Chapter 58
Daniel
It’s been two weeks since we started fucking with Langford. Cole’s friend, Ramirez, took care of dosing the guy. The man was an artist. I met him a few times on base when I served, but I had never seen him in action. I trusted him because Cole did—that was enough for Lydia and me.
Jake had someone on Langford at all times, watching and taking photos. After only a few days, Langford already looked like he hadn’t shaved or showered.
A week later, he was constantly on edge, lashing out at people at work. He looked like shit. Condukt’s shares didn’t take a hit, so no one cared, but we were getting there.
Lydia had Kernel leak photos of him looking haggard or pissed off, which eventually led to Langford being hounded by photographers and reporters.
They were getting their own footage of the man losing his temper, shoving and shouting at them to leave him alone.
At one point, someone asked him if he was on something.
He ignored it, but the question was now out there.
Now, at two weeks, Ramirez either added something new or increased the dose because Langford looked like he was always drunk or high.
There was no way he didn’t know something was wrong with him, but Terry found no hospital records, so he either had himself checked off the books or the drugs were messing with his judgment.
It was Friday. I was back from work with Lydia at her apartment, thinking of buying her a normal-sized couch.
That had been our routine for the last two weeks—I got off work and went to her place.
Most nights, we went to my place or met with Becca and Jake at Mel’s.
It was a struggle each time to convince her to sleep at my apartment, but there was no way in hell I was going to let her sleep alone in hers.
I could tell she hated it—she needed time alone.
I was completely zoned out, worrying about how long we could keep this up before she decided she couldn’t do it anymore, when she nudged my shoulder with hers.
“Holy shit.” Lydia turned her laptop screen so I could watch what made her so giddy. Her eyes were practically shining with joy. “Did Terry do this? Or is he really buying drugs?”
She hit play on a video in an article showing Langford driving like a madman, completely ignoring a red light. The video cut to him standing under a bridge, talking to someone whose face was too grainy to see.
The article had the title “Condukt CEO Shows Signs of Drug Use.”
I immediately forwarded the article to Terry.
“This is fucking gold. Your plan is flawless,” I said, kissing the top of her head.
“Is it real though?”
“The driving is real. Terry got it from traffic cams after Jake’s guys said he blew a red light. The part that looks like he’s meeting a drug dealer is old. It’s from a few months ago when we put people on him to find out if Brad was selling Vale out.”
Lydia squinted at the screen. “That’s Brad?”
“Looks shady as shit though, right?”
She laughed. Fuck, I loved that laugh. It sounded like pure joy mixed with a touch of malice. Maybe more than a touch.
My phone was blowing up with alerts I set up for articles about Condukt.
“I guess it’s happening now,” I said, showing her my phone. “There are a lot more articles like this popping up.”
“Okay… so how long does it take until the board meets to fire him?”
“Could be done in hours if they want to. Markets are closed now, though. They’d have a fire up their ass if the markets were open and stocks already took a hit.”
“So they’ve got until Monday. It’s still pretty fast,” Lydia said with a shrug.
“We’ll see. They’ll need to fire him, hire a good replacement, and issue a statement before Monday for damage control. Terry is monitoring communications at Condukt, so we’ll know as soon as a meeting is set.”
“Can he stop it?”
I put the laptop on the table and pulled her to me, her back to my chest.
“He’s on the board, so he has to be notified of the meeting, but he doesn’t have much time to do anything. There’s always a chance he convinces enough people to vote in his favor, though.”
“Fuck.”
“They’ll have to fire him eventually. If it doesn’t happen now, it’ll be in a week. He can’t function anymore as CEO.”
Lydia groaned and leaned her head back into my neck a little too hard, making me grunt.
“Come on,” I said, pulling her up with me. “Let’s grab a drink at Mel’s. Terry’ll update us if anything happens.”
“I feel like I’m waiting for someone to hit me in the face.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me at the extreme comparison. “How about a Bruce Lee marathon at my place to keep your mind off the face hitting?”
Lydia looked up at me with a wide smile.