The Fearless King (The Kings #2)(49)



Silence for a beat. Two. Finally he said, “You have a security system in this place?”

“Yes.”

“Set it.” His footsteps sounded, leading back the way they’d come in.

Journey closed her eyes and allowed herself a single inhale and exhale before she moved to obey. There were far too many windows in the house to withstand anything resembling an attack, but with the system armed, at least they would get warning.

You sound like you’re going to war.

Isn’t that exactly what’s happening?





Chapter Fourteen



Journey lost herself in the methodical motions of measuring and cooking. She got chicken marinating in the fridge and chopped the veggies to roast. Since Frank still wasn’t downstairs by the time she finished prepping for dinner, she whipped up a batch of her brownies and slid them into the oven just in time to take the scheduled conference call. She got the laptop going and keyed in her information to start the call and then threw the bowl and utensils in the sink while she waited for the other two participants to connect.

Ronnie arrived first. She blinked into the camera, her close-cropped black hair making her dark eyes seem even larger on her face than they actually were. “Where are you? Anderson said you had to take an emergency trip, but he didn’t deign to drop any other details.”

“That’s because it’s none of your business, snoop.” She laughed, sliding into her workplace persona with ease. It helped that she liked Ronnie. The woman ran the tech department for the company, and she had earned the position at a younger age than anyone else in Kingdom Corp history.

Ronnie didn’t get a chance to reply before George appeared in a third video, his expression as dour as ever. “Ladies.”

“George,” Journey answered for both of them, which was just as well. If Ronnie and George could manage to spend more than two seconds in the same space without sniping at each other, this call wouldn’t be necessary in the first place. “Why don’t we get right into the thick of it? What’s the problem this time?”

“Ronnie’s department is over budget this quarter—again.” A pleased glint appeared in his blue eyes, which didn’t bode well. “Seeing as how that’s the third quarter in a row, Mr. Bancroft has given me permission to lay off ten people within the department.”

“You can fuck right off with that noise, George!”

“Ronnie, enough.” Journey inflected steel into her tone, and the other woman went silent, though she obviously wasn’t happy about it. Fine. She could be pissed. Journey was pretty fucking pissed right now, too. She stared hard at George. “You know as well as I do that all layoff orders come from me. Not from Elliott. He’s not the CEO, no matter what he’s acting like at the moment, so you might want to wipe that smug look off your face, George.”

“If that bastard lays off one of my people, we all walk. See how he likes that,” Ronnie snarled.

She could actually see the framework that held Kingdom Corp together shaking. This would be the first casualty when the wave broke, but it wouldn’t be the last. Elliott might have the power, but he obviously didn’t know shit about running this company or he wouldn’t have played things like this.

Unless he wants it to explode so he can blame me for it.

She had held her anger at a slow boil since getting the call about Frank, but it ratcheted up several degrees in response to her suspicion. She’d worked too damn hard to let him take Kingdom Corp from her. Oh, she was sure Beckett’s offer to hire her and her siblings still stood—he was the kind of guy who wouldn’t go back on his word—but that company wasn’t hers. It wasn’t the place she’d fought on behalf of for her entire life. It was as much her family as her actual family was.

She had to do something, and she had to do it now.

“George, we both know for a fact that engineering is under budget this quarter. Take the excess from them and spread it around as necessary to cover the tech department. Assure them that it’s a temporary situation and they’ll be compensated accordingly. I’ll set up a meeting with Jenna to discuss it next week.” She held up a hand when he went to speak. “I want you to think very carefully about the words you’re about to say. If they’re going to further inflame this situation without offering a useful solution, I highly suggest you keep them to yourself.”

He clamped his mouth shut and glared at her. Thank God. She nodded. “Good. In that case, we’ll go over financials once I’m back in the office. Under no circumstances are you to enact any orders from my father without running them past either Anderson or myself first.” She swallowed hard. “Until he does or does not take an official role within the company, he has no authority and will be treated as such.” She’d pay for that order. She had no illusions about that. It didn’t matter. Journey could take whatever damage her father dealt.

Kingdom Corp couldn’t.

“Ronnie, I want a full financial workup explaining how this happened.” She ignored the betrayal on the other woman’s face. “You have a budget, and part of your job is working within it. If it’s not an appropriate budget, we can revisit it, but going over is out of the question. If you do it another quarter, then something has to give. Do you understand?”

Ronnie reluctantly nodded. “I’ll put together the report for you.”

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