A Private Affair by Dara Girard Read Free Book Online Page B

Milo Farmstead had been integral in designing one of their key devices. She wanted to make sure that he understood the power he held in his hands, that he wasn’t just flipping through manila folders and sheets of papers, but looking at years of valuable experiences.
    Carissa sat off to the side of his large desk, and kept her chair at an angle, not wanting to sit directly in front of him. She looked around his large, expansive office, furnished with expensive furniture and fixtures, but she sensed it lacked something. She wasn’t sure what. Warmth? No, that wasn’t it. Color? No, the dramatic wall art added flair and complimented the dark walnut furniture. It was him.
    He looked too pristine—suit pressed to perfection, shoes polished to an immaculate shine—odd for such an early morning meeting. But perhaps the henchman preferred the light of day, so that he could see his ax glistening in the sun as he swung it destroying people and lives. She took a deep breath, she’d said her piece and he was looking over the files longer than she’d expected, so maybe that was a good sign. The fact that he was actually reading and not just scanning over them meant he was taking care to consider things. He appeared to be a careful man, perhaps she could use that in her favor. He closed the final file and rested his hand on it and sighed. “This part of my job is never easy, but it has to be done. They’ll receive a—”
    “Don’t say it.”
    “What?”
    “Don’t say a ‘generous offer.’”
    He lifted a dark brow. “What would you prefer me to say?”
    “I’d prefer you to say you’re not terminating them.”
    “Terminating?” He shook his head. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”
    “Do words really matter when the outcome is the same?”
    “If you want to have fun with words, would you prefer I say corporate downsizing or unavoidable restructuring? Besides, I haven’t announced my decision for all of them. However, Mia Wexler—”
    “Has the highest respect of all the department heads,” Carissa interrupted in a clipped tone. She adjusted her chair and looked directly at him. “She has devoted her life to this company and only has a few years until retirement.”
    “Now she can retire early.”
    Carissa gritted her teeth. “She likes to work.”
    “I thought you said I could depend on you.”
    “You can, but I didn’t realize that meant you didn’t want me to express my opinions.”
    “No,” he said slowly, maintaining her gaze. “I never worried about that. But if you can’t do this, I’d like you to let me know so that I can get someone else who can do the job.”
    She deserved that, the sting of his words hitting their mark with painful accuracy, but she couldn’t let him have the final say. Not when her mentor’s job was on the line. “Mia Wexler is an amazing woman. I know that won’t mean much to you, especially when it only takes you a couple of minutes to read all about someone’s life here at Simus Labs. It seems callous to me that you can scan over all the work she’s done for this company, and just look at her age and qualify her as someone who can easily be replaced.”
    Riverton smoothed down his tie then tapped a finger on the back of one of the manila envelopes, his steady gaze remaining on her face. “I believe I mentioned to you that my job is hard. I get paid a lot to make the difficult decisions others don’t want to. Barra Industries employs more than thirty thousand people.” He stopped tapping and flattened his hand on the table. “I’ve been given instructions to find new jobs for twenty of them.” A half smile crossed his face. “See, I have superiors just like you do and I don’t always like what I have to do, but it’s my job. One of the people I need to find a position for is a forty-two year old woman with three children, one of which has special needs.
    “Presently she is working under a man who is one year older and threatened by her brilliance.