Chapter 16 Amelia
Amelia
The next morning, I arrive to find Crawford and Beatrice outside his office having a heated conversation. The second he sees me, he mutters something curt and then goes back inside. Beatrice turns to me.
“Were you covering for Kaitlin last night? She’s not here, and Crawford is pissed. If I’d known she was having problems yesterday, I could have been better prepared today.”
I glance behind me at Kaitlin’s desk. Julia is watching us, glaring at Beatrice irritably.
“Not covering for her exactly, no,” I say carefully. “I was sending some emails because she had to go to an appointment.”
“Right, well, if you had told me that, it would have been helpful. She’s had to call in sick, her son’s in the ER.”
“Oh, God, is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine, they’re treating him, but she won’t be in until midday. I assume you're aware that the merger meeting is scheduled for this morning? Kaitlin has been managing the whole thing, and I can’t cover it because I have to go prep for the executive committee meeting.”
I remain motionless, waiting to see what she’s going to tell me to do. I despise being spoken down to, and Beatrice strikes me as someone who takes her mood out on whoever is in front of her.
“Are you asking me to help?” I ask. “I can cover it.”
“You won’t know how to. You have no experience.”
“So send me the minutes from the last one.”
“It’s not just minutes, Amelia, it’s a whole report. Kaitlin gathers information from all attendees during the meeting and afterward. It’s plugged into a dashboard and has to be sent out to everyone by the close of business.”
“Well, then, let me take the notes, and once she’s back, she can work on the report. If her son is sick, that’s the priority.”
Beatrice blinks at me. My tone wasn’t particularly friendly, but I refuse to be reprimanded for helping someone out.
“Fine. But if you fuck this up, you’ll be out on your ass.”
If she knew how fond Crawford is of my ass, she might not be so confident about that.
I shrug. “Send me everything I need, and I’ll deal with it.”
Beatrice is halfway out the door, and she slows her pace, flashing a furious glance my way before she heads back to her desk.
I grab my phone and find three frantic texts from Kaitlin. One of them was sent before 6 a.m., and from the typos, it looks as if she has had very little sleep.
I fire one back, telling her I’m on top of everything and to focus on her son. An email flashes up on my monitor from Beatrice, and I open the attachment, my stomach churning as I read the endless notes inside.
After an hour of reading through the documents, James Kendrick arrives at my desk demanding to see Crawford, and I send him in.
I hear shouting about fifteen minutes later, and then Crawford and Kendrick come out, arguing with one another. I leap to my feet, following them to the meeting, and Crawford looks back at me in confusion.
“Where the hell is Kaitlin?” Kendrick demands.
“She’s out sick,” I say. “I’m covering.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, that’s all we need.”
“Can it, Derek,” Crawford barks at him, then turns to me. “You know what you need to take down?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. Make sure you capture everything Barnes says. I don’t want any of this to be lost in the ether when he starts reneging on this fucking deal. And keep your mouth shut.”
I balk at his tone, following behind him meekly. I understand that he’s stressed, but I don’t appreciate being spoken to like that by anyone, particularly not when my throat is still sore from his cock slamming into it the night before.
The conference room I step into is huge. There’s a table in the center, and it appears to have been designed to be intimidating.
Franklin Barnes is on the other side of the room, surrounded by men in suits. Neither CEO looks happy to be there.
I recognize Vanessa Dickinson as she takes her place beside Crawford. I can tell by the way he interacts with her that there’s mutual respect there.
I hover, unsure where to sit, and then Crawford glances at me and indicates a chair at the edge of the room. I lower into it gratefully and am pleased to blend into the background as the meeting kicks off.
By the halfway mark, I’m almost pleased that Kaitlin isn’t here. I’ve never been privy to this kind of negotiation before, and it’s fascinating. By the time everyone has introduced themselves, I’ve got their names down on my sheet, and I can keep track of the discussion fairly easily as I type.
Franklin Barnes and Crawford clearly don’t get along.
“I won’t budge on this, Lucas,” Barnes is saying flatly. “If you can’t guarantee their protection, my employees are going to be thrown to the wolves the second I step away from this company.”
“And I’ve told you multiple times, as has my finance team, that the terms you’ve laid out are not feasible. I’m going to try and retain as many positions as possible, believe me, but a merger is just that. We won’t be able to keep everyone. That’s the reality.”
“And you won’t guarantee anything beyond twelve months!” Barnes snaps, his arm sweeping over the papers between them. “What’s the use of taking us on if all our best talent is lost in less than a year. It has to be a minimum of three.”
“If you continue down this line, you won’t have a company to salvage, Barnes. And I won’t think twice before pulling out of this merger altogether.”
The other man’s face pales, and as all the people around them begin to argue across the table, there’s a strange moment where Crawford and Barnes make eye contact.
I don’t know anything about private equity or mergers, but it seems to me that it’s the other people in the room who are the problem. If Crawford could just sit down with Barnes and talk this out man-to-man, I think they’d get along better.
The meeting dissolves into chaos. No one is ranting and raving, but multiple discussions are taking place at once. Kendrick is the most vocal and explosive, whereas Crawford and Vanessa Dickinson speak in measured, soft tones to Barnes and his people.
Still, the meeting ends on a negative note when Crawford rises, offering his hand to Barnes, who takes one look at it and scoffs, then walks out of the room.
As I file out after them, Crawford is surrounded by people, and the huddle of senior execs all make their way to his office. As the last of them walks inside, the door slams shut, and I let out a relieved breath to have a few minutes to myself.
I sit down at my desk, just as Kaitlin runs in, eyes wild as she comes to sit beside me.
“I’m so sorry, I had to take my son to hospital,” she whispers urgently. “I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be at the meeting. Did it go okay?”
“It’s all good. I’ll send you my notes, and we can work on the report together. Is your son okay?” I ask.
“He is for now. They’ve given him some new medication. He’s too small to be diagnosed with asthma, and he gets these chest issues that can come on real quick. I couldn’t leave him.”
“Of course you couldn’t, and don’t worry about it. It was all fine in the end, except that I’ve written War and Peace for you to read through,” I say apologetically, and Kaitlin grins.
“That’s better than bullet points, thank you. I owe you so many favors after everything you’ve helped out with. Beatrice chewed me out for being late today, too, as if I could help it.”
“Is she always like this?” I ask.
Kaitlin’s lips thin. “She didn’t use to be. I don’t think working for Crawford agrees with her. He’s very reactive, changing his schedule at the drop of a hat. I think she’d feel more settled with someone else, but she’s stuck here and taking it out on everybody around her.”
“Seems fair,” I say dryly, and Kaitlin snorts.
“Thank you, Amelia. I mean it.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll email everything to you, and if it doesn’t make sense, just ask. It’s always good to have someone available as a backup if you’re ever called away again, so it’s useful for me to understand this stuff. I don’t mind helping.”
The door to Crawford’s office opens, and all of the execs file out, several of them talking together animatedly about Barnes’s behavior. Kaitlin sidles away back to her desk, and I’m about to return to my work when Crawford appears in the doorway.
“I need to see you in my office. I have some additional points to run by you.”
The look in his eyes is angry and heated, and I know as soon as the door is closed, there won’t be any ‘work’ getting done. He’s pent up and in need of release.
He turns around and walks back inside, and I rise from my desk, walking to where he’s standing by the door.
“Do you have anything pressing to do in the next half hour?” he asks me as he closes the door. I shake my head as his arm snakes around my waist.
“Okay, good. This could take a while,” and then he presses his hard cock against my leg and begins to pull me to the couch.