Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
I frown, unclear where this is going. “In the South of France on a buying trip…”
We spoke just yesterday. She gave me a speech eerily similar to the one Barrett is currently delivering. Have they teamed up on this?
“You could be there with her. You should be,” he says, sounding desperate. Any moment now he’ll start to shake me. “This place is going to eat you alive, Scarlett.”
I fold my arms over my chest, growing angrier by the second. “Did you give this same speech to Wyatt and Conrad when they took their positions with the company?”
He sighs with impatience. “Of course not. Conrad is more cutthroat than any of us. He had to work in law; no other profession would have him. And Wyatt…well, you know Wyatt—there’s no getting through to him once his mind is made up.”
I lift my chin. “Right. So pretend I’m no different than them. Drop it. It’s done. I’ve already signed my contract.”
He rolls his eyes, less than convinced by this minor detail. “Oh, like Dad couldn’t just rip that thing up right now.”
I’m about ready to lose my temper. I shake my head, my brows furrowed, my free hand clenched into a tight fist. If he doesn’t watch it, I’m about to clock him—for real. Not like when we were kids.
“Why are you so against this?”
“Because I love you. Because I want a better life for you.” He says it so emphatically that I almost start to soften in response to the kindness in his tone, those big brown eyes pleading with me to see reason. I almost give in, but no.
I aim daggers at him then turn suddenly and face the front of the elevator. I’ll tune him out if he keeps this up for much longer. His words really rankle me. He sounds so much like Mom and Dad, so much like Jasper. I swear they’re all against me pursuing the profession I’ve dreamed about since I was a little girl and begged my mom to buy me a child-sized pantsuit. When we were really young and my dad would drag us up to this very office, my brothers would run around like absolute maniacs, tearing plants out of pots and writing on the walls, but not me. I’d sit behind his desk, pick up his phone, and mimic words I’d heard him say a million times.
“Judge, buyout, contract, bid. No! We won’t compromise!” Then I’d slam the phone down and swivel around and around in his chair, all that fictitious power going straight to my head as my feet dangled two feet off the floor.
Sure, Wyatt, Conrad, and Barrett are good lawyers, some of the best, no doubt. But I feel like I have what it takes to surpass them all, and if not, then at least to stand beside them, carrying my own weight in the company our father helped found. I don’t need to be coddled.
Barrett’s speech doesn’t dissuade me from my goal in the least. It was a waste of his breath.
“If that’s all you wanted to tell me, we can just ride the rest of the way in silence.”
He groans and shakes his head as our elevator flies ever higher toward our end goal: the 70th floor, aka mergers and acquisitions, aka my home away from home for the foreseeable future. A little ripple of excitement rolls through me.
“Fine. We’ll pick up the discussion another time. For now, if you’re really about to go through with this, I have some advice.”
I turn toward him with a curious brow. Now this I want to know. I’ve been hounding my brothers for insight for weeks.
Barrett starts talking fast. “Find a buddy and stick with them. There’s no way I would have survived my stub year—or my first year, for that matter—without a good team around me.
“Billable hours. Keep fucking track of them. Get in the habit of loading them into the system every night. If you let that get away from you, you’ll regret it.
“Oh, and whatever goal they give you, add five hundred hours, easy.”
“Five hundred more?”
He shrugs, unfazed by my shock. “And that’s on the low end of what some of these associates will do.”
“Christ.” I hiss the word under my breath.
The elevator comes to a sudden stop, and Barrett’s eyes widen in alarm. Just as the doors sweep open, he comes closer, grabbing my arm, pulling me toward him as he lowers his voice. “Most importantly, whatever you do, avoid Hudson Rhodes at all costs. Do you hear me? He and I went to law school together, and the guy is heartless. There are four partners in mergers and acquisitions—any of them would be fine except for Hudson. Got it?”
Sheesh. “Got it.”
Hudson Rhodes is the devil, pick anyone else—understood.
Now…time to kick some lawyer butt.
Chapter Two
Hudson
I know I’m the villain around here and I’m perfectly okay with it. I’ve got that kind of self-satisfied grumbly attitude the Grinch enjoyed at the beginning of his story, only I have the pleasure of knowing I’ll never have to let my heart grow three sizes in the end. Projecting darkness has a lot of perks. Having people scatter like cockroaches when I walk into the break room means more donuts and a quicker queue at the coffee pot for me. Evading endless small talk in the halls makes my work day that much more efficient. I probably save hundreds of billable hours a year just by blowing right past people as they quake in their boots, trembling from my mere presence.