Page 19 of Yours to Keep

This project was already operating on a razor-thin budget. All the costs so far had left little wiggle room for all the maintenance and improvements that needed to be made to the hospital as a whole, and having to upgrade the security system was borderline criminal. How had the previous owners not ensured sufficient coverage?

It was unthinkable, yet another act of negligence that certainly made it a little more obvious why the employees suddenly had such a big problem with being properly overseen and managed. From the looks of things, they’d been allowed to run amok in the past, and now that someone was actually taking control, they couldn’t handle it.

I stared at the dark screen and thought again about Bree Bennett, so infuriatingly principled and far too comfortable challenging me. This hospital wasn’t supposed to have been a difficult project, and yet, here it was, testing me with cake flyers, vandalized signs, and more expensive problems to fix.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the head of security said, drawing my attention out of my thoughts and back to the present. “We can ask around and try to find out if somebody saw anything suspicious, but it’s unlikely they’ll turn on each other.”

Gears churned in my head. I spun around again and left before I said something that would require an apology I had no intention of making. The lack of cameras in those areas wasn’t this guy’s fault. I got that. I also understood what he meant about going to the employees being useless.

No doubt they were all secretly applauding whoever had done this. There was no way they’d side with me by providing us with any information, but the fact that the head of security could sit there and shrug it off was appalling.

Marching out of the security room, I was fuming, but I finally got back on course and went to meet the construction crew. The foreman was waiting in the lobby, hard hat tucked under his arm, and he stepped forward when he saw me coming, extending a hand after pointedly checking his watch.

Yeah. Yeah. I’m late. I know.

“Mr. Crowne,” he said, bowing his head slightly as we shook. “It’s a pleasure, sir.”

“I apologize for the delay,” I said, because I wasn’t a completely arrogant buffoon like the people who worked in this godforsaken hospital seemed to believe. “An urgent matter came up that had to be dealt with. Right this way. Let’s not waste any more time.”

The man nodded and fell into step beside me as I headed for the elevators, but while he immediately launched into discussing the project, my mind was still on cake flyers and scratched metal signs. I was paying top dollar to be mocked by my own employees and I was not pleased about it.

We took the service elevator up to the fifth floor and the doors opened onto a gutted space that smelled like dust and old insulation. Right now, the space was only exposed beams, plastic sheeting, and concrete floors, but soon, it would be so much more.

This was the part that mattered, the reason I’d bought the hospital in the first place. As I strode across the space, I told them what I wanted, watching the foreman scribble notes as we went. “Diagnostics here. Imaging should go over there. We’ll need reinforced flooring for the new equipment and clean rooms along that wall.”

He nodded, asking a few questions and stopping me when he needed to. I answered them without thought, my mouth on autopilot while my brain replayed Bree Bennett’s face when she’d looked at me like I was the problem.

It was annoyingly distracting, but unavoidable at this point.

Finally, one of the guys on the crew cleared his throat behind me. “Hey, uh, boss. Can I ask you something?”

I glanced at him over my shoulder, already moving into the next hallway. “If it’s about timelines or permits, yes.”

He grinned. “Is it true you banned birthdays in the building?”

The others snorted. I stared at him, temper flaring again while I wondered if no one in this world had manners anymore. For heaven’s sake.

“Stop asking stupid questions,” I said flatly, then kept walking, but by the time I showed them out after our meeting was done, my face hurt from clenching my jaw so hard.

Back in my temporary office, I tossed my jacket over a chair and poured a drink. Liana was already there, leaning back on one of the chairs and scrolling through her phone.

“You’re still trending,” she said without looking up.

“I don’t care.”

“Of course, you do.” She finally lifted her gaze to mine, concern shining in those green eyes despite the flicker of amusement also still in them. “You have to and this is me you’re talking to. There’s nobody else here. You can be honest.”

“Fine.” I gripped my tumbler so hard, I was aware that the glass might crack, but I didn’t give a shit right now. “I don’t get it. What I’m trying to do here will make this place a cutting-edge medical center. These people will be able to help more patients than ever before. They’ll be able to do it faster, with more resources and equipment than almost any other hospital in the country, and this is how they treat me?”

“Let me play the devil’s advocate for a minute.” She exhaled long and slow. “This is basically what you were asking for when you said you didn’t give a single fuck if they like you or not. Now they’ve turned the tables and they’re letting you know that they don’t, in fact, like you. The ball’s in your court, Sullivan.”

“There’s a difference between not liking me and vandalism,” I seethed. “There’s being displeased with your boss and actively tanking your workplace’s reputation. Those things are not the same, Liana.”

“I think you might just be realizing why it’s bad for business to run things like a dictator,” she reasoned gently. “The day you got here, you tried to demand their respect instead of earning it, and it got their attention. Perhaps not in the way you wanted it, but given what you said and everything you’ve done, this is what you were always going to get.”

I waved her advice away. Not mean. Just stubborn. “I’ll turn things around my own way.”

She sighed. “You always say that.”