The Boss(hole) by Penelope Bloom
Juliette
Icould still hardly believe my own mother had sprung me from Coleton prison. She’d had a driver bring her a personal car and claimed she had a private affair to handle. She’d stashed me in closets and spare rooms as we progressively worked our way through the house and toward the front door. And she’d whisked me into a car, which was certainly going to be visible on the security cameras later.
I knew how much she was putting on the line for me, and I knew she did, too.
“Thank you so much, Mom,” I said, squeezing her in a hug when she pulled up outside me and Adrian’s apartment.
“I just wish I’d done something sooner,” she said, smiling sadly. “When you left, I spent a lot of time thinking about how many ways I went wrong. Before, it felt like the way it had to be. I was afraid if I helped you, I’d get you cut off from your father’s money and you wouldn’t know what to do. But you never needed it, did you?” She ran her thumb across my cheek. “You went out there on your own and you kicked rear end, Juliette. I was so proud when I heard what you’d been doing.”
I hugged her again. “Thank you. Are you going to be okay when he finds out what you did?”
“I know it doesn’t always seem like it, but I can handle myself. Don’t worry about me. Just do whatever it is you’re trying to do.”
I thanked my mom again and went up to our apartment.
I couldn’t call Adrian to warn him I was coming because my father had taken my phone. So when I knocked on the door, he swung it open and immediately pulled me into a bear hug. “Thank God,” he said, kissing my neck.
“Careful. Squeeze me too tight and you’ll crack my father’s laptop.”
He pulled back, holding me by the shoulders. I saw then that the others were there. Noah, Travis, and Jordan were all standing by the couches, eyes wide with surprise. None of them looked like they’d expected me to pull it off.
“You got it?” he asked.
“You doubted I would?”
“How the hell did you manage it?” Adrian asked.
“Would you believe me if I said it started off by choking out a guy who was about seven feet tall?”
Adrian shook his head. “Actually, yes. I think I would believe that.”
To celebrate,Noah and Jordan went to the store to get supplies for a victory dinner at our place. The kitchen was filled with the smells of Italian cooking as Travis whipped up his “specialty.” It was some sort of garlic, pasta, and butter dish with vegetables and crusty bread.
I had a moment alone with Adrian on the patio while the food cooked. Jordan and Noah were inside working on the laptop.
“So that’s really all he’s going to need?” I asked. “Just the laptop?”
“Yeah,” Adrian said. “Those passwords you gave Noah have made it even easier. He’s got all Russ Coleton’s usernames and passwords. I can’t believe a man like him was foolish enough to write all that down in one place.”
“It’s arrogance,” I said. “He never imagined anybody would get into his office if he didn’t allow it. I think certain kinds of paranoia feel like weakness to him. The more brazen he is, the more it means he’s as powerful as he thinks he is.”
Adrian nodded. “You’re right.”
“So what happens now?”
“I get you all to myself,” Adrian said. He scooped me in closer with a hand on my lower back, pressing my belly into him. He kissed me softly, making my body hum with pleasant warmth.
“That part was a given,” I said. “I was talking about with Coleton Enterprises. How long does it take to destroy something like that? And is there any chance it won’t work?”
“It’ll happen. But there’s something I wanted to tell you.”
“Okay,” I said. I felt nervous for some reason, but I kept it from my expression while I studied his gorgeous features. Adrian had a hundred different ways to look good. It was hardly fair, but highly enjoyable. Sometimes his hair would be wild and untamed, which suited him. Sometimes he let his stubble grow in, which suited him. Sometimes he was clean shaven, casual, professional, thoughtful, angry, or anything in between. It all looked amazing on him, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever get tired of enjoying the view.
“I love you,” he said. “I loved you way before it was sane to love you.”
My breath caught. Wasn’t expecting that. But I let his words sink in and felt them open something up in me. I started to speak, but he pressed his finger to my lips.
“Don’t just say it because I did,” he warned. “I feel the way I feel, and you feel the way you feel. It’s alright if you’re not ready to-”
“I love you too,” I said.
Adrian’s eyes looked heavy and hungry as he gazed down at me. He tilted my chin up with his forefinger and kissed me tenderly again. “I was thinking when this is over, we could move back out to North Carolina. Get a place together. Somewhere outside the city, maybe.”
“Oh, you were thinking that?” I asked.
“I was,” he said with a grin. “But I’d be open to suggestions, if you’re making them.”
“No,” I said. “That sounds really nice.”
“Break it up,” Travis said loudly. “Food is ready. You two can dramatically fuck each other once we’re all full and out of your hair. But I’m going to warn you right now, if you do it while I’m here I’ll watch every stroke. I’m kinky like that.”
“Travis,” Adrian warned.
Travis held up his palms. “Just putting the cards on the table, Adrian.”
We all ate and Travis made me retell the story of my “heroic” escape at least three times. Noah had my father’s laptop and his own open during the meal and barely touched his food. He was somehow typing on both at the same time, eyes shifting between the two screens.
“Is it going to be difficult to bring him down?” I asked once we’d all eaten far too much of Travis’ surprisingly tasty dinner.
“No,” Noah said. “But based on what you’ve said, it has been about three hours since you got this laptop. I have a certain level of freedom before he finds out I’ve taken it and have access to his systems. There were a couple things I wanted to copy over before he potentially found a way to remotely restrict my access. That’s all done, so I’m just finishing up now.”
“Sounds good?” I asked, not completely sure I understood how my father’s laptop was really going to accomplish as much as the others seemed to think.
“It is. I won’t bore you with details, but we can safely say he’s fucked,” Noah said.
“I want the boring details, to be honest. I want to know how it happened. How does this work?”
“The simplified version is this,” Adrian said. “We pulled strings internally to get your father’s advisors to push for the acquisition of another corrupt company called Pulse. If we couldn’t get this laptop, we had reason to hope it’d be simple to expose the corruption at Pulse, which would now be part of Coleton. They could obviously claim they were ignorant, but it’d open the door to the details we’d leak from Coleton.”
“That seems like a lot of work just to make them look a little more guilty.”
“Well, that’s where it gets a little more technically complicated,” Noah said.
I shrugged. “Try me.”
“Companies like you father’s don’t always operate for immediate profit,” Noah explained. “Many actually pump almost every dollar they can get their hands on into growth. If they spent two billion in 2020 and earned three billion, they will throw that one billion into expanding. It’s a long-term plan and they can sell that growth to investors and speculators. Your father was in the process of convincing his board of directors to invest huge amounts of money in Coleton for their global expansion push over the next eight years. That means Coleton didn’t have much in the bank, so to speak. Acquiring Pulse was a huge risk, but one we convinced them they couldn’t afford to miss.”
“So they didn’t just buy a corrupt company, but they wasted money at a time they couldn’t afford to waste it? And their investors may back out?”
Noah nodded. “And now that we have this laptop, that will all just be icing on the cake. Your father is meticulous about documenting everything he does, from bribes to collusion and even tax fraud. It’s all here. Even if we didn’t destroy Coleton Enterprises the business, which I think we will, we’ll certainly have enough to put Russ Coleton the man behind bars for a long time.”
I took a deep breath. The honest truth was I had never considered my father being put in jail because of what we were doing. Financial ruin, damaged pride, loss of respect? Yes, yes, and yes.
But I thought about the things I knew he’d done like the decisions that led to Adrian’s father getting cancer and the thousands of others. Whether it twisted my stomach or not, my father deserved everything he had coming. He’d never done anything to earn my loyalty, either.
“Good,” I said.
Adrian gave my leg a squeeze. “I’ll keep you updated as all this develops. It could take a few weeks or even months before we really have concrete results, but they are coming.”
“Okay,” I said. I leaned into his ear, breathing in his cologne. “Could you ask your friends to leave our apartment? I was really looking forward to letting the man who loves me carry me to his bed so he can have his way with me.”
Adrian stood suddenly. “Okay. Everyone out. Thanks for coming.”
Travis tilted his head. “Look at this fucker. She whispers a dirty little something in his ear and he kicks us all out?”
Jordan got up suddenly, grabbing her coat. “I don’t intend to be here when my brother does whatever he’s about to do. Gross.”
Travis got up with a shrug. “I’d still watch. For the record.”
“Nobody wants you watching them have sex, Travis,” Noah said. He closed both laptops and slid them into his bag. “I’ll let you know if I have any hang-ups, Adrian.”
“And I won’t respond for the next few hours.”
“Few hours?” Travis asked. “I guess that’s what happens when you sexually deprive yourself for… what was it, eight years?”
“Could we not talk about this?” I asked, cheeks burning red. “All I told him was that I wanted to watch more of the show we’re watching.”
“Yeah,” Travis said. “That’s why Adrian’s got a raging hard-on. What are you guys watching, Fifty Shades?”
I looked at Adrian, and, sure enough...
“Ugh,” Jordan said, shielding her eyes. “I’m so gone.”
“Likewise,” Noah said.
Travis lingered at the door after they left. “Last chance for a spectator.”
“If you stay, the only thing you’ll be seeing through are two black eyes,” Adrian said.
Travis raised his eyebrows. “Oh. So I can watch?”
“Get the fuck out,” Adrian said in a deadpan voice.
Travis smirked. “If you can’t be safe, be careful, kids.”
“This is why subtlety is a valuable skill, Adrian,” I said. “And what is this, the fourth time your uncontrollable erections have gotten us into trouble?”
“If this is trouble, sign me up,” he said. He scooped me out of my chair and carried me to the bedroom.
Adrian tossed me on the bed from his shoulders and I landed with a bounce. I laughed, then held up my hands and formed a little square with my fingers. “Hold on,” I said. “Let me just take a mental image here.”
Adrian made a low noise in his throat. “Holding on isn’t much of an option right now.”
He stripped off his shirt, filling my finger-frame with his ripped torso and hungry green eyes. Even as he came to the bed and started to undress me, I found my thoughts drifting to last year. I was terrified of leaving the Coleton life behind because I feared my father was right. Maybe all I really was good for would be to get married off to one of the sons of his business buddies. Or maybe I’d get out in the real world and find I had no place in it—that all I was the whole time was just a wallflower.
Except here I was.
Adrian Terranova was peeling the clothes off me like I was a gift he’d been waiting to unwrap all year. I’d just played an instrumental part in righting some of the wrongs my father had been carrying out his whole life. I’d proven I was more than he thought.
“Hey,” Adrian said. He kissed my chin, then locked eyes with me. “I see your mind drifting. Get back here. Be with me.”
He didn’t have to ask me twice. I hooked my fingers behind his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss.