“I admit, I just briefly glanced at the thing,” he said. “The proposal appeared as if he wants all the profits, but only wants to put in the minimal amount of work. I threw it on the pile of other proposals that had the same scheme to them.”
He wasn’t wrong. “I got that same impression when I looked it over. Then I saw that it had CI as an architectural hopeful.”
“So, what do you got?” he asked, knowing I did the research if I was reaching out to him.
“I spoke with my research team and they said the battery is doable. However, they’re dubious about the validity of the research presented in the proposal,” I answered. “The proposal is lazy and sloppy, but if there’s a chance it could come to fruition and work, well…I’m interested.”
“Be that as it may, do you really want to work with the fool?” Lorcan asked in true Lorcan fashion. “He sounds lazy and entitled.”
“I’m sure he is,” I agreed. “But I wouldn’t be the one working with him. That’s the luxury of owning your own company. I can assign some other poor soul to be his point of contact.”
Lorcan let out a dark chuckle. “Speaking of poor souls,” he joked. “This afternoon I have a meeting with two of my employees to remind them that I see all, and I know all. Sort of like The Wizard of Oz.”
If I had a heart, I’d feel sorry for the two unfortunate souls who tried to get over on Lorcan Cavanaugh. But I didn’t have a heart, so I didn’t feel sorry for them. Plus, people had to be accountable for their actions. Anyone thinking they were smart enough to get over on Lorcan must not have had a clue what type of man they were working for.
“Ouch,” I chuckled.
“Yeah,” he replied, a devious smile in that one word. “Reagan Contreras was pawning her work off on a new employee and not giving her any credit for it.”
I’ve met Reagan Contreras, and whatever intelligence I gave her credit for, was now officially revoked. “Come on,” I groaned. “Is she really that stupid to think she could get away with something like that?”
“Evidently,” he replied.
“What are you going to do?” I knew what I’d do if it were me. I’d fire both of them, no questions asked.
“After I put the fear of God into them, I’m going to demote Reagan to teach her not to fuck with me ever again,” he bit out, telling me just how irritated he was over the rouse.
Like me, Lorcan didn’t have time for petty bullshit. The fact that he had to take time out of his day to reprimand an employee, who’s been with him long enough to know better, was enough to make his inner Satan come out.
“How’d you find out?”
“I was going over my weekly security reports, and I noticed Ms. Anderson’s employee badge being swiped way passed business hours on a continuous basis,” he answered, causing my heart to skip in my chest at the mention of his Ms. Anderson. I knew there were a million Ms. Andersons in the world, but, fuck, if the weight hitting my chest wasn’t real. “I ended up researching her floor manager, and then the senior account executives, and then it dawned on me why, all of the sudden, Ms. Contreras’ projects were miraculously of better quality. I went over the project presentations and noticed Ms. Anderson’s name on all the research.”
A part of me-the part that was still a fucking pussy with it came to Mystic Anderson-wanted to ask Lorcan for Ms. Anderson’s first name, but my pride grabbed me by the balls and reminded me that I was still, indeed, a man.
And another part of me didn’t want to know because that part of me didn’t want to face the realistic fact that Mystic could very well no longer be an Anderson. It’s been ten years, after all.
“So, what are you going to do with the gifted Ms. Anderson, then?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he admitted. “She’s new, and so I needed to find out just how much of a culprit she was in all this. It’s Ms. Contreras who I’m pissed at most. Not to mention Lacey. She should have known this shit was happening on her watch.” Lacey Stevens was one of Lorcan’s department floor managers, and unfortunately for her, Lorcan didn’t suffer fool or their foolish mistakes gladly.
I decided to get back to the topic at hand. As much as I was sure Lorcan’s torturous ways would be entertaining, I was tired of hearing him say Ms. Anderson. “So, how long do you think you’ll need to rake them over the coals?”
Lorcan let out a deep breath. “Not long,” he replied. “Maybe a half hour, or so. It’s not like I’m going to be there to hear their side of the story. I’ll mostly be meeting with them to let Ms. Contreras know she’s been demoted and to not fuck with me or mine again. Next time she’ll be out on her ass.”
“Then I’ll drop by around four-thirty, or so,” I told him. “If you have nothing after five, we can go get some drinks and pussy, if it’s on the menu.”
Lorcan let out a dark laugh. “Pussy’s always on the menu, Gage,” he chuckled. “Even if you are an ugly bastard, your wallet more than makes up for it.”
“Asshole.” But he wasn’t wrong. One thing I’ve learned after making my first million? Women could be bought. Not all of them, mind you, but a good majority of them could be. “I’ll see you later.” I hung up before he could talk anymore shit.
It wasn’t even that I was judging women who went for the wallet. Everyone had their own sense of survival, and sometimes that meant sleeping with a guy for money. Even if it ended up in marriage, you still had gone after the guy for the commas in his bank account and not his personality.
My issue was that, even if I could find a woman who would let me unleash my demons for the right price, was that I didn’t want manufactured devastation.
I didn’t want a woman screaming my name in pain because I was paying her to do it. I didn’t want a woman pretending to cum with my hand wrapped around her throat. I didn’t want a woman begging me to bite the fuck out of her, but then collapsing in real tears because she was in more pain than she was in pleasure.
I wanted the real deal.
