Chapter Twenty-Four

Shane

An annoying ringing noise ripped me from a seriously hot dream I was having about Fiona the next morning. We’d spent hours on that beach the night before, talking and laughing once we’d had our fill of each other, which took hours. I’d dropped Fiona at her house just about five hours ago.

I groaned, rolling over to pick up my incessantly ringing phone.

“Mr. Perkins, I’m sorry to bother you,” Justin said. “I have a Mr. Peters here, who insists that he must speak with you right away.”

Peters was one of my more senior board members. Why wasn’t he calling directly? Then I remembered that I’d diverted the calls from my business phone to my personal but had set it so that business calls could only come through within business hours. So much for that plan.

“What does Peters want?” I asked, still feeling groggy but knowing that I had about three seconds to become alert. To get my head in the game.

“I don’t know, sir. There seems to be a problem with Mr. Burrows.”

I frowned, instantly alert. Bart? What the fuck? “Put Peters on. Thank you, Justin.”

“Where are you Shane?” Peters asked.

Well, good morning to you, too, asshole.

“Busy. Why? What’s going on with Bart?”

“He’s pushing some public relations agenda but security has apparently been instructed to remove him from the premises.” Peters sounded alarmed. “No one really knows what’s going on, if I’m honest.”

“He’s been terminated, that’s what. Security has been instructed to remove him with force, if necessary, because there are sensitive documents on site that he could try to remove or tamper with.” I had no idea why I was explaining myself to this asshole.

“I know he was terminated, but the board is upset, Perkins. To most of us, even though you consulted us on the basics of his termination, his expulsion was sudden, and relatively inexplicable, given his length of service.” Peters spoke briskly, over a sudden commotion that broke out in the office.

“What’s happening?” I bit out, shooting out of bed and pacing the room.

“Wherever the fuck you are, get your ass back here, Shane. I mean it. Bart has barricaded himself in a conference room and refuses to come out until he sees you. He claims to have enough snacks and bottled water to last him for the rest of his life and then some.”

I was already in motion, headed for the bathroom to take a quick shower before I jumped back on the jet.

I showered and dressed quickly. There was no need to pack anything. I would be back in a few days and had enough suits and spare toiletries at my place in Houston. I grabbed my keys and jogged to the truck.

A part of me screamed that I was insane to even consider trying to do this for any considerable period of time but I shut it down. I’d told Fiona that I would do anything to be with her, and I was dead serious about it.

I placed a call to her after ensuring that Eric would be waiting at the airstrip. He was ready, as always. With Fiona, on the other hand, I didn’t know what to expect.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said, sounding sleepy and sexy as hell.

“Hey, baby. Sleep well?” I was putting off the inevitable, but I couldn’t help it.

She didn’t answer immediately. “Yeah. What’s wrong?”

“I’m really sorry that I have to take off so soon, but I have to go back to Houston. There’s a problem there that I have to sort out, and no one else can take care of this one.” I willed her to see that I would’ve delegated the task if there was any way that I could’ve.

“So soon?” Her voice was barely more than whisper. “Okay, I guess I’ll just see you around, then?”

“I’ll be back in a couple of days, tops, I promise. We can figure everything out then. Please just give me a chance?”

“Sure, go do your thing, I’ll be here.” She sounded sad, sadder than I ever wanted her to feel, and I felt like an asshole, knowing that I was the cause of it.

The hesitation in her voice did nothing to soothe my nerves. I could practically hear her thoughts. She saw this as yet another one of the many nails in our coffin, inevitably wondering how many times I was going to call and bail at a moment’s notice. She thought it would be all the damn time.

I thought about it all the way to Houston. I had to find a way to start removing nails from that coffin, instead of continually hammering more. I needed someone in Houston that I could trust to act on my behalf while I stayed on as CEO, but the only person I could think of that would have been able to do it was currently barricaded in a conference room.

Hours later, I stepped off the elevator on the executive level of Perkins Enterprises with a deep sigh. I headed straight for the conference room where dozens of employees were gathered.

They scattered as soon as they saw me, leaving Justin looking nervous and Peters standing next to him, wearing a five-thousand-dollar suit and a million-dollar scowl.

I brushed past them, giving them each a nod before trying the door. It rattled but remained firmly locked. I’d had the security system installed myself. No one was getting in that room unless Bart disarmed the lock from the inside. Unfortunately, he could manually override the exterior access control.

Someone on the security team had fucked up by not changing the codes. I knocked on the door. “Bart, it’s Shane. Open up.”

“Shane? Finally, I was starting to think you were never going get here.” Bart sounded half out his mind.

“Well, I’m here now. Are you going to let me in?”

Manic laughter met my ears from the other side of the barricaded door. “No, not yet. You’ll never hear me out if I do.”

“Okay, just hang on. I’m going to clear the area so we can talk.”

With a nod at Justin, he and Peters started clearing out the surrounding area.

Less than two minutes and a lot of grumbling later, the floor was cleared. I would’ve liked to think that the employees and other execs grumbled because they had a lot of work to do but I knew better. They knew something was about to go down, and they were disappointed to be missing it.

Too fucking bad.

“Area’s clear. I’ll hear you out. What do you want to say?” I rested my back against the wall and slid down, until I was seated flat on my ass on the gleaming marble floor, both legs kicked out in front of me. It was absurd, yet strangely comforting.

“I love this company, you know,” Bart said, sniffling.

I nodded. “I know.”

“I’ve poured nearly three decades of my life into this place. I can’t just turn around and walk away. I’ve always dreamed of leading it one day.” His voice cracked with emotion.

“So, you thought you’d go to the board behind my back and try to steal it from me?” I asked dryly. “I’m still trying to pull the knife from my back, Bart. So you’re going to have to explain this to me.”

“I swear, Shane, those papers that you found were only contingency plans to help us make it through to the end of the year at the most. Things got pretty heated for a while there, and I wanted to have back-up plans in place.”

That doubt I felt about firing him flared up again. In a big way.

“Look,” I said, taking a fortifying breath to carry me through my admission. I hated backing down. “I may have been too swift in my judgment before. I acted on little evidence and in the spur of the moment. I want to talk to you about the possibility of coming on as managing director. I’ll work remotely and have phone conferences with you daily.”

A sob came through the door a moment later. “You’re just saying that to get me to come out.”

“No,” I said with a sigh. “I’m dead serious about this.”

“Why would you change your mind now?” he asked.

“Because I’ve changed.”

“How could you have changed so much in just a few weeks?” He sniffed, disbelieving. “The old you never would have trusted someone else at the forefront.”

“Let’s just say that I met someone who showed me how much could be gained from trust.”

And I’d realized that there was more to life than Perkins Enterprises. Bart’s plans, as egregious as they’d seemed, were only really unforgivable if I really wanted this job. The truth was that I didn’t. Not anymore.

“Someone you met has made you trust me again?” Bart asked, the barricaded door swinging open to reveal his sad, hunched figure.

“No, but she did show me that second chances aren’t complete bullshit,” I told him earnestly, pushing myself up from the floor.

I was barely upright before Bart caught me in a completely unprecedented bear hug. “Is security waiting to throw me out?”

His eyes darted to the empty hallways, the unoccupied cubicles, and the elevator that was open and carried no security force.

“There’s no security here,” I said. “I was being serious. I want to stay on as CEO, but I could authorize you to act as director and to take over some of my duties that need to be exercised from Houston. I will teleconference at least once a day with you and dial in to other meetings when necessary.”

Bart, who I’d never seen shed so much as a single tear, burst into fresh sobs. “Thank you, Shane. I promise that I will not let you down.”

“I hope so. Second chances might not be bullshit, but there will not be a third chance.” My voice was stern. He had to be absolutely crystal fucking clear on that point.

He nodded enthusiastically. “I understand. Thank you so much. When can I come back?”

“Is today too soon?” I asked.

I was in a rush to get back to Mystic, and there was a lot that I had to do if I wanted to ensure a smooth handover.