It ticked her off that the managers hadn’t kept the company running smoothly when her grandmother was sick. Even if Gran had kept her illness a secret, they still had a job to do.
“Anyone got anything else?” Stan asked.
“Yeah, I got one,” Timothy replied. “Did you hear back from Jethro Air? It’s been over two weeks.”
“Not yet. I’ve been checking my email regularly. I’m waiting for them to approve the financial arrangements. I’ll check again when I get back to my office.”
“I asked Zachary in IT to forward all of Gloria’s email to me,” Jade interrupted. “I’ll look for it when I get back to the office.”
“Why did you do that?” The rise of Timothy’s voice increased with his agitation.
Because I’m the CEO. “Because I should be reviewing Gloria’s email first.”
“I need to know immediately when a contract is approved because my team has to set up demand for it. I’ll tell Zachary to set it back to the way it was,” Timothy said.
“If you don’t get your information in a timely manner, and it impacts your work, please let me know. Otherwise it stays as is.” Jade stood firm.
Timothy gripped his pen so hard his knuckles turned white. “Zachary works for me.”
“And you work for me.” Jade leaned forward.
All eyes focused on her. The room became eerily silent. The managers were expecting her to give in. Gran’s words echoed in her mind. Never back down from a challenge, Jade.
“Bryce?” Timothy seemed to be hoping for backup.
“Jade has made a decision. Obviously she feels this is an important issue.” Worry lines formed on Bryce’s forehead. At least he didn’t try to change her mind or override her.
“Compared to what, our declining profits?” Timothy asked Stan.
Stan held up his hand. “Does anyone have anything else to bring up?” When no one responded, Stan stood to leave, signaling the meeting was adjourned.
Jade’s eyes burned, and her cheeks were on fire. She prayed no one noticed. She remained seated until the room emptied. No one so much as glanced in her direction except for Bryce. He opened his mouth to say something and decided to leave instead. She was sure he could see the humiliation etched on her face.
Does Timothy really think Bryce or Stan can override me? And worse, how could Stan not respond? Does he really think I feel email is more important than declining profits? Why didn’t Gran or my parents ever mention the decline? Why didn’t Stan or Bryce?
None of this made any sense. She understood the historical trends; at least two years ago she had. Sure, there’d been a small decrease in profits for a couple of years, which Gran said was due to gas prices increasing the cost of goods, but sales had always outweighed the increase. It had never been anything to worry about.
Maybe they’re lying to me, hoping I’ll bail out in a year because the company is in trouble? But that would mean all the managers are in on it, and that doesn’t make sense, unless this is a conspiracy by them all to get rid of me.
She was getting paranoid. Could the company really be in trouble?
Jade had a ton of questions with no answers. She rubbed her temples. She was going to have to face Stan again, and this time, dammit, she was not going to be a pushover.
CHAPTER 8
STAN WASN’T HAPPY to see Jade standing at his door again. She’d deliberately gone behind his back after she’d agreed not to pursue the email issue. He inhaled deeply and motioned her in. “Have a seat, Jade. What can I do for you?”
Jade sat on the edge of the chair. “I’m worried about the financial issues we’re having.”
Stan leaned back. He’d have to let the email issue slide for now. “Profits aren’t as high as they used to be, and that’s why I’m keeping tight control of expenditures. I monitor our financial condition closely.”
“I know you do. This just came as a big surprise. Two years ago, the financial reports looked fine. There was a slight downward trend, but nothing like what you indicated today.”
“We have peaks and valleys in our financial reports just like the stock market. It’s nothing to be concerned about.”
“I’d like to review the income statement and balance sheet from the last two years.” She sat tall and looked him directly in the eyes.
“Jade, let me handle this.”
“Did my grandmother know?”
“I tried not to burden her.”
“I want to see the financial statements, Stan.”
He eyed his desk drawer. What he really needed was a drink. “There’s something else we should discuss first.” He clasped his hands in front of him on the desk.
“What is it?”
He held back his irritation. “It was inappropriate for you to a make a decision about the email without talking to Timothy first, especially in front of the other managers. You undermined his authority.”
“But—”
“He’s in charge of Operations, which includes inventory control, manufacturing, facilities, and IT. How would you like it if someone made an executive decision without talking to you first?”
“I wouldn’t like it, any more than I liked you running my meeting. How is that not undermining my authority?”
Stan leaned back in his chair. His eyes burned. She had a point. “You’re right, that is technically your meeting. We hadn’t discussed you coming or taking it over.”
“Exactly. And why didn’t anyone mention the management meeting to me? I’m not here so I can sit in my grandmother’s office and look pretty. I am the CEO, and this is my company now.”
Jade actually expected to take on the role as chief executive? Gloria should have named him CEO, but he understood, for legal reasons, that she wanted it to stay in the family. Of course, Gloria had really wanted him to run the company. Apparently, Jade hadn’t gotten the memo.
He’d try another tactic. “Don’t you think, given your experience level, it would be best for Bryce and I to run the company while you learn from us?”
Jade pursed her lips like Gloria often did. “Gran has been training me to take over this company since I was five years old, Stan. You’ve heard her teach me about quality and finance and who knows what else at the dinner table. Granted, none of us expected it to be so soon. I thought I’d have at least another ten years to be mentored by her.”
“You can have that. Let me mentor you.”
“Given what you told me this morning, our company is in financial trouble. No offense, Stan, but I don’t think you’re the person who should be mentoring me. I want to see those reports.”
Stan leaned back. Jade was going to be a problem. He sighed. “I’ll have Donald bring you the reports when he gets in tomorrow.”
“Good.” Jade left with a smug smile on her face.
Stan poured another shot into his cup. The remnants of the coffee barely darkened the honey-colored liquor. Jade was going to make his life extremely difficult if she kept this up, and he had enough trouble keeping the bank from digging too deep.
ORANGE AND YELLOW FLOWERS splashed over Donald’s new Hawaiian shirt. After getting back from Maui, he was ready for Seattle’s chilly June weather to get into the seventies. It was strange to be standing in the door of what was now Jade’s office and see her sitting at Gloria’s desk and typing on the computer. The young girl he’d mentored over two years ago was now a grown, beautiful woman.
Jade glanced up and waved him in. “Nice tan. Did you just get back?”
“We flew in last night. Tanya wanted to stay another week, but with everything going on here”—Donald cast Jade a concerned smile—“I know you need me.”
“You know I do.” She grinned. “Are you limping?”
“I have the knees of a retired linebacker. They don’t have a lot of legroom on those island puddle jumpers.”
“Yeah, it’s like they think we’re sardines. I hope you feel better soon. Who is the necklace for?”
He held up the clear pl
astic bag holding a shell necklace. “It’s for my niece. Purple is her favorite color.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet. She’ll love it.”
“Here, I brought these for you.” Donald placed a box on her desk.
Jade eagerly opened it. “Ooh, I love chocolate-covered macadamia nuts.”
“You think? The last time I had a box sitting on my desk, you ate half of them.”
“I did not.” Jade laughed. “Did I?”
“You know you did.” He grinned. “Here.” Donald handed her the reports Stan had asked him to drop off. “I’ve included the income statement, balance sheet, and capital expenditures for the past two years. Need anything else?”
“I’ll take a look at these and let you know. Zachary is setting me up with the database so I can run my own reports. Until then, I hope you don’t mind doing this for me.”
Donald’s blood pressure spiked. His palms began to sweat.
“Are you okay?” Jade asked.
Stay calm. “Just feeling bad that we’re in this situation, and you have to deal with it, especially after you just lost your grandmother.” He ran his fingers over his bearded chin.
“You’re going to help me get out of it, right?”
“Damn straight. Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
Jade opened the box of nuts. “I’m just trying to figure out why our profit margins aren’t increasing with sales.”
“Stan has been reining in costs for a while now, but if you ask me, it doesn’t seem to be helping.”
“Do you have any ideas?” She popped a nut in her mouth and closed her eyes while the chocolate melted in her mouth.
“I’ve run some reports myself. The costs of goods are rising.”
Jade covered her mouth as she spoke. “Do you know what from?”
“Off the top of my head, the increased cost of fuel along with increased taxes. You can thank good ol’ Uncle Sam for that. And a semiconductor factory in Japan burnt down last year, causing a shortage of memory chips and a spike in the cost of goods for our Airflight Management Systems and our Airflight Entertainment Systems.”
“I’d be interested in seeing your reports.”
“Sure, no problem. The cost of doing business is going up.” Donald circled his thumb against his two fingers in a money gesture. “So how are you dealing with being our new CEO? It’s got to be tough for you.”
“It is. I still can’t believe my grandmother forced me into this.”
“Yeah, it came as quite a shock to everyone here, especially Stan. He wasn’t thrilled about it.”
“Figures. He didn’t say anything, although he does disagree with me on pretty much everything.”
“Everyone was expecting Stan to become CEO.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Hang in there, you’ll do fine.” Donald glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting in five. Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll bring copies of my reports by later.”
“What, no stupid joke?”
Donald stopped at the door. He was letting his nerves get to him. “Okay, I got one. Why did the chicken run out of the store?”
“I don’t know, why?”
“He forgot his chick book. Get it, chick book?”
“Yeah.” Jade laughed. “That was a bad one.”
“I know.” He smiled. “But it made you laugh.”
“Thanks, I needed that.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” Donald left and headed to the men’s restroom, moving as swiftly as his weight allowed. He splashed water on his face and wet a paper towel to put on the back of his neck.
Why is Jade so worried about the finances? He’d have to work overtime tonight to get the reports together with adequate explanations.
He couldn’t risk losing this job or his wife.
CHAPTER 9
JADE JUST ABOUT JUMPED OUT of her skin when Bryce snuck up behind her in the break room. “Did Roz let you know I needed to speak to you right away?”
She noted the irritation in his voice, which seemed to be a constant feature these days. “Roz mentioned something.” She wasn’t exactly sure what Roz had said. Jade was starting to get a migraine, and her head hurt too much to think. She pulled her private stash of honey out of the cabinet above her.
“I need to go over the JND contract with you. It’s ready to be signed.”
“I’ll ask Roz to schedule a meeting later.” Jade stirred the honey into the chamomile tea.
“Later? That’s all you can say to me? I’ve worked the past two days and nights finishing this contract. Was that Craig McDermit, the CEO of Avionics Systems, you just met with? Roz wouldn’t tell me what it was about.”
And I bet that just ticked you off. She stirred her tea. “Yes, it was McDermit. I’ll fill you in when we meet later.” Thanks to Bryce, her headache was coming on strong. She massaged the back of her neck. She couldn’t deal with him right now.
“Why did he want to see you?”
“He’s not satisfied with the terms of our contract.” Jade threw out the teabag, picked up her mug, and walked out of the break room. She needed to go to her office, pull the shades, and lie down.
But of course Bryce wouldn’t let her be. He followed her down the hall. “I put that contract together myself. It was a great deal for both sides, and so far, it’s the biggest contract Synergy has ever made. I have every right to know if there is a problem.”
“Please ask Roz to schedule a meeting.” The heightened sense of hearing brought on by the migraine made her own voice as loud and irritating as a dentist’s drill. The fluorescent lights might as well have been laser beams sizzling her eyes.
“Why isn’t he satisfied with the terms of the contract?”
“I’ll discuss it with you later.” Please, please go away, just for now.
“The hell you will.” Bryce grabbed her arm and pulled her into Sara’s empty office and closed the door behind him. “If he wasn’t satisfied with the contract, I should have met with him, Jade. That’s my area of responsibility.”
Jade’s chest felt so tight, it could erupt like Mount St. Helens. She placed her mug on the desk to avoid spilling it, and then turned on him. “How dare you pull me in here like a little child? If McDermit was so comfortable talking to you, why did he call an emergency meeting with me?”
Bryce stepped back. He clearly wasn’t expecting her outburst. Nor did he have an answer.
“I’ll tell you why.” She poked her finger into his chest. “Because this is my company and I’m the CEO. That means I do what I want, when I want, and I don’t need to run it by you.”
WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH HIM? Bryce pulled a hand through his hair as Jade stomped off.
Why am I so angry?
He’d never reacted that way with anyone at the office or in his personal life. His conduct was unprofessional. Out of control.
Just like Dad’s.
His parents had always argued. Always. It didn’t become physical though until Bryce was eleven. Eleven, and not big enough or brave enough to stop his father. After that, Bryce spent three long years mostly hiding out at a friend’s house until his mom finally took action. The divorce couldn’t have come fast enough as far as Bryce was concerned. He said good riddance that day and never spoke to his father again.
When Mom remarried, she’d argued with her new husband too. Even though his stepfather had never hit her, Bryce couldn’t take the anticipation of it, the dread. He’d escaped whenever he could. Thankfully, the two of them had finally mellowed out, and somehow were still married, sixteen years later. Bryce had never understood what his mother had done to tick his stepfather off so much, at least, not until recently. Jade had a way of grating on his nerves.
Why does she pull my strings this way and why do I react to it?
The “why” didn’t really matter at the moment. No man had the right to manhandle or physically hurt a woman, no matter how pissed off he was or what she did to push his buttons
.
Sara stopped in her doorway. “Sorry, Bryce. I have a telecon in a few minutes.”
Bryce cleared his throat. “No problem. Thanks for letting me borrow your office.” He picked up the mug Jade had left on Sara’s desk. It would give him an excuse to see Jade and apologize.
Sara sat down and made a call. As Bryce left her office, he overheard her say, “Hi Jason, you owe me five bucks. Jade just kicked Bryce’s butt.”
Yes, she did.
Bryce walked to Jade’s door, shrugged when Roz gave him a what-did-you-do-now look, knocked once, and opened it without waiting for an answer.
Jade sat on the loveseat looking down at the floor, massaging her neck with both hands.
He shut the door quietly behind him. “I think this is yours.” He placed the mug on the table in front of her, and then cleared his throat. “I was way out of line.”
“Thank you.”
“For what? The apology or the tea?”
“For both.”
Bryce couldn’t stand to see her slumped over like that. At least when she was yelling at him, she didn’t look miserable.
He sat down next to her. “Headache?”
“Migraine.” Jade’s eyebrows were drawn together so tight, he could almost see her pain. Her eyes were just slits.
Bryce understood migraines. He’d grown up with a mother who had them often. “Take anything?”
“Yes, it should be gone in a few hours after I lie down.” Jade picked up her tea and sipped.
“I used to massage my mother’s shoulders when she had migraines. It always seemed to help. Do you want me to give it a try?” Dammit, he shouldn’t have said that. What was he thinking? Massaging his boss?
“I’ll try anything. I seriously feel like I’m dying.”
His mom had said the exact same thing on more than one occasion. And now that Jade had accepted his offer, he couldn’t very well walk away and leave her in pain. Just keep it professional.
He took a breath, then placed his hands on her delicate shoulders and began to knead her tight muscles. When Jade sighed, something stirred deep down in his gut. “Keep your eyes closed.” Soon her muscles began to relax. “Is this why you wanted to talk to me later?”
Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) Page 6