Page 8 of Grave Kisses
I am lying inbed, staring at the ceiling. Yesterday, I left early after finding out the board meeting was rescheduled for today. Julie thinks Marcus is going to try and force me to speak up by using the board, but it won’t work. I refuse. Julie spent all night texting me to make sure I was okay, but I just focused on packing up my desk. I have the meeting first thing this morning, and then I’ll work on setting up. Julie is taking in appointments and rescheduling what she can for me, so this week I should be able to focus on getting shit straight.
Eventually, I get up and get ready for the day. I can’t just lie here and wish away all the bad in the world. I packed my vehicle full last night, so this should be fun to unload. I am wearing flats today because that’s a lot of walking in heels to take all of this upstairs.
The first floor of the building is mostly just the receptionist's desk, conference rooms, and the main break room. The second floor is used for training. The third is CyberSafe. Fourth is Teller Security, and Vanderbilt is fifth. I know there was talk of moving everything into a much larger building because right now, we don’t have the room to function as well as we could. I’m hoping that is still the plan because Alan had so much he wanted to do to expand. We talked for hours about it, so I have a good idea of everything. I just need to get into the habit of everything.
When I get to the office, Julie is waiting for me outside Alan’s office. “Hey,” I say.
“Hi. Are you ready?” she asks.
“Mhmm. Everything go okay yesterday?”
“Uhm… When you left, Marcus came down and was lurking. I don't know if he was just watching or if he was actually giving commands.”
“He has some fucking nerve,” I snap. “Fuck, he is annoying.”
“He’s… protective,” she says. “I called Martin about what happened, and he said Marcus called to ask about you. He didn’t tell him but did inform him that you weren’t anything romantic to Alan.”
“I shouldn’t have hit him,” I say.
“He deserved it,” she says with a shrug. “Come on. The board came early for whatever reason.”
“I have a bad feeling about this,” I say.
I take the tablet, and Julie follows with her laptop and a file folder down to the main conference room. When I walk in, everyone abruptly stops talking and looks at me. “Good morning, Kendra,” Bellamy says.
“Morning, Bellamy,” I say with a half smile as I set my belongings down.
“Who are you?” one man asks. I’ve seen their pictures, so when I look up, I know that he is Jerry Pace.
“Kendra Lennox,” I say as I take the file folder from Julie. I go around and hand all nine men a paper, which is a copy of the paperwork naming me as the owner. I don’t need to give Marcus or Bellamy one, but I do anyway. “Before anyone starts in on the questions…”
“Do you even know their names, or are you just pretending you know what you are doing?” Marcus asks coldly.
“Jerry Pace, Richard Halbrook, Bradley Cormack, Robert Ellison, Gregory Shaw, Keith Donner, and Scott Brenner,” I say. “Would you like me to list the names of their companies and their secretaries' names also? How about if Alan liked them or not?”
“Can you just tell us a little about yourself?” Jerry asks.
“I am twenty-eight. I graduated from MIT with high honors in computer engineering at twenty-four. I started out as an intern at CyberSafe at sixteen, and now I’m here,” I say. “Just because Alan didn’t mention me doesn’t mean I didn’t exist.”
“I would like to call a vote,” Marcus says. “Because none of us have met or heard of Kendra, I feel as though she should explain her connection to Alan. Our job is to protect all aspects of this company and its subsidiaries, so it is only right that we know.”
“You can’t make me explain,” I snap.
“Actually, I can,” Marcus says. “If the vote passes, you either answer within a week, or you will be replaced on the board.”
“You can’t…”
“I own Vanderbilt Technologies; I can do whatever I want,” he says. “We don’t have to include you in meetings, and we can also vote to separate CyberSafe from us entirely. How long will you stand on your own, Kendra?”
“Let’s vote,” Jerry says. “All in favor of an explanation, raise your hand.”
Everyone raises their hand, except Bellamy. He simply sits back in his chair and scribbles a few notes down while everyone stares at me. “You have one week to explain, or you will no longer bewelcome at the board meetings, and I will start the vote to have CyberSafe dropped from the Vanderbilt name.”
“I still own thirty percent,” I say.
“And all that entitles you to is a paycheck, which you will get,” he says.
“Fine,” I say as I sit with Julie.
