Page 24 of A Rebel's Shot
He’d always listen to her problems and woes, intently and without distraction, something she’d never seen him do with anyone else. Then, after the problem was out, he’d talk through solutions with her. There was neverany pandering to make her feel better, just solid advice on paths forward.
If he was there, she’d thank him for that. She liked to think that, aside from her irrational fear of bears, she had ended up a strong person, able to objectively look at a situation and figure out a solution, whether it was personal or not.
She missed him so much. She set the book down on the desk and closed her eyes. A tear escaped to race down her cheek just as stomping sounded in the hall outside.
She quickly wiped her cheek, shoved the journal under a pile of reports on her desk, and pulled up the latest update on the safety protocol just as Silas stormed into her office.
“We have a problem.” He slammed his laptop onto her desk, making her cringe.
Good thing it was military-grade and practically indestructible.
“Nolan just messaged that he wants both of us on a teleconference with him, Mom, and Rachel.” Silas opened his laptop and typed in his password.
Merritt glanced at her phone. She didn’t have any messages from Nolan.
“I don’t have a message.”
“Yeah. Apparently, I not only got shafted in the will, but I’m also now your assistant.” He cursed and muttered under his breath that he didn’t have time for problems.
Merritt could see how he’d consider her a problem, but she didn’t need or want him to befielding calls for her, especially when she didn’t know if she could trust him.
She straightened in her chair, pulling her pen and pad closer, ready to take notes. She’d realized early in being dumped in the CEO seat that she had to take detailed notes of almost every conversation so she could study what she hadn’t understood, which was a lot.
It was honestly scary that she was in charge of a multibillion-dollar corporation she knew very little about. What had Dad been thinking?
“What’s this about?” she asked, scratching the date and time on her pad.
“No clue. Nolan didn’t say.” Silas growled as he pulled up the conference app, dropping the f-bomb for good measure. “Crazy old man and his secret spy tendencies.”
While Merritt’s sentiments toward her only living relative were the opposite of Silas’ obvious dislike, it was annoying how Nolan never messaged or called when it pertained to business. His insistence that all communication about the corporation be “secure and safe” was a major pain in the butt.
“Old, huh?” Nolan’s voice and face appeared on the screen.
He ran his hand down the front of his custom-tailored suit, while she silently calculated how many weeks an entire refugee camp could have been fed with its cost.
“I’d say more like robust. Matured like a fine wine. Some might even say a silver fox.” He waggedhis eyebrows at the screen as Joni and Rachel popped on from Joni’s office in the Barrow house.
That’s why she loved Nolan.
Nolan had been an operative for the CIA before Dad convinced his brother to work for him. Always said Nolan’s contacts in just about every part of the world came in handy.
Even with his spy background and being the chief operating officer of Harland, he loved to joke. Where her dad had never coddled, Nolan had been her soft place to land when she needed to be cheered up.
“What’s with the summons? I’ve got things to do.” Silas leaned on the credenza behind her chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
Impatience and anger fairly pulsed against her back. When had he turned from the troubled, yet protective boy he’d been in high school to this bitter man who oozed discontent?
She wished she could go back and not have been so focused on her mission that she cut herself from him for the sake of production.
Maybe she was more like her dad than she cared to admit.
“I just got off a call with a contact in the EPA. Apparently, there are concerns from the villages in the area. Water contamination issues.” Nolan’s switch from jokester to serious always jolted her.
The hard clench of his jaw could rival her dad’s.
Silas shook his head. “We’ve got clearance from the EPA that we’re good to go.”
“Supposedly, some geologist sent Clay concernsabout the AMD risk.” Nolan lifted his hand in a frustrated gesture.
