The Wright Secret

by K. A. Linde

  “Fuck!” I cried.

  I shook my fist out in anger and then slammed it into the tiles again and again. I could feel the knuckles split open. Red seeped between my fingers and ran down to the drain.

  The pain didn’t help anything. It didn’t fix what had happened with Morgan. It didn’t bring her back.

  I stuck my head under the water and stayed there until the water began to run cold. Then, I stayed a little longer, lost in my own thoughts. My own idiocy.

  After I got out, I changed into sweats and moved into the kitchen. I found the bottle of top-shelf whiskey Austin had left me and poured myself a knuckle’s worth. I drained it and then gave myself another, ignoring the pain in my hand along the way. I knew I was probably going to regret what I’d done when my hand was swollen and painful tomorrow, but what else was new? I already regretted a whole hell of a lot more than that.

  Morgan had said that, if something was too good to be true, then it probably was. She had said that about our relationship…and she was right. But not about me. About her. Morgan Wright was too good to be true.

  I’d known that she was entirely out of my league. That I couldn’t possibly deserve her. But, once she had been mine, I’d done everything I could to make sure she never realized that.

  Yet here I was with a busted hand, an empty whiskey glass, and a broken heart.

  I looked like shit. I felt like shit. I was a piece of shit.

  Because I had suggested that Bailey give the contract to someone else. I’d named three other companies she could use instead of Wright Construction. Even if I explained to Morgan that it had been because Bailey wanted to use our relationship to get to her or that I’d said it in conjunction with the fact that Wright was the best and that these other companies weren’t even a real option, it wouldn’t matter.

  I hadn’t pulled the trigger, but I’d loaded the gun and aimed.

  No, there was nothing I could do to change her mind right now. Not when that contract meant everything to her. I knew what she hadn’t said in her anger. That she could lose her job over this.

  She was already on thin ice. A crack big enough to split the ground would surely send her floundering…drowning.

  And, if I were the reason that she was no longer CEO of Wright Construction, our relationship would be doomed. The company was the most important thing in Morgan’s life. It always had been.

  I didn’t hold a candle to her love for her job. I’d been okay with that. I loved her passion. Her fire. The way she handled everything with poise and dedication. The stress that only fueled her forward. The insanity and obsession that just screamed Morgan. She did everything with an unrivaled intensity.

  Being with her and in her undivided attention was like being trapped in her orbit. You moved with her force and found steps with a new gravity. And she flung you out of orbit just as quickly as you had been dragged in.

  I stared at the empty glass in my hand with a sigh. It was a sorry state of events of my life that I was hungry and actually didn’t want to cook. Cooking was my happy place. The one thing I always reserved for myself. Fuck, I hadn’t even really cooked for Austin much, and we’d known each other forever.

  But, now, when I thought about cooking a meal for one, it felt pretty depressing. Cooking had been for Morgan. It had been the break in her day where I could take care of her. Slow her down and give her something she couldn’t do herself. I’d been cooking for us for weeks. And I didn’t want to go back to meals for one.

  I shoved my glass away from me and exited my kitchen. I couldn’t do it. I was too frustrated. Too pissed.

  I ordered pizza and sank into my couch, wanting nothing more than to forget all of this.

  The best thing that had ever happened to me had just walked out of my life. I’d ruined everything. And I wasn’t sure that I deserved a chance to fix it.

  The doorbell rang.

  “Finally,” I muttered under my breath.

  I was still starving, and pizza had taken forever. Sometimes, I hated where I lived. You would think it would be faster to get pizza to a centrally located area of town, but I suspected the pizza places near here were all busier.

  I pulled the door open and sighed. “Austin.”

  “Man, you really fucked up, didn’t you?”

  “Julia tell you?”

  “Are you fucking kidding? Of course she did,” he said, shoving past me. “As if you and Morgan running away from the ribbon-cutting wasn’t suspicious enough.”

  “Yeah. Didn’t really think about that.” I was about to shut the door when I saw the pizza car pull up. I waited until the guy reached my door. “Busy night?”

  “It’s snowing,” the guy said as way of explanation.

  “Right. No one wants to be out in the weather.”

  “Yeah. Lucky me.”

  I handed the guy an extra twenty for a tip. My life was shit enough. Might as well make someone’s night.

  “Hey, man, thanks!” the guy said, brightening.

  I nodded at him and then brought the large supreme pizza into the living room.

  “Perfect,” Austin said. “I’m hungry.”

  “I was going to eat this whole thing by myself.”

  “And, now, you’re sharing, dipshit.”

  “Fair enough.”

  We each grabbed a slice of pizza, and I flipped on SportsCenter. It was all Bowl Game talk and National Championship hopefuls. I didn’t really care about any of the teams in the finals, but it was mind-numbing. And that was what I needed.

  “So, are you going to tell me what happened? I only got the hysterical version from Julia.”

  “Her version was probably right.”

  “Probably.”

  “Morgan lost the Tech contract. She didn’t know that the contact at Tech was actually with my boss.”

  “How did she not know?”

  “Because I never told her.”

  He gave me the look that said I was an idiot. “That was smart.”

  “Look, I knew she was negotiating the contract with Morgan, but I wasn’t involved. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

  “Until…” Austin guessed.

  “Until she asked me to use my relationship with Morgan or you or any of your family to help her get ahead.”

  “And you said?”

  “I said, of course fucking not,” I said, sitting up angrily. “I would never sell y’all out. I’ve known you my whole life. I don’t want to be involved in business deals. It would be a conflict of interest.”

  “Did you tell Morgan that?”

  I sighed and tilted my head back. “No.”

  “Yeah. That’s where you went wrong.”

  “I didn’t want to burden her with more bullshit. She’s been so tense lately.”

  “I don’t know if you’ve met my sister before, but she’s always high-strung.”

  “Not always.”

  Austin gagged. “Please do not ever put that mental image in my head again.”

  I choked out a laugh. “I didn’t mean…that. Whatever. Let’s not talk about that.”

  “Fine by me.”

  “The shitty thing is that, when my boss was trying to convince me to help her out with this, I made the mistake of suggesting other companies that she could use for cheaper.”

  Austin smacked me upside the back of my head. “What the fuck, bro?”

  “Ugh!” I groaned. “Thanks for that.”

  “What were you thinking? Suggesting other companies?”

  “It isn’t how it seems or how it was portrayed to Morgan. I said the companies would be cheaper but that Wright would always be better. I said the company was local, loyal, and quality business. That choosing someone else would be idiotic. Apparently, that didn’t get conveyed to Morgan when my boss threw me under the motherfucking bus.”

  “Okay. So, say that’s all fucking true.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “It is.”

  “I’m just saying…say it’s true. I don’t w
ant to believe that you fucked my sister over, Patrick. You’re like my brother. We’ve known each other forever. You’re family. But, fuck, you have some incriminating evidence against you. So, I’m going to believe you fucked this all up until you prove me otherwise. How are you going to fix this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Austin smacked me again. “I said, how the fuck are you going to fix this? You can’t fucking make this right by sitting around your house, watching football, and eating pizza.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Oh, I see the lightbulb.”

  “Fuck you, dude.”

  Austin laughed in my face. “It’s not like you to wallow and give up.”

  “I’ve never had a girlfriend before. How the hell would you know how I’d react to one dumping me?”

  “If it were anyone but Morgan, I’d assume you wouldn’t even care.”

  “Yeah. I think that’s true.”

  I straightened in my seat. Austin was right. I couldn’t sit here and do nothing. Sure, I’d fucked up. I should have told Morgan what had happened with Bailey. I should have been more up-front about the fact that the contract was even being handled in my office. But I hadn’t maliciously suggested the other companies. There was no way that I could let her think that I didn’t care about her or that I wanted to purposely hurt her.

  “I need to make things right.”

  “Yeah, you do,” Austin said. “Like I had to with Julia. Because, let’s face it, there’s no way that we weren’t going to fuck something up with women as amazing as ours. We just have to man up when the time comes.”

  “I’m going to call her.”

  “Knock yourself out. I’ll be here, eating all your pizza.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Leave me a slice.”

  Austin gave me a middle-finger salute as I disappeared into the bedroom and called Morgan’s number. After three rings, it went to voice mail. I tried again. Same thing. The third call, it immediately went to voice mail, which meant she was seeing my calls and deliberately avoiding them.

  This time, I let the voice mail go through to the end. I listened for the beep, and then I began to speak, “Morgan, I understand that you’re angry with me right now. I get that you feel hurt and used and betrayed. I don’t blame you for feeling that way when I didn’t confide in you. But I never meant to betray you. I know you need time to deal with the ramifications of this contract and that you’ll be busy with work. But I’m not going to just disappear. I’ll be here for you through everything. I’ll be at your side, trying to make things right, no matter what is thrown your way. No matter what, full stop. If you want to talk, I’m here for you. I’m never going to stop fighting. Never. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. Love doesn’t halt in hard times. That’s when you need it the most.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Morgan

  I didn’t listen to Patrick’s voice mail.

  I didn’t delete it either.

  Instead, it taunted me all weekend while I worked on trying to fix everything that had snowballed into a disaster for me. I had a plan. A game plan. I was ready—or at least, as ready as I would ever be to walk into the office on Monday morning and put my job on the line.

  The email had only been sent to me. I had to think that someone else had heard that Escoe Industrial had received the contract, a company that was now pretty high on my list of companies I wanted to acquire. Either way, it meant that I would be on the hot seat on Monday. I would have to figure out a way to keep my job, or the board would replace me.

  I couldn’t imagine Wright Construction in the hands of someone who wasn’t a Wright. So, getting fired was out of the question. I could do this.

  When I made it up to the top floor on Monday morning, David was already sitting at his desk. He was always earlier than me, but I’d come in early to begin with. I’d filled him in on the situation on Saturday afternoon. I hadn’t wanted to tell anyone, but David and I were partners in this. He didn’t want someone to replace me either.

  His head snapped up when he saw me standing in the doorway. “Morgan, I’m so glad you’re here.” He hurried up from his desk and over to where I was standing. “Thank God you’re here early.”

  “Why?” I asked. My stomach dropped with worry at his tone. “What happened?”

  “Owen showed up as soon as I walked in the door, and he’s holed up in the conference room.”

  “What? What is he doing here? Why didn’t you text me?”

  “I did. You didn’t respond. A couple of other people showed up. It feels like an ambush.”

  “Fuck. You think they know?”

  He shrugged. “What else could it be?”

  “True.” I took a deep breath. “Okay. Wish me luck.”

  “You don’t need it.”

  I grinned halfheartedly at him. Then, I straightened my shoulders and walked into the conference room. My uncle was sitting at the end of the long table, looking like a king holding court. Four members of the board of directors were present. Of course, Jensen wasn’t there.

  “I didn’t realize that a meeting had been called for the board,” I said, setting down my messenger bag on the table and staring down half of the board. As CEO, I was technically a member of the board, but I wasn’t included in matters regarding me unless disciplinary measures were to be taken. That meant, we were only missing three people, including Jensen, from the eight-person board that would decide my future.

  “I’m glad that you’re here, Morgan,” Owen said.

  “I’m inferring that there’s a reason that the majority of you are assembled today. Though I don’t know why you’re here, Uncle.” I stared him down. “Last I checked, you were not a member of the board of directors.”

  “He’s here as a courtesy to us,” one of the other members, Curt, said from the end of the table. “We’ve recently discovered that you lost the Texas Tech contract, and we are worried about the financial future of the company with you as CEO.”

  “The contract isn’t lost. Not officially. I am still talking to the administration on campus to right this error.”

  “I thought you said that it was confirmed,” Luke said to Owen.

  “I was told that Escoe Industrial had acquired the contract,” Owen said.

  “They had, but we were still in negotiations. I went a step up from the woman I had been dealing with on campus, and I think an inquiry is going to be opened to find out what happened. We should know by the end of the week.”

  “Is it true that it was your boyfriend who made you lose the contract?” Curt asked.

  I ground my teeth together. “He works in the same division at the university.”

  “We’re worried about the state of the company. That Tech contract has been part of Wright Construction for thirty years,” Luke added.

  “I am also worried about it, but I am doing everything I can at the moment to rectify the situation.”

  “We think, at this time, it would be prudent to select an oversight committee for you,” Janice said across the table from Luke. “Truly, this kind of catastrophe would warrant firing.”

  I paled.

  “Especially after all the trouble we’ve been having with your transition to CEO. But we don’t have another successor in line, like when Jensen handed the company to you. It would be a nightmare to find someone again.”

  “I wouldn’t mind helping to transition into CEO,” Owen said. “In a temporary capacity, of course.”

  “Of course,” I ground out. “Unfortunately, we don’t need you.”

  Suddenly, his motives were crystal clear. Why hadn’t I seen it before? Owen wanted my job. No wonder he had treated me like shit. Of course, that conversation at the ribbon-cutting made no sense. Why defend me, only to throw me under the bus here?

  “Actually, it’s not a bad suggestion,” Janice said.

  “Owen is a valuable asset to the company, and he is a Wright,” Curt added.

  “I think we should see if she fixe
s this first,” Luke said, cutting off that scenario before it got wheels under it. “I think we give her until the end of the week to collect more information about the financial impact this might have. And, if she doesn’t come up with a solution, then we explore other alternatives.”

  “Agreed,” Janice, Curt, and the otherwise quiet Jake said.

  Owen looked like steam was about to come pouring out of his ears at the suggestion. He’d clearly thought that I was going to be fired. And how could I blame him? I’d thought I was going to be fired. Especially with an ambush like this.

  “I’ll be happy to notify the remainder of the board about this,” I told them. “Next time, we should include Jensen as well, considering he lives in town.”

  No one made a comment about that. Excluding Jensen on something like this had clearly been on purpose. It was a message. And I read it loud and clear.

  I had one more chance. I was out of the frying pan but not out of the fire. If I didn’t figure this out by the end of the week, they wouldn’t be as lenient.

  I spent the remainder of my day putting out fires and dealing with everyday management stuff. All while I still had to deal with how I was going to make things right. It was the last full week of work before the holidays, and I was mired down in utter bullshit.

  My call with Jensen had been fucking wonderful after that meeting. I hadn’t told him about what had happened this weekend. He’d just gotten engaged, and I hadn’t wanted to ruin everything. I’d known that, if I’d told him what had happened, he would disappear and help me. That wasn’t fair to him or Emery. He wasn’t the CEO anymore. He didn’t have to always be putting out my fires.

  I wanted to be able to handle this myself. But I hadn’t wanted him to find out from someone else about what had happened or the board meeting that he hadn’t been invited to. He’d been pissed. Raving about how deceitful they’d been to exclude him.

  At least one good thing had come from the meeting; he believed me about Owen now.

  Owen was out for my job.

  He’d probably been out for my job since day one.

  His douche-bag attitude toward me had been to undermine me. He’d been playing mind games. And he’d been playing them well.