Page 64 of Conquered Obstacles

“I second that,” Jamie grumbled, shrugging when I gave him an amused look. “This guy had a lot of dirt in that cabinet, and we’re not even a fraction through it. I’m glad we’re not holding back and are releasing it to the media.”

“Of course. We just want to make sure Costco makes the right choice first,” I practically purred.

I wanted to hope that Costco would have given me the chance to defend myself, but the “evidence” Gil had fabricated was pretty damn impressive. All fake, but impressive, and would have scared anyone with a lot of employees to protect.

The car was ready for us and took us right to the address. I used my power so everyone we came across thought we were on the list for the meeting and were expecting us. It would probably get people in trouble later, but they would have the excuse that how would I have known about the meeting if I wasn’t invited?

Or when it was about me?

Still, I got to make the Hollywood entrance into the conference room.

“Ahh, we finally get to meet, you lying sack of shit,” I greeted Gil with a smirk. I glanced around to everyone else and recognized a few of the execs I’d met before… Including the female I’d met in Boston.

Who looked very upset to be at that meeting.

Well, now shocked, but she had been pissed.

“Lovely to see some of you again, nice to meet others of you,” I said with my most winning smile.

“Ms. Baker, I don’t know how you got in here, but this is—”

“A meeting about me and to kick Karma Bakery out of Costco,” I said easily. “Yes, I know. I also knew to be here.” I smirked at Gil. “Do you need three guesses as to how I knew? You’re not very well-liked at your company. Probably because you’re pathetic garbage and use underhanded tactics like false health department complaints.”

“That is an outlandish accusation and—” he seethed.

Kary pulled out a file and set it in front of the guy who was clearly the boss of Costco.

“Those are all of your reports plus proof of payment to those people who supposedly filed them, but we made them go away,” I explained. “And while they were paid with a cashier’s check, we have the correspondence. Shockingly enough, they’re all relatives of employees. Not anyone obvious like spouses or siblings but cousins and we can connect it.”

“You are in a world of hurt legally for having our emails and—” the man next to Gil started to say.

“You really are going to try and take the high ground about legality for bribing people to pretend they filed health department complaints?” Mary mocked. “That’s fraud but not as bad of fraud as if they really did because you couldn’t make those go away, and that’s jail time for you and your client. This is just civil and awarding damages.”

Kary pointed to the file she’d put down. “And it’s in there that your attorney warned you of that so to do it this way. Also in there are all of our many health inspections because employees from his company were calling in bullshit complaints. We’ve since handled that madness, and there is a direct contact you can call at the health department who will verify everything.”

The female executive I’d talked with before snickered. “I thought it was crap. How could a factory producing so much for us have issues only at your location and not one complaint at any of our stores? On the contrary, people can’t stop talking about the quality. The meat buns all come from the same place, and that was one of the complaints.”

I smirked at Gil and his attorney when they twitched. “Awww, minions are so stupid. Did you tell them to only complain about the soup since Costco didn’t have that? Yeah, you also went after the cakes we offer them as well. So logic should have made this meeting a problem from the start.”

“For the record, it did, Ms. Baker,” the big boss said firmly. “And I don’t like bullies, which Mr. Mendoza always has been. He’s always overly pushy and makes it clear he’s doing us a favor.” His lips twitched when I snorted. “Whereas you have been extremely accommodating, appreciative, open about your limitations, and accepting of feedback.”

“I feel the same about Costco,” I admitted. “Most wouldn’t like the answers I’ve been giving, but you’ve been reasonable that I opened my doors not even seven months ago. If I didn’t have deep pockets to invest in myself, there was no way to ramp up this fast. And you’ve made it clear I have the blank check to back it since you will purchase more.”

He gave me a confident look. “We will. Mr. Mendoza made it clear that it was him or you. The choice wasn’t a hard one. We’d have riots and mobs if we suddenly stopped selling your goods without reason.”

“For the record, he was planning to burn you if you made that choice,” Jamie interjected, pulling out a folder and handing it to him. “He has media in his pocket ready to let out the fabricated story he told you, but that he warned Costco, and you picked profits over the safety of your customers.”

The man looked amused as he took the folder. “He would have found himself in a world of pain. He might be the president of a big company, but I’m the boss of a bigger one with global reach.”

“Yes, well, we all know idiots that don’t know their place,” I purred, smirking at Gil. “I gave you the chance to leave the past alone and move on after you tried to have your daughter be a spy at my factory. I even left your nonsense with Valentine’s Day alone because—”

“We will sue you for defamation if you keep on with these outlandish accusations,” the attorney snapped.

“We have the proof,” Kary drawled. “Want us to release it to the media? They won’t care how we got it. They’ll care you did it.”

A different executive snorted. “And we all knew you did it. Who else would try to sabotage the holiday orders for Valentine’s Day besides a petty man like you? It wasn’t a leap. We all knew who it was. Our damn PR people were asking if they could reach out to try and help with the situation because it was so obvious.”

“It really was,” I drawled. “Your employees were coming and apologizing when they did it, clearly having been forced. Some asked for applications and if I was hiring for corporate positions.” I nodded when both men were shocked. “How much did you seriously pay for that to backfire?”

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