CHAPTER 45
Kenzie
Did I want the job? Did I, really?
Another late night on my first day as CEO. I’d staggered from the office around eight o’clock, the adrenaline finally wearing off and leaving me exhausted, beaten up, worn down to the nub. There was nothing left inside me, I was sure.
I’d practically crawled up the stairs to my apartment, remembering the complete lack of sleep the night before, to find an impromptu party waiting for me. Just the girls, takeout and a lot of wine. I’d needed it, desperately. I had even cried. A lot.
“Why are you crying?” Emery had wrapped her arms around me, followed by Chandra, then Chloe. I had wept in the center of their little circle.
“It’s all so much. It’s just too much at once,” I admitted. “I don’t want to fail anybody. I’m so tired. I don’t know if I can do it.”
“You can,” Emery had assured me. “And you will. You have what it takes. You made it through today, and you kicked ass. You’ll do it again tomorrow, too. And the next day.”
“Right, and things will get better,” Chandra had promised. “Things will blow over. And by that time, you’ll be ready for anything. Trial by fire, right?”
“You’re strong enough,” Chloe had whispered. “You can do it.”
I loved them to pieces, but wasn’t so sure at the time. I was too exhausted to think straight—mentally, physically, emotionally. I had begged out of the party by ten o’clock and slept straight through until seven. The sleep did me good, and by the following morning, I was up and ready to give my all to another day.
Still, caffeine was my best friend as I waded through a pile of emails. Paula had been honest about what she’d forwarded, at least, before the IT guys stepped in. It was a huge relief, as I didn’t want to lose her. She was far too big an asset to me, knowing much more about how the company ran than I did.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that Fate was having a good laugh at my expense. There I was, just a pawn in a man’s game, and I’d wound up sitting at the top of the food chain. It couldn’t have been scripted better than that.
At least I could dress like an executive, thanks to the clothes from Aaron. My pinstriped suit and Ferragamo heels made me feel like the badass CEO I wanted to be. Everything that had happened in the weeks preceding my impromptu promotion led up to it, I realized.
I didn’t feel like a badass behind my desk and I tried to decide how to best placate the stockholders. They were becoming a real problem, fretting and whining.
I could understand why. I couldn’t force people not to sell their stocks, obviously.
Calls came in from around the world, from people with last names I’d only ever heard on the news or talk shows. They all wanted to know what they should do. Were we planning to restructure the company? Who would sit in my position in the long run?
I wanted to laugh, scream, defend myself. Dammit, I was planning on sitting in that position until somebody pried my ass out of the chair with a crowbar. No way I would navigate the company through the toughest, most stressful time it had ever experienced and then step aside to let some man take over just because he had a little more experience—or a penis.
I ignored such questions, telling myself that giving them any of my time or energy would only sap the energy I needed to keep things afloat.
A lot of the management team had quit on the first day. Good riddance to all of them. I heard them calling me a cunt when I made it clear that I’d be reviewing performance reviews, recent projects, and more to make sure we didn’t need to tighten up our main group.
Within minutes, an uproar had started. Just as I’d expected when I sent the email. It was the easiest way I could imagine to get rid of a lot of dead weight.
I could promote the people who deserved it, the ones who would work as hard as I did. I even considered offering Paula a job, as she’d assisted Reed since day one and had plenty of experience with what the team did.
I needed some women on my side, I knew. I would start with her, if she wanted the responsibility.
When the panic had finally settled, and it became clear that it was either sink or swim, I’d settled in very nicely. I could see that and appreciate how quickly I’d taught myself the ropes. I was still far, far from feeling comfortable, but I was getting comfortable with being a boss.
That was the first step, I was sure.
Stepping up, standing in my power as a leader. Accepting the challenge instead of crawling under my desk to hide from it—not that I hadn’t considered doing that more than a few times.
Once I knew how to stand up for myself and make my voice heard, the rest would come along with it.
Paula came in, knocking on the open door before entering. She looked much more positive than she had the day before when she had spent the first few hours crying off and on. She even wore a genuine smile.
“Good morning,” she said. “Here early, I see.”
“Not so early,” I pointed out. “I slept in, practically. I want to make it a point to get here as early as possible every morning so I can get a jumpstart on the day. I would love to get my inbox taken care of before the real work of the day begins.”
She chuckled. “Oh? Who taught you that business technique?”
Aaron, of course. I relied on everything he’d ever explained when it came to running a company. I even considered changing company policy to the one he followed, allowing employees to go home once their work was finished. I wanted healthy, well-rested, well-compensated employees. They were more efficient and more creative.
I chose to ignore the question, as the answer would have taken too much time to explain. Pulling a pen from the bun in the back of my head, I signed a few documents. One of them was the statement to the press, written by the legal team.
“This sounds good,” I said, reading it over before signing. “Who will deliver it?”
“Well, they want you to do it.”
I took a deep breath. Don’t let her see you’re nervous. Step up. Stop second-guessing your worthiness. “Okay. I’ll just need to know when to show up.”
“Great. I’ll call head counsel when I get back to my desk. Otherwise, you have a few phone messages. One of them is from your mother.”
I gasped, hands over my face. “Oh, God, I never called her. She must be losing her mind.” Of all the people I could forget to call. She was probably just as confused as the rest of the world.
Paula laughed. “I’ll call her back and tell her you’re very busy, but you do want to speak to her.”
“Thanks.” I peeked at her through spread fingers and she laughed again.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. You’re already far ahead of where some assholes thought you would be today.”
I rolled my eyes, leaning back in my chair with a sigh. “Let me guess. Some ex-employees.”
“The very ones. I hope they know they don’t get a severance package or unemployment if they quit. Idiots.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, they saved us a lot of time and trouble. Probably the only worthwhile thing any of them ever contributed to the company.” Paula was still smiling when she left.
I archived a few emails after replying to them, then scrolled through Reed’s email folder to make sure I didn’t miss anything sent to him. I didn’t think there was a person in the world who didn’t know what was going on, but someone might have forgotten and hit “send” after addressing a message to him.
The box was basically clean except for a few pieces of very dirty spam. I wondered how much of my ex boss's work day had consisted of jerking off to porn in his office. Few things would surprise me less.
He had no business running a company like Madison Media Group. It needed someone with brains, talent, heart, drive, compassion, vision.
Someone like me, in other words.
Amazing how quickly I’d gotten used to the idea.
I was just about to close out his account and switch back to my own when I noticed my name on one of the folders beneath his inbox. I looked up, where I could see just outside my office door. The back of Paula’s head was visible from there.
“Hey, Paula?” I decided to dial her rather than calling out for others to overhear.
“What’s up?”
“Do you have any idea what’s in these subfolders under Reed’s inbox?’
“No, I never looked in those. He password protected all of those and somehow managed to set up rules where emails with certain keywords went directly to those folders. They were the messages I wasn’t supposed to see.”
“Oh. Gotcha. Thanks.” I needed to know what was in there. Why would he have an entire folder set up just for me, unless there was something fishy going on? It made my blood boil, knowing that he had so many secret things set up behind-the-scenes.
What would he have used for a password? Sure enough, when I clicked the folder, I was prompted for one. Stumped, I started going through a list of common options. When Password123 worked, I nearly cried. How stupid could he have been? Still, it made my life easier.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dozens of emails. I started at the beginning, the first email sent just after he received my resignation letter.
I would never forget that day.
He’d sent an angry email to a few of the members of his team, who all replied using rather misogynistic words. Assholes. I read on, and my jaw fell further and further until it practically rested on my chest.
He’d planned the whole thing as a revenge act on Aaron. I knew it. He was obsessed with getting back at him by hiring me. Not one mention of my qualifications or how much he needed me. It was all about Aaron.
Well, the joke was on him. Prick.
Another folder. This one named, not surprisingly, Aaron. The same password worked, and this time I saw a huge folder filled with emails to various publications in Madison Media Group’s network.
I gasped when I realized what I was reading. He’d orchestrated Aaron’s arrest. It was all him. He’d put the plan together ages earlier—years ago, according to one email sent to a reporter at the tabloid that first broke the story. He was only waiting for a reason to put it into action since he knew Aaron resented him for taking the Madison deal away at the last minute.
And I was that reason.
I set the whole thing in motion without knowing it.
I couldn’t believe it, but it was all right there. How could I have imagined he would sink so low? I’d known he was common trash, little better than an insect, but I wouldn’t have believed it if the proof wasn’t staring me in the face.
Even though Aaron tried to tell me.
My heart ached.
He was right all along.
His innocence, the way Reed used me to punish him.
Sure, Aaron had started it, but only because Reed had stolen the company out from under him five years ago. He’d wanted to get a little of his own back by poaching me once he found out how valuable I was to Reed’s company.
I still resented being used. I wouldn’t get over that too easily. But knowing how big a part Reed played in everything made a difference.
I heard a noise at the door as I stared at my laptop screen, completely transfixed. “Yes?” I could only imagine it was one of the remaining members of the management team, if not the entire team. They’d been on my ass all day, looking for guidance.
Only it wasn’t them.
Striding into the office was none other than Aaron Bello, looking devastatingly sexy as always.
My stomach did a slow flip-flop, just as it had the night we met. He had that magnetism back, that charm, that air of owning the world.
And he had his sights set on me.