Chapter Seven
They say that the five stages of grief usually happen in order but that there is no real set amount of time that you spend in each stage.
While no one had actually died, Alex was keenly aware that something inside of her had. Alex was also fairly certain that she’d hijacked the anger phase at the beginning of the cycle and tagged it on at the end.
The denial phase was easy to see and had morphed into the bargaining phase with her brief thoughts of Perhaps it was a misunderstanding or Maybe I was overreacting .
Anger was probably squeezed in there, but Alex couldn’t see it.
Or maybe the anger manifested by her gritting-her-teeth stage, where she refused to show any weakness and had let Bakshai walk into her office, knowing exactly what Hawk had said to her was true.
Bakshai’s thug had grabbed her arm. If you looked close enough, there were distinct marks on her arm to prove it.
And he’d scared the ever-living shit out of her, as evidenced by the dropped phone and broken screen.
Then Hawk tossed her utter lack of self-preservation in her face, and her resolve pooled at her feet in a state of depression.
Depression she knew the half a bottle of wine ... okay, three-quarters of a bottle of wine, didn’t help later that night.
Her wine-soaked evening had her tossing over into acceptance before she fell asleep.
Something had to change.
Alex woke to a dry mouth that was spitting mad.
Hence the return of anger.
Anger was a much easier emotion to deal with than depression or hopelessness.
Alex was not hopeless, and she’d be damned if she let men like Bakshai make her feel that way.
The man thought he’d gotten away with whatever stunt he had tried to pull, but he was wrong.
Alex showed up at the office nearly an hour early. Long before any other employees on the executive floor arrived.
The security guard at the desk greeted her by name.
Alex looked around the lobby of the building and tried to see it through Hawk’s eyes.
How difficult would it be to set up cameras that took pictures of everyone coming and going through the front door?
And what would it take to be able to verify a person’s identity with those images?
Stone Enterprises was not a high-risk building.
They were not in the business of creating anything that needed safeguarding.
They ran hotels and businesses around commerce and hospitality.
They weren’t inventing new technology that would revolutionize the world that someone would kill to patent first.
This building housed people, employees that didn’t need to be walked through a metal detector on the daily. Hawk’s demonstration was meant to show her that it could just as well have been Bakshai that yielded a weapon. Or more likely, his “associate.”
Up on the executive floor, Alex directed her energy to the kitchen, where she started a pot of coffee. The lingering clouds from the wine the night before were still sticking and needed to shake free.
After waking up her computer, Alex opened all the blinds in her office, letting the entire wall of windows fill every corner of her office with light.
This had been her father’s office. A place she’d never visited as a child.
It looked nothing like it had when she’d first taken over the space after his death. In the beginning, she and Chase shared the space but eventually settled on Chase taking over Floyd’s office and converting a meeting room into Floyd’s new space.
The artwork, office furniture, and paint on the walls had changed almost immediately.
But as Alex saw now, it still wasn’t enough.
Her desk sat in the same space where her father’s had been, and the sofa and chairs hadn’t moved either.
The office bar that she’d almost started drinking out of the day before had been repurposed, but it was basically the same.
It still felt masculine to her. And for reasons she couldn’t put a finger on, she wanted ... no, needed, that to change.
By seven thirty, she was on her second cup of coffee with her schedule for the next three months in front of her.
Her personal life wasn’t reflected on her work calendar at all. Not that she had much of one, but her family did.
An auction event in the following month was the only personal day she was planning.
Chances were, Chase would have a day or two that he’d be out of the office when escrow closed on their new house.
Meetings with the construction team for his remodel, not to mention life with a newborn.
Then there was the weekend of their ceremonial wedding celebration.
After their wedding, Chase was whisking Piper off to Paris and then Vienna.
Alex highlighted those weeks as an idea started to form.
After that, there was their mother and Gaylord’s wedding in Texas. A Friday through Monday event that would likely make Chase and Piper’s day look like a roadside carnival versus Disneyland and Epcot combined.
Chase and Piper would be back from their honeymoon with a couple of weeks in between all the marital bliss happening for her family.
Alex stared down at her color-coded mess of a schedule and tried to fit in time for things she had to get done.
A whispering of voices alerted Alex to the office coming to life.
Alex opened her office door to retrieve a third cup of coffee and came face to face with Dee, who jumped back with a squeal.
“You’re here,” Dee exclaimed.
“You okay?”
With a hand to her chest, Dee sucked air. “I didn’t see you come in.”
“I’ve been here for a while.”
Alex locked in a stoic expression and glanced toward Chase’s office. “Is Chase open for lunch today?”
Dee scurried behind her desk and clicked keys on her computer. “He’s free after eleven thirty.”
“Perfect.”
In the staff kitchen, Alex used her personal cell phone and sent a group text to both her brothers.
I have something I want to run by the both of you. Can we meet for lunch today?
Chase responded first.
Sure.
Max took a minute. Where and what time?
Alex smiled at her phone.
They’d hardly stepped out of line at the deli when Max started in. “Who the hell is this Bakshai guy?”
Alex glared at Chase. “You told him.”
Chase just smiled. “You have two brothers now. I like sharing the burden.”
“I am not a burden.”
“Debatable,” Chase teased.
Alex looked at Max. “My guess is Chase told you everything.”
“It’s a good thing Mr. Oil Man is out of the country,” Max said.
The protective streak in Max was unmatched. He had no problem resorting to violence when it came to protecting his own. And since Max had grown up without a family, parents, or siblings, he defended his small circle at every turn.
“I don’t think he’ll be back anytime soon. And certainly not in our offices.”
Their number was called at the deli counter. They retrieved their sandwiches and found a quiet corner table to talk.
“This whole thing with Bakshai had me thinking about our office setup.”
“You mean your office setup,” Max corrected before taking a large bite out of his pastrami on rye.
“You come in once in a while, and my guess is you’d be around more if you had your own space,” Alex said.
Max gave a noncommittal shrug.
“I still feel like I’m a placeholder in Dad’s life.”
“Because you’re in his office?” Chase asked.
“That and ... events like Bakshai’s. I’ve gone to every possible fundraiser, cocktail party, and black-tie event that’s been thrown at me since stepping through those doors. I can’t say that they were a complete waste of my time, our time,” she corrected, glancing at Chase.
“Don’t look at me, you took on most of that.”
“My point ... I’ve learned nearly nothing. Yeah, I can place faces to names of the people Dad knew, but to what end? This weekend I learned that Chester is shagging a girl that could be his daughter. What good is that knowledge going to do me?”
“Who is Chester?” Chase asked.
“The CFO at Regent. The ass. His wife is lovely. That might be something Bakshai would use to get something he wants, but that’s not how any of us are going to run this company.”
“Agreed,” Max said.
“I’m tired of being discounted because I’m a woman. Do you know what I’m asked at every event I attend?” Alex asked both of them.
Chase shrugged.
Max shook his head.
“Where you are.” She pointed a finger between them. “ ‘Where is your brother Chase?’ ‘Is Max here?’ I’m trying to fit into this patriarchal world where I feel the need to overcompensate for my sex. And why? We own the damn company.”
“You’re just figuring that out?” Max asked.
Alex smirked. “No. But I have had a serious case of imposter syndrome more times than I care to admit.”
“You wouldn’t know that to look at you, Alex,” Max said.
“Thanks.”
Chase lifted his sandwich to his mouth. “What does this have to do with the office setup?” he asked before taking a bite.
“I want to reclaim some space. Take a page out of the design Piper used for your office space downstairs. Stone Enterprises is us. The three of us. And before you say you don’t want or need space,” she said to Max, “keep in mind that your philanthropic work will require a team to pull off.”
Max was in the process of starting a nonprofit organization to give troubled teens in the foster system a chance. Something he had personal experience with as a kid.
“Not to mention the outreach to our sister companies that you’ve been handling.”
He nodded in agreement. “I’m still not wearing a tie.”
Chase and Alex both smiled.
“By the way, are you coming to the board meeting on Friday?” Chase asked.
Max nodded. “I’ll be there.”
Alex refocused the two of them. “Chase, your office and mine are too cumbersome. Piper and Dee’s space is too small, and in reality, we need more help. And a new role for Piper when she wants to come back.”
Both Chase and Max were looking at her while they chewed.