9
Mast of the World
Gabriel
I look from the highlighted file to the head of the filing department without a change of expression. The blond is smiling tensely at my frozen, brow-raised position.
“And you’re the one who has been working on this?”
Mikael shifts behind me. He can sense the bullshit just as easily as I can. Considering she had no idea these were ‘damaged’, it’s plain to see. She’s claiming credit for work another employee did.
“My underling must have been working on this while I was in your office yesterday, sir. Remember, this box was dropped, and I cleaned it up. I don’t know why she would ruin the files.”
Ace sets another sheet next to my elbow. I pull it into view and stare.
Judge Fullerton’s name is highlighted in bright pink in several places. Justin Blake in yellow. Elliott Bernard in blue. Those two names aren’t familiar to me. They will be by the end of the day. I’ll make sure of it.
I need to know who is trying to bring my attention to this and why. Dealing with the source of the problem will cut down on the bullshit.
Who knows that I’ve been looking into Fullerton, and do they know why?
Corrupt law enforcement isn’t unusual. I have my own fingers in that pie. The struggle to gain a foothold has brought my attention firmly to them all. I know my father had a team looking into Fullerton before due to the kickback of trying to find a way into the system in Ander Springs.
Even though several informants pointed the finger at her as being involved, there hasn’t been any objective evidence of wrongdoing on her part. There have been no odd transfers of money or deposits, clandestine meetings, or bizarre phone calls. Nothing links her to anyone, really. Her job or golfing consumes her.
Yet her name is right in front of me in hot pink like a warning sign.
“Bring them up,” I tell her flatly, trying to ignore the ridiculous seduction attempts she’s been making since yesterday morning. I would continue cursing the mistake that sent this box downstairs, but I might reap a few rewards from it.
When I don’t acknowledge her any further, she clears her throat and declares, “I’ll grab her now. It’s past seven, so she should be here.”
Why is a filing clerk coming in at seven in the morning? Harriette unlocks the doors at eight for regular employees to come in.
As soon as she leaves, I glance at Ace. He clenches his toothpick between his teeth. No words are needed as he leaves to get more information on the filing clerk.
“If she comes back in, can Mikael throw her out? With force, of course,” Jake asks blandly without turning away from the TV.
I hit the button to connect with Vanessa.
“The head of filing isn’t welcome back in the office,” I tell her coldly. I expect that to be the end of it, but she has to say something.
“Yes sir,” she oozes subservience over the line. “Can I get you anything? A coffee? Or juice?”
“No,” I cut her off before she can keep going.
Another pretty face without substance that thinks sliding into one of our beds will net her money. I try not to pay any attention to her despite her penchant for coming in without knocking to hand deliver things that could be emailed. Cade is on distraction duty for her. He’ll let her down easy as opposed to the rest of us. Why I’m bothering with it, I don’t know.
This is supposed to be my new start without my father’s influence surrounding me. I’ve been drowning myself in work instead of wallowing in the sudden silence from him.
I’m an adult who’s finally moved away from the empire he’s built. I’m sure he’s waiting for me to fail and crawl back to him, just like he did with Andi. He’s forgotten that we virtually raised ourselves without his help. And we’re all sly with our money and the things we purchase to keep it flowing. Even Shade, raised outside our father’s influence for the most part, has a penchant for penny-pinching.
I shuffle through the highlighted pages, making notes on the side as time passes. Ace comes back in with a single sheet of paper and a scowl.
“New hire,” he mutters and drops the sheet in front of me.
Amanda Jefferson. Her employee ID photo is so blurry I can’t make out much. Twenty-seven, previous employers go from a diner close to this building all the way to a receptionist at a bank. Odd that she’s here of all places. Her address is on the more affluent side of town, far from here. Did she fall on hard times? If so, it will be easy to manipulate her with a bribe.
Cade can turn on the charm. Mikael and Ace can maintain their stoic, menacing silence. Jake can stay as far away from her as possible. Just another day in the shit-show we call life.
I’m in the middle of making a notation when the door opens. Not a single polite knock. It makes my teeth grind. I refuse to look up at whatever dramatic pose the two women are striking up. They all think that the proper lighting on their figures will make them irresistible. It doesn’t.
“Amanda Jefferson, sir,” Vanessa says in a completely unnecessary, seductive tone.
The oddest thing is when Mikael softly clears his throat, something he does when he sees something he likes and is trying to get my attention. Ace suddenly relaxes back against the wall, just out of my view, until I see him cross his feet at the ankles. Even Cade has tensed with a frown. Jake is completely oblivious, still focused on the TV.
I tip my head enough to see the women without being obvious and feel tension steel down my spine. A rippling effect I’ve never had, as each vertebrae gets squeezed by muscles one at a time. I’m frozen in place as I stare.
Ms. Jefferson is something unexpected. Her dower skirt suit doesn’t fit properly, covering her frame to make her a bland square. Her skin is pale as milk and looks naturally silky smooth. I can’t see a speck of makeup on her face. Her vibrant red hair is coiled into a bun at the back of her head, several whisps falling from it to cup her face. Her eyes are wide and a melted brown that sparkles. A dowdy librarian, missing her glasses. All of that alone is startling, but the look on her face is priceless.
Vanessa is posturing to emphasize her breasts in her low-cut blouse. One foot is propped up on her toes behind her, giving her a false sense of innocence. She’s wriggling to draw attention to her ass.
Ms. Jefferson… Amanda is staring at her with the oddest expression I’ve seen a woman give another woman. She’s a mixture of confusion and concern as she watches Vanessa’s show. I’m used to the posturing. Amanda is not. She has one hand subtly extended as if she’s about to catch Vanessa if she falls.
The moment extends until I snap out of it.
“That will be all,” I tell Vanessa firmly.
I keep my head ducked down as if I’m still reading, but I see it when Amanda stiffens at the sound of my voice. A slow crawling blush enters her cheeks as her attention snaps around.
Instead of looking at me, she eyes the desk and takes in the opulence of the room. I’m expecting her eyes to light up over the apparent wealth. There’s a certain amount of pleasure and greed that enters people’s gaze when they see it. The need to possess fine things can be covered quickly if someone is self-aware.
Amanda looks less than impressed. In fact, she seems to despise her surroundings. The more she sees, the tighter her plush pink lips get until she looks like she swallowed a lemon.
My eyes narrow as I take in the unusual response. Money may not be a great motivator for honesty. Unless it’s an exorbitant sum. Everyone has a price.
She looks at me, and her brows furrow. I’m not what she was expecting, either. Now that her attention has hit me, my arms have frozen. I should be turning a page and acting as if she isn’t here. The sudden paralysis lifts as soon as her eyes shift away, allowing me to shuffle the papers a bit.
Her eyes hit Mikael, and her shoulders hunch at his regular, menacing expression. He shifts under her wary stare like she touched him with her gaze. He does another subtle throat clearing that carries to me and Ace alone. He’s keeping up his stern facade, but he’s uncomfortable with how uneasy she looks.
She moves on to Ace, and her eyes narrow. Whatever she’s seeing in him is making her irritation go up. Considering the casual stance that he’s never displayed before, she should be drooling.
We all have pretty faces hiding vicious monsters. It’s as if she’s seeing right past the illusion of civility down to our cores with one look.
Her eyes roam to the couch and pass over the back of Jake’s head without much expression. Then she sees Cade, and her shoulders slump as her lip curls with disdain.
Does she know him? A conquest? With Cade, that isn’t unusual. She doesn’t seem his normal type, though.
The sudden fist-clenching avalanche of jealousy that strikes me is unusual and definitely not welcome.
“ You ?”
The bewildered tone of Cade’s voice is as surprising as all the rest of our reactions to her. It seems the dislike isn’t shared. Where is his seductive, suave assurance that she should make herself comfortable while she waits?
This woman has all of us out of sorts.
“You know her?” I try to make the question casual, a wasted effort because Cade won’t stop staring at her. I want to demand he wipe that look off his face right now. Ace lets out a rough sound that doesn’t carry farther than the desk. He seems to agree with my irritation.
At the sound of my voice, her blush gets darker, her body leaning toward me in an unconscious gesture that’s natural instead of fake. My voice turns her on. I can work with that. I wouldn’t mind seducing honesty out of her.
“Yeah. From Muay Thai class. Did I tell you about all the women who joined suddenly? She’s one of them.”
The dark frown he gets saying that surprises me. There’s no trace of the usual charm he naturally exudes. Whatever she did or said to him made him dislike her enough that she doesn’t warrant it.
Gold diggers elicit that reaction from him. I’m back to money. I don’t think I’ve ever been this disappointed before. Considering my life, that’s saying a lot.
“I see,” the words come out grimmer than I like. Amanda is so busy staring at the floor to hide her expression that she doesn’t notice.
“He said that’s all, Vanessa,” Jake pipes up in his usual upbeat tone. He’s staring at Amanda so intently that it makes my shoulders stiffen for another reason. His interest is blatant. He’s not smoothing it over with boyish laughter. It’s forceful enough I’m surprised Amanda hasn’t been knocked over by it.
Vanessa continues her posing until she gives up and leaves, closing the door quietly behind her. Now that she’s gone, I can begin.
I ignore her presence, working through paperwork and making notes. The tactic of pretending she doesn’t exist will make the tension she’s under unbearable. She’ll break this meek character and start trying to seduce one of us in minutes, I’m sure.
I focus on the paperwork in front of me. Every sheet has Fullerton’s name on it. This box of paperwork disappeared when we relocated to this building. No one knew where it went, including the head of the filing department. Meanwhile, the sensitive information has been rotting in the filing room. No legal documents should be on the first floor.
Each of these reports is about the purchase of land. All of the random names highlighted so far have had their homes taken from them for a multitude of reasons. From zoning issues to debt being called in. All under the name of Justin Blake. I need to find out what’s happening with these properties. If the purchases were public or well hidden. Whose money backed it. Surely, this many people would build a lawsuit against Blake. Even if the courts brushed it off, there would be some form of paperwork.
All information Amanda has according to all this neon ink.
I spin the pen my mother gave me absently. A force of habit I can’t seem to quell. My attention moves to the metal, admiring its shine for a moment. The inscription she had put on it has faded over time and constant handling, but I still remember it.
“Gabriel Matthias - A pen for good luck.”
It’s brought me nothing but misery. She gave it to me on the day she died, and it hasn’t left my side since.
The fact that I was spared physical harm that day would be considered lucky to some. I would have preferred dying along with her. The misery her absence left behind is still shrouding me in ghosts. However, I should probably blame her killers for that instead of her. Emotions are illogical at the best of times.
My father’s decline into vindictive manipulation began that day and hasn’t released me from its hold since. We’re all chess pieces to him. He didn’t have much affection for me to begin with. My presence at the moment of my mother's death tipped that scale into the negatives. Now, instead of indifference, I have to suffer through constant reminders of my failure to protect her. At the mature age of eight . What was I supposed to do? She told me to hide, and I did. I’ve learned to be ashamed of following her instructions. Even his employees have more empathy for the situation than my father.
Matthias could have released me from my agony easily in a multitude of ways. Therapy. Care. A simple, comforting touch or an ounce of understanding that I was too young to take on four fully grown men.
No. He chose to remind me every day of my cowardice. The fact that I refuse to dirty my hands in his business dealings is another failure. My skills lie in subtler manipulations that he doesn’t have the patience for. It isn’t enough. It will never be enough. He placed himself on a self-righteous pedestal while taking advantage of young men and women suffering through their own tragedies. He doesn’t take any better care of them than he has his own children.
Where was he when Ace was ready to kill himself to get out? Or Mikael stopped bothering to try living in a typical fashion. His hand-picked guards. When Jake tore apart an entire syndicate with only a burnt-out Cade as backup. They both almost got themselves killed and thought nothing of it. They all started seeing themselves as a means to an end instead of people.
I’m the one who saw it. I’m the one who shifted things behind the scenes to get people off the field and into as comfortable a retirement as I could get them. The men that surround me now all saw my interference for what it was and decided to watch my back instead of retiring. First, an ungrateful Ace. Then dispassionate Mikael. Jake and Cade were added a few years later with their fake juvenile antics. Between the five of us, we’ve built a self-sustaining unit built on mutual trust and respect.
A rough, obnoxious cough gets my attention. The sound is so forced, angry, and loud there’s no ignoring it.
Every man around me tenses up in anticipation. I realize she hasn’t said a single word or moved from her tense position near the doors until now. I glance at my watch, surprised that it’s been over an hour before she broke.
“Is there a problem, Ms…” I let my words trail off. Her name is somehow engraved into my brain. Pretending I don’t know will help me maintain my holier-than-thou attitude while insulting her at the same time.
She bypasses the blatant cue to tell me her name.
“Actually, yes.” Her tone is so aggravated I lean back to take her in.
She’s wobbling in the tall heels she’s wearing. I can see how pinched they are. Why is she wearing shoes that are too small with heels that tall? She’s been standing this entire time. I’ve been torturing her more than I thought.
“And that would be?” I set my pen down to give her my full attention. Most women would simper at the frozen disgust on my face. Her eyes narrow on it, and she returns the look with a curled lip. Her fists are clenched at her sides. Hard enough that her knuckles are blanched.
“I’d like for you to get on with the whole, thanks for nothing, you’re fired thing so I can take these damn shoes off. They’re killing me.”
I do my best to keep my expression under control. The sudden spike in my heart rate when she calls me to task is a new experience. It masks her softly spoken angry words until I realize what she just said.
Why is she assuming she’s been called here to be fired?
What follows is the most baffling and invigorating interaction I’ve ever had with a woman.
The librarian outfit is hiding a beast.
She completely annihilates any manipulation I can come up with and takes my guards down with me. Her mouth is filled with barbed words that she spits out without mercy.
I can’t get her to relax to save my life. She’s hell-bent on ripping through us like tissue paper.
Before I can get myself together through the barrage of sarcasm and insults, she’s flipping me off and ready to leave.
It’s all I can do not to pounce on the brat. The complete destruction of my control is so out of character I can’t help my frozen shock. It’s the only thing keeping me from pulling her over my lap and spanking that attitude right out of her.
She spins towards the door and wobbles dangerously in her shoes. Ace and Mikael both take a step forward as she wavers, trying to right herself. Once she’s on steady ground without assistance, she reaches down and yanks the shoes off, keeping her balance by propping a hand on the door. The position outlines her ass nicely.
“Stupid egotistical pigs and their I’m the lord of the universe attitudes. I’d rather stuff these damn things down that asshole’s throat than carry them home. Fuck this place.”
The clearly heard threat makes my lips part in surprise even though my eyes remain glued to her backside. Jake’s smile gets so wide he looks demented. Mikael freezes up in disbelief. Cade seems confused as if this wasn’t in the script he had made up for her. Ace is leaning forward as if he’s ready to give chase.
I stand abruptly and brace my palms on the desk.
“Sit down ,” I force myself to keep my voice low, but the rage in it is a physical presence.
She startles and snatches the door open as if she’s ready to run. I don’t expect her to say anything in return.
“Oh, no thanks. I’m already calm . Go back to pretending you’re really special because your desk is big. I’m sure you’re not overcompensating for anything.”
My eyes widen to the point of discomfort at her unrelenting lack of decorum. Cade lets out a loud, obnoxious laugh. He’s pointing at me childishly, drawing Jake’s attention to my face. She slams the door closed behind her hard enough that it rattles in its frame.
“The elevator takes a key card,” Jake yells over Cade’s laughter.
“I know I’m fat! You don’t have to keep reminding me when you see me! And I can make it down the stairs just fine, fuckface .”
Cade’s laugh stops abruptly, his head snapping toward the door with a frown. Jake turns to Cade, his expression blanking out as if he’s blaming Cade for her reaction to his comment.
He was simply warning her that she needed someone to let her in the elevator if she wanted to leave. It had nothing to do with her luscious curves. But her innocent-seeming pink mouth is foul enough to singe a man at a hundred paces. I’m sure she’s berated constantly and reacting accordingly. How many curse words does she have stored up in her head?
“Her feet,” Mikael mutters and glances at me with a frown. “They have to be aching with how long she was standing here. It’s no wonder she was pissed.”
I’m surprised at the disappointed tone. There is no excuse good enough for the head-ripping rant I just received.
“I got this.” Ace doesn’t hesitate to stalk after her with a wide grin. His excitement to give chase isn’t hidden at all as he tosses his toothpick into the trash can by my desk.
Cade and Jake look at each other and scramble to get off the couch. Neither of them is concerned about Ace; they simply want to see the show.
I’m frozen in place again with shock. I’ve never had anyone speak to me like that. Especially with all of the threatening faces surrounding me.
Who the hell is Amanda Jefferson?