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29
DOMINIC
Iwanted to grab my dad by the shoulders and chuck him out the nearest fucking window. Before now, the hostilities between us had always stayed bound by some unspoken lines–like the point just between open hostility and passive aggressive shittiness. The way he’d been with Darcy earlier had crossed those lines, and it felt like everything was on the table now. It was war, and the loser might just lose everything.
I scanned the office floor for Darcy and spotted her emerging from the break room with Polly, Farhad, and Elizabeth. The sheepish look she gave me told me everything. She’d been in there telling them about us. I might have been pissed any other time, but I suspected she felt the cat was already out of the bag. She wasn’t stupid. She’d seen the messages my dad was sending loud and clear.I know about you two, and I’m going to put a stop to this.
Her friends were also giving me extra long glances as they scurried back to their stations.
My father waited self-importantly, hands clasped in front of his expensive suit. He’d always told me as a kid that power was perception. You could be the richest man in the world and people would think you were nothing if you didn’t make sure they knew it. It was why he spent obscene amounts of money on the best clothes. His watch was worth more than most people’s homes. His wardrobe was probably well into the price of an entire neighborhood of houses, and I knew for a fact he spent a small fortune having what was left of his hair styled every morning. The man reeked of money.
“I haven’t formally introduced myself yet,” he said. He spoke loud enough to be heard, but only just. It was another tactic I knew he loved. If they have to listen hard to hear you, you’ve got their attention captured. He was all about subtle power grabs and control. “I’m Gregor Lockwood. I have been in the business of doing business since I was fourteen.”
I tuned him out as he droned on with the speech I’d heard a million times. I knew what he really wanted. He was scanning the employees while he spoke and evaluating everyone’s reaction. I knew he was making mental notes of anyone who didn’t look properly impressed or willing enough to kiss his ass. He’d do his best to make sure those people weren’t part of the company for long.
“When I acquire a new company, I like to treat all of my employees to the wisdom I’ve earned over the last forty years. That’s why you’re all invited to fly to California with me this weekend and attend myYou Are The Changeconference. Lodging, food, and travel will all be covered, of course. The conference is optional, but I highly encourage you all to consider.” He smiled, gave a little tilt of his chin, and headed for my office.
I cringed. “Optional”. I knew what that meant, too. Anybody who chose not to go wasn’t loyal.
It grated at me. He gave me this assignment because he thought it would be impossible to succeed. Now that I felt just weeks away from turning the corner and really starting to grow the magazine, he showed up to dip his fingers into everything. If the magazine failed now, he’d claim it was because I started it off in the wrong direction. If it succeeded, he’d try to claim it was because of his “intervention.”
Like always, my old man wanted to take control away from me, and my head was spinning as I tried to think up some way to stop it from working, just this one time.
I spotted Darcy, who looked like she was struggling to digest everything she’d just heard. I tried to tell myself I was most worried about losingThe Squawker.That’s where my focus should’ve been. I didn’t want my dad to win. This was finally my shot to prove I didn’t need him–that I could run a business differently than he did and still succeed. If I lost this, I didn’t know what would be next.
But all I could think about was what would happen if he fired Farhad and Elizabeth–or even Darcy. She wouldn’t stand for her friends being let go. She’d expect me to step in, and if I didn’t, I’d be lumped in as an enemy right along with my father.Rightfully so, too.But directly opposing my father would also give him grounds to remove me, which I knew he wanted.
One way or another, I was going to have to choose between the company and Darcy. I knew that much. My father was too sadistic to see things end any other way.
I was on a fucking tightrope, and one wrong move could cost me everything.
* * *
Marcus and Tristansat in my office after hours. The staff had mostly trickled out except a few grim faces lit by the blue light of their monitors. The main lights in the office shut off after six and only a few spare fluorescent panels lit the office floor.
“Are you two going to go?” I asked. We’d been talking strategy for the past few hours but hadn’t quite landed on the topic of the conference yet.
“I’ve heard your dad’s speech plenty of times,” Marcus said. “But I also love Cali.” He shrugged. “I’ll probably go. Hell, your old man would likely come after me with his cane if I didn’t, right?”
“He would,” Tristan agreed. “I’ll be there.”
I threaded my fingers, leaning on my desk. I felt tired. So fucking tired. I just wanted to go home and know Darcy would be there in my bed, but she wouldn’t. We both still needed to figure out what we were and what we wanted to do about it. “I want to put together a complete report on our earnings and projected earnings for the next quarter. I’m sure my dad is going to try to claim we’re running this into the ground. We need to have something ready for when he does. I want to be ready to make a case for where we’re taking the company. That means a full list of our plans moving forward and how we expect them to benefit the bottom line. Understood?”
“Yeah,” Marcus said. “I can manage all that for you.”
“Good. What about expansion efforts, Tristan? Anything positive we can tell him is in the works?”
“I’m working with all the biggest online book publishers. I think we can manage to release the magazine in a sort of e-book format every time we have a new issue. I’m not sure if we’ll get publishers behind us or not, but it could potentially be huge–by far our biggest income stream.”
I nodded thoughtfully. I hadn’t even thought of that. Tristan was damn good at his job, and I was glad to have him at my side. The same was true for Marcus. Both of them were part of the reason I thought my dad’s philosophical playbook for running businesses was bullshit. Real power wasn’t shoving people’s faces into the dirt. It was finding good people and surrounding yourself with them. It was leaning into people’s strengths and letting them supplement your own abilities. It was listening to good ideas and encouraging creativity.
It was… My thoughts drifted back to when Darcy had pitched her weekly piece and I’d blown it off.Fuck.I was so worried about not treating her special that I’d gone in the opposite direction. Maybe the pitch wasn’t perfect for my vision of the company, but I’d seen the potential and pretended I didn’t. Then again, it might be too late now. If I suddenly approved a weekly piece from Darcy, my father would have all the justification he could ever want to swoop in and remove me from my position. He’d accuse me of favoring her because we were fucking and nobody would be able to stop him.
“You alright?” Marcus asked. “You look like you want to punch someone. May I suggest Tristan? I think he could take a punch better than me.”
“It’s nothing,” I said. But I kept thinking about how it was all going to come down to a choice. Would I choose Darcy and give my father all the ammunition he’d need to remove me from the company, or would I choose the company and let him sacrifice Darcy to test my resolve?
I wished I fucking knew.
