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2.
Ryan
“You’re insane.”
“Not insane.” I shake my head. “Strategic.”
“You don’t know the meaning of the word.” Allison Green is staring at me like she’s never wanted to rip my head off more, and to be honest, I can’t entirely blame her. A lot has changed since my father passed away, and cutting projects is one of the things I’ve decided to tackle immediately. It’s time to trim the fat, so to speak.
My father liked to fiddle. He liked to have his hands in a lot of different things. Unfortunately for dear old dad, this type of behavior doesn’t exactly make a company blossom and grow. It holds it back. Despite the fact that my stepmother, Megan, is loitering in the background of everything the business does, she’s strangely okay with me reducing the number of holdings my father has.
Had.
Besides, I have no real proof yet, but something tells me that my father wasn’t always above board with the things he chose to do with his money or his company. There are a number of...complexities...involving the company. That’s why I’ve called Allison here. I’m hoping she can shed some light on a couple of things that are giving me hell. Once Allison and I sort things out, I’ll be able to minimize our holdings even more. Then Megan can go away, and I won’t have to think about my dad’s former life any longer. He left the company to me and my brothers, but mostly to me. Megan has her hands in more than I’d like, but once we finalize a little bit of paperwork, she’s going to disappear.
Forever, I hope.
But before I can deal with Megan, I have to deal with Allison, and despite it being 7:30 in the morning, I’ve already managed to piss her off.
“You can’t cut this.”
“It’s getting cut.”
Allison Green is the project lead for an endeavor called Project Sunshine. It’s a creepy sort of name and to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what my dad wanted to accomplish with that project. We’re a company that specializes in other companies. Shadowvale Industries owns the whole damn town. We’ve got the real estate market cornered. We own the pharmacies. Hell, I’ve even got a bid in on the local auction house, which is about to be sold simply because the previous owner passed away. We collect. We improve. We resell.
What I don’t understand is why Project Sunshine exists or why my father was funding it with so much ferocity. As far as I can tell, it is – or was, I’m not entirely sure – a small project dedicated to funding animal shelters in the area. While that’s noble, we have another project that does the exact same thing but on a greater level. There’s no need to duplicate efforts. That’s just bad business.
“Look,” Allison says. “I get that you have to make cuts, but not this project.” She balls her hands into fists and then relaxes them. Everything about her is screaming “lies” and “nervousness.” Allison is the type of person who is always in control of everything. From her tight bun to her perfectly ironed pantsuit, I have to wonder when the last time she got laid was. She could really use someone to take the edge off of her attitude.
Not me.
“Why not?” I’m almost bored with this conversation, but I’m willing to hear her out. She was supposed to answer questions Project Sunshine, but so far, she’s just complained about me and the way I’m trying to run the company.
“Your father was really passionate about it,” Allison explains. She paces back and forth in front of my desk. Her heels click against the floor loudly. She’s always in heels. I wonder if this was another rule my father had for her. I’m starting to discover that almost everything that happens at Shadowvale Industries was originally set up by my father for a myriad of reasons.
Maybe he just didn’t want the women to be able to run away.
The thought makes me shudder.
“And can you explain to me why this project hasn’t made any sort of return on investment in,” I thumb through a stack of papers in front of me, “six months?” I’m not even completely clear on what it is. All I know is that it’s not bringing in money, so we don’t need it. End of story.
“I can give you the data,” she says. “I can give you the information. It’s for animal shelters, though, Ryan. The information is harder to access than if we were dealing with, say, a franchise of hardware stores.”
Something in her tone sounds desperate. Shit. The sound of her voice goes straight to my dick. It’s all I can do to keep from offering to fuck the information right out of her pretty little mouth. I don’t, of course. I can’t fuck Allison. Not that I wouldn’t love to. I just keep business and pleasure separate.
Very separate.
That’s another area where my father and I differ immensely. He was always sleeping with people at work. While I’m not morally opposed to that on any level, I like to keep a clear head.
Besides, I’m pretty sure Allison and my father had a thing. I haven’t asked her about it, but I think she’s in mourning on some level. I don’t have any proof for that yet, either. I don’t really care. Megan already asked me to fire Allison, so I’m guessing that if there was something going down between Allison and Dad, Megan is fully aware of the situation.
“Get it to me tomorrow.” I point to the door, and she understands that our time here is over. Allison turns and leaves. She doesn’t pause at the door and look longingly over her shoulder. She doesn’t try to argue with me. She just goes, and when she’s gone, I breathe a sigh of relief that the meeting is over.
Then a sense of dread settles over me.
Well, shit.
I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get dear old dad’s business completely tidied up. I’ve been in charge for six months now. Six long months and I’m still sorting through shit he should have told me about before he died. After college, I started working with him immediately. Taking over the family business was always going to be the plan, of course. I’m a legacy.
