was a testament of her dedication,” Ghadi growled at Takara. Flower could see the clench of his jaw and she tapped his leg under the table. They needed this. Defending her could possibly ruin the whole deal.
“Mr. Carrington, we like your company. We like your product. We look forward to working with you. Ms. Carrington, you are fired.” Akchiro said the words with cold calmness. Only she could hear his relish. This was the moment he’d longed for.
“Whoa, whoa, hold up!” FADE pushed back from the table and stood up, coming to stand behind Flower in both a protective and supportive gesture.
“No.” Ghadi’s eyes were trained on Akchiro, she knew he was barely hanging on to his tightly controlled anger.
“I understand she is your sister, but nepotism aside, she failed this company. You could have done the IPO without us had she done her job. I can assure you as a man who works with siblings, I know how fraught it can be, however, had one of them abandoned their position then not returned for months and calamity ensued because of their negligence—I wouldn’t have been forced to fire them. It would have been their responsibility, and they would have done the honorable thing and resigned.”
“She tried,” Ghadi growled. She felt FADE’s hands squeeze her shoulders in support.
“Regardless, we can’t move forward with her on staff.”
Cold finality hit Flower. In a way, she wanted to smile because this actually fit into her plans and she wouldn’t have to hurt her brothers. She would tell them this was her intention later because she didn’t want Akchiro knowing any more about her life.
“It’s fine.” Flower stood. “They are right. I told you months ago.” She smiled at the assembled group. “I wish you every success on this endeavor.” She bowed in their guests’ direction and moved around her brothers, giving them a hard look and a wink signaling to them not to ruin this opportunity they’d worked so hard on. The fact remained that this partnership could be the beginning of a legacy. The initial offering could yield billions. They would be able to deal with the fallout of her being fired later.
Flower walked toward the door, not letting the dust fall from her shoes as her mother would say. She knew they all watched her. She reached for the handle on the door that neither guard bothered to open. She heard Akchiro’s harsh words uttered in Japanese that had both men jumping into action. Her skills were so rusty from not conversing with anyone in the language for well over a year, and she didn’t put the phrase together until the doors closed behind her. “Respect your lady!”
Funny, he’d said that after having her fired. It grated that she was not leaving on her own terms. She wasn’t about to let him see them fight amongst themselves over something that was an eventual benefit to her. A clean break was what she wanted. FADE and Ghadi would thrive just as they had long before she’d joined the ranks of Creative Chaos. Shaking her head, she tapped her foot while waiting for the elevator to go up to her office in order to get her purse and send the email she had prepared in advance of talking to her brothers about her decision to leave. She smiled to herself. Akchiro thought to hurt her. He’d only given her wings.
Chapter 15
“Good evening, Ms. Carrington,” the doorman murmured as he held the door open to Creative Chaos, which he really shouldn’t have, since she was no longer an employee of the company.
“I won’t be long, Mark. I just need to get my personal laptop out of the conference room.” She’d left it there in her haste to leave. When they spoke on the phone, FADE had confirmed that he’d seen it there but had not retrieved it, thinking she was still in the building and knew how she hated people touching her stuff. Mark nodded, tipping his hat in his signature sign of respect, and made room for her as she passed him to walk into the lobby.
Looking around at the collection of gold and platinum records that lined the wall, her brothers’ framed Oscar envelope and card, and all the pictures with the titans of industry that they had collaborated with made her pause. She wasn’t the creative genius, but she had helped channel that genius into a profitable business. The incredible legacy that her family was on the cusp of was in part because of her business acumen, and no one would take that away. Not even Chuck the silly banker who told her in no uncertain terms that he found her to be too much of a liability and had asked for her brothers’ backing as collateral or he would not lend to her. She’d reminded him like one would a two-year-old that he seemed perfectly fine—no, eager, to do business with her earlier that week. She could have chosen any bank, instead she had chosen loyalty and wanted to give him the first opportunity. He’d only smirked and shooed her away as if she were an errant child and not the woman who had negotiated every multimillion-dollar deal with him for the past several years.
Crushed. That was the word smacking around in her head since she left that meeting. She didn’t cry only because she hadn’t had time. She would regroup, find another lender, and make her own way. She had led one company and saw it through a disaster, so she could definitely create her own dream, seed money be damned.
She had no problem asking her brothers if she had to, however, she would’ve preferred to make a clean break. Ghadi and FADE were particular about their investments and she could just hear them now. Why would she leave their company when she could umbrella it under Creative Chaos? Even if she did that, they would have to give her a personal loan. She doubted Mc2, being a subsidiary of Takeda, would be on board with lending money to an executive they just asked to resign.
The soft chime of the elevator and the cool swish of the doors opening propelled her forward. She was resolved. Nothing would stop her from attaining her goals. She had endured the hell of the last year and instead of it breaking her as she was sure at the time it would, she had only been made stronger. She closed her eyes as they stung. A tear slipped through. She dashed it away. Those moments didn’t happen as often as they used to, yet the hollowness never left her. She wished…even after how he acted today, she’d wished he’d been there with her when “the incident” happened. She didn’t even now have the words—couldn’t say it in a whisper. The hurt burned soul deep, and she feared he would blame her, hate her. Like she did herself.
The elevator reached the top floor, and she stepped out onto the dimly lit floor. Shadows loomed with every step she took toward the conference room door. Her heels clicked against the gleaming concrete floor. The shine was so high, the mirrorlike surface showed right up the skirt of her wrap dress. She’d often remarked upon this to FADE, but he liked the high gloss concrete, saying it was more environmentally friendly because it lasted forever and was impenetrable. She’d reminded him that they were not in threat of tornadoes because this was New York, not their home in Birmingham.
She found comfort in hearing the click of her heels. She was a powerful woman. Her walk, the way she held herself—she would prevail. Setbacks happened all the time. It was how you responded to them that made the difference. Control what you can, adapt to what you can’t. She would get her laptop and get to work on her future. With these thoughts pepping her step, she hastened to the doors of the conference room and pulled them open.
“It’s about time. I’ve been waiting on your return.”
A hot flush cascaded over her body at hearing those words. He spoke in Japanese, so it took her a second, but she heard every word. He’d not turned from looking out into the New York skyline; nevertheless, he could see her clearly reflected
in the glass. She saw herself and closed her mouth.
“What are you doing here?” She swallowed back the squeak and was grateful it wasn’t a screech because he’d scared the hell out her standing like a specter at the head of the conference table.
“I’m part owner of this company. I can be wherever whenever I wish.” He sneered over his shoulder before turning fully to face her. “But I assume you came back for this.” He pointed to the Macbook Pro in front of him.
Pressing her lips into a tight line, she gave a brief nod in his direction—no longer able to look at him without so many emotions crowding into her mind, body, and taking root in the heartstrings of her soul. She wanted to rail at him and pull him close. She needed to get out of there before she did something rash. Not that he would want her. She knew he had resumed dating as soon as she left. How he managed to still run Takeda with his extracurricular activities, she’d never know. Fucker.
Anger pushed her forward faster. The clicking of her heels adding the right amount of bitchy confidence she needed to face him. Giving him a smile that might as well have been a middle finger, she snatched her laptop up, said, “All the best,” clutched it close to her heart, and turned away.
“It will be once I break this company apart,” The words were as smooth as a steel-bladed katana and just as sharp. The cuts to her heart stopped her, turned her, and had her marching over to face him.
“No, the fuck you won’t, Akchiro!” she gritted out to him.
“And who’s going to stop me? A coward who flees?” He placed his hands on the table and leaned forward, making him eye level with her.
She stepped back at those words. They’d not been yelled, but the rage behind them was clear. But she had some rage of her own. “You never called me. I left messages for you that were never returned,” she spat, all of the emotions she’d moved past now threatening to spill forth.
“And why would I call when I didn’t know you’d run back to the US like a little child? You only left a note saying you were sorry. Then you never returned. After a few days, I came back from Singapore to find your things gone and the keys to our flat on the counter.” The way his eyes bored into her made her think of the scenario his words created. He’d said “our flat.” She couldn’t even imagine the hurt she’d caused him. Her stomach tied in knots. She needed to leave.
“Then when I went to track you down, I find out that your name and what little you told me about your life was a lie. There was no Flower Ellington.” He waved his hand nonchalantly and sat in the chair at the head of the long table. “It was a dead end.”
“What happened to FADE was on every channel…” she scoffed, laying the laptop on the table, bumping the edge with her hip as she dead-eyed him, calling BS.
“When have I ever willingly watched television?” He quirked an eyebrow at her. All true. He only ever watched at her cajoling. But he had the most powerful investigation team on the planet. “If you wanted to find me, you could have.”
“I have. Why do you think Mc2 stepped in as they did?” He held his hand up in her direction. “Now it is time that you hosho tsukuimasu for what you have done. We both know to what lengths you will go for your family.”
“Make amends? For leaving to be with my family after my brother was gravely injured?” She rounded on him with hot accusation burning into her words. For that she would never apologize. They both knew his family came first for him.
“For lying, deceiving me for months.” He’d leaned back into the chair as if engaging her was tedious.
“We were nearly done with our arrangement.” Her words sounded desperate in her own ears, she knew they sounded like shallow lies to him. He wouldn’t accept that.
“Says you. I said we would see. That does not absolve your lies. Lies that have come to rest at your feet today. Your brothers have no idea of our involvement, do they? I wonder what they will say when I dissolve this company because of their little sister’s treachery?” She flinched, hearing him say it again made her feel like she had when someone put snow down her back their first winter in New York. She’d never experienced anything as icy cold since then until this very moment. She knew he was going to do it, and there was nothing she could say to change his mind.
“And your meeting with the little banker Chuck, how did that proceed?” His words sent another chill down her spine.
“How did you know about that?” She sounded naïve even to her own ears.
He tsk’d, and she smarted, knowing she should know better. “You can say I’ve taken a particular interest in your goals. You will find yourself thwarted in your endeavors of starting an indie film label for the time being.”
“Akchiro—”
“I care not to hear your words, Flower. You are a liar and a coward.”
Hearing him say the words that she had called herself a thousand times hurt no less. She knew her story didn’t end there. She came back in time to save her family, and she knew she could again. Pulling herself up to her full five-foot-two height, she stepped forward, her knees almost touching his. “Then why are you here?”
“Retribution.” He crossed his legs, “Either you atone, or your family suffers, and since you left me without a backwards glance to run away to them, I know what you will do.”
Flower stepped back and gripped the edge of the conference table. Her heart hammered in her chest. She knew him. Had lived with him for months. She knew what he wanted. But she dared to ask anyway. “What do you want?”
“You.” The cold finality of his words conveyed that he wanted so much more than just her. “We shall continue as we were as Takeda brings Creative Chaos to market, then we shall call it as you Americans say, even.” His words swirled around in her mind. Too easy.
“And you will just leave like that? You’d let me off like that?” She knew she sounded scared, hysterical even.
“It won’t be easy. Come here.” He uncrossed his legs. She hesitated, emotions rioting within her, telling her to just leave and damn the consequences, while at the same time she could sense the hurt and disappointment coalescing inside him beckoning her to assuage the tumult. Going to him was indeed not easy but walking away was an impossibility. She was done lying to herself. She didn’t want to.
She stepped between his legs. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She could see the rise and fall of her breasts and knew she must look like a frightened, trapped bird.
“Have I ever hurt you, Flower?” He grasped her fingers and tugged her forward. “Even that last night, did I harm you in any way?” He pulled her onto his thigh. She was on his left; he dressed left, so she could feel the hard ridge of his dick pressed against her bottom.
“No.” She looked into his obsidian eyes. That night was seared into her mind. That wasn’t what gave her pause. Her body was alive for the first time in over a year. Yet cold dread creeped up inside her. She couldn’t afford any mishaps. She couldn’t take the heartbreak of what being with him like this could bring.
“I don’t know if I can be with you like this.” Her hand fluttered between them. She licked her lips, catching the heat of his gaze and feeling the heat and hardness of his body. She wanted to melt into him, lose herself in the haven he offered, but if she dared, it could be her undoing.
“I know you aren’t seeing anyone. I know you haven’t given away what is only mine.” His eyes never left hers as his hand moved to her lower back and rubbed in slow circles. He canted his head slightly and pressed his lips to her forehead. “There is nothing about you that I have not made my business to know since I decided to come here. You work, spend time with your family with the occasional outing with friends, not much different from Tokyo.”
“I’m surprised you even remember. I know you’ve been seeing other people. There are rumors about you all over, like in Sora News 24, with different socialites every other week.” She wanted kick herself for giving away the fact that she had been checking on him too, almost as much as she wanted to smack him when he chuckl
ed but was too captivated by its rarity to do so.
“What was I to do in the face of all of the gossip that abounded when you left me? It would have had a negative impact on Takeda if I were to seem so weak to be pining after a woman who was last seen leaving me for the American basketball player she’d met at my gala.” His hand didn’t still, but all trace of laughter was gone. His eyes went glacial and frost dripped from every word. “You’ve cost me greatly. Perceiving my weakness for you. Others thought it best to have me replaced as the head of Takeda Industries. And though that may be a mere vote here—in Japan it takes on a far more lethal connotation among my class. I will not have my father’s legacy stolen no matter the ill-perceived reasoning.”
“I apologize.” Tears threatened to clog her throat and trap the words she whispered in Japanese. She never wished harm to befall him as a result of her actions and because there was far more that she’d cost him, only she didn’t have the power or words to voice. He bowed his head in acknowledgement though his eyes didn’t soften, nor did he say he forgave. She doubted he ever would.
“That said, I still don’t think I will be able to be with you like before…”
“There hasn’t been anyone else since you, Flower.” His words were low and harsh. “And I also know you have been celibate. I know you want me as much as I want you. I know you. I know you want to taste me, touch me, feel me inside of you. It’s been too long. I ache for you. Can’t you see that? Can’t you feel it?” He demanded low as his dick pulsed beneath her.
A moan escaped her. She watched his eyes dart down to her lips and only then was she aware that she was biting her lower lip. He leaned forward. She could have pulled back and denied him the kiss. She didn’t want to. She longed for his kisses. She had missed him too damn much.
The first touch of his lips on hers was soft and firm. He licked her bottom lip lightly before sucking it into his mouth. Moaning against him as heat flooded into her, she pressed closer, enveloped in his delicious masculine scent. As always, he smelled clean with a hint of crisp citrus just barely there, almost elusive in a way that made her crave him. He took her mouth then, holding her nape as he delved deeper. He kept his pace slow, seeming to give her time to accept him or pull back if she needed.
Lotus Flower Bomb: The Mogul Series Book Two Page 13
