Page 16 of Confessions of Pain
Chapter 5
It was nearly nine o’clock by the time the four of us filed into the main entrance of Morganston Textiles. The first thing I noticed was that I didn’t hear the sounds of production from behind the giant double doors that led to the manufacturing area that I’d heard yesterday morning when we’d arrived. No, it sounded deathly quiet. Not a good sign. Secondly, Barb and Courtney, who had been standing around the front desk talking to the woman who greeted us yesterday morning, snapped to attention. Courtney, with all her beguiling beauty, looked utterly terrified when she saw who just walked in. Barb, with all her wisdom, looked utterly furious and disgusted when her gaze landed on me. Yeah, all the disgust and hate was saved solely for me. The rest of the guys were lucky enough to miss her wrath lasers. Lucky them. Of course, none of that mattered. We had a plan. Titus had a plan to save the business and keep all the employees working. I had a plan to exact my revenge on Kelsey. All was good in my world.
Not wanting to waste another minute, I started talking and went straight for the throat. Looking directly at Barb, I said, “Give me one reason to keep her around.” I gestured toward Courtney when I said it. She’d made her role at Morganston pretty plain for me to see yesterday and I didn’t need that shit around the office. I thought it would be best to start off cutting the dead weight, and I figured I would win Barb over as an ally when I did it. I was pretty sure I needed at least one fucking ally at Morganston.
Barb straightened and glared at me. “Her baby sister is in the middle of her cancer treatments and it’s taking the paycheck of every member of her family to try and keep shelter over their heads and food on their table. Any more questions?”
Okkaayy, so not what I expected. My first attempt at making an ally was an epic failure. I felt like the last piece of shit that just wouldn’t flush down the toilet. Perfect way to start what I suspected was going to be a fucking bad day that would go down in the history of fucking bad days. Fuck.
“Do you honestly think she enjoyed putting up with Wayne’s shit?” Barb snapped irritably.
Yeah, epic fail. “Well…uh…yeah, I guess I thought she did.” Turning to Courtney, I said, “I apologize.” Behind me, Titus coughed back a laugh. Sorry-ass bastard. Technically, I could blame a huge portion of this shitshow on him. Actually, I couldn’t, but I was still going to.
Ethan stepped up and took control of the situation that I had easily lost in a record thirty seconds. He was so fucking smooth. Was it possible to hate and love somebody at the same time? As I watched him put on his sexiest smile that always made men and women swoon, I realized that yes, it was possible.
“I couldn’t help but notice how quiet it is out on the floor, ladies. Nobody show up for work today?” Ethan asked.
Without the glare she reserved solely for me, Barb answered him. “No, sir. They’re here—just not doing any work at the moment.” She shrugged and then sent a glare in my direction. “I suppose none of us really knew what to do after what happened yesterday. People are worried about their jobs, their future, and their families. On top of that, Kelsey always had their production schedule ready for them went they got to work each morning.” The glare sharpened to a laser of hate as she turned to me. “But then, of course, Kelsey isn’t here anymore, is he?” She looked me up and down and sneered, “I hardly think you will be much of a replacement. You’ll probably fire me for saying this, but you look more like aWayneto me.”
“Ouch,” Ethan muttered quietly. I felt somewhat better knowing he had my back, but when I glanced in his direction and saw the grin on his face, I realized he was totally Team Barb. Bastard.
“Trust me, I’m not a Wayne,” I answered shortly.
“Or a Kelsey,” Barb countered just as shortly.
“Shit. Are we going to bicker all morning or are we going to try to get this company back in the black?” I snapped. “I get it, you want Kelsey here. Your opinion is noted. Now, can we move on?” I looked around. “Are there offices available for us to work out of?”
She shrugged, not admitting defeat but not exactly claiming victory. “Sure. There are three offices. Who wants to be the odd man out?”
“Jeremiah and I will share an office,” Ethan piped up quickly. “Titus can have one and Mr. Popularity over there can have the other one. Which way do we go?”
Three offices? Why had she said there were three offices? There were four brothers. Was she trying to protect Kelsey’s stuff? As far as I knew, Titus hired a security team yesterday afternoon that had packed up all the Morganston personal belongings and then spent the night and this morning making sure none of them tried to enter the plant. “Three offices? Which Morganston was the odd man out?” I asked.
Barb looked over her shoulder. “Kelsey. Who else? Follow me, I’ll put you in Wayne’s office. It should be a fairly smooth transition.”
I couldn’t see the evil smile on her face, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it was there. Smooth transition, my ass. Why didn’t Kelsey have an office? What game was she playing? “Where’s Kelsey’s office?”
This time, it was Courtney’s slim shoulder that shrugged before she looked back at me to answer, “He doesn’t have one. He spends most of his time on the production floor. He has a desk down there that he uses from time to time.” She stopped walking and looked me dead in the eye. “Well, a desk that he used to use, back when he was here to make the production schedules for the day. You know? So people would know what needed to be done. Got any ideas on what needs to be put through the plant today,sir?”
Wow. Now Courtney had attitude. Come to think of it, she even looked different today. The exaggerated makeup was gone and her face looked even younger…softer. Instead of a low-cut sweater and short skirt, she was wearing a loose T-shirt tucked into jeans. Fuck, she looked like she could be about eighteen years old. Yesterday, she looked the part of a spoiled, pampered bitch that used her body to get exactly what she wanted from everybody. Today, she looked like an intern fresh out of college. Her eyes, a beautiful color of topaz, met my gaze straight on, but instead of the anger and hate that Barb wasn’t even trying to hide, I saw mischievous warmth. Well, shit. I hoped to hell she didn’t think I was like Wayne and his crew. She was so not my type. She was nothing at all like Kelsey.
Titus stepped between us and shoved an excel spreadsheet in her direction. “Here’s the production schedule for the day. Get it into the hands of the right people and start making some fabric. We’re already behind schedule, and Gabriel can’t afford overtime right now.”
She snorted right in his face. “Right, cutie. What do you know about a production schedule? Much less a production schedule for our plant?”
“Aww, you think I’m cute. That’s sweet. Listen, I’m sure you’re really hot and everything, but you aren’t my type.” He nodded to the spreadsheet. “And if you’re at all interested in keeping this job that Barb implied you needed so bad, then shut your smart mouth and get to work. That’s Kelsey’s production schedule for today. I hacked into the computers last night and found it. He’d already made one for today.”
Titus was strange, to say the least. I half-expected Courtney to slap him across the face for putting her in her place so rudely, but she merely smiled at him and then quipped, “You definitely aren’t my type either. You’re funny, though. I’ll get this to the production floor right away.” Obviously, smiles were available to everyone except me.
As she turned to leave, Titus said, “You realize you could have pulled the production schedule off the computer, as well…without having to hack the system.”
She shrugged. “Sure, but what’s the fun in that?”
Then she sashayed off into the direction of the double doors that led to the production floor. She was not the same woman I’d met yesterday. What had that poor girl done to try and keep her job? No, what had she been forced to do by Wayne and the rest of the brothers?
Reading my thoughts, Ethan leaned in and whispered, “I know what you’re thinking, and I’d say she’s probably had to do the same shit you tried to get Kelsey to do yesterday.”
My face burned in shame, and I immediately argued, “You know I wouldn’t have gone through with that, Ethan. Stop throwing it up in my face. Let me try to forget about it or at least pretend it didn’t happen, okay?”
