Chapter 44 Chapter Fourty Four
KING’S POV-43
“I don’t think the boss knows how bad this is. The quarterly report is shameful at best and it’ll take nothing short of a miracle to salvage even half of the financial crisis this company is going through, why would he even want this dump? Why do you?” Remy queries furiously as he paces the length of my office, losing his mind in typical Remy fashion when numbers don’t make sense to him.
I can easily clue his oblivious ass in now on how Yasuki’s world actually runs if I believed in the slightest it'll help his plight. It’s never been about the money, it’s legitimacy, it’s power, it’s having a big name like Jeremy Kane under his thumb like a whiny, little bitch and it’s his big ticket into expanding into Chicago under a clean guise and off the radar.
I’m at the helm of this because he fucking owes me an out and this is the best on the table for the foreseeable future but it’s also because I’m the only one on his payroll with enough brute and brains to do whatever it’ll take to turn things around in any way that might save him from losing out completely on the finance part.
I could read him all these and some more but I don’t have the time or energy to indulge him right now. I have the board of directors in the board room waiting to make their final decisions known on whether to take the risk and continue with the sinking company under me or if they’re cutting their losses now and walking away now while there’s still anything to leave with.
I don’t expect their loyalty but I’ll appreciate it if they make this quick and straight to the point.
Jeremy Kane should be in there right now pulling whatever trick in the book will clear all the necessary corporate hurdles that might hinder the seamless transition with the board and he best be successful or I swear I’ll saw off both his arms for leisure and hang them in this very office.
I don’t like the man very much, I have no respect for him either knowing what he was willing to sacrifice to pay off his debt and escape Yasuki's noose and the only reason I’m holding back from showing him just how much is the fact that I want to lay low in Chicago for now, that and the fact that there’s Candy in the middle of this fucking mess. I want to maintain some semblance of the man she met back when none of these mattered even if it’s only a facade.
But hell help him, all he has to do is fuck this up even by a fraction more than it already is and he’ll find out why Yasuki brags about us being so alike it scares him some times.
The blood thirst is not gone, just tempered and I'm always only a heartbeat away from sinking shamelessly into chaos and getting my hands dirty just for the love of the game.
Pushing my chair back, I stride out of the office and down the hallway that leads to the main conference room on this floor, knowing that Remy will be right behind me with the materials we need to set and own the scene in that room.
I’m bored already thinking of it, I’m not cut out for this suit, tie and fancy English bullshit but it has to be done.
The room looks exactly like I expected it to, lined with polished looking old snobs that wrinkle their old faces in my direction because they don’t see how someone so young should be replacing Jeremy as CEO and not one of them. Word on the street is, they tried to cut each other’s throat to get his shares but a man in debt is a man without choice.
While I have the Chief Financial Officer explaining what we’ve all read in the quarterly report over the past few days, I feel my phone vibrate once under my hand on the table.
Out of habit, I snatch it off the table, taking a quick glance at its lit screen. There are only three people in the world that have the contact to this phone, Yasuki, my dad and Remy. It’s designated for top priority work and seeing as Remy is here sitting through this pretence contest with me, I know it’s not him.
Between Yasuki and my dad, I’m not sure which is the lesser evil but it’s clear my attention is needed.
First thing I notice are three unopened images sent to me directly from Yasuki’s personal line and my first thought is that that bastard lost his mind and went ahead to do something stupid to Candy even though I haven’t done anything to give him reason to make that move. He’s a dick though and I can’t put it past his psycho ass to do it just to make sure I stay in line and hell help him because he’ll wish he was dead by the time I get to him if he did.
I swear on my fucking life.
“Mr Cobb.” Jeremy’s voice reminds me I’m still in a meeting I need to get through so I reluctantly drop the phone.
“Gentlemen, I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending I don’t recall what this meeting is for. There’s been some unfortunate changes and though I refuse to point fingers, the situation of the company is terrible. From the report, we all have in front of us, it’s down to a gamble. I’m doing everything possible to change the trajectory of the numbers we’re looking at but even that might take a while before it starts yielding desirable results. You don’t owe me your loyalty, maybe Jeremy but not me and it’s not his say anymore, so if you don’t believe you can take the gamble with me, this is your chance to make that clear so we can move on.”
The room remains silent as I wait for them to start pulling out. I know a few who would and some who might but it seems everyone is waiting for the first person to cast the stone.
Finally, Bradshaw raises his paddle choosing to leave, Dominic following as murmurs start to rise as if they all didn’t already make a decision as soon as they saw the numbers.
It takes a few more minutes before the voting gets closed and even though almost half of the board decided to walk, it’s still less than I expected. And though I know Yasuki will want to buy them out and become a high share holder in the company so he still has his claws around me, I know exactly what I have to do before he pulls that move.
The rest of the meeting passes in a blur and the second it gets wrapped up, I’m out of the room, my phone clutched hard in hand.
I open the images immediately, heart fucking racing because I know the psycho I work for, braced for the worst and fucking hell does it fucking come.
Just not in the way I was expecting.
There’s been times when I’ve wanted Candy to a point of distraction, to the point of hating Yasuki and those times I’ve let myself wonder what it’d feel like to watch her belong to someone else because I couldn’t make her mine and not even that saved me from the hot flush of anger and hatred that rushes through me as my eyes go over the image sitting on my screen....images of her, sitting in some bastards lap, kissing him like her life depends on it, his hands all over her like a fucking leach.
Against everything I've spent this past few days working on, I dial her number, waiting for her to answer, to say something...anything to stop my unhinged decision.
But she doesn't, not once in the three times I called.
And not even after I text, asking her to.
That settles it then, I'm going to hurt him.