Chapter 6
Imagine if we’re on the roof looking at the stars and I push you off.
— Keely’s intrusive thoughts
KEELY
The meeting was rescheduled for four, and we arrived at four oh two.
I knew that was going to piss off the board, because they were very prompt, and wanted the meeting to end on time so they could get out of the office.
That was why I always pushed to have it late in the afternoon. One , even if we only took an hour, by the time that we were done, five o’clock rush-hour traffic would be upon us, and all of them would have to drive home in the middle of chaos. Having to reschedule this meeting just made me happy.
I was petty.
What could I say?
“ Oh , Ms . Clayborne ,” my assistant that literally ran everything for me—the one that I paid more than anyone else in the company to do it—rushed up to me. “ I have your meeting notes right here and…” she trailed off when she saw Copper .
Her mouth fell slightly open, eyes widening comically.
“ What the hell?” she breathed.
I grinned and turned my head so my assistant, Millie , couldn’t see it.
Millie was a great assistant.
I didn’t think she had any idea what she was signing on for when I’d hired her, but now she ran the place like one well-oiled machine.
What she didn’t do well was people.
She was staring at Copper , blinking rapidly, and pretty much making a fool out of herself.
Unable to stand it anymore, I said, “ Thanks , Millie .”
Millie’s head whipped toward me and she mouthed, “ Who is this?”
I grinned. “ Millie , I’d like you to meet my brother, Copper . The new CEO of Castanon Enterprises . Copper , this is Millicent McDaniel , the best assistant to the CEO anyone could ever dream of. I pay her a hefty amount of money to pretty much run the day-to-day business and be my right-hand woman. When things go wrong, they call her. When decisions need to be made, she delegates and then decides who gets to contact me. Which , thankfully, is not that many people because Millie is so great at what she does.”
Millie’s face went flushed.
I grinned and said, “ Is everyone here, Millie ?”
“ Y - Yes ,” she stuttered. “ Good luck.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “ This time, I don’t think I’ll need it.”
The problem with being a woman in a male dominated field, and a woman that was superior to said males, was I caught a lot of shit.
Most of the men on the board didn’t think that I should be there—and they were probably right. I shouldn’t.
I didn’t have the knowledge, the know-how, or the desire to be there.
Yet , I was there. And they had to fuckin’ deal.
“ What was that supposed to mean?” he asked as he caught my arm before I could enter the boardroom.
“ Wait outside for a bit and listen from the open door,” I suggested. “ You’ll see.”
He hung back as I made my way inside.
Every last one of the men in the room sneered at my outfit.
All of them thought it was inappropriate for me to dress in my scrubs for the day (because most of the time I worked after these meetings) and never lost a chance to tell me how inappropriate they thought I was being.
“ Ahh , Ms . Clayborne ,” one of my least favorites drawled from his position at the opposite side of the room. At the head of the table, might I add. “ It’s nice of you to finally join us. And dressed so well.”
The condescension dripping from his tone made me want to launch myself across the table and maim him with my fingernails.
But I was better than that.
Most of the time.
I wished I could fire his ass.
Marcellus Lynch , head of accounting, and the biggest pain in my ass that there ever was.
Copper’d heard enough after just one comment and came through the door.
The second biggest pain in my ass, Martin Palmer , stiffened in his seat.
Why ?
Because they all knew what it meant when Copper came back into the fold—and they all knew him because he’d once been a staple here, even at seventeen.
He’d done a lot of growing up over the years.
Copper wasn’t the sweet teenager he’d once been.
In that teenager’s place was a man that looked frightening as hell and ate board members for breakfast.
Copper’s t-shirt stretched as he reached out and pulled a chair back for me to sit down on.
I did, not caring that it wasn’t at the head, but at the right of the head.
Once seated, Copper took the seat at the head of the table and then leaned back in the chair as if he’d done it a hundred times before.
“ What’s the meaning of this?” Lynch asked, looking frantic.
He was nervous.
Good .
“ I think by seeing me here, Lynch , that you can use deductive reasoning to spell it out for you,” Copper drawled. “ Now , let’s get started. Who goes first?”
“ You are not CEO of this company,” Martin Palmer said, sneering. “ We don’t have to answer your questions.”
“ Not yet, no,” Copper agreed. “ In fact, I think we’ll keep Keely as the CEO for now. I’ll be the assistant CEO .”
I nearly groaned.
Just when I thought that I was getting out of this hellhole…
“ That’s not how this works.” Martin Palmer’s jowls shook as he stood up, his manicured hands fisting on either side of his personalized custom leather notebook. “ There is a line of checks and balances, and you have not been voted…”
“ Martin , does your wife know that you liked to fuck teen girls when you go on your overseas trips?” Copper asked curiously.
Martin paled.
“ And you, Scroggins .” Copper turned to the man that was clearly mad, but not willing to stand up and confront Copper . “ Are you willing to vote against me when I know that your daughter is in deep with a cartel leader in Nicaragua ? How would your family, the straight-laced law enforcement that they are, feel knowing that you not only condone the relationship, but helped set them up?”
Scroggins ’ eyes went wide.
“ Beaufort ,” Copper continued. “ What was it that I learned last month? That baby that your wife and you had last year. Wasn’t it with your mistress? Not your surrogate?”
Beaufort went from his usually tanned self to a much paler version. “ How …”
“ I’ve had a lot of years to look into all of this,” he said. “ I have something on each and every one of you. I’ve made sure to have so much dirt, that even if you find a way out of what I just shared, I have just as much, if not more in the wings, ready to go. You fight me on this appointment, and I’ll ruin each and every one of you.”
“ Why are you doing this?” Palmer raised his voice.
“ Because you all stood by and let Pettigrew fuck us all over,” he revealed. “ You forced my granddad to waste his life savings to fight y’all in court. You fought and you made our lives a living hell. Me especially.” He narrowed his eyes, leveling each and every one of them a scathing look before he went on. “ I deserve this. I want this. You will sell me all of your shares, and by sell, I mean give. You will get the fuck out of our lives. You will stay so far out of our sight that we forget you exist. And god help you if you decide to fight this, because I’m angry, motherfuckers. I’m so fucking angry that I’m willing to take every one of you down with me if I have to. Don’t . Test . Me .”
I was so proud of my brother that I could scream.
This was what I’d been waiting for.
For the last six years that I’d been playing this game, I’d hoped and prayed that this day would come.
Now that it was finally here…
Euphoric .
That was how I was feeling in that moment.
My brother dropped me off at work with a promise that he would be back to pick me up in the morning once I got off.
I handed him my keys without asking why he couldn’t use his bike and said, “ I know that your place is furnished and all, but there are renters in it. We can kick them out after we give them notice, but they’re good people. I would hate to kick them out without giving them ample time to move first.”
He shook his head. “ Don’t kick ’em out just yet. I don’t mind staying with you until I figure it all out.”
I winced. “ Don’t read my mail.”
His brows rose as I started gathering my things, and I quickly looked away.
“ What does that mean?” he asked.
“ Just …” I hesitated, then deflated. “ I’m fairly sure that I got a vacate the premises letter this morning, but I never got a chance to open it because I got a call from Cutter to come pick you up.”
He sighed.
“ I thought you’d paid three years in advance?” he asked.
“ I did, which locked me in with that lower price, but business is booming in downtown Dallas , and they can get three times that amount now than I originally paid. They want their apartment back and know I’m not willing to pay the extra bullshit price they’re going to set.” I gathered my belongings. “ Just …don’t open it, okay?”
“ I won’t,” he lied.
We both knew he’d open it.
My brothers were so damn nosy.
I might’ve had better luck not telling him about the mail at all, but they’d always been so into everything of mine that it’d been near impossible to hide anything from them.
“ There’s cash in the drawer beside my microwave,” I said. “ And there’s an extra card for my checking account with it. Feel free to use it.”
He pulled me in and placed a kiss on the side of my head. “ I love you, kid.”
I winked at him. “ Not a kid anymore, Copper .”
I immediately regretted the words because his face fell as he said, “ Yeah . I know. I missed a lot.”
Feeling the lowest of low, I got out and headed inside.
Dorie met me at the door as she walked up from the side of the building where she must’ve scored a good parking spot or she walked to work again.
“ Let me ask you this,” she said. “ Is it completely stupid to walk around in the middle of the bad parts of Dallas and expect to make it home safely?”
I looked at her curiously as I said, “ For a boy? You’d probably be just fine. For you or me? No . I’d never be that unsafe.”
She blew out a breath. “ You’re killing me. This is an ongoing fight between my boyfriend and me.”
The rest of the night was spent debating whether a woman who was strong like us could stand a chance against a determined male attacker.
Me ? I’d said hell no.
Her ? She’d said that both of us could fight off anyone we wanted.
We agreed to disagree.