Alester grunts his agreement.
My mind is turning to static. “Alester, what’s happening from your end.”
It’s silent, then Alester’s voice gets close to the speaker. “I noticed some background noise coming through in my programming. I wanted to wait to see what would happen before I told you.I put a flag on the movement. Someone not as tech savvy was trying to dig through our open accounts. I have everything important under lockdown, only public knowledge is accessible as a sort of mouse trap.”
“Okay, just get to the point,” I huff.
“Right. Right. Okay, well, that’s how I caught him. He was digging through those files, then I traced it to a call to our public partnerships and found him setting up a meeting with Family Farms. Someone named Taylor. I’m getting more information on him as we speak. My bots are tracking him and pulling his history.”
“Okay…”
I heard him, but it’s like I’m under water. My mind is racing back to the hospital. To dad.
Dad is propped up in his hospital bed. Machines are hooked to his finger and arm, and an IV is stuck in his other arm. His skin is ashen, voice hoarse, as I sit with him, and we go over my college presentation to pass the time. I look back at my notebook. “So, we have to come up with a business proposal for class to pitch and prove it’s a doable concept.”
Dad nods for me to continue. His wheels are turning.
“Ryder and I are going over an idea for a marketing company that does full advertisement for emerging and current companies. We would approach them, come up with mockups created by artists, and bring those concepts to other companies that align with their brands to help them bridge the gap. Basically, we do the heavy lifting, so the companies can focus on their day-to-day work.”
Dad coughs into his hospital gown. A trail of blood smears his sleeve. “That sounds like a great idea, bud. But which company would you start with first?” He coughs again, and this time I try not to look at the blood coming out. Time is fleeting.
“Well, it’s just for class, Dad. I don’t think we need to come up with a legit company.” I frown at my notebook, thinking. Bouncing my pen up and down.
“Son, we both know once you get an idea, you don’t tend to let it…” He coughs again, so I get up and bring the box of tissues closer and fill a cup with water. He wipes his mouth and takes a drink before settling back against the pillows. “Thank you. You don’t tend to let ideas go.” He pauses and takes another sip of water. “What about Family Farms? They’re a small company, not well known, and they’re good people. They could use the help getting their name out there.”
Now my wheels are turning quickly. I’m going to need to bring Alester into this. He’s the computer guy and can set up websites to reach more people digitally. Maybe we can get a design student to do our first mockup, for practice. I’m going to have to set up a meeting, maybe Ryder can start reaching out to designers while I do that.
“Son?” Dad reaches over and pats my leg.
My head snaps up to meet his eyes. They’re getting more yellow and glazed over as the cancer spreads through his body and takes over everything. “Yeah, Dad. Just thinking. I’ll reach out to them and set up a meeting.” I jot down some notes in my book for everything spinning in my head.
His weak smile barely reaches his eyes nowadays, as he looks at me. “You’re going to do great things, my boy. I’m so proud of you.”
“JAMES! Hello? Are you coming or what?” Ryder screams into the phone. I can hear Alester in the background telling him to calm the fuck down.
“I’m coming. I just have to move some snow first.” I click off the line before Ryder can start up again, and quickly get to work.
I will not lose Family Farms. I don’t care how small they are. They are endlessly tied to my dad, and I can’t lose that after I’ve already losthim.
I rub my hands over my face. I hate that I have to leave the cabin. Alex is everything and it felt like she was finally seeing our possibilities, but I also can’t lose this part of my dad. I just hope she will understand why I had to leave so quickly. I don’t even remember much of moving the snow or getting in my truck and peeling down the driveway. How I didn’t get stuck on the gravel drive is a surprise to me. The tree coverage that I haven’ttrimmed in a while probably helped with the snow buildup, but I just hit the gas and went.
The entire drive back is a blur, but I’m in the parking lot of Edward Corporation now. I wish I was smart enough to have gotten Alex’s number at this point, but I guess I can always have Alester track her down, if I don’t find her first.
I kick open the door to my truck and make my way into the building. It’s time to get to work.
Part
Two
CHAPTER 18
James
I makemy way into my building, bypassing security. Thomas sits at his desk in the front lobby, it’s just somewhere for him to relax and do whatever else he likes to do while he waits for us to need him. He tries to get my attention, but I’m not in the right mindset to interact with anyone but my cousins.
I rush to the elevator and stab the button for the top floor. Impatiently, I tap my foot on the slick floor as the elevator slowly ascends up the thirteen floors. Half of this building is still sitting empty as we hire and remodel different floors for what will work for our company, but still, this building is too big for what we need. I’ll either need to expand operations or rent out some of the floors. The latter makes my skin crawl, but if they’re companies I work with that might need a drop in space, that I could work with. I pull out my phone to send an email to Stacyabout my idea and to draft some proposals, even in a crisis ideas can’t be ignored.
Stacy stands when the elevator doors open, and I step out onto our floor. I wave for her to sit. “Later, Stace.” She nods and goes back to working on her computer. She’s used to the three of us in crisis mode, and with the way Ryder sounded on the phone, I’d guess she’s been dealing with it the entire time I’ve been gone.
