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“Because when we get back... I’m firing Bert and selling all of my shares and assets.”
Stiffening in shock, my spoon and yogurt fell to the ground with a slightclatterthat rattled my teeth. Brandon’s eyes met mine firmly, and he inhaled deeply through his nose. The ringing in my ears became shrill and loud, and my heart leapt into my throat. “I threatened Bert when you were in the hospital that I would destroy everything he built if he didn’t toe the line. I hoped that despite everything, he would put up with this for a few months, and then he’d get what he wanted and finally leave me alone. All he had to do was beokay... not evengood, just okay... but he’s getting comfortable without me there. He brought on this consultant person, and Audra’s having trouble keeping him in line. I’m going to fire him and step down.”
“What?” Blinking hard, I covered my mouth with both my hands as my mind whirled. Brandon had said things like this before, but never so seriously, and I never actually thought he’d do it. “B— but... but what about all the people who work for you right now?”
“They’ll be informed about the changes, but I’m fairly certain that there won’t be some mass exodus because I’m no longer the boss they’ll never meet. I’ve been thinking about it for a long, long time. Ever since you asked me what I was passionate about the night we met. I can’t see anything if I’m still working. I'm passing it on to the Chairman of the Board. She’s gotta be pretty good at the job if she's second to me. Companies like mine transition seamlessly between leadership, and without Bert there...” trailing off, Brandon shrugged lightly as he sat back to dig in the cooler again. “I should’ve fired him when your father died, but I didn’t. I can’t let this keep going, and he’s just proven once again that he can’t be trusted. He may be a piece of shit, but I’m just as bad for letting it go on for so long. Especially now that he’s brought someone on without consulting me or Audra, and she can’t find anything on him—”
“What? When?” Alarm colored my tone.
Brandon frowned as he opened a little baggie of grapes.
“I just heard about it yesterday, but Bert went AWOL the day before we got all our baby stuff.” Brandon’s eyes widened at his own words, and I frowned thinly as he swore under his breath. “Shit— I knew I recognized that name. John Grasp is one of Mason’s aliases.”
ChapterTen
BRANDON
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I held back a sigh as I grabbed the phone off the hook and dialed Audra’s number. Worry leaked from my body in a cold sweat, and I cast Katie a concerned glance. My plan to talk to her about her father and how we might move past it only got halfway through before we found something completely different to distract us.
I was tired and annoyed of Mason, and it was about damn time we did something about him instead of waiting for him to do something. He already knew we were here, that he could get to us, so what was stopping him?
“Hello?” Audra’s tired voice rang in my head, and I put the phone down to press to speaker button with a hard punch of my thumb. “Hello? Brandon?”
“It’s Mason— John Grasp is Mason’s alias that Lester found. He’s infiltrated my company.”
Julia gasped loudly, covering her mouth in horror, and I imagined that was much what Audra did as the line rustled loudly.
“Get thatthingout of my company— call the police and report him as a trespasser or something.”
“She can’t.” Speaking up before Audra had a chance to even wrap her head around my revelation, Katie frowned as her eyes narrowed in contemplation. “If he came in with Bert, then only you can reverse his decision, right? You said it yourself— only you can fire him. Which means that any of his decisions, you have to undo.”
“Under my authority, Audra can fire someone.”
She shook her head, and I leaned on the desk to grip the edge with white-knuckle tightness.
“Why don’t you think so?”
“Because he’s a contractor.” Katie shot me a look like I was supposed to know what that meant, and annoyance twitched her eyebrows. Sighing heavily, she pushed herself over to me to lean into the phone. “Right, Audra? If he’s a contractor, Bert would’ve signed a contract that basically lets him do whatever he wants. Either Bert or Brandon has to fire him, or Mason has to break his own terms. It’s literally in the name.”
“Yeah. Okay— let me find it. I have it somewhere.” My fingertips ached painfully as my nails dug into the wood of the desk, and Katie frowned at me. The rustling over the line flooded the room, and I tensed when she grabbed my wrist and pushed the mute button on the phone receiver.
“Didn’t you say you were going to step down, anyway? We go home in the morning. I—” Pausing to cover her mouth with the back of her hand at the mere vague notion of flying, Katie blinked hard and gulped harder before continuing. “If you do that, Mason will let them go. He’s there to get to you to get to me. I wouldn’t put it past him to take people hostage, but I don’t think he’ll kill them if he can avoid it because... it’d be a hassle, basically.”
“A hassle.” I scoffed lightly at that, shaking my head even though part of me agreed with her. “What am I supposed to do, now? How did he manage this?”
“Because you were in such a rush to run away that you didn’t secure what you were leaving behind. You never contacted the police, you just brought in private security. You didn’t even let anyone except Audra know about Mason, so no one knows who he is... not that I think it would make a difference with Berthold behind him. But, the point is that mistakes were made, and we need to accept it and move on to finding a solution.”
My gaze swung to Nathan as he spoke up, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully, and guilt clawed at the back of my throat. He was accusatory, but highlighting that I reallyfucked up, for lack of a better term.
“So, okay. Assume Mason has control right now. What might he do?”
“Oh! I found it!”
Punching the mute button on the phone at Audra’s sharp call, I covered my eyes and ducked my head to take a stabilizing breath.
“Uh— uh, it basically seems to say that Mason is functioning under Bert with associated rights and powers. Uh-h... Like, almost like an assistant, but with way more freedom. His terms are really vague, too. Really, really vague. It’d be hard for him to break anything by accident, vague.”
“Okay. So that means he’s working by himself right now. When was that picture of him and Jett taken? That woman? You sent it to us?” Katie took complete control of the room, and even frail and pregnant, practically confined to a wheelchair, she looked powerful. A glimmer of her old self was still in her.
