Chapter 17 Everyone’s a Critic
EVERYONE’S A CRITIC
Brendan
Imposter syndrome is a bitch.
A harpy-faced, poison-spewing, spell-casting succubus whose shrieks were deafening as I sat in my father’s chair in the Blackguard conference room.
In front of me was a document that would potentially change my life forever.
“Mr. Black?” Liza sat to my right, her mauve-colored nails tapping lightly on the mahogany wood. She leaned closer and spoke in a lower voice. “Brendan?”
Beyond the glass walls, everyone else on the executive floor also observed my paralysis.
Assistants peeking over their cubicles. Mail couriers pausing mid-documents delivery.
Every accountant, janitor, or other random personnel in the building seemed to have gathered outside those windows to watch me put pen to paper.
Today, while my father continued his recuperation at home, I was the biggest fish in this giant bowl. The one who, despite the victory this day was supposed to be, felt less like a shark and more like a guppy.
The question was…why?
“Brendan.”
I took a deep breath and gave a firm nod to Liza, then another to the members of the board.
My siblings were here, of course, as were the other executive officers.
Head counsel showed up from legal, including Liam.
Even Cormac Savage, one of the members of the Savage York conglomerate we’d just invested in last year, was here to cast his shadowy gaze over the proceedings.
Everyone watched me scribble my signature on the document enshrining my authority, however temporary, over one of the largest companies in the world.
Brendan Black, Interim CEO of Blackguard Holding.
Fuck. Me.
“It’s my honor to accept the position,” I told everyone. “As interim CEO, I will serve our shareholders to the best of my ability.”
Applause broke out in the room. I flashed the same plastic smile I’d cultivated for years as Niall Black’s eldest. As soon as I’d gotten my braces off at fifteen, I’d started practicing that shit in the mirror.
I gestured to Owen on my right. “Please, let’s also applaud my brother, the new interim COO. We have a big job ahead of us, but I’m confident we can utilize the lessons our father has taught us over the years to make him proud and to keep Blackguard moving forward.”
Owen’s smile was considerably more sharkish. No doubt, COO was a consolation prize to him. “I wish he could have been here today. But yes, my brother and I will do our best to honor him.”
“Or honor yourselves,” Ronan muttered to Liam while he mimed a quick hand job.
“Fuck off,” I mouthed.
Ronan grinned.
“We’re happy to have you both,” Liza said, standing up after I did.
Everyone else followed suit. The board meeting was concluded, and at this point, they were all eager to leave.
“Thank you.” I buttoned my suit jacket, a move I’d seen my father make a hundred times before to signal the meeting had ended.
After I accepted the perfunctory handshakes and congratulations (some genuine, some clearly false, as the vote had only narrowly been in my favor), the room cleared, leaving me with my siblings, Liam, and Liza. I took my first full breath of the day.
“I suppose if I don’t congratulate you both, that makes me an asshole.” Ronan nudged Shea in the ribs. “Aren’t you just so proud of your big brothers, Shea?”
“Just waiting for you all to screw it up so I can clean it up when Daddy’s better.” Shea sounded purposefully bored as she flipped her hair over one shoulder and studied her nails.
“Congrats, Bren.” Liam reached out with a handshake. “You earned it, bro. You too, Owen.”
Owen bared his teeth again and folded his arms.
“Poor Owen, always a bridesmaid, never a bride,” Ronan snarked. “If you’d rather go back to playing Mr. Monopoly, I’m happy to take your spot. I’ll even get you a top hat.”
“Shut it,” Owen cut back.
Liza turned to me as she gathered her things. “Brendan, you need to hit the ground running. Did you get the agenda for tomorrow?”
I looked out at where people were scurrying around Copley Square, like ants waiting to be squashed. “I did.”
“Good, because it’s a lot. And Cormac Savage wants a meeting to discuss negotiations with Prada for acquisition…”
She continued while I kept facing the glass. It was easy to imagine jumping out this window to join the people below. Fly away, maybe, where no one could find me.
This was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
This was what I’d worked for my whole life.
But not like this, a voice whispered inside my head.
Nothing about this was permanent. If anything, as interim CEO, I’d be under the microscope more than ever. Any little mistake would be a reason to doubt me when the real question of succession arose.
You can do it, though.
Another voice floated through my mind, a distinctly female one that had been running through my brain for the last few weeks. Along with that hum she’d made when I’d kissed her and the pillowy texture of her lips.
Simone had already proven to be the key to this venture. At least two voting members of the board had switched to my side when they learned I was “settling down.” A few more would probably support me as a permanent replacement once they saw my personal life as permanent too.
I found myself searching the people below for her bright hair, despite the fact that I wasn’t expecting her until much later. I decided not to examine why, exactly, that prospect currently felt more exciting than the title I’d just gained.
Or why I had no clue what Liza had been saying for the last five minutes.
Fuck.
“I’m assuming you saw the article in the Herald?” Ronan asked.
I turned from the window. “What article?”
“‘What article?’” he mimicked. “Don’t play dumb. Tall, dark, and antisocial? Sure. But idiot savant doesn’t suit you.”
I grunted. “Oh, that one. Yes, Ruth planted it two days ago. Ivy Ink picked it up.”
“How?” Owen demanded a little too sharply. “No one knows who she is.”
All of us chuckled. Owen’s obsession with figuring out the mysterious identity of the gossip columnist was becoming a family joke.
“She just sent them a tip,” I told him. “Nothing to it.”
Liam had already pulled it up on his phone.
“‘The winds of change are blowing at Blackguard, and rumor has it, they are blowing the way of eldest son, Brendan Black. With the announcement of his nuptials to local do-gooder Simone Bishop, Black seemed primed to take over his father’s position as the heir of the world’s largest holding company while the rest of his siblings remain playboy spares.
’” He looked up. “That’s honestly kind of poetic. ”
I chuckled, though all three of my siblings’ expressions had turned the color of our name.
“What?” I asked. “What did you think I was going to do after getting engaged?”
“You’re not telling us that this little ‘marriage’ you’re planning was all for show, are you?” Shea asked. “Oh my God, my friends will be so relieved.”
“If they’re interested in gold digging, you can tell them I have a twenty-four-karat cock ring that’s just waiting to be found,” Ronan told her.
Shea made a face. “They want the king, asshole, not the jester.”
“It’s a real engagement,” I insisted. “But I’d be an idiot if I didn’t use it to my advantage.”
Liza couldn’t quite hide her approval.
Liam looked doubtful.
Shea appeared completely confused.
I focused everything I had on keeping my face perfectly bland.
Owen seethed. “Playboy spares?”
Ronan snorted. “If the shoe fits.”
I held my hands up. “I didn’t tell them to say that. You have a problem, take it up with the editor. Or the writer.”
“Gossiping hack. Ivy Ink is the worst,” Owen muttered. “You could have at least consulted with us first. You make us sound like your lackeys.”
“Speak for yourself, Mr. COO,” Shea asked sweetly.
Owen looked like he wanted to smack her.
I shrugged. No, I wasn’t quoted using that term, but I may have suggested it to Ruth and the publicist who drafted the tip. The more disposable my siblings looked, the more essential I seemed.
Was it kind?
No.
Effective?
Probably.
But succession was always going to be a bloodbath.
Because, despite my fears only moments before, the Blacks weren’t a family of guppies.
We were sharks, all of us.
I’d just shown my teeth first.
Ronan took the opportunity to pounce in a way only Ronan could. “So, what, is she knocked up? Is that it?”
“Ronan…” Liza muttered as she shook her head.
“She is not,” I snapped. “And I’ll thank you to keep that slanderous shit to yourself.”
“What’s the deal then? She got something on you? A video of her pegging you or something? Seriously, you can tell us.”
“How much is in the prenup?” Owen’s voice was even colder than usual.
I turned to face him. “What?”
“Ten million? Twenty?”
Jesus Christ, had he bugged my files?
“Obviously, she’s not doing this out of love,” he continued. “And considering the longest relationship you’ve ever had is with your fifty-eight-year-old assistant, I don’t actually think you’re capable of that either—”
“Fuck you very much,” I cut in. “Despite your disdain for me, brother, I do have some lovable qualities.”
“Name one,” Ronan said, smirking. “And if you say your dick, you lose.”
“Fuck you too.”
“No, thanks.” Ronan laughed, shaking his head. “I hope you’re at least smashing that ass. The candy striper gig could be legitimately hot. Think you can get her to wear her apron and nothing else?”
“Don’t fuckin’ talk about her like that.”
The order slipped out more intensely than I intended. They could bash me all they liked—I’d taken it for almost forty years, so my skin was basically iron. But for some reason, even the hint of an insult lobbed Simone’s way made me murderous.
I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
I turned to face them all, meeting their gazes one by one until they looked away. “Simone—and you’d better learn her name, you fucks—and I are getting married. Accept it and show her some basic fucking respect when she does come around. Understood?”
“And it just happens to help you get the exact position you wanted?” Shea wondered. “That’s convenient.”
I clenched my jaw. “Apparently, it did.” Also, shut the fuck up.
Everyone stared at me, waiting for me to break.
I didn’t move a muscle.
“Whatever,” Owen said finally. “A sudden engagement is hardly a marriage, especially to someone like that.”
I turned. “Someone like what, Owen?”
We bristled at each other across the room, and I dared him to say what they were all undoubtedly thinking.
That out of all the choices I had for an arranged engagement, why would I choose her?
That she was a nobody. A fortune hunter. A harlot looking to trap me.
Owen, however, was smart enough not to.
His eyes met mine with a cold, hard challenge. Taunting me to lose my shit. Daring me to give up my secrets.
Well, fuck him. Owen always thought he had my number, but he had no idea what I was capable of. Especially, I was starting to realize, when it came to the sweet stranger I was supposedly planning to marry.
“Mr. Black?”
Before either of us officially won the staring match, there was a knock on the conference room door, which then opened as Ruth walked in.
I frowned. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in JP with Simone until this evening.”
For the first time maybe ever, my assistant looked unsure. “Yes, sir. Things didn’t quite go as expected. And right now…you have a visitor.”
I had no idea who that was, but I’d take it just to get out of this dogfight. “Apparently, I have a meeting.”
“How fucking convenient,” Owen muttered.
“How much you want to bet that ‘visitor’ is his own hand?” Ronan asked Shea and Liam, who couldn’t hide their chuckles.
I rolled my eyes and turned back to Ruth. “Who is it?”
“It’s your…fiancée, sir.”
Simone was here?
“A little afternoon delight, huh?” Ronan started lewdly jerking his hips while imitating porn music.
“Miss Bishop is waiting in your office,” Ruth pressed. “She seems…distressed.”
I frowned. Distressed? Something in my chest tightened. “Did you take care of everything I asked earlier?”
Impervious to the crude pantomiming going on behind me, she nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll retrieve the envelope from my desk and bring it to your office.”
“Hey, make sure you don’t get jizz on the couch,” Ronan called as we left. “I like to sit there sometimes. Drink my morning joe. Contemplate the meaning of life and all that shit.”
“You’re a prick, Ronan,” I replied over my shoulder.
“I love you, too!” he shouted just before the door swung closed.