Chapter 2 – Cade Scott
“I’m just trying to figure out what it is that I’m supposed to be going there for?”
My assistant wrinkled her nose up and I could feel my eyes darkening. I wasn’t in the mood, never really was, but this day above all others was worse. This was the anniversary of the day long ago that had changed my life forever, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get through it without snapping at everyone. I couldn’t help it and I’d long since given up trying. Kindness was overrated and a surefire way to get run over. I wasn’t worried about that happening anymore.
“It was something that your father insisted on, remember?”
I sighed and sat back down at the desk I’d inherited from the same man who now breathed down my neck from his position on the board. When he had given me Scott Tech, I’d thought that it was his way of making things right. Little did I know that it was really just his way of getting his hooks even deeper into me than before. It wasn’t a way for us to be closer, but for me to do all of the work and for him to still have the final say. Everyone on the board would go with what he wanted. He was still my boss, and although my father was retired, he was still there every single day to watch over me, dictating my every move.
“I don’t care who insisted that I go. I’m the CEO. I want to know why.”
Caroline just shrugged. I watched her dark brown eyes look anywhere else but where I was looking. I was making her nervous, and though I didn’t feel any guilt, I knew somewhere inside that it was wrong to make her want to squirm like that.
“I can call Samuel if you would like me to. I don’t know if I can get a hold of him right now, but I’ll do my best to track him down and patch you through to him. If I knew, I would tell you, but I really have no real idea what is going on.”
I believed her, kind of. She wouldn’t lie to me. But I didn’t quite believe everything that she was saying. If she didn’t know why, she wouldn’t be looking at me as if she did. I felt sure she was feigning ignorance, and after I pressed her for a time, I finally got some sort of an answer.
“The company is very small, but they have a viral coffee brew that your father would like to capitalize on.”
I didn’t get it. What did coffee have to do with new technologies? I asked Caroline the same question, but that was where she really did run out of information. Her blank look told me that she actually didn’t know the answer to all of my questions. The idea of it bothered me, though. I tried not to let it, but it was impossible.
“I’m not sure what you want to know, sir. I’ve told you everything that I know. I’ll put a call in to your father and send it through when I get a hold of him. He can tell you more than I can.”
She was like a robot in her loyalty to my father. I knew that she wasn’t going to tell me anything she wasn’t authorized to. In the end it was a waste of time, and I told her not to worry about calling him. I was going to call him myself and see what he wanted.
When I dialed his cell phone, it took him several minutes to call me back and when he did he was out of breath. I didn’t want to think about what he was doing with a woman who was more than likely half his age. The only solace I got was to think that he would keel over one day and that would be the end of that. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about him pulling the strings from the board. I knew, though, that if there was any way he could pull the strings from the grave he would find it and send some shyster lawyer to enforce it.
“Scott, I thought you would be over at that bistro. I want you to check it out and see if there’s an angle that we can get into.”
“Why do we need an angle?”
“I’m thinking about buying that girl’s recipe. The co-owner was her father, and now that he’s dead there’s a good chance I can get it rather cheap. I hear there’s a bit of a money problem with the business, so it’s time to pounce.”
“And what does that have to do with the tech company?”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s just a good opportunity to make some money. You don’t think I made all my money with a few patents, do you? How do you think I bankrolled the first couple of years? That’s why I stay on the board. You have a lot to learn, Scott.”
I wanted to yell at him, but I knew that it would do no good. It would just pull the strings tighter.
“I’ll go down there if you want me to.” I wanted to tell him that I’d been doing every stupid thing that he wanted me to do for some time. Ever since I’d taken the job of CEO of the company, I’d done nothing but compromise to make things run smoother for him.
“Good. You’ll have to make it quick. I hear they had a line most of the day and it closes early in the afternoon. I don’t want you to put it off another day.”
“What is it that you want me to find out that you can’t find out yourself?”
“I want you to see if it’s a good investment. Get a vibe for the place, the customers and the person who’s running it. It’s a young girl, about twenty-four, and I want to know how easily I can bamboozle her with a crappy deal.”
The worst part wasn’t even the words he used; it was that he was preying on a girl’s dead father to make him some money. That was the side of my father that no one really saw. He was good at hiding it, but I knew that he was the metaphorical snake in the grass, and I was going to be his minion.
“I’ll go down there, but if it’s such a small bistro, I don’t see why it’s worth that much to you.”
“Just go down there and see what’s going on. There’s a line there every day. It’s there for a reason, and I want to know why. But more than that, you need to use that charm of yours and seal the deal.”
I hated the way he said it, but before I could say anything else, my father was off the phone and I was left looking at it like he had lost his mind. I was sure that he had every intention of doing exactly what he planned. Now I was going to help him destroy a woman who’d just lost her father.
I should have felt worse, and I should have refused, but that was what I was. I just had to go get it done and see if she was a good mark.