Neanderthal by Avery Flynn
Chapter Fifteen
Kinsey
The lobby of Archambeau Cosmetics was decorated in glass, golds and greens, the aesthetic reflecting the company’s commitment to both cutting-edge treatments and natural products. It’s what had first drawn Kinsey to the company. Well, that and the woman at the helm of the company—the one heading straight toward Kinsey.
“You must be Kinsey Dalton,” Leigh Shaw said. “Good to meet you. I’m Leigh.”
For the second time in the same morning, Kinsey lost her Southern.
Manners? Gone. Her mouth was hanging open, and her eyes were bugging out.
Ability to talk to anyone? Might as well have never existed.
Staring at Leigh Shaw, the CEO who’d won the then-failing Archambeau Cosmetics in a nasty divorce and then had turned it into one of the most cutting-edge cosmetics companies in the world in less than five years, it was all Kinsey could do to remember that words existed. The woman was a legend. Six feet tall with perfect dark-black skin, gorgeous brown eyes, and a breathtaking presence that demanded a person’s attention, there was no doubting she wasn’t to be fucked with in the boardroom any more than she had been on the catwalk.
“If you don’t breathe, HR will yell at me,” Leigh said, tucking a strand of silver hair behind her ear and peering closer. “Blink if you’re still inhaling and exhaling.”
Biscuits and gravy, snap out of it, Kinsey Anne Dalton!
“Sorry.” Kinsey stuck out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Shaw.”
The other woman gave her a warm smile and a firm handshake. “Excellent.” She looked over at her assistant, who was in head-to-toe hot pink including the tips of her chin-length hair. “Billie, let’s take Kinsey around to meet the rest of the team.” Leigh cut a glance her way. “And everyone here calls me Leigh, so I expect you to do the same.”
The three of them took the elevator up to the lab, Kinsey trying not to freak out that the CEO herself had come down to welcome a new lowly junior scientist to the team. Bright and airy, the lab took up most of the third floor. Something warm settled in her chest at the sight of the crisp white lab coats, the clear glass beakers, and the chem shower in the corner. Home was stainless steel and correctly calibrated scales. She should really stitch that onto a throw pillow because it was true, the lab was her happy place.
As soon as they walked through the automatic sliding doors, the handful of people in the lab looked up from their benches. An older man took off his safety goggles and came over.
“Gavin, I’d like you to meet our newest scientist, Kinsey Dalton,” Leigh said. “Kinsey, Gavin Wedgewood is our head of R&D. His team developed the formula for Bonsoir Rajeunir.”
BR to its legion of rabid fans, the overnight moisturizer was a must-have classic in the beauty world, the kind of product with the devoted and loyal following that every company dreamed of having.
“Team, huh?” Gavin smiled, but it didn’t reach his dark eyes. “Well, I suppose that’s one way to look at one man’s accomplishments.” He turned to Kinsey, putting his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and rocking back on his heels, his condescending gaze going over Kinsey from the top of her ponytail to the slightly pointed toes of her shoes. “So, this is your new prodigy, huh? Another one you just had a feeling about?”
He glanced over at Leigh and chuckled when he noticed her narrowed eyes.
“Gavin.” Leigh’s tone hardened, her annoyance as visible as Meemaw’s laugh lines. “We’ve talked about this.”
“Yes, yes, I know,” he said, dismissing Leigh as if she didn’t own the company and therefore control his employment. “But it’s all meant in fun. You see that, don’t you, Katey?”
“Kinsey,” she said, correcting his obviously on purpose mispronunciation of her name.
She was all too familiar with Gavin’s type, already having met people like him in every classroom, internship, and social situation. He was a furniture store apple, the kind employees plopped into the wood bowls placed just so in the middle of a dining table—all shiny and nice on the outside and nothing but stale Styrofoam on the inside.
“Oh, sorry about that,” Gavin said as he tilted his face upward and looked at the ceiling as if trying to recall a minute detail. “Your last amazing find was Katey, or was that the one before that, Leigh? I always forget. At least they pretty up the place.”
What. The. Fuck.
This was her direct boss? This asshole stuck in the eighties?
“Gavin,” Leigh said, her voice firm. “We’ve discussed this. Don’t make me add to the list our attorneys are discussing.”
“Oh yes, can’t acknowledge the obvious,” Gavin said, waving his hand in the air, dismissing his chauvinism as if it were a spritz of rancid perfume. “I’m just a say-it-as-I-see-it type. I’m sure you’ll get used to it for as long as you’re here. As much as I hate to cut short any interaction with you, Leigh, I’ve got to get back to our latest project.”
“Of course,” Leigh said, her jaw tight and her eyes alight with barely repressed fury.
Gavin, though, was halfway across the lab before she even got those two words out.
Kinsey was a little shell-shocked, a lot pissed, and uncertain about her job choice enough at this point that her stomach acid was sloshing around like moonshine in a mason jar during a midnight four-wheeler race across an abandoned field.
“And that is the lab,” Leigh said through clenched teeth. “Let’s get you to HR so you can fill out all your paperwork.”
Kinsey kept her mouth shut, even as a billion and one panicked thoughts were zooming around inside her head, and followed Leigh and Billie out of the lab. They made it halfway down the hall before Leigh paused outside the break room.
“Billie, when is the appointment with the attorney?” Leigh asked.
She consulted her tablet. “Next week.”
“Thank fucking God.” Leigh let out an emphatic exhale and led their little trio into the break room. “Sorry about that. There are”—she waved her hands in the air—“things being worked out that have made it a little tense around here. Gavin’s smart, but he’s also a bully; don’t let him get to you. Now, I’ll leave you in Billie’s capable hands. She’ll take you to HR, and then you’ll be all set for your first full day in the lab tomorrow. You’ll do amazing.”
And with that, the CEO walked out of the break room, took a look left toward the lab and grimaced, before hooking a right and disappearing down the hall. Meanwhile, Kinsey stood there next to one of the oval break tables, each of which was outfitted with freshly cut flowers in glass vases as centerpieces, trying to remember why it had seemed like a good idea to move to Harbor City, home of the apartments with open-concept bathrooms and lab drama that made her gut twist.
She glanced over at Billie. “What happened with the last few hires?”
“They quit,” she said with a shrug.
Uh-huh. She wasn’t buying it. “Sounds like there’s more to the story.”
“There is.” Billie held her iPad to her chest, gripping the white Apple Pencil tight in her hand. “I’m not one to spread gossip, but this bit of knowledge sure could help you keep putting groceries in your fridge.”
Kinsey nodded, relief letting her inch her shoulders down a tad. “I like to eat.”
“Don’t we all.” Billie glanced around the deserted break room as if someone might be hiding by the coffeemaker that looked like it could send a rocket into space. “So, Gavin is a real piece of work.”
Not a shocker there.
“When I transitioned, he made my life hell,” Billie continued, “but he was smart enough to do it so that it was covert enough I didn’t have anything to take to HR—plus under the old regime, it wasn’t like much would have been done.” She plucked a white daisy from the vase on the closest table. “I was ready to walk out on my five-inch heels and never look back when Leigh pulled me aside and let me know she was getting the company in the divorce and asked me if I wanted to be her right hand. Easiest yes I ever gave.”
Billie took a deep inhale of the flower and then put it back in the vase. “Her attorney was a shark of the most glorious kind, but her ex was a stone-cold demon. He made a sweetheart deal with Gavin, giving him full intellectual-property licensing rights to the top-five products Archambeau had developed up until that point. If he decides to walk, Gavin takes eighty percent of the company profits with him—something he lords over the rest of us and turning the culture of that lab into a toxic waste pit.”
Well, complete dirtbags did seem to attract each other so that made sense. Kinsey had read up on the divorce and how it impacted Archambeau before accepting the job, but there hadn’t even been a hint of this fuckery.
“The last five hires quit within a month because of him,” Billie said. “Leigh is working on a plan to change things, but it’s taking time—so long story short, hang in there. Gavin’s days are numbered.” She cocked her head and shot Kinsey a considering look. “I know that expression. You’re thinking about walking now. Trust me. You don’t want to do it.”
She may not want to—this was her dream job, well, minus the asshole boss—but quitting before she’d signed a lease, got attached to the city, or spent any more time having inappropriate thoughts about Griff Beckett seemed like the most logical plan.
“Why not?” Kinsey asked.
Billie’s smile was megawatt bright. “Because once that man gets his comeuppance, everything is going to change.”
Uh-huh. In Kinsey’s experience, only movie villains ever got what they deserved. In real life, it was the working stiff who ended up getting the shaft. “You’re quite the optimist.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I just hate bullies.”
“That we have in common.”
After a long pause, Billie asked, “Should I still walk you up to HR?”
Kinsey should say thank you but no thank you. It was the smart plan, but damn it, despite her IQ and her less-than-great experience with jerks in lab coats, she knew that feeling bubbling up inside her. It was hope, the best and absolute worst thing in the world. God, she was such a sucker, but there was no way she could look Billie in the eye and say good luck with the asshole but I’m out of here. She couldn’t abandon her any more than she could leave Griff to fend for himself in his dating bet.
No one knew like an outsider how important it was to know someone had your back. Besides, women had to stick together if there was ever going to be change.
“Absolutely.” She nodded more emphatically than she felt. “Let’s go to HR.”
Billie draped an arm around Kinsey’s shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. “I knew I was going to like you.”
Kinsey followed Billie down the hall to HR, sending up a quick prayer with each click and clack of the other woman’s heels.
Please Lord, don’t let this blow up in my face.
