Page 18 of All for Love

9

KODY

Lounging on the sofa in Kaden’s office, I squeezed the stress ball in my hand before tossing it up in the air. I watched the yellow rubber fly before it dropped, landing with a quiet thud in my palm before I squeezed it and tossed it right back up again.

“Would you stop that?” my brother snapped. “Quit brooding already. She’s our stepsister and she’s coming into the office. It’s not the end of the world.”

I sat up, catching the ball and squeezing it again but holding it in my hand this time. “Isn’t this bugging you? Dad brought her in without discussing it with us. Without even mentioning it, and now we’ve got to sit with her for the next three months.”

Kaden shrugged, leaning back in his chair and kicking his feet up on his desk, obviously realizing I wasn’t about to just let this go. “It’s more about doing the girl a favor than ‘fixing’ any of our problems. Mostly because we don’t have any of those kinds of problems in our organization. We’re a well-oiled machine.”

“I know, but that’s the point. We are a well-oiled machine and we’ve worked hard to get the operation running the way it is. She’s going to find fault because that’s her job, and then she’s going to change everything she says is broken.”

“What’s she going to change? Nothing. Nothing is broken. There’s no fault to be found. Let her come in, make things look pretty, and go.” He tucked his chin and flicked a finger at the door. “In the meantime, you and I have actual, real work to do. Will you go do yours so I can get around to mine?”

I grunted. “That’s easier said than done. Not my work, but letting her come in and throw everything into disarray under the guise of organizing.”

He sighed deeply. “Easy or not, it’s a done deal. She’s going to be here any minute now, so find a way to live with it and get to work. Before she arrives. Because when she does, we’re going to have to make nice for probably about an hour before we’ll be able to get back to doing our jobs.”

A knock at his door signaled that it was already too late. She was here.

And so, the nightmare begins.

I hadn’t seen her or spoken to her since she’d kicked me out, and I wasn’t looking forward to having to do it now. Kaden plastered a welcoming smile on his face and rose to his feet. “Come on in.”

The door opened slowly and Mercedes peeked around it, smiling back at him and completely ignoring me. “Hi. I don’t mean to interrupt. I can wait outside if you’re busy.”

“We’re all good. Come in. You’re not interrupting anything.” He moved out from around his desk and strode across his office to give her a quick, awkward hug. “We’re, uh, we’re excited to have you.”

“No, you’re not.” She stated it as fact with a nervous smile on her lips as she released him and moved further into the office. She had a laptop under one arm and was toting a small suitcase behind her—likely full of stickers, and label makers, and all kinds of other nerdy shit she was going to use to destroy our organizational systems.

Wearing a black pencil skirt, black button-down, black suit jacket, and black high heels, she looked professional. Like a businesswoman or a sales rep here to peddle her wares. Only her business was a crock of shit and we didn’t need her wares.

She glanced at me, eyes filled with animosity and her lips curled in distaste. Then she moved her gaze back to Kaden and addressed him instead. “Look, I know this wasn’t either of your ideas. I know you don’t want me here and I know you think I’m just going to make a mess of things, but I won’t. I’m confident I can actually be of help here.”

“Our office runs just fine,” I said, but Mercedes still didn’t look at me, barely acknowledging what I’d said with a slight incline of her head before smiling at Kaden.

“I’ll make it run even better if you’re open to the changes I suggest and go with the flow. What do you say? Can we give it a try?”

He nodded, running a hand through his hair as he headed back to his desk. “I’m willing to give it a shot.”

They both looked at me in the wake of his agreement, though Mercedes did it a lot more reluctantly. I swallowed a scoff. “Why are you looking at me? I’m not here to cause trouble and you’ve already been hired. It’s not like my opinion matters.”

“Good,” Kaden said as he moved in behind his desk and sat down again. “Can we get you some coffee? How does this work?”

“I just had some coffee on the way over, but thanks for the offer.” She looked around his office and took a deep breath before refocusing on him. “It’ll help if you could give me a tour of your offices. We can get started right away if you’d like.”

“Oh, sure. That sounds great.” He lifted his eyebrows at me. “Can you give her the tour? I have a call to make and a few urgent emails to answer before I can finally get started for the day.”

I breathed out slowly through my nostrils but gave him a tight nod and stood up. I fucking knew this was going to become my problem.

He flashed me a shit-eating grin as I walked to the door, and I rolled my eyes at him before motioning for her to precede me. Mercedes didn’t look any happier about getting stuck with me than I was about getting stuck with her. Her mouth set in a hard line.

Once she was out, I flipped him off and followed her, intent on getting this over with as soon as humanly possible. Sliding my hands into my pockets, I strode down the corridor at a clipped pace, not giving a damn if she and her suitcase kept up.

“This is the executive wing. Dad’s office is that way, mine’s next to Kaden’s, and you obviously know where that is.” I dipped my head to the left. “Breakroom is that way.”

I pointed down the next corridor to the right. “Bathrooms are over there. The floors below are marked as you get off the elevator, but immediately underneath us is our research and development team, then sales, marketing, and legal. Underneath them is tech and IT. Lower down, the levels are organized by industry and division.”