Chapter 41
41
E zra
To say I’m mad would be an understatement.
“What do you mean you still can’t open the building?” I repeat my question for the third time while a pale-looking clerk is getting paler by the minute. He should be, I’m on the verge of throwing my arm forward and dragging him over the desk.
“The in-inspector didn’t sign off on it,” he stutters, looking anywhere but at me.
“Why?”
“The fire d-department.”
“What with the fire department?”
“They didn’t—I mean, they won’t…”
I lean forward, ready to throw this little prick out the window. “I was at the fire department this morning,” I say. “And guess what? They signed the fucking paper.”
His thin neck moves with a swallow. “I don’t know why.” His voice turns into a whisper. “I just work here.”
“You think?” I deadpan, knowing I won’t get anything from this pencil pusher who told me two minutes ago that the building inspector is not here now. But I don’t give a fuck. I’m coming in and waiting for him if need be.
Quickly dismissing the pencil, I move around his desk and start navigating the cubicles in search of the inspector’s office. I have a strong suspicion I know whom I’ll find there.
“You can’t go in there!” The pencil’s voice takes a new level of volume, one he didn’t possess when talking to me.
Disregarding his cries, I walk deeper into the space until I find the office of the senior inspector. I push the door open and find exactly what I expected. The prick in the chair looks familiar. Very familiar. A quick glance at the standing name tag on the table confirms my suspicion. Boris Lebovski. He’s the brother of the board member Leonard Lebovski. The very same one who’s been trying to overrule me every single meeting.
When a female voice giggles through the speaker, the man quickly hangs up without saying goodbye.
“What are you doing here?” he cries out, trying to look around me. “Spencer, why the hell did you let him in?”
The pencil’s voice speaks from behind me. I guess he’s Spencer. “He didn’t listen. He just barged in like an… Like an animal.”
I glance back with a raised brow, making him retreat from the office and toward his desk. I watch him backing out until he hits a watercooler with his back and turns to scatter away. I quickly shut the door behind him and turn toward Lebovski.
“Well, looks like everything they say about you is true,” he says gleefully, crossing his fingers over his stomach .
“Yeah?” I walk and take a seat without an invitation across from him. “What do they say?”
“That you’re not fit to lead a company. Especially as large as this one.”
“You mean my company?”
He cackles. “It won’t be yours for long.”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you.” My tone is quiet. When it’s quiet, they should be scared. He probably catches on because he leans forward.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see what’s the holdup with the building, but now I see.”
“Yeah?” He cocks a brow. “What do you see?”
“I see a dick brother of one of my board members trying to help him take my company by any means they can. Including illegal ones.”
For a second, he looks uncomfortable. But only for a second. Then the worried look on his face is replaced with a smug one.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’ve got the vote.” By now, he knows. Everyone does. “Why are you still trying?”
He keeps smiling, looking sure of himself. He has a plan. They all do. Fuck. I need to figure out what’s going on.
So I keep pushing until he becomes too confident and lets something— anything —slip.
“I’ll sue you.”
He starts laughing, moving a pen around the table. “That’s funny.”
“Being sued is funny?” I play angry and stupid, just how they think me to be.
“Funny that you think it’ll scare me. I’ve got a city behind me.”
“And your brother’s money apparently,” I add nonchalantly, because there’s always a rivalry between siblings. Always. I just have to sniff out how much it affects him. “Because you don’t have much.” I start tsking. “Looks like your brother secured a richer wife for himself.” That hits the chord, because his lips purse even tighter together. I look around the office with disgust. “I can’t imagine you make tons of money working here. Being your brother’s little dog he sends to do his dirty work.”
His eye ticks. One time. But it’s enough for me to know I’ve hit the nerve once again. “All this money,” he leans forward, “will be mine too.”
“Yeah? I don’t see how you might get anything out of it while you’re still stuck in this city job. Unless you take bribes. Which you do, don’t you?” I smile. “But it still won’t get you as much as he has.”
His eye is now ticking nonstop. “I’ll get half of it when we’re done.”
“Really? I don’t see how you’ll get any of it when I’ve got the voting power now. And I have more than half now.”
He starts laughing. “You think you do, do you?” His laughter intensifies, and I feel like I’m getting close. “By the time you’re done suing me, your building and your company will eat all of your money, and you’ll be bankrupt. Then we will swoop in and buy it from you.” He leans toward me over the desk. “For nothing. We will have the company for nothing. And then we will put our name on top of the building. Lebovski Enterprise.”
He starts spitting, so I rear back to not get drenched. He thinks he has the upper hand and intensifies his truth-spitting.
“So you see? I don’t give a fuck about you suing me. Sue me for all I care. I know how to make it long, I work for the city after all. And all your voting shares will mean nothing because you won’t have your company. We all know how many investors and buyers pulled away after they figured out that your company produces unsafe buildings. No one wants to be associated with that. And this is precisely what we wanted. To taint your precious reputation. Then we just have to sit and wait for it to do the rest of the work for us. How about that?” He leans back with a smug look on his face, thinking he’s won.
Fuck. Their plan actually makes sense. Almost three weeks of the building being vacant took a huge toll on us. I’m scared to even imagine how much it will cost me to drag this lawsuit over months, even years. And how many ongoing and future projects it might cost us. Because he sure as fuck can make it complicated enough.
I rise to my feet and without another word stride out of his office, letting him know he’s won. If he thinks this way, it might buy me some time. A little bit until I figure out what to do.
As I sit in the car, George asks, “Where to, sir?”
“My building.”
He takes off without asking anything else. A dark fucking cloud over my head is warning enough.
He drops me off in front of the main door. It usually buzzes with activity with people going to work, but now it’s quiet. They all are working remotely. It’s not ideal, but it is what it is.
A simple paper glued to the glass wall says that the building is unfit and not safe. Such a small thing is quickly ruining my life. Security guards are seen inside. Even though the building is ‘not safe,’ it doesn’t mean it can be abandoned. Especially with all the homeless people swirling around. The moment the guards leave, the windows will be broken, and people will be squatting inside. Which will bring another set of troubles.
I glance at the door on the right. The coffee shop. The place where everything started. The place which started the beginning of the end for my family. And the person who was there at the start of it all: Maeve.
Maeve Wrong. No, not Wrong. Maeve King. She is King now, whether she likes it or not.
I’m thinking about our conversation from yesterday and how fucking vulnerable I let myself be when the doors of the elevator open, and I step inside the empty floor. It’s quiet. No one is around. I’ve never seen it looking like this before.
Then something clicks. Something falls on the floor, and someone curses loudly. I can’t help but let a smile tug on my lips.
I walk toward my office to find Martin on the floor trying to collect dozens of fallen pieces of paper.
“Hello, Martin,” I greet him.
He pauses and looks at me with wide eyes. “Well, that’s a first.”
“What’s a first? Me saying hello?”
He snorts. “No. You saying hello first. You are usually all broody and mysterious and not talkative.” He waves his hand in the air and goes back to picking up the paper.
I’m about to head to my office. That’s what the old me would do. But somehow, being that person doesn’t feel so comfortable anymore. So I stop and start picking up too.
Soon I realize I’m the only one doing the deed because I feel a stare on the side of my face. I glance at him with a cocked brow. “What?”
He blinks. “Does this have anything to do with all the stylish things I picked up for Mrs. King , your fake wife?” His voice changes at the end. It turns smug and almost… happy. Why would he be?
“Shut up,” I say, rolling my eyes and making him chuckle.
“Why are you here?” I ask, suspecting the answer.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” He tilts his head to the side. Maeve does the gesture sometimes when she feels flirty, and I have to give myself a mental shake to remember that she’s not what I need to be thinking about right now.
“The building is closed, for fuck’s sake.”
“I’ve got a key,” he snorts.
“No one is working here.”
“I’m still getting paid.” He sounds like he’s barely containing laughter.
“You can work from home.”
“I can,” he replies thoughtfully. “But who will bring you coffee when you need it? Or set up a meeting with someone when you forget how to use your intercom?”
I feel the second smile of this morning tugging on my face. “I know how to set up my own meetings and make my own coffee.”
He quirks a brow.
“I do.”
“Alright!” He throws his hands in the air in a surrendering gesture.
I pass him all the papers I’ve collected and head to my office. Once I’m behind my desk, I feel like a person again. A little bit like myself. But something is missing.
I press the intercom button.
“Yes?” Martin’s humorous voice comes through.
“Get me a coffee.” Then I add softer, “Please.”
He chuckles. “With pleasure, Boss.” Before he disconnects, he says, “Damn, you really do know how to use the intercom.”
Why am I still keeping him?