Page 10 of Lica

“Speaking of shiny objects, I have a ring for you. It wasn’t my mother’s ring. I don’t even know if my parents were really married, but my grannie gave it to me, and I had it sized for you with help from your dad.” He handed it to her, and she felt hurt by that. It was in a box, but that’s as far as he went in asking her or telling her that he wasn’t going to put much effort into winning her heart. Not that she wanted him to have—. “I thought about doing the whole down on one knee thing, but since I know that we’re only doing this for show, you wouldn’t like that either.”

She turned her back on him and made her way to the cupboard to grab some pens for the table and to hide her pain while slipping the ring and box into her pocket. He asked her if she was all right. And she told him that she needed to get forty notepads from her secretary so they’d have enough to go around. While he did that, she laid the pens on the table and hurried to her bathroom.

Brandy didn’t have any idea why she was upset by the way he gave her the ring. He’d been right in saying that this was a sham of a marriage and the only reason they were even together was because someone somewhere had picked her out of a crowd and gave her to Lica. He needed them to have sex so that he’d be more powerful, magically powerful, to run the pack. And she was going to do that without complaint. Also, she wasn’t going to be stingy with the money that she had going into this sham, either. If she were going to be like that, it would be harder for both families. Especially his. They weren’t going to go down the tubes if she—

“Brandy, your phone is ringing on your desk. Do you want me to get it?” She told him to go ahead, and she’d be out in a moment. “All right.”

Fixing her face, something that her own grannie used to say to her all the time, she looked in the mirror hard. Her nose was a little bit red, and her lipstick was a little lighter than it was when she came in. Thanks to washing her face, she was ready to get on with her life. Anyway, she could muddle through it, she supposed. Brandy opened the door and nearly fell into the arms of Lica, who was just standing there.

“What do you think you’re doing coming out of there—what’s happened?” She told him that he was the one lurking around behind her bathroom door, or she wouldn’t have fallen. “You’ve been crying. Which person did it so that I can have a talk with them?”

“You.” He glared at her, and she welcomed that over him, laughing at her. “You’re making me insane, and sometimes you make me cry. Because you’re acting like this…this thing between us can be put off forever. Well, I’m getting sick of waiting on you to make a decision.” A voice clearing had her turning to her right. Her dad was standing there with one of the clients. “I’m sorry, Dad, Mr. Green. I’ve not had a good week. That’s no excuse to take it out on Lica, but…well, no buts, I’ve had a bad day, and he was the one in line to get blasted.”

Brandy didn’t bother apologizing to Lica. She could see the anger on his face, and she didn’t want to deal with it today. She’d not lied when she said she was having a terrible day. What she didn’t say was that he’d been the one that had put her in it. She didn’t want to deal with him on one of her good days either. But he would need to get his sex thing over with so that she wasn’t forever thinking what a colossal mistake this has been agreeing to be his mate.

By the time all the men for the meeting had shown up, she was worked up again. This time, it was her nerves and had nothing to do with Lica. He was keeping his distance, for which she was grateful, but it didn’t help that there were fifty-four men in her conference room. Forty-one of them were attorneys, and they were all screaming at her to answer their questions first and foremost.

The shrill whistle came from her left. Looking at Lica, she could tell that he was as frustrated as she was with the men. Neither of them had gotten a word out of welcoming before they started yelling.

“Now. The next person, I don’t care which side of the table you’re from, ours or theirs. If you say a word, I’m going to have you escorted out of this building. If you think for one moment that I’m kidding or that you don’t think I can do that, then try me. I’m in just as shitty mood as my wife is. Do you, quietly and with a raise of your hand, understand what it is that I’ve said to you?” Everyone raised their hands, and she nearly laughed when one man on the other end of the table from them raised his hand and frantically waved it at her and Lica. “You’ll have your turn to speak in a moment. Unless the building is on fire, put your hand down and be quiet.”

“What is the meaning of this man talking to me like this?” While she told Mr. Green that Lica was her husband and her partner so he could say what he wanted, Lica said he was calling security. “I’m in charge of this meeting, and I demand respect.”

“No, we’re in charge of this meeting, and you’ll sit there and do as you’re told, or this meeting is finished. I told you from the very beginning that I wasn’t going to put up with your shenanigans around here, Mr. Green. I’m working with you, but I will quit, and you know that I don’t lie when it comes to this company. I will have you tossed out of this building, and we’ll never do any business again.” Mr. Green stood up. The attorney on either side of him pulled at the older man, trying to get him to sit down. “Do it, Mr. Green, and this will be—”

“I’m not going to allow you to bully me around. This is my company until I say differently.” She asked him what he meant. “I’m going to show you how to run a successful business, and you’re going to shut up and sit down. I have the terms I’m willing to work with all written out. Now, be a good girly and sign where you’re supposed to, and we’ll get this finished with or without your help.”

“Lica.” That’s all she had to say that got him moving. He stood behind Mr. Green’s chair and pulled it from the long table. The two attorneys stood up, began gathering the things they’d only just sat out, and were talking to the people around them. Security asked Mr. Green if he wanted to be standing when he left or if he wanted to be carried out. She was not fucking around today. Apparently, neither was Lica.

“You’re bluffing. There is no way that you can afford to turn me down for business.” Security, with the help of Lica, started pulling Green and some of the people who simply followed him out toward the doors. “I’m going to own your business by the end of the day, young lady. You see that I don’t.”

“You can’t even keep your own company afloat, how do you think that we’re going to take you seriously that you’ll be taking this one. My wife has been running this business in the black since she opened the doors. She pays her taxes on time, her employees’ retirement accounts are all up to date, and she’s not spent any money on doodads like you have in order to keep up with the neighbors. You’ve been running in the red since the year your father-in-law turned the reins over to you when you married his daughter. I bet that Mr. Bierut has regretted it since. Mr. Green, as it stands right now, we’re not going to help you with a loan or the expansion. I know for a fact that you’ve been turned down by four other institutions since you’ve been caught not paying into your employees’ retirement accounts.”

“Where did you get that information? You’ve no right to be snooping around in things that are of no concern of yours. For all you know, I was going to pay that back with some of the money that you are going to loan me. You and that ditzy wife of yours.” She didn’t even see Lica move, but she knew that it had to have been him that hit the man. Mr. Green’s head slammed back into the wall behind him, and blood splattered all over the men in front of him. “You’ve hit me. My god, you’ve broken my nose. Did any of you see that? Did you see that he hit me? I told him I was going to own him, and now I am.”

“I didn’t see anything, Green. Perhaps on your way home, you should make an appointment with your eye doctor. You tripped, that’s all.” One of the attorneys looked at her. He was smiling. “Mrs. Frazier, if you don’t mind, I’ll be calling you later. Ms. Green, Mr. Green’s daughter has taken over the company as of the moment her father left the building. Mr. Fraizer was correct. Mr. Bierut was regretful of his son-in-law taking his company. He posthumously handed it over to her when she turned twenty-one with all kinds of money to keep the business from falling apart. She would like to get with you and your husband to help her set up a business plan that will work for years to come. Thank you too for the day.”

After they all left, she sat down in her office. Brandy wasn’t the least bit surprised when Lica joined her by sitting across the desk from her. Smiling, she asked him how he knew about the employee funds and the daughter.

“His daughter, Elisa, called to speak to me last evening, and she’s been helping me with information that we could use against her father. I guess he doesn’t believe women, and this is solely on him, are strong enough to run a company, much less deal with money.” Lica stood up where her secretary brought in a tray with a pot of tea and two dainty looking cups and saucers on it with several kinds of cookies on a plate. He sat it on the edge of her desk after taking it from her secretary. “She has known since she was ten that she’d be taking over the company. That’s about the time that he was messing with the retirement funds. She’s been learning everything she could about the company from her grannie. Who ran the company with her grandda before her father did.”

“Thank you. For the information, help, and the cup of tea.” She sipped hers quietly and closed her eyes. “I’ve been stressed out for the last few hours. Mr. Green started calling my home around seven last night and didn’t stop while I drove to work. I was going to turn him down anyway, but this was so much slicker.”

If Lica answered her in anyway, she didn’t hear him. At some point, he told her that she should rest, and she thought that she objected, but her tea cup was taken away and a warm blanket wrapped around her. That was all she remembered of the meeting. Brandy thought that if she could rest for a few minutes, she’d feel much better.

~*~

Lica knocked on the door. He had thought about just walking in, Brandy had told him that his name was on this house, too, but that felt wrong somehow, so he knocked a second time. He was thoroughly surprised when a man dressed in a livery of the same blue as the shutters on the house were opened the door.

“Mr. Fraizer, I presume.” He told the man that he was one of six of them. “Yes, she showed us pictures of all of your brothers but for yourself. She didn’t have a single one, I’m afraid. Come in, sir. Mrs. Fraizer is upstairs. There was a bit of a snafu this afternoon, and she’s up there now trying her best not to fire a few people.”

“I’ll go see if I can help. I need to speak to her anyway.” Taking the stairs two at a time, he was surprised at not just the elegance of the house but the sheer expense of everything. And he’d only entered the front of the house. The handrailing alone would cost more than he’d made in the last year. It was a double-wide staircase that dropped you off at a landing as big as his living room. Then, it split into two to go to either end of the household by way of a long, wide hallway. He heard her voice down the right hallway and made his way there.

She was indeed into something. While he didn’t know exactly what was going on, he knew that someone was going to be fired by the time it was finished. The towels, there had to be two hundred of them were lined up in piles along the wall in stacks of four. There were other things, too, such as hand towels and what he thought were some kind of finger towels. He’d never read up on what towels were used for when he’d been made aware of just how much money Brandy had and what sort of dinners they might host. Thank god for her father was all he could think about. She saw him about the time he was nearing the end of the towels.

“Do you see this? This is what happens when I’m stressed out.” He told her she was very stressed. “Are you making fun of me? I’ll let you know that I’m in a rotten mood, and you teasing me isn’t the thing to do.”

“I’m not teasing you at all. But you’re not the only one that is stressed.” He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to the five women and one man who were standing against the wall behind her like they were lined up for a firing squad. “Who is responsible for the towels? I’m assuming that it’s what has you stressed.”

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