“You won’t know how to. You have no experience.”
“So send me the minutes from the last one.”
“It’s not justminutes,Amelia, it’s a whole report. Kaitlin gathers information from all attendees during the meeting and afterward. It’s plugged into a dashboard and has to be sent out to everyone by the close of business.”
“Well, then, let me take the notes, and once she’s back, she can work on the report. If her son is sick, that’s the priority.”
Beatrice blinks at me. My tone wasn’t particularly friendly, but I refuse to be reprimanded for helping someone out.
“Fine. But if you fuck this up, you’ll be out on your ass.”
If she knew how fond Crawford is of my ass, she might not be so confident about that.
I shrug. “Send me everything I need, and I’ll deal with it.”
Beatrice is halfway out the door, and she slows her pace, flashing a furious glance my way before she heads back to her desk.
I grab my phone and find three frantic texts from Kaitlin. One of them was sent before 6 a.m., and from the typos, it looks as if she has had very little sleep.
I fire one back, telling her I’m on top of everything and to focus on her son. An email flashes up on my monitor from Beatrice, and I open the attachment, my stomach churning as I read the endless notes inside.
After an hour of reading through the documents, James Kendrick arrives at my desk demanding to see Crawford, and I send him in.
I hear shouting about fifteen minutes later, and then Crawford and Kendrick come out, arguing with one another. Ileap to my feet, following them to the meeting, and Crawford looks back at me in confusion.
“Where the hell is Kaitlin?” Kendrick demands.
“She’s out sick,” I say. “I’m covering.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, that’s all we need.”
“Can it, Derek,” Crawford barks at him, then turns to me. “You know what you need to take down?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. Make sure you capture everything Barnes says. I don’t want any of this to be lost in the ether when he starts reneging on this fucking deal. And keep your mouth shut.”
I balk at his tone, following behind him meekly. I understand that he’s stressed, but I don’t appreciate being spoken to like that by anyone, particularly not when my throat is still sore from his cock slamming into it the night before.
The conference room I step into is huge. There’s a table in the center, and it appears to have been designed to be intimidating.
Franklin Barnes is on the other side of the room, surrounded by men in suits. Neither CEO looks happy to be there.
I recognize Vanessa Dickinson as she takes her place beside Crawford. I can tell by the way he interacts with her that there’s mutual respect there.
I hover, unsure where to sit, and then Crawford glances at me and indicates a chair at the edge of the room. I lower into it gratefully and am pleased to blend into the background as the meeting kicks off.
By the halfway mark, I’m almost pleased that Kaitlin isn’t here. I’ve never been privy to this kind of negotiation before, and it’s fascinating. By the time everyone has introduced themselves,I’ve got their names down on my sheet, and I can keep track of the discussion fairly easily as I type.
Franklin Barnes and Crawford clearly don’t get along.
“I won’t budge on this, Lucas,” Barnes is saying flatly. “If you can’t guarantee their protection, my employees are going to be thrown to the wolves the second I step away from this company.”
“And I’ve told you multiple times, as has my finance team, that the terms you’ve laid out are not feasible. I’m going to try and retain as many positions as possible, believe me, but a merger is just that. We won’t be able to keep everyone. That’s the reality.”
“And you won’t guarantee anything beyond twelve months!” Barnes snaps, his arm sweeping over the papers between them. “What’s the use of taking us on if all our best talent is lost in less than a year. It has to be a minimum of three.”
“If you continue down this line, you won’t have a company to salvage, Barnes. And I won’t think twice before pulling out of this merger altogether.”
