Chapter Twenty-Five. Rowan
TWENTY-FIVE
Rowan
The painting taunts me as I get off the fourth-floor elevator.
It’s big and bold and some small part of me desires to take the razor blade to it to destroy something that my brother wanted so desperately—his status symbol—but I don’t.
Damaging the painting would make me no better than him, wouldn’t it?
I’d only be destroying it for my own selfish pleasure and frustration.
Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to sell it and give the money to Mei-Ling?
With everything Rhett said at his campaign rally, the Sanctuary is going to need it more than ever.
And I don’t even want to talk about Rhett. I didn’t respond to the gushing texts from my mom about how great he did or how the poll numbers show he’s running away with the election. I didn’t acknowledge Chad’s requests to make an appearance as a couple on Rhett’s behalf this coming weekend.
Instead I buried my head in the sand and chose to dote on the fact that Holden let me in a little bit more. It wasn’t a lot, but it was more than I had and that’s enough for me.
Did curiosity own me, and did I try to learn more about his brother and the details surrounding his death? I wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t, but there was nothing more to be found out than he had already divulged.
Hit-and-run in which his middle school–aged brother was killed. Details were more than scant.
Because it’s Fairmont.
Simon’s words come back to me. The reason why I hadn’t heard of the recent gun violence in Fairmont or why there wasn’t a bigger police presence after it—and I wonder if the same held true for Holden’s brother.
He was hit and killed in whatever low-income neighborhood they grew up in and therefore his death wasn’t deemed worthy enough to write more about.
Both sets of circumstances are a tragedy.
And it doesn’t help any when I turn the corner to the hallway and see Rhett’s campaign signs stacked in columns up against the walls.
“Rhett,” I call down the hallway.
He pops his head out of Chad’s office and I have to remind myself that physical violence is looked down upon, no matter how much I want to make the exception for it here.
“Yeah? What’s up?” He strolls out with his hands in his pockets and a smarmy smile on his face.
“This isn’t your campaign headquarters. Get the posters out of here.” I don’t care how loud I am.
“It’s not a big deal.”
“But it is. The last thing any employee in this company needs to feel is intimidated into voting for you.”
“Why would they feel that way?” Chad asks as Rhett’s shadow steps out from behind him only to further irk me.
I used to think their bromance was cute and adorable but now that Holden has pointed out how they are mirror reflections of each other who can’t do anything alone, I find it rather childish and irritating.
How interesting that one person can upend our world and make us see something in a different light.
“Because they might feel like their job is on the line if they don’t vote for you.”
“They’ll vote for me,” he says, arrogance oozing from his every word.
“No, they won’t.”
“Whatever.” He waves a hand indifferently.
“I’m not,” I state and have both Rhett and Chad staring at me with lips lax and eyes wide.
“What do you mean, you’re not?”
“Just like what it sounds. I don’t like your policies on across the river.
I don’t think you’ve thought them all the way through.
” I shrug, wanting the showdown but unwilling to go all the way here in front of an audience of our employees.
I’m saying enough that they’ll talk and my stance will spread, but not enough to become town fodder.
Who am I kidding? This is Westmore.
“How cute. You developed a soft spot for that little place where Gran used to go. You can’t save the world, Rowan. I’m just trying to make it a better place in the meantime.”
“Do you even hear yourself right now, you righteous prick?”
“Come on now, guys.” Chad steps out into the hallway from his office and in between us, his hands held up. “Rhett? She’s right. This isn’t your campaign headquarters. You need to get the signs out of here.”
Rhett looks at him with narrowed eyebrows. “Wow.”
“My fiancée.” Chad points to me. “My friend.” He points to Rhett. Then he shrugs and wins me over a little more.
“Thank you,” I say with a nod despite Rhett’s less than thrilled stare.
“Yeah. Sure.” Rhett rolls his eyes. “This was just a stopping place between delivery and placement. It wasn’t like I was going to leave them here.”
“Great. Then they can be gone in the next couple of hours.” I start to walk away and his words stop me.
“When did you become like this?” Rhett asks to my back.
I turn and look over my shoulder. Our eyes meet and I hate the slightest bit of sadness I see in the depths of his eyes. “The same could be asked of you,” I say softly.
I feel their eyes on my back as I walk down the rest of the hall.
“Rowan. Wait up.”
I stop at the sound of Chad’s voice and plaster a smile on my lips for all to see as I turn to face my beloved fiancé.
“Chad. Hi.”
His eyes dart down to my hand holding my purse, almost as if to make sure the ring is still on. It is, but damn if it isn’t hard wearing it most days.
“I got your text,” he says.
“Conference room.” It’s my only response. The last thing I need is for Chad to discuss anything I hinted at in my text to him.
We step inside and he shuts the door at his back. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t going to say anything that could be overheard.” He sounds offended. I don’t really care.
“So what’s going on with your uncle?” I ask.
Chad glances over his shoulder at the closed door. “He said he needed to take another look at the paperwork again and its wording.”
“It’s his wording. Does he not know what he wrote?”
“I don’t know. It would be way easier if you just told me what it is you’re after.”
I take a leap of faith and give Chad a half-truth.
Something to tell him the reason for the expediency and the huge ask.
“I have to be married by a set date, and then I have to remain married for a specific time frame before I can take possession of what she left me.” I take care with my phrasing and make it sound like I’m referring to something like Gran’s real estate, rather than the large lump sum of money.
While Chad may be “engaged” to me, I’m more than aware his loyalty to my brother is stronger. The last thing I want him doing is blabbing about any of this, so I made sure not to give him anything more than he already really knows. A time frame.
“Okay.” His eyes narrow as he processes what I’ve said. “And what you want him to throw out is the time frame?”
“Yes.” I glance at Rhett walking past the conference room and looking in at the two of us.
“You want it faster,” he says and then corrects himself, “whatever your inheritance may be, faster.”
“Correct.”
“Because you want to take the money and run?” he asks.
“Because I want to take the money and improve my standing here. Isn’t that why you approached me? So that we could strip away some of Holden’s power and hold on to it ourselves. Create as much of a checks-and-balances system as we can?”
“Yeah. Sure.” He says the words but I still see the man hoping for more with me. Call me a bitch for playing on it. “So it’s longer than six months, then?”
“Just a bit,” I lie.
His smile is hopeful. “You know I’d be willing to keep this up for however long the time frame is. I mean, if my uncle can’t find a workaround.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” I scramble for something more. “But there are more parameters that I have to meet. That’s just the main one.”
“It’s a reasonable ask,” he says.
I flash a smile. “Exactly. That’s why I appreciate you asking Henry to bend the rules a bit for me.”
“Like I said before. I’ll give him another call. I have some free time later.”
“Thank you.” I reach out and squeeze his bicep and offer a smile. “Truly. Thank you.”
His cheeks blush and expression softens as he stares at me with puppy-dog eyes. “Any time.”
I head out of the conference room and to my desk, questioning if that was a smart move or not. But nothing ventured, nothing gained and I need his help to make this happen, so …
I stutter-step when I notice the succulent arrangement sitting on my desk with a file folder sitting beside it.
Like anyone who receives a gift, I move toward it, my hands opening the card of the beautiful arrangement within seconds.
Rowan—
These plants supposedly represent endurance, strength, resilience. I thought it was a fitting gift for someone who embodies the same exact qualities. It’s overdue and has been a long time coming. Welcome to the board.
—Holden
I glance down to the desk and open the sealed envelope sitting there to find my new employment contract as well as paperwork that definitely pertains to being a board member. Clearly I need to sign it in front of a notary, but as I flip through it my eyes widen at the compensation package.
Despite what Holden told Rhett, there were no negotiations over my salary or the perks that come with this new position. But one glance at this paperwork, and I’m definitely not complaining.
“Congratulations.”
I whip my head up to see Holden standing there. His voice is like a steady constant for me. I hear it and immediately feel at ease. I meet his stoic expression with a soft smile.
“You need to stop leaving me gifts on my desk,” I say playfully through the tremendous amount of pride I have flowing through me.
“They’ve been warranted. Sapphires over rubies. Utility knife to make your mark or make a power play. Succulents to remind you how tenacious you are when you have a rough day.” He shrugs. “Nothing near extravagant.”
“Spoken like a true bazillionaire.”
He chuckles and steps farther into the room. “Hardly, but go on.”
“Did you need me for something?”
His gaze scrapes down the length of my body as every nerve ending heats up from the predatory look in it. “That’s a loaded question, Sunshine.”
The muscle in his jaw pulses and I swear, knowing that I can’t have him right now makes the desire even stronger.
“Well, you’re a complicated man. Nothing simple for you.”
His grin is a slow crawl across his lips. “I was coming in here to ask you to show me what you could do. What skills make you worthy of that co-CEO title”—he claps softly—“but you just passed that test with flying colors before you even set foot in your office.”
“I did?”
“Yes. A very appropriate dressing-down of your counterpart. I had plans to do the same but you did it for me.”
His praise warms me in ways I can’t put words to. “Thank you.”
“Award worthy.” He smiles.
“Award worthy?” I angle my head to the side. “And what might that award be?”
“The board seat should be plenty.”
“Well…” I give the same slow, hungry appraisal of his body that he did mine. It doesn’t help that I can see his cock twitch behind the fabric of his pants. Knowing how much I affect him is such a turn-on.
“Jesus,” he says through a laugh. “Give the woman an inch and she takes a mile.”
“More like give a her a good solid eight inches and she’s perfectly fine.”
His Adam’s apple bobs as he looks over his shoulder to the hallway before stepping farther into my office. “That can be arranged.”
“When and where, Knight?”
His chuckle is a low rumble that goes straight to the apex of my thighs. The man most definitely knows how to affect me.
“You’ll know,” he says and takes a step back. “You will most definitely know.”