“I thought you were going to take this job seriously,” he said.
“Of course I am,” she replied.
“Then why do you find it acceptable to take over an hour for lunch?”
What the heck? Was he timing her? A freaking billionaire? She hadn’t been on the clock in a lot of years and no one had ever questioned her work ethic. She’d always worked over the clock. But she wasn’t going to argue with him.
“Is there something you want, Byron?” she asked with a sigh.
“Yes, for you to do your job and do it right.”
That was just plain rude!
“I am doing my job. Is there anything else you want?” She was losing what little cool she had left, and she still had most of the afternoon to get through. Most of the afternoon and two and a half more weeks.
He paused for a moment before speaking again. “Get the Boise papers gathered. I want to go over that situation in an hour.” With that he turned and walked away.
McKenzie had to take a deep breath and then another before she pulled up the files. She would go over them one final time, of course, so she would have every detail on the tip of her tongue. Yes, right there on her tongue… The last thing she wanted was to have him think she couldn’t do her job. All she needed right now was to get fired and to have her company’s reputation ruined before it ever had a chance to really take off.
Then again, maybe that was exactly what she needed. She could start fresh in a new place. But how was that going to help her? She’d discovered years ago that she couldn’t run from her problems — no matter how much she wanted to. She could escape for a while, but inevitably, even if it took years, her problems would once again find her.
Before she could dive into work, her phone rang, and instead of ignoring it, she glanced down then cringed when she saw the number. This wasn’t the time to deal with more problems, but she knew there was a good chance he’d come barging through the doors if she ignored him. They had only kept him in jail for three days after he’d trespassed, telling her sorry, but he hadn’t committed a crime. He’d called her every day since. He wasn’t too good at taking a hint, so after much hesitation she picked up the phone.
“I’m not going away, McKenzie. As a matter of fact, I’m hanging out at the park right across the street from where you work. You know you can never be too careful when you’re out walking. Things can happen to a person.”
“You don’t scare me, Nathan. You’re pathetic and weak, and no matter how much you bug me, I’m not caving into you, so please just go back to the hole you crawled out of and leave me the hell alone.”
“I should scare you,” he said, but he couldn’t quite pull it off.
“I don’t have money to give you, but even if I did, I would rather burn it in a dumpster on the side of the street than give you anything I earn. Are you hearing me?”
“You may have got the drop on me once, but it won’t happen again.”
“Maybe if there weren’t such a little-boy whine in your voice, your threats would come off as a lot more effective,” she said. The thing was, that even though he was a pathetic excuse of a human being, she couldn’t forget he was also desperate.
“I have nowhere else to go,” he said.
“It’s not my problem—”
He hung up on her, and McKenzie let out a sigh while rubbing her forehead. How many more problems could she take before she exploded? She was soon to find out, because it looked like they were going to just continue to pile up on her.
McKenzie sat there and concentrated on her breathing for several moments before she realized she wasn’t alone. She didn’t want to look up, didn’t want to know how much of the conversation Byron had heard. She was going to lose this job for sure, and then she would have even less than she had now.
How much had he heard? His expression gave nothing away. She was silent as she waited to hear what insult he was going to skewer her with next. Hell, he might as well bring it on. Her day couldn’t get any worse.
“My office…now,” he told her, and he turned and walked out.
He didn’t need to say anything further. She knew only too well what men expected when they used that tone.
She rose from her chair slowly and took a step in the direction of his office before her shoulders went back and a bit of the fire that had seen her through many hard times flared up inside her. She was sick of getting bossed around, sick of men trying to control her. Wasn’t that the reason she’d opened the doors to Relinquish Control in the first place? To bring control back into her life.
Instead of following Byron blindly into his office, she grabbed her purse and made her way to the women’s restroom around the corner from her office. And she took her time. She washed her face, the cool water feeling incredible against her heated skin, and reapplied her modest amount of makeup. Then she propped herself up against the sink and stared at her image.
“You are McKenzie Beaumont. You have survived so much, and you will continue to survive. No one can make you feel inferior. No one but you can decide your course of action. No one can trample on the life you have made for yourself. Bullies are bullies because they can’t earn respect any other way. Deep down, they’re cowards.”
This was a speech she had delivered to herself many times in the course of her life, and she had a feeling she’d say it many times more. Yes, she wasn’t immune to fear, and yes, she’d have weak moments — everyone did — but no, she wouldn’t let those moments define who she was. And she wouldn’t allow anyone to keep her down for long.
With her head held high, she left the restroom and headed back toward Byron’s office. Her armor was back in place and she was going to keep this job. She was going to make a success of her new business and beat back Nathan Guilder, damn him to hell. He was nothing more than a weak man trying to make up for his tiny dick.
McKenzie nearly smiled at her thoughts. That was until she stepped into Byron’s office and saw the way he was looking at her. This wasn’t going to be her easiest battle.
Not her easiest battle by a long shot.
Chapter Ten
Just when Byron thought he had a clue about who McKenzie Beaumont was, something happened to throw his suspicions into disarray. He didn’t know her at all.
She was a mystery, and hadn’t he decided already that he was going to figure her out, find out what made her tick, and make her pay for meddling in lives she had no business meddling in? Yes, that was exactly what he’d decided, but he couldn’t fathom why all of the sudden he gave a damn about her.