by L. E. French
He offered his arm. “Would you like to go someplace you know, or someplace you don’t?”
“SkyCity.” When entertaining the enemy, a familiar place seemed best. If Ross tried anything, the waitstaff would come to my aid. As a bonus, they served the best salmon in town.
“As the lady commands.”
We used the dedicated limo perch. He opened the door and slid in beside me. The long, black car slid out of the building under his command. I watched the skyline through the window. For once, rain didn’t obscure the view. The sun slipped through patchy clouds toward the mountains, painting the sky with darkening orange.
He settled his hand on my thigh. I ignored it. Or rather, I tried to. Many men had done much worse. Despite that, his touch always left me feeling grimy. No one else caused that. I crossed my legs and batted at his hand.
Ross crossed his arms. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
“We’re supposed to be having a pleasant night out together.”
“I’m not in the mood.” Glancing aside, I saw his brow furrowing.
“Were you in the mood for Senator Gates?” He seemed to try to hide a scowl.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you sulking because I didn’t introduce you to him?”
“I’m not sulking,” he snapped. “I’m asking if you slept with him.”
I snorted. “No.” No sleeping whatsoever had taken place with Senator Gates. Even if it had, I could lie to Ross’s face any day of the week.
“Then why won’t you tell me when he left?”
I dismissed him with a flick of my hand. “You shouldn’t even know he was there. The more people who know about meetings like that, the more chance it gets flagged as corruption and the company loses our influence on the Corporate Oversight Committee. The Attorney General would love to use someone like Dave Gates as an example to scare all the politicians straight.”
Ross stewed. I could feel it in the air. He said nothing else until we reached the Space Needle and its revolving restaurant at the top. Since he hadn’t bothered to call ahead, we had to wait five minutes while they prepped my father’s favorite table for us. We sat on one side of a table with me next to a huge window overlooking the orange glow of sunset as it played across the city. Though our chairs offered no barriers between us and he scooted close, he kept his hands to himself. The boy could learn.
I logged into the local system to place my order, as I’d done on a thousand previous visits.
[SkyCityAtTheSpaceNeedle: Your table’s ticket is already closed. Thank you for accessing our node. Your order has been entered into the kitchen queue and will be served as soon as it’s ready.]
Squinting at Ross, wishing I could crack his head open and see what made him tick, I asked, “Did you order for me?”
“Yes.”
My favorite waiter, Tom, brought a bottle of champagne and poured for us. He seemed to sense tension at the table. Aside from flashing me a polite, friendly smile, he said nothing and slipped out of sight as soon as he had filled both flutes.
“Why champagne?” I asked.
“Why not?”
“Cancel whatever you ordered for me.”
Ross raised an eyebrow. “Why? You always get the same thing. I was just saving time.”
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do. Parmesan-crusted salmon with rice pilaf and mixed vegetables.”
Admittedly, I did get that dish often. “That’s not the only thing I order here.”
“No.” Ross huffed. “But you get that nine times out of ten.”
The authority with which he said that made me wonder if he’d been checking up on me. Granted, he came to dinner with us three or four times a week, but he seemed to sure of himself. I stifled a grimace.
“Cancel it. I can order for myself.”
“Fine.”
As soon as the system opened the ticket, I ordered the parmesan-crusted salmon with rice pilaf and mixed vegetables. It still sounded good, and I had a whole evening’s worth of pique to use up.
I sipped my champagne and watched the sun setting on the Sound. Marie liked the view from here. She seldom got to see it. The last time I brought her, we’d come with my dad and Viola on Secretaries’ Day for lunch. I remembered the way the water sparkled and how it had matched Marie’s eyes.
“Why are we here?”
“Because you like it.” Ross chugged his entire glass and poured more for himself. He replaced the bottle without asking if I wanted more.
“Why are we having dinner?”
“That’s a thing normal people do after work.”
If he wanted to play snarky and difficult, so could I. “What makes you think I’m normal?”
“Victoria,” he chided, using exactly the same tone as my father.
I stood. He grabbed my arm.
“Where are you going?”
“Home. Enjoy your food. And mine.”
“Sit down,” he growled.
Unimpressed, I yanked my arm. He didn’t let go.
I bent to put my mouth next to his ear. “Let go or I’m going to scream,” I whispered.
He let go and smacked a small black box on the table. “Jesus Christ, Vickie. You can’t even sit and have dinner with me? To think I brought you here to fucking propose.”
For several beats, I stared at the box, too stunned to react. He’d asked me out to propose. Marriage. To me. Never had I given him any positive signals. We hadn’t dated at any point. Every time he’d asked me to do something in the past, I’d declined. All his groping in the elevator had earned him nothing. The first time he took me to a restaurant without Dad, he thought I’d gush and accept?
I laughed. At first, he flinched, then I saw anger build up in his shoulders and brow.
“You’re terrible at this,” I told him through giggles.
The waiter brought our orders. Ross watched Tom set the plates down. He glowered at mine.
“You ordered the same fucking thing?”
“Tom, could you box mine, please?” I grinned, watching Ross’s anger blossom into rage.
Ross vibrated but did nothing.
Tom picked up my plate and fled.
“Oh, Ross, you poor thing.” I patted his shoulder, moving my hand to get him three times despite his shrugging away. Leaning to reach his ear again, I whispered, “I’m already seeing someone, and you’re not even close to what I want in a partner.”
Tom reappeared and handed me a box. “Have a nice evening, Miss Godhand.”
“Thank you, Tom. See you next time.” Pleased with myself, I turned my back on Ross and walked away. I didn’t care whose account they billed. Either Ross would pay for it, or they’d put it on my dad’s tab.
CHAPTER 5
The next morning, I sat around a coffee table with the rest of the executives to deliver weekly reports. Despite my best efforts, no other women had joined the upper ranks of our executive team. When I took over, that would change. All ten men wore suits in the same three shades of navy and gray, and half had gray hair like Dad. The rest varied in age, but not complexion or general appearance.
For some reason, Ross led the meeting with Dad overseeing in thoughtful silence. No one seemed to find that strange, though we’d all learned long ago to roll with change. So long as Dad stayed calm, there could be a dead body on the table and no one would give it more than a curious glance.
My input included the minor items the team had come to expect from me. Few members of the team knew much about my job, and I preferred to keep that true. If they all believed I pulled a bloated salary for over-glorified secretary work, so much the better. I preferred being underestimated any day of the week. Plausible deniability also worked in my favor.
“That covers me,” I said, having finished my report. “Caleb?” I looked to the VP sitting next to me.
“Just a moment, Caleb.” Ross smiled at me, pleasant like a viper. “Victoria, I think we’d all like to hear a little more about
the BowerTech deal.”
I stared at him, blinking. My report hadn’t mentioned BowerTech, and he had no way to know I’d initiated an op against them. Budgeting for the new lab hadn’t yet exceeded my usual division expenses, so unless he saw something specific with his own eyes, he had no way to know about it.
“I’m not aware of a BowerTech deal. As I reported two weeks ago, they rejected our second offer.”
He watched me so intently that I wondered if he’d gone digging through my files just to try to embarrass me this morning. “I thought you were preparing a third offer.”
“Then you weren’t paying attention,” I said, getting annoyed with him. “As I noted at the time, raising the offer isn’t cost-effective.”
“I remember that,” Caleb said with a nod. “We discussed some in-house options and ultimately rejected them all. The sector isn’t profitable enough. Space-based solar solutions—”
“We don’t need to rehash that discussion,” another VP grumbled. “Move on.”
“Of course. Go ahead, Caleb.” Ross kept watching me. Had he thought I’d crack and spill about my BowerTech op? His nods to the other VPs told me he kept paying attention as the others spoke, but his gaze stuck with me the whole time.
I spent the next half hour stifling the urge to squirm. The meeting ended on time, as it always did. Everyone stood and left to tend to their other duties, except Ross, Dad, and me. I stayed in my spot, letting the other execs filter around me. The last man out shut the door.
“What the fuck was that?” I snapped at Ross.
“Go fuck yourself,” Ross spat.
“Children.” Dad paced to his desk and picked up a tablet. “Is there a problem?”
“She humiliated me in public last night!”
“You humiliated yourself by being a moron,” I said.
“Let’s not have name calling,” Dad said. He tapped on his tablet, showing where his attention lay. “This is a place of business, not a schoolyard.”
Ross seethed with rage. I saw it in his eyes, shoulders, and fists. “I asked her to marry me and she said no.”
“Victoria,” Dad said, using that tone.
“Victoria what? Of course I said no!”
Ross crossed his arms and lifted his chin to look down his nose at me.
Dad raised an eyebrow. “We discussed this.”
“In what version of reality does me saying ‘I’ll take it under advisement’ get translated to ‘yes, Daddy, whatever you say’? I’m not some fucking door prize for him because he managed to claw his way up the corporate ladder.”
“She didn’t just laugh in my face in SkyCity, loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear, she lied about having a boyfriend already.”
Dad looked up from his tablet with a frown. “You’re seeing someone?”
While I didn’t strictly need to protect Marie from my dad, I had no intention of telling Ross. “Yes.”
“When were you planning on introducing me?”
“When I’m sure it makes sense to do so.”
“Ah. It’s not serious. You should let Ross try to win you over.”
“Yes,” Ross said with an excessive amount of smugness, “you should.”
Several angry responses bubbled in my head. I snapped my mouth shut to keep them inside. Suggesting Ross cut off his dick to appeal to me wouldn’t have improved the situation. “No, thank you,” I said through clenched teeth.
Dad sighed as he sat in the chair behind his desk. “Toria, you need to consider the company.”
“Excuse me? I’ve given this company everything I am for the past sixteen years. I worked for you while I was still in high school and all the way through college. I’ve sacrificed everything for you and this company, and you have the gall to lecture me about being selfish?” I shook my head and turned my back on him, intending to leave.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Dad said.
I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. “What?”
“Ross, leave us. This is between me and my daughter, not the CEO, COO, and a VP.”
Ross scowled and let his arms fall to his sides, but he left without another word. I opened the door for him and restrained myself from smacking him in the ass with it. Once I’d closed it, I still wanted to murder someone. My father deciding to make the conversation private hadn’t taken away my anger over the subject.
Dad sighed as I approached his desk. “Toria, I love you very much. I’m sure I do a lousy job of showing it, but you’re the most important thing in the world to me.”
I sat in the chair opposite him, not sure where this conversation would go. He’d already blunted my anger. “I love you too, Dad. You’re not dying of some horrible disease, are you?”
He smiled. “No. I’m in good shape. It’s you I’m worried about. When was the last time you left the building?”
“Yesterday. I sat in a restaurant with Ross for fifteen minutes. We had champagne. I laughed. He didn’t.”
With a huff, he fixed me with a bemused yet stern glare. “For something other than work or a meal with a fellow executive?”
That question stumped me. For a few moments, I considered lying, but didn’t see a reason. “I don’t remember.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. You don’t have a life, Toria. You live and breathe the company. You haven’t taken a single vacation day. Ever. I checked. In sixteen years, you’ve missed exactly three days of work. One for your high school graduation, one for your college graduation, and one for your mother’s funeral. On top of that, I’m willing to bet you put in hours on the weekends that don’t get logged.”
Put in stark terms like that, I had to admit it sounded like a nightmarish, grinding march. “You don’t exactly skip out all the time.”
He raised his brow. “I take at least three weeks of vacation every year, including the one I’m leaving for tonight, and I was out for a month when Amelie passed.”
“Fine.” I still didn’t know what he wanted. “What’s your actual point?”
“Who’s this man you’re seeing?”
“None of your business.”
“Because he’s imaginary?”
“No.”
He reached under his desk and flipped the privacy switch. My implant informed me it had lost its connection. I pursed my lips, still not sure I wanted him to know. I’d been protecting Marie for so long that revealing her felt wrong, like a betrayal.
“If you can’t tell me now, I’m going to have to assume he’s a fiction you insist upon clinging to for some reason. Which sounds like a reason to see a psychologist. Have you been ‘seeing’ him since your mother passed?”
Rolling my eyes, I huffed in annoyance. “I’m not seeing a man.”
“There. Now we can talk about Ross.”
“No. Because I’m seeing a woman.”
Dad stared at me, blinking. He opened his mouth, then shut it without saying anything. I’d never seen him so confused. “Say that again?”
“I’m dating a woman, Dad. I’m not interested in Ross because I’m not interested in men.” Of course, him being an asshole had something to do with it too. If Dad had picked a sweet, charming man, I might’ve taken one for the team.
“Why the hell didn’t you say something sooner? All this time, I’ve been expecting grandkids at some point. I could’ve done…something. I don’t know what, but something.”
I sighed. All this angst had been about babies. “She’s younger than me and wants to have a baby. We just have to go to one of those labs. You’ll get your grandkids. All this is waiting for the B&E Board deal to go through. That damned application has eaten my life for the past two years. I don’t have any other major projects on my current timeline, so once that’s done, I should be able to handle it.”
“Well. Okay. That’s…good.” Dad never lost his cool, so I knew I’d blindsided him. Since I saw him every day, that meant I’d hidden Marie well. “Who is she?”
If I couldn’t tell
him now, I couldn’t tell him at all. We had to get married before any lab would do the ova-blending procedure anyway. He deserved to be there for the wedding. “Marie. She knows all my dirty secrets and loves me anyway.”
He stared and seemed at a loss for words.
“I know it’s cliché to fall for your secretary.” I grinned. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Dad chuckled. “Yes, it is.” He rubbed his face like the whole world had turned upside down. “In case you’re curious, I’ve never had an affair with Viola.”
“I don’t care, Dad. Fuck whoever you want. Fuck Ross for all I care.”
His grimace told me he’d begun to process my unexpected news. “No, thank you. You should bring Marie to the dinner party tomorrow night.”
“No. I’m worried about people using her against me. As soon as our B&E bid is concluded successfully, I’m going to pull a new secretary from the pool and have Marie train her, then she’ll get laid off.” I smirked. “With a nice severance package.”
“I see.” Dad grinned, so I knew he didn’t mind. “Why am I not surprised you have this planned well in advance?”
“Because you know how I work.”
He nodded and sobered. “Thank you for telling me. I wish you’d brought it up sooner, but I think I understand why you didn’t.
The meeting felt done. I reached out and touched his hand. “Thank you for listening.”
CHAPTER 6
“You look amazing.” Marie stepped back from her handiwork and set the makeup printer on shelf.
I checked myself in the floor-length mirror on the back of our closet door and agreed with her. She’d piled my hair on top of my head in an elegant confection dripping with sapphires. Deep, dark blue silk in delicate folds draped over my body to the floor with my neck and shoulders bare. Sapphires hung from a silver chain around my neck.
Later, when the formal evening of forced politeness ended, I’d come home and she’d undo all her careful work.
Marie sighed. “The worst part is how I want to touch you, but I can’t because it’ll mess up everything.”
Wanting to savor that look on her face forever, I issued a command for my implant to take a picture of her.