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“Mom, he’s going to be okay if you let the doctors do what they need to do.”
“Hayden. Wake up for me, baby. Wake up!”
“Mr. Lowell, I’ve got you scheduled on a 4:37 flight out of JFK International. Straight shot to your destination if the weather stays nice.”
“Thanks, Alicia. I’m glad there’s someone in this company I can count on.”
“Sir, if I may?” she asked.
I slowly panned my gaze up from my phone and paused the email I was sending.
“Yes?” I asked.
“I know it’s not my place, but you might want to check with the original contracting company we checked out.”
“Why?” I asked. “What do you know?”
“I don’t know anything. But I got an invoice a couple of hours ago from a contracting company that isn’t the one we originally looked at. I think I know what they’re doing.”
“Talk to me then.”
“I think they took our contract, then subcontracted out the work for cheaper than we’re paying them. Subleasing, but for companies,” she said.
“Can I see that invoice?” I asked.
“Sure thing.”
I watched Alicia dig around in her paperwork as I furrowed my brow. In some ways, it was a smart business move. If the business could pull it off right. Take a contract, do none of the work, and still take a percentage of the top. It was lazy business, but it was cunning business.
But it was screwing me over, and I wasn’t going to have it.
My family’s hotel company had been operating for over one hundred years. Passed on to every son in the family for generations. I was bred for the damn job from the time I was young. Obtained my business degree from Cambridge and was thrown straight into the belly of the beast. My father gave me a month to learn the ropes, and if I couldn’t take it on then the business would be passed to my sister.
Cara.
The musician of the family.
“Here it is,” Alicia said. “Take a look.”
I took the piece of paper from her hand and began to scan it. A grin spread across my cheeks as I peered over the piece of paper. Alicia had gone back to typing on her computer. Probably clearing my schedule or fucking around with something that was way below what she had just proven herself to be worth. Her eyes were moving across the screen and her hands were typing a thousand miles a second.
Trained as a secretary, but housing tremendous observational skills.
“Miss Alicia.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Be ready for a promotion when I get back.”
“Come again?” she asked.
I folded up the piece of paper and put it in my pocket. I needed to get to the damn airport. I had two hours to get myself through security and onto a plane, and I still had to go by my car and get my suitcase. I kept it packed for every season so I
was ready to go for moments like this.
It was a trick my father had taught me before he died.
“He’s going to need physical therapy, Mom. He needs a house he can do that in.”
