The Boss(hole) by Penelope Bloom
Jules
It was my last day in North Carolina when Mikey showed up again. I wasn’t worried anymore about him telling Adrian the truth, but I’d thought of a new thing to be afraid of. I now needed to worry about Mikey talking to father because of how it might screw up Adrian’s plans. I’d honestly forgotten about my brother in all the chaos that had come since me and Adrian swapped secrets.
Mikey’s visit had made me realize I couldn’t wait anymore to tell Adrian the truth. I knew I wanted him to hear it from me and not my brother, but once I’d gotten it off my chest it was as if his only tool against me was gone.
But I realized the moment I saw him that I’d been an idiot. There was still something he could do. If father knew I was working for one of his employees, let alone sleeping with one of his employees, all bets were off. He’d fire Adrian and his whole team in a heartbeat to teach me a lesson, and everything Adrian worked for would be ruined. It’d be exactly what he was afraid of, and it’d be all my fault.
I needed to make sure I didn’t give any hint to Mikey of what I was really scared about. I needed him to keep thinking I was only worried about Adrian finding out my secret and firing me. If he still thought Adrian didn’t know the truth, he might choose to make the wrong move against me. Maybe. “You’re back,” I said.
“As promised,” Mikey said. He pranced around my living room, chest puffed out. “I’ve decided I’m going to out you to your boss. It’s the most fitting. I’ve composed an email I’ll send as soon as I leave here. It reveals everything. Who you are. Who your father is. And in case he’s too dense to put it together, I’ve explained how your connection to him will ruin everything. I have no doubt he’ll fire you on the spot and you’ll have no choice but to come crawling back to father.”
I had to stop myself from letting out a sigh of relief. It was perfect, so long as I didn’t give away how happy I was. Of course, he had no idea what Adrian was going to do with his position at Coleton Central. He wouldn’t think I would particularly care one way or another if my boss got fired as long as he didn’t know we were dating.
I had to sell my dismay and convince him he really had me worried. “Mikey, please. I know we never got along, but really? Do you hate me this much?”
He scoffed. “I don’t hate you. I grew tired of watching you carry on like a spoiled child. This is a lesson you need to learn.”
That was rich, coming from Michael Van Coleton, the most spoiled of all spoiled children. I needed to keep myself from snapping at him, though. I knew how to deal with men like my brother, and aggression on my part would only make things worse. “What if I promised to quit on my own?” I asked.
He scratched his smoothly shaven chin. “Why would I agree to that?”
“Because if father finds out you were the one who sent the email to my boss, he may also find out you knew I was here and didn’t tell him. Think about it. What would he expect? You to solve this yourself, or for you to call him immediately?” If I could get Mikey to agree to this, it would help make it even less likely that he’d go to father about Adrian. The less connected I was to Adrian, the better.
Mikey fidgeted. “If you quit on your own,” he said. “It would need to be soon. Let’s be generous and call it tomorrow.”
I spun the gears in my brain, scrambling for some way to push for more time. “Give me two weeks. Let me finish the move back to New York with him. He’s a good guy, and I want to help him get set up at Coleton Central before I go. And it’ll mean I’ll have had time to find a place of my own before father finds out. Maybe he’ll agree to let me stay there if I promise to play by his rules from now on.”
Mikey pursed his lips and continued to pace. I knew Mikey wouldn’t like the idea of me getting to stay in New York in a place of my own at all. He’d want to do anything to stop me from getting that luxury. But I also knew he was sadistic and petty enough that he’d probably relish the idea of me having one more thing for father to take away. I just hoped he was thinking the way I predicted.
Finally, he nodded his head, grinning as if he’d just thought of something. “Two weeks. Fine. But if you haven’t quit and come clean to father in two weeks, I’ll tell him myself. And trust me, he will come down far harder on you if he hears it from me.”
Mikey wasn’t wrong about that much.
“So we have a deal?” I got up and stuck my hand out for him to shake.
“We do. And I hope you’ll learn from this, Juliette. There is a place for you in the Coleton family. But you need to stop lusting after things that aren’t meant for you. Stay in your lane, and we’ll keep you fed and taken care of with plenty of shiny things to put on your pretty little fingers. Okay?” He actually gave my cheek a little condescending pat, as if his words needed any help enraging me.
I stared at him, mustering up every ounce of willpower I had not to knee him in the balls. But my brother was a twisted product of the Coleton machine my father built. The real bad guy—the real problem was at the head of the snake. I silently promised to go extra hard on father for what Mikey had just said, then plastered a winning smile on my face. “That sounds real nice,” I said.