Chapter 23

It feltlike it took Friday forever to crawl around and slap me in the face.

I'd done what I could, calling to talk to everyone invested in the company, because I knew my mother's push to take over was serious. I got the same vague assurances that I was doing a great job, but I could tell in the tone of everyone's voices that I needed to pack up my shit. Somehow, Mom had won already.

Thursday night I'd done just that. I'd cleared everything I valued out of the office and had Tav, Hilton, and Ellis help me schlep everything out to my car. I'd also taken home my laptop. There were things I might be contractually obligated to delete, but security wasn't keeping my computer—and I may have spent all that night deleting my work from the business server and backing it up elsewhere.

If Mom wanted to fuck me over, she could build her own business plan and run her own numbers. She wasn't getting anything that I'd worked on. Fuck her.

Before work, I decided to take Tav and the boys out for breakfast at a diner that I liked, and even though Ellis and Hilton talked nonstop for the entire forty minutes it took them to burn through three stacks of pancakes each, I couldn't get a single word past my throat. Tav studied me sadly over the rim of his coffee cup, and I just smiled at him. It felt like the last meal before a death sentence.

I loved Dailey Tires.

I'd been there from the very first for my company. It was mine from the ground up. Sure, it had my parents' name on it, and they'd backed me, but I'd done the work. I'd done the heavy lifting. I'd made it live and found the best people to help me. Scrubbing my face, I paid the bill, and then we went into the city.

When we stepped into the elevator at the office together, Tav took my hand.

"It's going to be fine," Hilton said, tears brimming in his eyes as he stared at me. Today he'd chosen to wear a pink suit, and I wasn't sure if he just thought Fridays called for some vibrance or if he figured it would annoy my mom if we ran into her, but he looked fantastic. He had his hair parted to the side in the classic businessman style.

"Thanks," I said, touched that he felt like shedding tears on my behalf. "You know you don't have to cry, right?" I winked at him.

He snorted and swiped at his face, and Ellis wrapped his arm around Hilton's shoulders and gave him a tiny squeeze.

"They wouldn't fire you," Ellis said, flashing me a small smile. He'd skipped school today to come in with us.

"Divesting me is the same thing. If they're forcing me out, it's like firing me. They'll have to pay me off, and there is a severance clause, but...." They were all staring at me with confused frowns. "Yeah, you're right. They would be firing me. They will be firing me."

Tav squeezed my hand. "We're here for you."

I glanced around at them and realized that except for a couple of friends and my dad, everyone who cared about me was already in the building. I took a deep breath. Even if the worst happened, I wasn't alone. I bit the tip of my tongue to stop myself from getting emotional and nodded.

The elevator doors opened, and my stomach churned. We passed the receptionist's desk, and this morning she was there, head bowed over her computer screen as she typed faster than I'd ever seen her work. Frowning, I went into the main office area, but it was a ghost town. No one was talking or having fun, and the people I could spot were hunched miserably over their workstations in a way that never usually happened.

"I'm fucked," I mumbled.

"You don't know that," Tav said harshly.

Hilton hummed and gave my other hand a small squeeze. I realized he must've been avoiding touching me lately, and I gave him a small half hug of thanks for the reassurance that had him swiping under his eyes again. Yeah, he put on the theatrics, but I think he really did care about the people close to him.

Jon came up to me with an awful scowl on his face that I'd never once seen in my life. "Mrs. Dailey is waiting for you in the boardroom."

"Shit," I muttered.

He nodded. "I'm already looking for a new job," he murmured. "So, if you get something started, call me."

"Yeah. Let's do drinks this weekend."

He winked and wandered off. How many others were sitting at those desks shining up their résumés? They already knew, which meant I knew what I was walking into right now—Mom had won.

Anger pelted through me, ripping my insides apart, and I shook Tav and Hilton off, stalking toward the boardroom. When I got to the door, I shoved it open, and Mom was sitting at the head of the long glossy table, scowling as she tapped away at her laptop.

"Where are your business files?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to ask IT if you can't find something, since it seems I no longer am involved in this business?" I glared at her, and she didn't even bother to look up.

"Oh, I was supposed to get to tell you!" She finally made eye contact with me and shrugged.

"How early did you have everyone in here to vote me out? No one waited to tell me in person? They couldn't look me in the eye to do it?" My jaw ticked.

She huffed and sat back with her arms crossed. Today she was wearing a black skirt suit that only intensified the sensation that I was at a wake. "I told you that your decisions would have consequences." She glared behind me, and my chest loosened a bit as Tav slid his hand into mine.

"Good morning, Mrs. Dailey. Lovely day today, isn't it?" Tav said, being obnoxiously cheerful, which had my lips twitching as Mom shot him a baffled look.

"Yes, it is," she said slowly.

I glanced around the room and was horrified as tears made my vision shimmery. I blinked fast so they wouldn't fall. Tav ran his hand up and down my arm, then squeezed my shoulder gently.

"Did everyone know why you were trying to sink me?" I asked, relieved that my voice was firm.

She tilted her head and studied me. "Because this company needs someone who is willing to focus on it."

I stared at her and my jaw tightened to the point that it hurt. "You mean like I have been?"

Ellis marched toward her, and I grabbed him by the back of the neck to stop him while Tav latched on to his shoulder. "You're the worst kind of person!" he said, and I had half expected him to say something much worse. "You know, my parents tried to send me away because I didn't do the things they wanted, and you're just as bad as they are."

She sniffed. "I vote Democrat. I'm not like those right wingers."

I rolled my eyes. "Keep telling yourself that."

"This is not about you being gay," she snapped. "I already told you that."

"No, but what it is about is just as bad," Tav said, tone completely pleasant. Apparently, he'd decided to kill her with kindness. I was surprised but delighted to see him fire back at her.

For a few long seconds everyone glared, and I could practically hear the sassy bullshit percolating in Hilton's head, but he managed to keep his mouth shut, though he did widen his eyes in my direction as if urging me to say something.

"I admit I didn't think you would get this done," I said, glancing around my former boardroom. "How many people did you have to blackmail and strong-arm?"

She flashed me a mysterious smile but didn't spill her secrets.

"Fine. You will pay me the legally required severance for my position," I snapped. "Or I will see you in court."

Mom smiled serenely. "To the penny."

I raised my hands in surrender. "You win. You got your way. Call me when the paperwork is ready for me to sign."

Her face fell and she sat forward in her chair before abruptly standing. "What?"

"I love Tav." I gave his hand a squeeze that had him grunting, then loosened my grip. "He's the only Tav there is. My Puffin. The man I've always loved." I shot a glance at Tav, and he gave me an encouraging smile.

"Far's I know, that's all true." He kissed my cheek.

"I can build a new company." I stared down Mom.

Her mouth fell open and she glanced between us. I had the supremely satisfying realization that this actually wasn't going according to her plan. "You won't negotiate with me?" she asked, voice rising sharply.

"Nope." I gave her a salute and turned toward the door. "Call me when the paperwork is ready. Hopefully we can do all the signatures online. No need to see each other again."

"Judah Ronald Dailey!"

"Bye!" I called over my shoulder.

"What should we do?" Hilton asked, making me stop.

Ellis shot Mom a nasty look.

"You two still have internships." I shrugged.

"You can take that one with you," Mom said, pointing at Ellis. "Of course, Hilton Bloomberg still has a spot here." She smiled at him.

My heart dropped to my toes. "You're for real with this shit?"

Mom's lips twitched. "Entirely."

"Yeah, we're out of here. Come on, Ellis. I'll just call my uncle and get you a spot at the Divine Conglomerate. He's wanted me to do that forever, so if I say I'll go with you, he'll do it." Hilton rolled his eyes so hard that I worried they might get stuck.

Ellis looked like he wanted to stick out his tongue at my mom as he let Hilton drag him through the boardroom door into the safety of the hallway.

As we followed them, panic finally set in.

Part of me had known this would happen, but the rest had been convinced that Mom wouldn't do this to me. I didn't know why I'd hallucinated some bizarre fantasy that in the eleventh hour she might discover some long-buried maternal instincts and declare her undying delight at my choice of partner, but—there'd been a strand of hope. I'd thought maybe Dad could talk her into it.

"Shit, what should I do?" I whispered.

"Speak to your father?" Tav asked as he got into the elevator with me.

Hilton and Ellis followed us, and I watched Tav push the button like he was behind glass, a movie that wasn't real. The sensation that slammed through me was bizarre, and I realized I'd been holding my breath and sucked in a deep lungful of air. I was glad I'd had the foresight to clean out my office already, yet I felt sick at the possibility that I'd never see it again.

I shrugged. "He can't fix this. Either he didn't know it was happening or he already tried and failed to make her see reason."

"Do you want to go back up to talk to her?" Hilton asked.

I swung around to look at him.

He tucked his hands into his pockets.

"Why would he do that?" Ellis asked, nose wrinkled.

"Usually just giving my family small victories keeps them from cutting me off completely." Hilton tweaked Ellis's nose, which had him swatting at Hilton.

I shook my head. "It won't work that way."

Hilton pouted. "Maybe Uncle Mason could get you a job at the Divine Conglomerate?"

I sighed as the elevator door opened. "Nah, I'll either get this company back somehow or I'll start something new. I'm a doer, not a follower."

The ride home seemed to be endless, and as soon as I was inside, I took the stairs to my home office two at a time and went inside to the wall safe. I removed a gun case out of the safe and went to my desk to unlock it with my pulse pounding in my ears.

"Jesus, what are you planning?" Tav asked as he finally made it into the room. His eyes widened.

I snorted and set my keys beside the locked gun case. "I thought the shooting range might be some nice stress relief."

Tav opened his arms, and I dove into them. I'd forgotten how wonderful it was to have someone to comfort you when the world was going to shit. It had been so long since I'd had this. I buried my face against his neck and breathed in his clean scent.

"You're certain this is worth it?" Tav asked.

"Never in a million years would I pick anything but you," I whispered back harshly.

Sadness overwhelmed me, and I let Tav hold me. I had worked hard to build Dailey Tires and probably no one else would've been able to engineer the dirty business maneuver my mother had, but it was done. I let out a shuddery breath.

"This was all shitty," Tav muttered.

"Almost as shitty as your truck hitting my car," I said, a smile flirting with my lips.

He groaned.

"Fuck it," I said, taking a deep breath and standing tall. I rolled my shoulders to release some of the tension. "She doesn't know how to run this type of company. Let her ruin it."

"And what will you do?" he asked, studying my face.

"First, I'm going to make sure Ellis has a new internship somewhere."

Tav ran his thumb over my chin. "Good. And then?"

I attacked Tav's lush mouth.

He chuckled when we were both hugging each other tight with heat settling between us. "You can't do this all day every day," he said softly, then nipped my bottom lip.

"We can give it a shot?" I waggled my eyebrows, and he rested his forehead against mine.

"I'm—"

"Do not apologize." I hugged him harder until I felt like my bones were aching from the strength of the embrace.

He huffed. "Was just gonna say that I'm going to go get ready for you, since your new career plans seem like they're going to require me to be naked." He winked at me, clearly trying to claw back some of his lighthearted attitude, then spun to walk out of the office with his back straight.

When he was out of sight, I squeezed my eyes shut and massaged my chest. I wanted to call my dad, but it wouldn't do any good. Tears slid out of my eyes and pissed me off. I'd worked hard. I took deep breaths and forced myself to stop. I would never, ever let Tav know how much this had gotten to me because I was serious about him.

Deadly serious about my promise.

I would always pick Tav.