The Boss(hole) by Penelope Bloom
Adrian
Iwasn’t sure what had come over me, but I was beginning to get used to that. As soon as I had eyes on Jules, all my ability to function logically seemed to evaporate. She was my fucking kryptonite.
The plan I’d formed after I learned the truth about her was to immediately meet the guys and my sister. We’d all talk and form a plan about what to do. I knew I needed their level heads to see this straight, and I’d sworn to myself I’d keep my distance from Jules until then.
And only an hour later I’d watched her from my office window as she walked her tight little ass into the breakroom. I saw the way the men in the office leered after her, eye fucking her.
I’d managed to last about five minutes before I burst out my door and went after her. Now I hadn’t just tried to scare off the men in the office, I’d made it worse by inviting her out to lunch.
Idiot.
But Jules was waiting outside with a sweet little smile when she saw me.
It was pleasantly warm and sunny out. The city was bustling with people in business attire heading out for lunch and a mixture of others walking dogs or standing outside buildings to chat with food in their hands.
The look on Jules’ face told me she’d already put my outburst over her lunch behind us and seemed completely excited for the moment. I appreciated that about her. She was a creature of the present, always ready to put the past behind her and live in the moment.
I could’ve used more of that myself. I spent my days with my eyes everywhere but in the now. I looked back at the way Coleton had ruined my father’s career and life. I looked forward to the way I’d return the favor. But I rarely stopped to smell the roses, and maybe that’s what was so addicting about Jules. She forced me to be present. There was nowhere else to be with those glowing eyes and her infectious smile.
She dragged me, kicking and screaming right into the here and now. The problem was I couldn’t afford to forget my mission, and all these little detours were adding up. They were distracting me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before it bit me in the ass.
“So, where to, boss?” Jules asked.
She actually reached out and grabbed my hand, interlacing her fingers with mine. I grinned down, unable to even fake a glare if I wanted to. “We’re doing this?” I asked, looking at our hands.
“I’m a girl with a certain idea about what it means to be in a relationship. And yes, I hold hands with my boyfriends.”
I chuckled. Boyfriend. I ignored the totally irrational jealous itch at the thought of boyfriends she’d had before. Don’t be a dumbass, Adrian. You can’t be annoyed at the thought of men getting a taste of her before you even knew her. You especially can’t be upset when you’re halfway sure you’ll wind up having to end this because she’s the daughter of the fucking guy you’re trying to destroy.
“Quite the grip you have there,” she said.
I made myself relax. I’d practically been crushing her small hand, which she was now swinging, forcing my arm to swing along with her. “Really?” I asked.
“Sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all while we walked. “I like to frolic, too.”
“This is just punishment for the way I make you work, isn’t it?”
“No comment.”
I shook my head. She was adorable. And a Coleton. That thought rose up out of the darkness in my mind like toxic sludge, tainting everything about this moment. She was Juliette Rose Coleton. I’d done some internet searching after I bent her over my desk. She had a brother named Michael Van Coleton and a small army of influential aunts and uncles. Her mother was Carianne Coleton, who grew up Carianne Adams. She’d been the daughter of a wealthy family with money that was several generations old and came from trans-Atlantic trading.
It was a mixture of blue and green blood in her family. Privilege up to the ears.
It all should’ve made me hate her, but here she was. She’d willingly peeled herself away from that life and came out here to slum it on principle. I’d even looked up her address and saw the shoebox she was calling home. By all appearances, Jules had broken free of the money and the influence her parents promised.
But how much of that was a flight of fancy? Could I really trust her to still keep my secret if she knew the truth about what I was planning to do to her family business?
“You alright up there?” she asked.
“I’m good,” I said. “Just focusing on my form. I’m new to frolicking.”
She laughed. It was a good laugh, and not one I’d heard enough from her. I could see now how much her secret had been weighing her down. Now that she’d told me the truth, she seemed even lighter than before with less of that occasionally acidic edge.
We walked to a cafe that sold gyros and salads, which Jules seemed excited for. We both ordered a lamb gyro and sat by the window with our sandwiches wrapped in crinkly paper.
Jules made plenty of happy noises while she ate and got sauce all over her face. She was constantly reaching for napkins and wiping it from the tip of her nose, her cheeks, and even her forehead at one point.
“So,” she said once she’d made it about halfway through her gyro. “You left something out when you told me your real last name.”
My stomach sank. Yeah. I did. I left out several very important somethings, and I’d been surprised she hadn’t pinned me on it the moment I told her. I shouldn’t have been surprised she was asking now. “Yes,” I said slowly.
“You know why I used a fake name, but why did you? Do you have a criminal record or something?”
She was offering me an easy out. I could’ve just taken the lie and run with it, but I couldn’t make myself do it. I decided I’d tell her only as much truth as I needed. Maybe I could avoid getting into the full depth of my plans. Yes, I should’ve ran this by the others, but I couldn’t lie to her anymore. “Well, I’ve actually spent the last ten years in a strange sort of business. We call it demolition.”
She squinted. “Okay. But that’s not really strange. People demolish buildings all the time. Although I am wondering how you go from demolition to being the boss of a publishing company.”
“We demolish companies. From the inside out. My team and I, I mean.”
Her eyes widened. “I’m not sure I understand. Why would you do that? And how, exactly?
“Because there are very large companies that are too big to get the punishment they deserve. They get big enough and they can bribe their way out of trouble. Environmental destruction, crimes against their employees, illegal business practices. There are all sorts of reasons, but that’s the ‘why’. Because they deserve it. The places we’ve brought down have all deserved every bit of it. We give good people a chance to fill in the gaps that crop up when we bring down the corrupt giants. And if another corrupt business takes their place, well, maybe we’ll come for them next.”
I took a deep breath. That was more than I’d planned to say. My passion for this work had got the better of me, though. To tell the truth, I wasn’t even sure I really planned to hang it all up after the Coleton job. This all started as a crusade for revenge in my father’s name. Jordan had been game for obvious reasons, but Noah and Travis had been happy to join because they believed it was a good cause.
Finishing this job wouldn’t mean the end of corrupt, twisted businesses. So why had I been thinking I’d be finished after this? Why wouldn’t I keep doing what I did?
I dragged my thoughts back to the present, watching Jules as the gears in her head turned.
“So you being at Coleton… Is it Coleton Central you’re trying to bring down, or is it just Coleton Publishing? Wait, no. You said you had to get the position at Central. You’re trying to bring the whole thing down?”
I swallowed. Naturally, she’d seen straight to the truth. “Yes,” I said. I could’ve offered excuses or tried to explain myself, but I wanted her to have the naked truth. No qualifications this time. No deception. Just the truth.
Jules looked down, eyes searching the table as she processed. Finally, she picked up her gyro and took a big bite. “Cool. Can I help?”
I stared. “What?”
“I want to help.”
I’d already been infatuated with Jules. I’d been obsessed. But until that moment, I don’t know if I’d actually cracked open the iron curtain around my heart for her. But with those four words, I thought I felt something inside me open up.
“You don’t know why I want to bring Coleton down,” I said.
“My father runs the place,” she said simply. “You can’t imagine the things I heard at the dinner table. But I never thought anybody could do anything about it. It’s like you said. He just pays off anybody who starts to get bothered by the way he runs his business. It’s all political lobbying, payoffs, and no consequences. Believe me, if I had a button to blow the whole thing up in my room, I would’ve pressed it a long time ago. So, yeah. I’m absolutely in.”
“You’re sure?”
She nodded, wiping some sauce off the tip of her nose.
“I’ve been waiting all this time to target Coleton,” I said. “Ten years. Everything until now has been like a practice run. We got a lot of good done with the places we took down, but it has all just been in preparation for this.”
“What makes Coleton so special?” she asked.
“My father. He worked for their agricultural division for his whole life. They had those guys spraying pesticides every day. He passed ten years ago from a type of cancer they linked to exposure to the pesticide he’d worked with every day. But he fought it for two years before the end. They gave him the bare minimum sick pay, then fired him as soon as he tried to come back to work because he couldn’t put in the same hours anymore. Thirty years with the company and they threw him away like a used-up battery.”
Jules’ face twisted. I could see the anguish there and felt guilty for having to tell her about something her own father had taken part in. But she didn’t stop me. She wanted to hear all of it.
“I did some digging,” I continued. “I found out that Russ Coleton paid to suppress medical studies that showed a link between the pesticide and cancer. He knew he was exposing thousands of employees to cancer causing chemicals and he didn’t give a shit. We tried to sue before my dad passed, but Russ had a team of lawyers who had been preparing for the cases they knew would come. It was ironclad. They’d tampered with evidence, bribed experts, and even influenced jurors when they needed to.
“To Russ Coleton, my father wasn’t a human being. He was a number on a spreadsheet. A thousand good people getting cancer and unsuccessfully trying to sue was cheaper than what it would’ve cost to use a safer pesticide for a few decades. It was just one big calculation for maximum profit with no regard for anything else.” I shook my head, chest tight and hot. “Someone like that deserves to have everything taken from them. Everything.”
“I’m so sorry,” Jules said. She reached across the table and took my hand in hers. “I had no idea. I don’t even know what to say.”
“You’re not responsible for your father’s choices. You don’t have to apologize for him.”
“No,” she said. “But I can help you get back at him.”
“Does he have any idea what kind of daughter he raised?” I asked. I was somewhere between amusement and awe with her.
“No.” Jules picked up her sandwich again and took a big bite. “That’s the problem,” she said around her food. “But I think he’s going to find out.”