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"We're going to have to talk about this Marckybusiness at your next performance review."
He laughs. "Of course, sir. Oh, and Mr. Baxter? Gloria from PR is ready for you whenever you are."
Luna grins and shakes her finger at me. She knows that I think of having to talk to Gloria like being sent to the principal's office.
"Tell Gloria that I'll see her first thing tomorrow morning."
"She's not going to like tha—""
"That'll be all, Marcus."
Luna, lays her hand on top of my quickly purple-turning hand, and the other against my chest. "What now? It's not good, is it?"
I brush her off face. "It's very likely not a good sign. Now we figure out just what Gerry has planned. He wouldn't stick his dirty neck out in such a public place if he didn't have something in mind."
"I'm worried, Kingsley. It's clear he's a creep of the highest order. And if he was fine saying those things to me, a total stranger, I can't imagine what he has planned for you."
And there's nothing I can say to comfort her, because she's exactly right.
The only thing we can plan for is that whatever he has in mind for us, what we have ready for him is worse.
Thirty-Two
Kingsley
"I would give anythingto be you right now," Matthias sighs, his face so close to the camera, his little square on the monitor is pretty much all Baxter Blue eyeball.
"Have a sprained hand?" I ask, rolling my eyes as I hold my bandaged up hand for him to see after he begged to see it again for the fifth time.
"Worth it, to know what it feels like to punch him in the fucking face," he hisses, flexing his fist, no doubt remembering his own run-in with Gerry just a few months ago.
"It wasn't the completely pleasant experience you'd think it was. It still meant I had to touch him."
Kylian shakes his head. "For the hundredth time, I'll never understand how he was raised in the same family as Dad. Should we check again that he wasn't adopted."
"Except for the fact that he looks like a Walmart version of us?" Matthias points out. "You think Grandfather didn't have his own doubts? Why do you think Gerry was never supposed to take over for him except as interim? Grandfather knew he had a dud son."
I put my hand down to the sound of my brothers' protests. "Anyone heard anything from the board?"
They all answer in the negative.
I go on, "Me either. But news hasn't hit it big here yet, I imagine that's going to happen over the morning news shows today," I explain, glancing at the clock. It's just ticked over to seven a.m. We usually meet a little later for our Wednesday meetings but considering the extenuating circumstances, we all simultaneously logged in an hour early today, without even planning it in advance.
I know my brothers, and they know me.
And part of that is being able to count on each other.
I might be CEO in name in the future, but I won't be able to do it without them.
"It's been eerily quiet. Clarissa is asking around," Matthias shares.
Clarissa has always been the social butterfly. And now with her reinvigorated status as Matthias Baxter's fiancé after being persona non grata for a while, she has been an asset to us. She has the best contacts in the tabloid media of all of us. If anyone's going to hear something on the entertainment news side, it will be her. As for the business papers, infighting in Baxter Enterprises is going to hit our share price. We just don't know how much. It will depend on what is actually going to be reported.
"Do you think he baited you?" Matthias asks, speaking out loud the same thought I've been mulling over in my head.
"What do you mean?" Kylian asks.
"I mean, he must've known that he wouldn't have access to the building. He went there, knowing that he was going to be turned away. Maybe he went there to bait Kingsley into doing exactly what he did."
