"What are you doing?" I asked, stepping farther into the room. The door clicked shut behind me, but I barely registered it. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’d been working on that acquisition for six months now. The entire meeting was supposed to be me presenting to the few board members who were in the office today to get a feel for how things would work out.
"We had a meeting that started thirteen minutes ago. Asher. I'm taking initiative." Clayton scowled at me then turned back to the whiteboard with his clicker. "Now, as you see, the deal I've worked out with Channing?—"
"You?" I hissed, walking closer. "You didn’t work anything out. I've been the one handling this acquisition. I spoke with Mr. Channing this morning and?—"
"Stop interrupting me." Clayton's eyes narrowed and his face hardened. "Your drunkenness almost cost us this entire acquisition."
I was seething. Clayton had no right to start this meeting. He hadn't done a shred of this work. Sure he'd shown up to a few meetings early on, but that was it. This was my deal he was hijacking.
"I called this meeting!" I boomed, not even a tiny bit aware that my board was watching. This was between me and my snake of a brother who wanted to steal this company out from under me.
"And you were late. I thought you were drunk somewhere sleeping it off. Now if you'll excuse me I have things to cover still."
My rage hit its boiling point. After everything he'd done, I lost it. He'd been physical with the woman I loved, lied to me about her nature, lied to my board about my capabilities, and wound up manipulating them into believing I needed someone to watch me work every day, and this was the final straw.
I launched at him, leaning over the table to grab him by both lapels and drag him to my side. Papers flew everywhere. Robert leapt out of his seat to move away, and Clayton clung to my wrists as he yelped in surprise and gasped for air.
"How dare you! This is my company. I run this show. You can't just walk in here and take what you want. I'm in charge." My entire body shook with rage as he collected himself and got his feet under him. But I still didn’t let go.
"Looks like you're still not as collected as you think you are," Clayton quipped calmly so I shoved him. And it wasn’t a tiny push either. He went down hard, toppling a board member's chair, sending it sliding into the drink station where cups tipped over and the coffee pot danced.
"Christ," Clayton hissed, and I felt hands on my arms as Robert pulled me back.
"Asher, calm down," Robert urged. The other board members stood and backed away like they were watching two wild animals tangle.
"I can't believe you. I'm the one that put in all the work for that acquisition. The tireless meetings, the?—"
"You were drunk and raging, just like now." Clayton jerked himself off the floor and straightened his suit coat as Robert continued to hold me back. "You have been nothing but a nuisance in this company for two years because you let your emotions dictate your actions. You ruined multiple deals by being too drunk to go to meetings. You lost clients we counted on to help pay the bills, and our stock fell by eight percent! A minus eight!"
Shrinking back, I jerked free of Robert's hands and ran a hand through my hair as Clayton continued dressing me down.
"This board has stood by you since you went off the deep end, and you continue to prove you are completely unfit for duty. You should be ashamed of yourself." My brother's chest heaved, nostrils flared as he smoothed his hair back and righted the chair.
I was ready to punch him anyway. I'd been bottling up my anger about him and his conniving ways for so long they became impossible to hold back now. Since the day our father died Clayton had made it clear he hated me. This was just one more thing to stab me in the back and provoke me so I'd look like a fool.
"Take a walk, Asher…" Robert walked in front of me offering a stern expression, and I got the point. I was skating the line he was comfortable putting up with. I respected him too, a great deal more than I did my own brother.
My jaw tightened but I turned and walked out, slamming the door behind me. My hands shook as I marched up the hallwaytoward my office. Since getting sober I hadn't been so out of control, and I had no clue how to settle myself at all. I was raging, craving a drink so badly I could almost taste it.
Then I remembered the first time Veda and I kissed, the spark we had, and how afterward my desperate need to drink had vanished. Walking closer to her desk, I started to crave her now too, more than the drink my body instinctually reached for. So when I saw her seated there with her head down, staring at files she was proofreading, I knew what I wanted.
I got close enough she could hear me, but far away enough that no one else could, and I grumbled, "My office now," and kept walking, not turning back to see if she was obeying.
Of course she was.
She knew how bad I needed her.
Probably better than I did.
22
VEDA
I couldn't believe what I was reading. I'd only been at this company about eight weeks now but I knew this memo wasn't right. It came in the files Jared dropped on my desk and moments later Asher walked into that meeting. It was no wonder when he stormed past my desk grumbling for me to follow him that he was upset. Clayton was a total jerk.
My skirt bunched as I popped up from my desk to scurry after him, barely keeping pace until the office door slammed shut behind us loud enough for the whole office to hear. Asher locked the door, which wasn’t like him, and then shuttered the windows and turned on me like a rabid dog.
"I can't believe the nerve of that man!" he hissed. "And to think I call him my brother. He's no brother. He's a?—"
