28. Gladiolus – Meaning Flower of the gladiators Give me a break Integrity Ready armed Strength You pierce my heart
28
GLADIOLUS
(SWORD LILY)
MEANING: FLOWER OF THE GLADIATORS; GIVE ME A brEAK; INTEGRITY; READY ARMED; STRENGTH; YOU PIERCE MY HEART
EVERETT
________
T he office was quiet. Not unusual for a Monday morning. Our employees got their work done, and as long as they did, we didn’t care how much time they spent in the office. Want to spend more time at home and therefore be more efficient? Be my guest.
But Micah’s assistant Josie sat outside his office at her desk. Cameron made it to the door first. “He free, Jos?”
“It’s been quiet for a few minutes, so I assume he’s off the phone with Gregory.”
“How’d that go?” I asked.
She smirked. “Nothing a stiff Monday morning drink can’t fix.”
Perfect.
Micah was hunched over his desk when the door opened, scribbling with a stylus on his tablet. The mockups for the men’s line were there. “Don’t break the stylus,” I said.
“I might do it just to spite Gregory,” he said. “I’ll buy a new one.”
Cameron sat in one of the chairs and observed our packmate with amusement. “He had thoughts?”
“Not good ones. He thinks the designs are too avant garde for men to wear, and I whole-heartedly disagree. With the way trends are going, by the time this collection comes out next year, this is the kind of thing everyone will want. I’m not going to let someone with a stick up his ass and an old-fashioned sense of style fuck that up.”
“Good.”
Micah looked up suddenly, like he hadn’t even realized he was talking. It happened sometimes.
“Shit. Sorry.”
“No, I like it,” I said. “Take no shit.”
He sighed and closed down the program. “Yeah. I won’t. But he’s going to be a pain in my ass about it.”
Gregory was one of our marketing people, and he was damn good at his job. But he also had no qualms about voicing his opinions when he thought our products were on the wrong track. Still, when a decision was made, he executed it, like he would with this.
“Is Ocean okay?” He asked quietly. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”
“She’s okay. Though the last place I want to be is here,” I admitted.
Cam put his hands behind his head and stared out the window. “We should take her on a honeymoon. I know it wasn’t part of the plans because it was all so fast, but getting her away from here? Where it’s just the four of us? I want that. And it might help get her away from those instincts.”
I looked at him. “When did you start having good ideas?”
“When you started smiling.” He smirked.
“Dick.”
One eyebrow raised. “You started it.”
“Photos and story are out,” Micah said. He stared down at his phone, scrolling.
It took only seconds for me to find it and start smiling. Because of the short timeline, we’d had the photographer provide the photos directly to our reporter of choice, but we would get them soon. And plaster them all over the fucking house.
She looked beautiful in every photo. Glowing, even though we now knew she’d been in agony. I wanted to take more photos with her happy and comfortable. But still, she had found some peace somewhere, and I would savor these pictures because they were the first time we made her ours.
The rest would come later.
“Story looks good,” Cameron said. “And just glancing at my little notification numbers, we’re already being tagged. We should grab something and post it.”
“On every account,” I added. We’d already instructed our social teams for Zenith and the other brands to post about it, but we would too.
I found the picture I wanted and posted it with a short caption, tagging Ocean as I did so, hoping it would be one of the first notifications she saw.
Deep satisfaction rolled through me. Perfect. I wanted the entire world to know that Ocean belonged to us. She was ours, and no one was going to fuck with that.
My little nymph might think I was joking when I told her how I meant to protect her, but I wasn’t. There were lines I hadn’t crossed and didn’t plan to, but I already knew there was no line I wouldn’t cross to protect my Omega if I needed to. That included her aunt and uncle.
I would do what I had to.
And I couldn’t wait to see her and tell her how delicious she looked in every single one of these photos. “I do not want to be here today,” I said with a laugh.
“We’ll get back to her as soon as we can—” Micah’s eyes drifted past me to the door, then sharpened. “Joseph. Come to offer your congratulations, I hope?”
I kept my face neutral as I turned to face him. His expression was hard and unreadable. “I didn’t think you would move this fast.”
“Is that a problem?” Sliding my hands into my pockets, I strolled to the wall and leaned against it, the picture of ease. “This was, after all, what you wanted. You threatened our legacy and livelihood in order to force us into marriage. Don’t tell me you’re not happy that we complied with your… request?”
We all knew the board’s blackmail wasn’t a request.
“We assumed you would take some time to find a wife,” Joseph was pretending he didn’t care, but he did. Our suspicious were right. There was more to this than he was letting on. “Build up the image and the anticipation in order to help change your image. Not drop photos from a secret wedding like an atomic bomb.”
“Have you seen the photos?” Cam asked mildly. “There were plenty of people there. Clearly, it wasn’t a secret. So sorry your invitation got lost in the mail. I think I have an extra copy floating around here somewhere. They were beautiful. Blue and silver.” He paused, thinking, and looked at Micah. “Well, not fully blue. This delightful shade of bluish purple our wife loves. What would you say it is? Tanzanite?”
Micah shrugged. “I’d say it’s more of a periwinkle.”
“Hmm, maybe.”
Joseph huffed out a breath. “Are you done talking about fucking colors?”
“Are you done pretending any of this was actually about us getting married?” I shot back. “Because I’m still waiting for the real reason for this whole failed coup you planned.”
His face turned red. “Preventing you from running this company into the ground because of your image isn’t a fucking coup. You?—”
“No, no.” I pushed off the wall and took a step forward. “We already established why your accusations have no place in reality. You know I’m not a patient man, so we’re not going to go through all of it again. So you can either congratulate us on our wedding and get the fuck out, or you can tell me the truth.
“I can think of only a couple of reasons why you’d do this, and none of them have to do with the press or wanting us to settle down. So do you want to talk about those?”
He stood there, silent, so I kept going.
“Maybe you don’t like where Zenith is headed. We’re expanding in a direction you don’t approve of, and you’re already in too deep to get out without looking weak or like there was a scandal you were dismissed for. So maybe you thought the best way was to take us down and make us look like the bad guy.” I stepped around him slowly, in a circle, making sure he felt like the prey he was. “But that doesn’t make sense, since Zenith is the most valuable of its kind in the market, and I know exactly how over inflated your salary is.”
“Congratulations.” He gritted the word through his teeth. “On your wedding.”
“Or maybe,” I continued, “someone came to you with an offer. Get our company to suffer some losses in order to make us vulnerable to a hostile takeover. With your shares and all that notice, you’d stand to make more money than you’d ever seen in your life, and they’d give you a new position. So you and the board planned your little ambush, and now it’s only been a week, everything you thought would happen has crumbled into dust, and you’re furious.” I stopped in front of him. “Am I getting close?”
If looks could kill, I would be lifeless on the floor. “Or maybe I care about this company and everyone in it, and don’t want to see it run into the ground by your recklessness.”
I tilted my head. “Okay, and what would that be? And you don’t get to say we were reckless being photographed dancing, fully clothed, with a woman more than three years ago. You’re going to have to do better than that.”
Joseph’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t say anything. And in this moment, I was glad that Micah and Cam always had my back. Because I could say what I was about to without consulting them, and they would stand by my side.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Joseph. We’ve decided to take our wife on a honeymoon at the end of the week. Don’t know how long that will take, so we’ll, of course, be available if we need to be. But when we come back, I want to know what your answer is. I want the truth, and I want your reasons. If you don’t give me those, Zenith Incorporated will be looking for a new Chairman of the Board. Am I understood?”
For a second I thought he might hit me, and there was part of me that dared him to do it just so I could throw him out on his ass. He didn’t.
Pity.
“You lost. Whatever your goal was, it didn’t work. Make peace with that while we’re away, and you let me know whether I need to hire a headhunter.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re dismissed.”
The shock on his face was a beautiful thing. He sputtered like he was finally going to say something before he turned and stormed out of Micah’s office at full speed, nearly knocking Josie over where she was bringing a carrier full of to-go coffee cups.
“Damn,” Cameron said. “I wish I’d recorded that, because that was fucking glorious.”
Micah smirked too, but was still tense. “Are you sure humiliating him was the way to go?”
“His plan was to humiliate us. If you’re going to execute a plan, you should make sure you’re ready for it to come back on you. Besides, I’m frankly sick of his shit. I hope he doesn’t tell us so we have a reason to get rid of him and bring in someone who doesn’t fight us every step of the way.”
The success we had wasn’t accidental. It was because we knew how to run a business while also caring about the people it employed and those it affected as much or more than profits. Amazing what human decency could do. But as many boards were, they were looking at the bottom line. Joseph came highly recommended when we’d brought him on after going public, but he was also a barrier to most of our ideas, and we’d had to force him into too many things. It might be time for a change regardless of his decision.
“I can’t say I disagree.” Micah stroked a hand down his face. “But we should still be careful. He had the whole board with him, and even though we won this round, it doesn’t mean they won’t have something else up their sleeve.”
“Yeah. And we need more information.” I sent a text to Aiden asking for the details. If there was something to find, he would find it. “As for Frank, I hope you know I’m planning to hold him to every sticky little thing in the contract.”
“I’m looking forward to that.” Cam rubbed his hands together. “He should be here now, right?”
“Josie?” Micah called. “Is Frank McCabe in the building yet?”
The Beta poked her head through the door. “Yes. Oren called to let me know he’s in the conference room on Mr. DuPont’s floor.”
“Call the legal team and have them meet us there, please.” Micah waited until she retreated to point at me. “You can’t kill him.”
“I promised Ocean I wouldn’t. Today.”
He shrugged. “Good enough.”
Cameron leapt to his feet and nearly skipped out the door. “Time to go see dear old uncle-in-law.”
“Please call him that,” Micah yelled after him. “He’ll hate that.”
“Precisely.”
I shook my head and followed. This was going to be interesting.