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“Jesus, you look like shit,” Alice said. “And I forgot my key.”
I nodded, turned away and trudged back into the penthouse. I heard her follow me and close the door.
“What the hell happened to you?” she asked, rushing past me and dropping her purse on the kitchen counter. She quickly set up the coffee machine, switched it on, then turned her attention back to me. “If you were hoping to dismiss any rumors about a drug addiction, you definitely can’t do it like that.”
“I just need a few minutes to get my head straight,” I said. “Coffee and Tylenol, and I’ll be fine. An hour max.” My words slurred, and I heard my voice as if it were coming from far away.
“The board meeting is in an hour,” Alice said, “and you have to be ready for that. Here, take these.”
I took the pills from her and downed them without thinking twice, washing them down with large gulps of water that ran down my chin and drenched my shirt. When I looked up at Alice again, she was regarding me with a look of complete distaste and hint of pity.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I said.
“You’re in a mess,” Alice countered. “It’s a good thing I decided to pass by before you showed up at the office. If you had come in looking like that, they would have asked security to escort you out.”
“Security won’t escort me anywhere,” I said. “It’s my fucking company.”
“It’s Chance Ridder’s company, for now,” Alice replied. “I don’t know who the hell you are.”
I shot her an annoyed glare, then looked away when I couldn’t hold it for too long. I felt heavy, as if the ground were pulling me towards it, promising peace and rest if I just laid down and never got back up. It was a tempting notion. One that I knew, though, that Alice would not allow.
“Get cleaned up, we need to get moving,” Alice said.
“In a minute.”
“Chance, seriously, this isn’t a joking matter.”
“In a minute!”
My outburst took her by surprise. She was used to the composed version of me, the one that didn’t care if the sky fell all around him because he knew that he was too special to be touched. I always gave her the appearance of a man who had his shit together, and the fact that she was the same was why we worked well together. Sudden bursts of fury were unlike me, and it shocked me as much as it did her.
“Sorry,” I said, scratching the back of my head and sighing. “I’ll get dressed.”
She didn’t reply as I got off the stool and made my way back upstairs.
We rode to the office in silence, and I could feel the tension in the air like a black shroud of distaste and dissent. Every now and then, I’d catch Miles looking at me in the rearview mirror, and although my impulse was to yell at him to keep his eyes on the road, I fought it back. I needed to keep my cool if I wanted to have any positive effect in today’s meeting.
I had the element of surprise on my side, which was a good thing. Alice had tried to keep my ‘return from the dark side’ as much of a secret as possible. It was a smart move, something that would give me the edge when I walked in on the board members while they decided the fate of my company without me. If Dennis had even caught wind of the fact that I was coming back, he’d be prepared. The son of a bitch was always fucking prepared.
Alice briefly told me about the paperwork I would need to fill once the meeting was over, and she already had a memo regarding Dennis’s dismissal ready to send out once I took the company reins once again. She had called a meeting with the company lawyers, had not told them what it was about, just so we can legally kick Dennis’s ass and make sure he stayed down. He had shares in the company, something none of us could really do anything about, but when this was all over, he’d be getting his information on Ridder Technology just like every other shareholder did; through email.
We drove into the garage, the tinted windows hiding me from the security guards as they waved us through. Miles chose to park in a spot other than my regular one, a little closer to the door. I brushed my fingers through my hair, straightened my tie and looked at Alice.
“How do I look?”
Alice only glanced at me before she stepped out. “Like a million dollars. Which is sad considering you’re worth a million times more.”
She said with such disgust, it made me cringe. I brushed it off quickly, making a mental note to talk to her after this was over and clear the air. She had been by my side for years, and I wasn’t willing to lose her now.
For a split second, Ashlyn’s face flashed before my eyes, and I realized I had not checked my phone since last night. There were no messages from her, no missed calls. Nothing.
Keep your head in the game. One shit storm at a time, buddy.
I stepped out of the car and followed Alice into the building.
The security guard by the elevators froze when he saw us, his eyes wide for a few seconds before he smiled at me. “Welcome back, Mr. Ridder.”
“Good to be back…” I squinted at the name plate on his chest. “Roger.”
