Page 129 of Altius
“Watch your back. That’s the last piece of advice you’ll get from me.” She turned her chair to face the window. “And I’dbetter have your spring heat leave request on my desk as soon as possible. No exceptions this time.”
Thirty-One
Morgan
“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Jacobi asked as he helped himself to another serving of Kelsey’s homemade gnocchi. “You smelled foul all weekend—at least until a certain someone slipped in late last night. Now you’re all gross again.”
Glancing across the table, I raised a brow at Kelsey for confirmation.
My sister gave a reluctant nod. “It’s true.”
“You should have told me. I’ll go spray—”
“Just tell me which idiot I need to kick in the knot,” Jacobi said, shoveling an overloaded forkful of gnocchi into his mouth.
“It’s not one of the guys.” I took a sip of water. “Nor do they have a knot. Dr. Sethi got on my case today, and… Well, it got personal.”
Kelsey set her fork down and studied my face. “She knows about you and Cal?”
“Seems like it. As well as who was at my heat.”
I was almost finished filling them in when the front door unlocked with a sharp beep.
Cal trudged across the threshold with his head bowed. He was wearing his blue suit, clean-shaven with his hair slicked back.
A glance at the clock on the stove confirmed he was early. Really early. Had the board members canceled their dinner plans?
I was on him in a flash, arms wrapped tight around his bulky frame. “What happened?”
“Fucking Chaz,” he ground out, returning my hug with double the force. “He—”
A polite rap at the front door interrupted him. Only one resident on this floor still bothered to knock rather than using the door code.
Cal exhaled and reached back to open the door for a frost-faced Owen.
“I know Chaz is a first-rate asshole,” he said as he strode in, heading straight for the reading chair by the fireplace, “but does he have to prove it quite so often?”
Capturing one of Cal’s large hands in both of mine, I led him to the couch, urging him to sit before asking, “What did your father do?”
Jacobi cleared his throat and began reading from his phone, “Chaz Carling, CEO of Verray Shipping, held a surprise press conference this evening to answer questions about recent embezzlement accusations and suspicions of inequitable designation hiring practices…and to appoint Burke Carling as the new Vice President of the troubled Logistics Division.”
“Who’s that?” Kelsey asked, peering over Jacobi’s shoulder.
Cal let out a sarcastic grunt. “My youngest uncle.”
“A veritable kiss-ass without half of Heather’s qualifications,” Owen added.
“She got passed over again?” I asked.
“Oh no, it’s worse than that.” Slumping down on the couch, Cal ran a hand through his hair, returning some of its usual tousled charm. “She’s now the junior VP—theonlyjunior VP inthe company—which means she’s still going to do all the work while another incapable alpha gets all the credit.”
Heather might not be my favorite person, but I was irked on her behalf. “He’s really using his own daughter to make it look like they promote betas to positions of power?”
“It’ll shut the media up,” Cal said with a weary shrug.
Owen straightened his glasses and sneered. “Because nepotism solves everything.”
“That blows.” Jacobi dropped his phone on the table in disgust.
