Chapter 17 #2
Connor felt his heart drop somewhere into his stomach. He didn’t need to turn around to know Elle Thornton was standing behind him, no doubt having just returned to her office.
Junie locked eyes with Connor, her gaze hardening.
“Elle, we need a minute.” She didn’t realize her hold on him. If anything, Connor felt Junie’s grip on his shoulders tighten, as if to protect him.
Behind him, Elle Thornton scoffed.
“A minute. And I need you to update our internal CRM before 3 o’clock. You know I’ll have the board up my ass if I don’t–”
“Ellie,” Junie cut in, raising her voice in a way that Connor would never have dared with his own executives. “We need a minute.”
Several seconds passed without anyone saying a word, Connor scarcely daring to breathe. But Junie’s gaze never left his, something in her eyes beckoning his trust.
And then Elle crouched down beside the two of them, resting her weight against her stiletto heels.
Few directors intimidated Connor the way she did.
So what if she was a head smaller than him–without heels.
If he didn’t know better, he would have thought her to be ten feet tall.
A lesson he learned early on was that if you wished to survive at Alarie, you did not cross Thornton. You did not interrupt her.
And you certainly did not disrespect her.
That wasn’t to say people didn’t try–but they learned, quickly.
Few played the game of politics as she did.
But Junie had her own strange relationship with Thornton, one Connor had never come close to puzzling out. One day Thornton, one day Ellie, others that woman.
“What happened?” Thornton asked, not unlike a teacher sleuthing out which student needed to be scolded.
“Isaac Berkshire,” Junie began, speaking each word slowly and deliberately, “hired his son as the new IR director. It looks like they’re making unapproved deals. Berkshire wants Connor fired.”
Connor hardly had time to give Junie so much as a questioning glance before Thornton was reacting, making a sound of disgust.
“Bastard apple doesn’t fall far from the shithead tree, does it,” she muttered.
That had Connor looking at her in surprise. Of course, he knew she didn’t like Berkshire–that wasn’t a secret. Berkshire had been trying to push Thornton out since she was promoted, or so the rumor went.
“Mark my words, the second the going stops being good, my department’s getting the axe,” was what Junie had once predicted.
And Connor could believe it–Thornton was the only Black woman in an executive role at Alarie, where French names and male faces dominated in leadership.
“Connor, is it?” Thornton asked like she didn’t know, and Connor was polite enough to pretend she didn’t. He nodded, not missing the way her jaw clenched. “How much PTO do you have?”
“Probably close to the max,” Connor answered, finding his voice. He didn’t take much PTO if he could help it.
Thornton smiled, but it felt more like the smile of an alligator than something friendly.
“Here’s what you’re going to do. Are you listening?”
Connor nodded slowly.
“You’re going to send an email to your boss and HR. You’re going to tell them there was a death in your family. Mom. Dad. Brother. I don’t care. Pick one. You’re taking FMLA leave, and then you’re taking grief leave with PTO. Repeat that.”
“I’m sending an email to HR and Santos. I’m telling them there was a death, and I’m taking FMLA and grief leave with my PTO,” Connor repeated obediently, eyes wide as he looked from Junie to Thornton.
Any other time, he would have felt a little proud for not stuttering.
Now, now felt like walking on some invisible tightrope.
Not a single mistake could be made, not with her nor her instructions.
“And you’re going to export your inbox. You’re going to find a reference for every single deal Berkshire was pushing through his spawn, and you’re going to document.
Do you understand? When you return from your leave and they try to fire you, you’re going to use this as leverage.
Let him know you’ll skin him alive if he even tries. ”
Thornton’s dark eyes narrowed.
“And you’re going to use this time to find another job.”
Her words hit Connor like a block of ice to his chest.
“What do you mean, find another job?” He asked lamely.
This got an actual scowl from her.
“Don’t play stupid. You’re lucky to still be here after that stunt you pulled with Devore. Berkshire’s probably been wanting for an opportunity to toss you to the curb.”
Connor blinked.
“Devore…” he repeated, his gaze drifting away. He couldn’t believe someone else had put it together.
Thornton scowled.
“Curtis Devore. Don’t you dare play dumb, Hayes. It was real convenient that those insider trading claims came when they did, wasn’t it?”
She crossed her arms, somehow looking down at him despite being at eye-level.
“Oh, but it wasn’t insider trading he was guilty of, was it?
But that opened Pandora’s Box. You could have implicated half of Alarie leadership.
But you didn’t. Meant you wanted him gone–just him.
I wondered about that. If it was a bad assignment, you could have grown a spine.
You could have gotten a new assignment.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Connor had never realized it before, but she wore the same style of eyelashes that Junie did–or perhaps, the reverse, that Junie emulated Thornton.