“No promises,” he said, giving his friend a pat on the arm and sending Kambri a nod. “Take care of each other.”
“I think we can handle that,” Daryl said and Hunter turned before Daryl and Kambri kissed for the hundredth time that evening.
Maybe Luke needed help at the townhouse. If not, Hunter had a key. He could let himself in.
Chapter 35
It was Esme’s third day in DC, and things were still a mess. As with most crises, what should have been straight forward was somehow convoluted.
Roger’s current crisis stemmed from the fact that twelve years ago he had gone into business with his best friend. As partners, they had very complementary skill sets. Roger was the face and oversaw management of the company while Craig was over sourcing and sales.
Craig trusted Roger to do his job, and Roger trusted Craig to do his.
Therein lay the problem.
Part of Roger’s brand and a large portion of his marketing focused on the fact that their company was an American brand creating American jobs. Manufacturing and assembly all took place in America. Or so Roger thought.
Unbeknownst to anyone else in upper management, Craig had been getting creative with the manufacturing side of things. The label still said Made in the USA, but that hadn’t been true for years. Three years and four months, to be exact.
Looking at the company’s financials during that time should have admittedly set off some red flags in Roger’s mind. But apparently he’d thought his best friend was also the only man in America with the negotiation skills to get the company parts and domestic labor for almost a half of the price all their competitors managed to negotiate. Their business model and profit margins had seemed too good to be true in recent ledgers, and for good reason. They were.
Hindsight, as always, was 20/20; Esme could totally understand how Roger had been taken in. But sympathy was no substitute for setting things right, and that’s what Roger needed to do now that he had all the facts.
But after days of arguing, Roger finally held up his hand to bring both Esme and Dane, the company lawyer, to silence.
“Okay. Okay, you two. I get it,” Roger said, sounding exhausted. “I’m pretty sure I understand where both of you stand and why. I need to think for a minute. Can we take fifteen?”
“Sure,” Dane said as he stood from the conference table. Esme nodded her agreement.
“We’ll be right outside the door when you’re ready,” Esme said, following her colleague out.
Without a word, Dane headed for the men’s’ room, leaving Esme in the hall alone. She took a deep breath to settle herself.
As much as Dane annoyed her, he was smooth and had a persuasive way about him. There was no doubting that—especially after the last three days. It didn’t help Esme’s case any that Dane was a man citing contracts and friendship, while she was a woman citing ethics and societal responsibility. She didn’t like to admit it out loud, but the deck was stacked slightly in Dane’s favor out of the gate in swaying Roger away from her crisis plan.
But such was often the case, and Esme was used to it.
PR representatives and lawyers were the cats and dogs of the professional world. If it looked like they were getting along, give it a few minutes. Things could, and often did, flip on a dime.
If lawyers had their way, every business in a crisis situation would stay silent and wait for things to blow over…if they blew over at all. As a PR specialist, Esme advised the flip-side of that: control the narrative by speaking first and speaking truth. Then use that foundation to maintain or even build trust.
She was yin to a lawyer’s yang. Dog to their cat. Merlot to their orange juice.
But at the end of the day, lawyers like Dane still had to do their best to convince men like Roger that their road was the right road, just like Esme did. Neither she nor Dane got to make the final call. They could only plead their cases.
Roger definitely had a doozy of a decision ahead of him. His right-hand man had betrayed him in exchange for money. It was a tale as old as time, but Roger had been truly blindsided and now he had to respond. She didn’t envy him that.
Leaning against the wall, Esme took several slow breaths as she stretched her neck and decompressed for a moment. She let her eyes drift shut, mentally searching for something she’d left unsaid to Roger…a point she’d left unmade.
Once upon a few weeks ago, she would have texted Hunter and asked his opinion on the matter, but that was off the table. She’d been fighting so hard not to think about him since this whole mess started, but the truth was that, jealous fiancé aside, everything always seemed so much clearer after she bounced it off of Hunter. Her mind tended to overcomplicate matters while his kept things simple. More than once she’d babbled to him for five…ten…even fifteen minutes, only to have him summarize everything she’d just said in one sentence that was somehow the answer she’d been talking around the whole time.
She missed that about Hunter. She missed a lot of things about him, but at the moment his straight-to-the-point mind was at the top of her list.
He’d know how to sway Roger. He’d know what to say.
But she couldn’t call him. She just couldn’t.
She’d tried to use Jon as a sounding board the night before, but his feedback had been that he agreed with Dane and would follow his legal counsel.
Not helpful.
The clock was counting down, and Esme’s gut told her that Roger was making his final decision right then. Her gut also told her that decision was going to be to protect his best friend.
How could she fix that? She had to fix that.
She had no idea how long her exhausted mind wrestled with that question before Dane emerged from the men’s room and walked over to stand next to her.
“Rough day?”
She groaned her agreement.
He smiled. “I appreciate the fight you’re putting up in there, but we both know I’m right on this.”
Esme shook her head. “You are catastrophically wrong.”
He chuckled. “I almost believe you.”
She looked at him. “My only question is, when this all blows up in your face, will you still refuse to see how it all could have been avoided? Or will you stand by your original claims and use the copout of blaming something outside of yourself for the fallout and repeat your advice to the next client?”
He gave her a once-over and smiled. “As always, you’re adorable.”
She didn’t smile back. “As always, you patronize everyone who doesn’t agree with you.”
“Oooh,” he teased. “Someone is feeling feisty.”
Esme pushed away from the wall. “Feisty? Adorable? Are these words you’d use if I were a man in my position?”
He rolled his eyes. “Obviously not. But please don’t think I’m one of those sexist guys who would rather be working with a man. You’re a lot more fun to look at.”
Esme opened her mouth, ready to unleash a less-than-professional response when Roger opened the door to the conference room again. “Come back in.”
Esme and Dane shared a look before walking back in to join their boss.
She saw Roger’s decision before she finished her second step into the conference room. Roger wouldn’t make eye contact with her and sought Dane out instead.
“I’m going to wait until the end of the contract, then switch vendors,” he announced.
Esme’s mouth fell open. That decision was about fifty steps backward from where they’d been ten minutes ago.
“Roger,” Esme said carefully. “I must strongly advise you against that.”
“And I think that’s your best option,” Dane said. “It saves you the penalties of breaking your contract.”
“The contract built on lies that no one wants to talk about under oath,” Esme argued. “There will be no suit for breach of contract because suing you would reveal their fraud.”
Roger’s hand signaled for silence. “I understand your arguments,
Esme, but I have to agree with Dane. It’s highly unlikely that anything will happen to put us in the news in the next eight months if we ride this out. That will put Craig in the clear, and that’s best for everyone and the company.”
Esme stepped forward. “Roger, if you do this, it will be the first irresponsible decision I’ve seen you make as a CEO, and it will be very hard to protect you from it.”
Roger let out a tired sigh. “Well, if things play out right, you won’t have to.”
“That’s a big if, Roger.”
“You made the right decision,” Dane said from next to her. “I’ll set things up to give the required notice for discontinuing the relationship after the end of the current contract.”
“Thank you, Dane. I’ll also want you to recommend a third-party inspector to double check a short list of new vendors we’ll be looking to partner with to make sure they are really who they say they are.”
“I can arrange that,” Dane said.
“Before I leave,” Esme said. “I need to do some due diligence of my own.”
Roger’s eyes were a shade past exhausted when his gaze finally met hers. “Very well. Lay it out for me, Miss Taylor.”
She didn’t let his slumped shoulders faze her. She dove in. “You brought me here because an anonymous tipster provided you with insider information that revealed fraud within your own company.”
Roger sighed. “Yes.”
“That fraud involves your best friend of thirty years and business partner of twelve years.”
“Yes.”
“And not only is what he did illegal, but it is against the values of your customers and stakeholders.”
Another sigh. “Yes.”
“It made your packaging a lie and supported child and slave labor for the past three years.”
Roger actually flinched at that one. “Yes.”
“And now you want to believe that this tipster—whom you don’t know and have no control over—is going to keep their mouth shut and reveal nothing of what they sent to you to the media in the next eight months while you finish out your contract?”
Roger said nothing to that one.
“Any whistleblower revealing what we saw to the media would be sued into the ground,” Dane said for him. “Almost all of the evidence was illegally obtained and shared. No one is going to take the risk of being the one to go public with it.”
Esme leveled a glare at him. “If no one was ever willing to take that risk, we literally wouldn’t have the term whistleblower in our vernacular.”
“It’s a chance I need to take,” Roger said softly.
“Because you want to save your best friend from a fall of his own making?” Esme said, noting how the man flinched. “I get it, okay? I do. But you already lost your best friend in all this, Roger. The trust and friendship you had is gone. My only question to you is whether you’re willing to lose your company, too. Because your tipster put way too much effort and research into exposing your partner to simply watch as people like you take no—or slow—action, once informed. If you don’t take steps, the activists will stop seeing you as an ally and group you into the category of their enemies. You don’t want that.”
“I…hear your recommendation and thank you for your due diligence, Esme, but I’ve made my decision. It’s final.”
With that, the conversation was over.
Esme had done her best. It just hadn’t been good enough. Roger refused to cover his own butt, which meant he’d put Esme in the position of trying to figure out how to cover hers. She didn’t want to lose Roger as a client, even though that was the most obvious solution—to step down as his consultant to avoid being linked to a PR catastrophe he’d stepped into by blatantly ignoring her.
But there had to be another way. If there was, she was going to find it.
Chapter 36
Based on her Facebook page, Hunter could see Esme had been in Washington DC for the past four days.
That wasn’t good.
More often than not, Esme had things handled in half that time from the comfort of her home office.
What’s the crisis this time? Hunter thought, looking at a picture Esme had posted of her at a business dinner. One of the men with her was silver-haired and old enough to be her father, but Hunter knew the other guy sitting next to her at the table. Dane Anders. The man had it bad for Esme, but he wasn’t man enough for her.
Still, if Jealous Jon was checking Esme’s pictures out, he’d notice how the lawyer couldn’t help but drape his arm around Esme and press in when an opportunity like taking a picture presented itself.
Oh, what poor Mr. Anders wouldn’t do for Esme to be the dumb blonde she appeared to be. That was his mistake. He forgot that Esme was smart and inevitably shoved his foot into his mouth whenever they were together. Hunter had received many-an-entertaining text thanks to Dane Anders. He wondered what stupid things the guy was saying this time around.
The picture revealed more than Dane’s continued crush, however. Esme’s smile showed the tension in her jaw, telling Hunter that she was much more stressed than her sparkling eyes would lead people to believe. But she had always been good at appearing calm under pressure. It was her super power.
“You have a visitor.”
Daryl’s voice pulled Hunter’s eyes away from his phone and to the entrance of his bunk area in the firehouse where his friend stood.
Hunter didn’t move. “Is it—”
“It’s Shauna,” Daryl said. “Esme’s in DC, remember?”
Of course. He’d literally just been looking at pictures of her.
“Right,” Hunter said, standing up and starting to the lobby. “Did you and Shauna have a talk already?”
“No,” Daryl said, falling in step beside him. “I figured safety in numbers, right? Plus it saves us from repeating each other.”
“I guess,” Hunter said, although part of Hunter wondered if Shauna might benefit from some repetition. Her boyfriend was clearly out of control, and she seemed to be rolling with it. As a guy who had to work on his own temper on a daily basis, Hunter didn’t have many illusions about what men like Aaron were and were not capable of. If Shauna wanted someone to hold her hand and whisper words of encouragement about Aaron’s potential, she had definitely knocked on the wrong door.
Hunter and Daryl made the rest of the walk in silence until Shauna came into view in the reception area.
“Hunter,” she greeted with an overly wide smile. “Sorry to ambush you at work like this, but I thought it would be better than…”
“Having this talk at the gym with Kenny around?” Hunter finished for her. “Yeah. Probably a smart call.”
She seemed relieved that he agreed. “I wanted to apologize for how Aaron behaved. It was so out of character—”
“Was it?” Hunter challenged. “Based on how you reacted, I’d say you’ve seen him act like that before. More than once.”
Her smile cracked and faded a bit. “It’s not what it looks like…”
“You mean how it looks like you’re in an abusive relationship? Because that’s what it looks like from where we’re standing, Shauna.” He looked to Daryl for backup and felt a little of the pressure move off of him when Daryl gave a quick nod.
“No man should act like that, Shauna,” Daryl said softly. “Not for any reason. You deserve better.”
That seemed to catch her by surprise. “I promise you, Aaron is actually very kind and considerate.”
“Is that before or after you do what he wants?” Hunter asked.
“And is that before or after you give him control over the people you are and are not allowed to see?” Daryl added.
The question caught Hunter off guard, sending his thoughts toward Jon, but he quickly forced them back on track. “Shauna, you have a Masters degree in stuff like this. You’re smarter than us, which means we don’t need to tell you what we’re telling you. You already know. You deal with this crap every day at work. You’re not supposed to take it
home with you.”
She bit her lip and looked down.
“So don’t come here and apologize to us for him,” Hunter continued. “Because I promise, Aaron isn’t sorry. The only thing he probably regrets is not taking a swing at me when he had the chance.”
The way Shauna fidgeted told Hunter that she didn’t necessarily disagree, but he was surprised when Daryl stepped forward and gripped her hand.
“Does he hit you, Shauna?” he asked. “Has he ever hit you?”
“It’s not as simple as that,” she said, pulling her hand away.
Hunter and Daryl shared a look.
“Thank you for coming down here to apologize for your abusive boyfriend,” Hunter said. “But apology not accepted. If you really want to apologize, break up with him.”
Again, she hesitated and it was Daryl who stepped in as the sensitive one.
“If you need help, you have two burly dudes here who will be happy to help you out,” he said. “Plus, you know a lot of judges who will happily grant you a restraining order. We’ll testify for you.”
Shauna took a deep breath and stepped back. “You two are blowing this up into something bigger than it is. I just wanted to say sorry for the awkwardness.”
“And near-assault,” Hunter added, barely holding onto his temper. “If you can’t see what you’re dealing with, Shauna, then you’re living in a dream land. You have two guys here telling you that the guy you’re with is dangerous, and you’re covering. You can’t even deny that Aaron’s hit you in the past, or that he won’t hit you if he finds out you came here and spoke to me. Do you get how stupid that makes you look?”
Daryl cleared his throat, cutting Hunter off from saying anything more. “What he’s trying to say, is that we care, Shauna. We want what’s best for you, and we both think you can do a whole lot better than Aaron.”
“A lot better,” Hunter repeated. “But if Aaron wants to prove us wrong and apologize himself for how he treated you at the bar, we’ll accept that apology. But we’re not going to accept the apology that stems from the fact that we accidentally got a peek into something you’re trying to hide from people.”
King of the Friend Zone (Power of the Matchmaker) Page 18