Page 95 of Twisted Truth

He jerks his head in the direction the people were walking. “You’ll all share the big conference room.”

“And when was this decided?”

“On the route between my office and your floor.” He runs his hand over his jaw, and I realize he does that when he’s stressed. “Matthew burst into my office with you on speaker, so I caught some of what that fucker was saying to you. Then Robert caught up to us on the way to the elevator saying that Jenkins had called needing backup because one of the male employees was becoming aggressive with you. And as we made our way there, I realized the distance between my office and your floor was too fucking long.

“I should have thought of this before. I should have realized that you couldn’t work on the same floor once our relationship was made public. It put you too much in the spotlight, evenwithin the office setting. So, then and there, I told Matthew you were moving to our floor where there’s extra security and the need of an electronic ID to even reach it.”

I stand from the couch, and Asher and I make our way out of his office and toward the conference room. The same conference room I signed my agreement in. Several maintenance workers are already in there disassembling the giant table. Emily walks up beside us, holding a box of her things. Then the other members of the team show up, also holding boxes.

“It will probably take the afternoon to get it set up,” Asher tells them. “So, you’ll have to work in the smaller conference room this afternoon, and then tomorrow, you’ll all be in here. For any projects outside of this one, all of you but Ella will meet with your normal teams downstairs. Any projects of hers will need to be conducted up here.”

Nobody says anything, but they all nod. Everyone looks to be on eggshells, afraid to do or say anything that might ignite Asher’s wrath.

“Get yourselves settled in the smaller conference room and then go to lunch.”

The team heads to the smaller conference room on the other side of the floor, and I see Matthew trail after them with a box of my things, and my laptop bag slung over his shoulder. But brushing past Matthew, heading our direction, is Janet and a couple other executives. Janet looks like she’s on a warpath.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” she half-shouts as she gets closer. “You cannot give over our conference room to your little girlfriend and her team!”

“I can, and I did.”

“I demand that this stop! How dare you bring them all up to the executive floor without clearance and permission. We need that conference room! Where will we have our board meetings?”

“You can’t demand anything, Janet. I am the largeststakeholder in this company, and as long as that is the case, I run this show. I have the majority vote on everything. And in case you weren’t aware, we have two other conference rooms on this floor. They’re not quite as big as this one, but they’re still available for any and all board meetings.”

“This is not how we do things at Langford Holdings!”

“As the fuckingheirto the Langford line, I think I’ll dictate how things go with anything that has the name Langford attached to it. If you don’t like it, I’ll make sure you’re voted out of your position at the next board meeting. Now go fuck off.”

Janet tries for a moment to hiss out a rebuttal before finally turning on her heels and storming away. The two men with her, who never said a word, follow her.

“I have got to get rid of that troll bitch,” Asher groans, rubbing his jaw again.

Asher’s brother Declan saunters around the corner. “Hello, hello, family.”

“I’m not in the mood, Dec,” Asher groans.

Declan stands with us outside the conference room doors, surveying the taking-apart of the table.

“I heard the shouting, and I had to see it with my own eyes.”

“What is going on?” Asher’s father, Harrington, asks, walking our way. “I was on a phone call and heard Janet screaming as she barreled past my office.”

“The benevolent King Asher has invited the rabble up from their humble floor to labor in our ivory tower, and now Janet is ready to have an aneurysm,” Declan says in a haughty, silly accent.

Asher lets out a derisive chuckle. “Let’s hope this one sticks.”

Declan bursts out laughing as I swat Asher on the arm.

Asher’s father raises his brows. “What prompted this?”

“Ella was confronted by a male coworker who thought hecould be aggressive and yell at her for dating me,” Asher growls.

“Are you alright, Ella?” Harrington asks, concern in his eyes.

“I’m fine. Jenkins stepped in before anything got out of hand.”

“Thank god for that.” Harrington takes my hand in both of his and gives it a reassuring squeeze. He drops my hand and turns to Asher. “I assume he’s gone and out of our building?”