Chapter 25
COLE
Two Days Later
Today is Hart Law’s staff conference, a team-building day Eli has been organizing with Sapphire, his new girlfriend, for the past few months.
While he hated the whole experience to begin with, as Sapphire is a full-on firecracker, what he didn’t expect to find was the love of his life.
Sapphire is the exact opposite of him; and she’s fucking perfect for him.
Where she’s sunshine, he’s a grump. He wears pretty much nothing but black and white, while Sapphire wears a rainbow of colors all at once, matching them to her equally colorful hair.
You wouldn’t think that they would ever work, but they do, and the way Eli looks at her like she hung the fucking moon is something I crave.
While my brothers seem to have found their forever, I am still depressingly single, with not a clue as to what tomorrow will bring.
Although things have started looking up with CodeBreaker on the Wildcard app and I’m beginning to think I might be falling for her when I don’t even know what she looks like.
If I ever told my brothers about her, and the Wildcard app, they would laugh in my face and tell me I’m a loser, and that’s why I’ve kept her a secret.
“Dad would be proud,” Nathan says, gesturing to the busy ballroom that’s filling up with our staff as he arrives with Max and Eli.
Following his short suspension from work for having a secret relationship with a rival divorce lawyer from another firm, Max is now back in the office again full-time.
We may never really know what was said between him and Paige, the woman he was secretly hooking up with during an active divorce case, but I’m trusting that what he told us is the truth and that they never discussed the case.
None of that matters anymore because they eventually worked things out, and I could tell they loved each other but were too stubborn to say so.
It was as obvious to us all at Nathan and Arianna’s wedding as the nose on his face.
Often, I think we know each other better than we know ourselves.
We four brothers are a complicated bunch, really, all with our own challenges.
Together, we run Hart Law, the company my father founded. But when Dad’s health declined, my brothers and I took over the firm. That’s when the four of us had to step up and look after the law firm he spent years—no, decades—building.
Our law firm is the best in the state, and it’s also the firm every lawyer for miles around wants to work for because we look after our staff.
Today is a way to say thanks for all their hard work.
Not only are profits up, but our staff morale is at an all-time high.
Maybe it’s the thought of letting our father down that’s driving my brothers and me to make Dad super proud of us, and that has absolutely nothing to do with money.
We just want him to know his firm is in safe hands.
I tap my brother on his shoulder. “It’s looking great, Eli.
You and Sapphire have done a stellar job.
” And the breakout rooms for the elective sessions look like a whole heap of fun.
I’ve decided I’m going to dip in and out of whatever session has space.
Whatever I end up doing will be brilliant, I just know it.
“Oh,” Max says, as if having a lightbulb moment. “There’s someone at the registration desk who wants to talk to you. They’re from a company called FusionTech, does that ring a bell?”
“Oh, great.” I’ve been waiting for her to arrive.
She’s going to interview staff throughout the day to better understand what we specifically need in a company app.
Apparently, questioning staff in a more casual environment yields better feedback, so I agreed to have someone come today.
At least this way, they’ll get to see who we are as a company and better understand our values and culture.
After years of talking about developing a custom app, we are finally moving forward with proposals from companies that can help us.
FusionTech is the only company that has asked to speak to our staff.
At this point, they are already getting bonus points for effort, and I don’t even know how much it’s going to cost yet, but they have my vote.
“I’ll be right back, don’t start without me.” I shake my finger at my brothers.
“We won’t,” Max assures me as I dash off.
While Eli hated the idea of dressing down today and is wearing a full suit, I, on the other hand, am wearing a T-shirt for the first time in front of my employees, which makes me feel slightly exposed.
I usually wear long-sleeved shirts to work, and I’ve already had a few side-eyed looks from my employees, surprised that my arms are covered in tattoos.
I’m not embarrassed by my body art, but my job requires professionalism, something my father was a stickler for.
He included a clause in everyone’s employment contract, long before I qualified to be a lawyer, that outlines how tattoos are to be covered, as he set a high dress-code standard.
They don’t just apply to me; they apply to everyone, and I respect those rules too much to break them.
I say hi to dozens of employees as I whizz by on my way to greet the woman from FusionTech.
For some reason, as the youngest, my brothers assigned me to oversee the app’s development because I’m never off my phone and have a better understanding of our needs.
They’re not wrong. While our IT department is great at keeping us running seamlessly as a business, they don’t have the practical experience I do in understanding what our customers need and ensuring their inquiries are routed to the correct department within the firm.
Eli’s even had the genius idea of adding a 24/7 advice line too.
With the help of FusionTech, I already know it’s going to be the best thing we’ve designed.
I’m already thinking about ways we can white-label it and sell it to other firms who would then brand it in their colors and logos and tweak it to meet their specifications, for a fee, obviously.
Ever the businessman, I’m always thinking of ways to bring in extra streams of revenue.
I arrive at the registration desk then ask Arianna, “Hey, Max said the woman from FusionTech is here?”
My sister-in-law, who is expecting my niece or nephew in the next few weeks and was eager to be involved in something today, even if it’s just a sitting job like registration, looks up from the list she’s casting her beady eye over.
As Nathan’s secretary and wife, she’s refused to go on maternity leave until absolutely necessary, frustrating Nathan in the process. However, he almost never wins an argument. When it comes to Arianna, he’s completely a fool for love, and she’s the boss regardless of what he says.
“She’s over there by the coffee.” Arianna points in the direction of the refreshment station, where a crowd has gathered around.
“Which one?” I survey the sea of people and don’t recognize anyone who isn’t staff.
“Long black hair, way, way down at the far end.”
That’s when she turns around, and my fucking heart does a lap of honor around my stomach, making me feel a mix of excitement and nausea, completely throwing me off balance.
“Mina?” I gasp out loud at the same time as her big, beautiful eyes lock with mine.