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“Without Callie, I’m not even sure we would have stayed in the same room,” I pointed out with a smirk, enjoying the chill of the bottle against the side of my neck to combat the heat. “But the real truth? I would have done anything to make this work.”
“It’s that important to you, huh?” Liam lifted a brow.
“Yes, but when this takes off, I can finally prove to my dad that I know what I’m doing. Everything else doesn’t mean shit in his eyes because all he sees is how badly we’ve been declining.”
Liam scoffed. “It’s only a decline because that asshole, no disrespect, bloated the profits. When all you care about is money, that’s all that matters.”
“You’re right, but…” I sighed. There was one side of the company I didn’t like to talk about. My father did that enough for the both of us. “We’ve lost a lot of money and continue to do so. I know it looks like we’re on top but I’ve been using a lot of personal funds to keep this place running.”
Liam leaned forward and his face pinched in concern. “I thought we were the ones to beat?”
“Technically. If you don’t look at how much we’re bleeding each year. So much now rides on this patent, even with Kane’s help to keep the costs low. At a glance, we’re fine but if we were still in the investment market? We’d be the dregs at the bottom of a two-week-old mug.”
“Shit,” Liam breathed out slowly. “I had no idea the company was in that much trouble.”
“The cost of doing good,” I muttered, moving the bottle to the other side of my neck. “So I was prepared to do everything and anything Kane asked of me to get this to be successful?—”
“Oh my god.” Callie stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. A red binder sat in her hands, and her eyes darted from me to Liam.
“Callie?” Liam swiveled to face her.
All color drained from her face. “Crane… Crane Enterprises is in trouble?”
“Technically,” I pointed out, my heart sinking slightly. I hadn’t realized she was standing there and the last thing I wanted was for her to hear anything that would make her doubt her work position.
“But not for long,” Liam added with a smile. “With the new patent, we’ll be back in the green so fast.”
“With any transition, there are some troubled waters,” I explained as Callie turned as white as a sheet. “We went from Investment to Medical and that is a tough change, on top of keeping everyone employed, our own shareholders happy and more. We may have been losing money these past few years but this deal with Kane? It’s going to turn everything around.”
“Does Kane know?” Liam asked, glancing back at me.
“He knows enough to know how important it was for Golden Dove to absorb production costs for the first eighteen months.” I couldn’t take my eyes off Callie. She looked ready to be knocked over with a feather.
“I had no idea,” Callie said weakly. “I thought— I thought the company was fine. Strong. I thought?—”
“Hey,” I interrupted gently, not wanting her to spiral. “Your job is safe. Everyone’s jobs are safe. It’s just?—.”
Anything else I wanted to say died in my throat when the door behind Callie pushed wide open, and in strode my father, Marcus Crane.
“Sawyer!” He barked so loud that Callie jumped a foot in the air and shrunk back against the wall.
Acid churned in my gut, and my heart began to pound violently.
“Father.”
“Don’t father me.” My father reached me in long strides, pausing a few feet away as I stood. “What the fucking hell do you think you are playing that?”
Given my father’s temper, there were infinite things I could have done that made him this angry. My water bottle crinkled inward under my grip.
“You’ll have to be a bit more specific, Dad,” I said as coolly as I could, keeping one eye on Callie.
“You have some fucking nerve!” He stepped forward and brushed off Liam who stood and tried to get in his way. “Not only are you dragging the reputation of this company through the mud by trying to finalize a huge deal based on a stolen patent, but on top of that, you’re still doing it in partnership with Golden Dove? Have you no shame?!”
Louder and louder he yelled, sending cold shivers stabbing down my spine and my cheeks warmed. It was a struggle to process everything in his rant when he didn’t pause for breath.
“Dad—”
“I’m so ashamed of you. I didn’t think you could sink any lower but it’s bad decision after bad decision, and I am through watching you steer my life's work over the fucking cliff!”
