Page 17 of Without Apology

“She knows I’m evaluating a business but not which one. Certainly nothing about the details. And I’d rather keep it that way.”

I didn’t exactly see a woman like Peyton, who cared so much for her team, understand a man like me, whom they sometimes referred to as the ice man. Yes, I was the one who terminated employees. I often sat there while grown women and men cried about losing their livelihoods, and I felt nothing. Not because I actually didn’t. I wasn’t that much of a cold bastard. But because I’d mastered the art of shutting myself off from that part of my brain while doing a job. I had to. I stayed professional and passed the Kleenex. At the end of the day, I wasn’t the one selling the company or buying it. I was simply the one delivering the message. At least with this company, if we did go through with it, there wouldn’t be too many terminations.

“What if the audit doesn’t go well, and you’re on a plane by Saturday?” Emma asked me.

“I told her it was a possibility. With any luck, that won’t be the case.”

When Tom came into the office fifteen minutes later, the frigid greeting Emma gave him made the temperature drop. To say she couldn’t stand him was an understatement. And not in a way where there was sexual tension, but rather a purely want-to-stab-him-in-the-face-with-a-fork kind of way.

He, on the other hand, fed on riling her up with condescending remarks. She tried very hard not to let him see when he’d succeeded in getting to her. Where I could, I mediated, but at the end of the day, I could barely stand the guy, either. But we had to work with him. He was the boss’s nephew.

This time, however, he chose to set his target on me. “Where the hell were you this morning?”

“I came in early. Is George here yet?”

“I believe he’s downstairs. Told me he wanted to bring two of his directors with him into this morning’s meeting. I’ll go down and get him shortly.”

“Fine. Do we have the files on all of the directors?” There were five in total, and it was imperative that they be the most scrutinized of any of the employees. Having the right management was critical to the success of any acquisition.

“Yes. I’d planned to give them to you this morning at the hotel.”

I fixed my icy glare on the man, taking in his slicked-back hair, three-thousand-dollar suit, and even more expensive watch. He might try to look as if he was in charge, but there was one person our boss trusted with the go/no-go decision. And Tom wasn’t it. “You can give them to me now. Who are the key players?”

Emma squeezed out the door of my office, not wanting to be part of this exchange. I didn’t blame her.

“Fine. There are two key people. The accounting director—I forget her name. And the payroll director, Jeff. He applied for the CFO position.”

I paused, thinking it curious. “And she didn’t?”

He shrugged. “Not as of Friday, but the owner says she’s the point person for the audit. He said he’s going to allow her to pick her team, who she wants to stay.”

“That’s not how it works. We interview everyone to ensure they will be assets to the company, including her.”

Nobody was exempt from the process. People got emotional about their staff losing their jobs. Because of this, they sometimes kept people around who didn’t pull their weight. No one decided who stayed except me.

“I told the owner that. But he’s adamant. Says she has the best staff and can choose which ones we interview and which we don’t.”

“Then I’ll have to reiterate to George that isn’t part of the deal. No one outside of my team chooses who stays. In any case, we’ll meet with her this morning to get started on the list of audit items we need and to make certain she’s on board.” I didn’t like when things were out of order. Once again, I had a weird feeling.

“I’ll go downstairs and get George. Hopefully, both directors are here at the office, too.”

“Good.” Tom strode out the door.

“God, this space is awful. The walls are practically cardboard,” Emma complained, coming back into the conference room. “I could hear every word in here from all the way out by my desk.”

“Just bloody fantastic.” We’d have to keep the terrible acoustics in mind, especially when it came to interviews. The last thing I wanted was to have someone waiting able to overhear another person being interviewed. Or to have Tom eavesdropping on my conversations with Emma.

Although I trusted her implicitly, I didn’t have the same trust in Tom.

“Things just got cozy. Guess there will be no private telephone for you, lover boy.”

I rolled my eyes at her teasing and finally placed the flower delivery for today. If everything went smoothly this first couple of days, I hoped to be able to sneak out on Wednesday to meet her for dinner.

But it turned out I didn’t have to wait that long. Ten minutes later in walked the very object of my thoughts.

---