I called my dad. “What the fuck do I need to know about Levvetor and the Armanellis?”
“Jett Stonewood,” my mother bellowed. “You’re on speaker and if you think I raised you to speak that way—”
“Dad, why do you have me on speaker?”
He chuckled. “We’re in the car, and she’s your mother.”
“She’s an enforcer is what she is.”
“Watch your mouth, young man,” she said but the tone was lighthearted.
“Love you, Mom. Dad, I really need to know what I’m dealing with here.”
He sighed. “I’m trying to enjoy my time with your mother.”
“And I’m trying to not go into the lion’s den completely blind.”
The silence on the other end told me all I needed to know. “Avoid it if you can.”
Vick was back at her desk, typing away, and I could have been imagining it but I saw a new posture, a new purpose. “And if I can’t?”
“Don’t go in blind.”
I hung up when I heard him end the call.
I stared out at the cityscape for a minute, glanced at the cotton candy below, then shoved away from my desk. “Screw it,” I grumbled as I walked out of my office and to her desk.
“You want to discuss the meeting here or in my office?”
She jumped like she’d anticipated my coming but still couldn’t prepare herself. Good. She needed to learn who was boss. The damn company had my name behind it, not hers.
“Bob and I are working on another contract that—”
“That can wait.”
“I don’t think it can,” she shot back and eyed me with those whiskey-colored eyes that delivered the same bite as a shot of the liquid.
“Vicky,” Stevie hissed, his eyes wide as they ping-ponged between the two of us.
She glared at him for a second, and then she folded back into her old posture like Mr. Stevie wanted. She cleared her throat and clicked a window closed on her screen. “I’m sorry. Yes, we should discuss it in your office.”
Stevie’s smile was instant, like a proud boyfriend. I filed away his look and my feelings toward it for another day.
I turned on my heel and heard her shoes clicking after me.
I opened the glass door and waved her in. She avoided looking at me and walked right to one of my chairs. I closed the door and sat behind my desk.
The silence stretched between us. I made her wait while I pressed the privacy button. My windows tinted, and she rolled her eyes at the effect.
“Why are you rolling your eyes, Vick?”
“I’m not.”
“Cut the shit. Time is money around here, you know that.”
“Okay. Then we probably shouldn’t focus on my eye rolling.”
I rearranged the paperweights, trying to curb my temper.