Mine to Steal (Mine to Love) (33 page)

“Yeah, I will,” I concede.

“And, Trey?”

“Yeah?”

“Stop calling me Kay.”

I let out a soft laugh in response
, and she does as well. “Bye Kay-La.”

I hate Mondays.

It seems there are always fires I have to put out from something that happens on Friday, but everyone fails to deal with it until Monday. No matter how nicely things appear on Friday, Monday shows up and kicks our ass.

As soon as I walked in this morning, I was inundated with phone calls and emails I have to handle since half the office is out sick with the flu, Jett included.

I suppose it was good Cheyenne wasn’t around because by the time I got home from my date with Fiona, I saw my brother laid out on the couch shivering with a trashcan on the floor next to him. I’m not good with taking care of sick people, so I gave him some Sprite and medicine and told him to go to his room to sleep. Yesterday, he was much worse so I drove him to the urgent care to see what he had. After a quick swab, turned out he had both strains of the flu virus, and they dosed him with meds and instructed him to get lots of rest.

I’m glad I got my flu shot when I went in for my physical last month.

Hattie walks into my office and starts to say something but I stop her. Her nose is red and her eyes look glassy. “Are you getting sick, too?”

“I think so. Evan’s been sick for a week
, and I’ve been taking care of him; I think it finally got me.”

“Jeez, Hattie, have you felt like this all day? It’s almost three, you need to go to the doctor or go home.” I point to the door.

“But there’s barely anyone here,” she argues through a cough.

“I appreciate your dedication but anyone that is here doesn’t want what you have. Please, go home and get some rest, we can handle it.”

She nods and turns to leave but spins back around and almost falls from the sudden movement. “Cal called while you were on the phone. He needs you to call him back.”

“Alright, I’ll do that right now. Are you sure you’re okay to get home?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Cavette’s
pull up his number and wait for him to answer the call.

“Cal. How
are you doing?”

I hear him muttering something to someone, but it’s muffled and I can’t make heads or tails of what he’s saying. When he finally responds, I hear the edge in his voice. “Trey, we have a big problem
, and I really need your help.”

“What’s going on?” I ask, concerned about the project.

“I need you to send a contract over immediately for you to handle our public relations. Can you do that?”

I’m stunned by the request, but I’ll do whatever needs to be done. “Absolutely. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I sent some information over to Rock Solid for them to include in a press release regarding my son, Joel. He was arrested this weekend for a DUI and the local news got wind of it and ran it in the early morning news. I was doing my best to keep it out of the spotlight, but as things do, it got out. The email I sent contained information that was not in the police report. I highlighted the information to be included, but instead of rewriting the information, they sent out the entire forwarded email.”

Shit, this is Faith’s gig.

“Cal, I have to say, I’m a little shocked by this news.”

“You’re shocked?” he almost yells through the phone. “How do you think I
feel? I pay them good money, and they don’t seem to care a lick about this.”

“Cal, you have to know Faith is incredibly dedicated to your project, and she thinks very highly of you. I can assure you there’s no way that she would let this happen.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’ve talked to their president and told him effective immediately, I no longer require their services. So go ahead and send those contracts over so we can send a new release out to remedy this situation as best as possible.”

“I’ll send that right away. Have you talked to Faith about this?” I have to
ask; because there’s no way she’d allow this to happen, especially to Cal.

“It wasn’t Ms. Young,” he expels a heavy sigh
, and I cringe because I know she’s going to take the flack.

“Then who was it?”

“Bradley Emerson.”

Son of a bitch.

“You have to tell Faith this. It’s not fair to her that she’s going to take the fall.”

“Look, I like Ms. Young, she’s incredibly talented, but
right now my concern is with my company and more importantly, my family. I need to fix this problem that Rock Solid has made ten times worse. Are you onboard?”

“Absolutely,” I push a few buttons before
continuing; “I’ve sent the contracts over to you.”

“Thank you
, Trey.”

The conversation replays in my head as I try to piece together everything that’s taken place in the last twenty minutes.

There was an incident. Cavette needed a press release to address the issue and Brad botched it up, but there’s not a doubt in my mind Faith is going to be the one it all comes down on.

My mind immediately goes back to the email from Brad on Saturday.
Does that somehow play into this whole mess?

What does
Brad have to gain from screwing Faith over and losing a client for Rock Solid?

He did everything he could to persuade Faith to stay with the company, going so far as to say it would be a step back to work for me. And his email to me, he was pretty confident she would stay where she was.

I click the send and receive button for email to see if Cavette has sent over the information that needs to be corrected, and there’s an email from Faith.

Young, Faith
October 15, 2014
To: Miller, Trey
Subject: Cave

Trey,

As I am sure you are aware, Cal Cavette has fired Rock Solid as his PR company. At the very least, I thought we were friends; I never expect my friends to screw me over, yet here I am knee-deep in a mess not of my making.

I should have listened. Early on, you told me you wanted the entire job. Hell, I wanted it, too. But I would never stoop to the underhanded measures you took to make me look bad. So I hope you are happy with your new contract.

Do not call me.

Faith

When I finish reading her email, my confusion is dissipating
, and the pieces are coming together in a rush. Brad knew about the job offer and wasn’t happy about it. The open relationship was his idea, and though I’m not sure how forthcoming the two of them are about whom they’re seeing, he knows we were working together on the project. If he suspected for a second something was going on between us, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to get me out of the way.

He doesn’t like to lose
. Faith’s words about Brad repeat in my head.

I need more answers, so I dial
Cavette’s number again, and I’m thankful when he answers on the first ring. “We’re finishing up the contract right now, Trey.”

“That’s fine, I’m already working on some things for you, but Cal, how did you know it was handled by Brad?” I ask, already sure of the answer.

“I called her this weekend as soon as it happened, and he answered her phone. He informed me she was sick, and he would handle it for her.”

“Who did he tell you to send the email to?”

“He told me to send it to him,” he answers tersely.

“I’m going to take care of this. As soon as you send the information, I’ll put a spin on the whole thing, and we’ll move on as planned. Maybe we can work up some sort of ‘give back,’ thing from this.”

“Grayson should be sending this over in a few minutes. I appreciate your help, Trey.”

We hang up and a part of the conversation comes back to me - Brad came
to town after all. What made him come out after refusing because of their fight? Was Faith really sick, or was it a ploy by Brad to finally get what he wanted?

One thing is for certain, Cave Camo and Outdoor and the Cavette
family aren’t the only ones getting screwed over by this whole debacle. Faith’s career is on the chopping block because this nightmare can, and most likely will, get her fired, and no other public relations firms is going to go near her.

Brad is an envious person, and if the rumors are true about Faith, she was set to beat his record and there were sure to be accolades. I can’t imagine anyone being so selfish that they would purposely ruin the career of someone they are involved with.

She has to know I would never do anything like this to ruin her career. Hell, I didn’t offer her a job as a ploy; I know she would be good for me -
my company
. Why would she think this is something I’m capable of? I need answers.

When I call, I’m sent to her voicemail at the first ring
, and I know she’s rejecting my calls, but I leave a message anyway.

“Faith, it’s Trey. We need to talk. Now. You don’t know everything
, and I don’t want to do this over the phone. But Brad is setting you up. You need to call me.”

Somehow walking around the office, pacing back and forth, isn’t relieving my stress. Not that I really thought it would. I’m so anxious and pissed that if Brad were standing in front of me right now, I might be inclined to lay the asshole out.

I grab my phone and send a text to her.

Me:
Did you get my message?

When she doesn’
t respond I text again.

Me:
We need to talk. Call me.

I wait for a response, but after five minutes, I hear nothing so I fire off another one.

Me: This isn’t how I wanted the job. You have to know that.

She still doesn’t respond
, and I run a frustrated hand through my hair groaning at her absolute hardheadedness. She has to know the truth, but she’s so pissed, I don’t know if she’ll answer. I take a chance and call her office and ask the receptionist for her, but she informs me she went home at noon - sick.

I decide to send one more text to her.

Me: You don’t know everything.

I know she won’t respond because ‘stubborn’ is her unofficial middle name, as far as I’m concerned.

Cavette emails the information and I read it over as more puzzle pieces coming into place. He also forwarded the email he sent to Brad and the timestamps are close to the same time Brad was emailing me. That means he was with Faith, and she was finally going to have the talk with him. Though, I’m not sure it would have gone in my favor anyway, Brad did his best to ensure she would see me the way he wanted her to.

The retraction won’t be an easy one to sell, but it will be a good start to repair the damage Brad has done to not only Cave,
but also Cavette’s son Joel. He’s not in the family business, and it’s unfair he would be cast in an unsavory spotlight, but it’s what has happened.

Cavette, Grayson
October 15, 2014 10:59 AM
To: Miller, Trey
Subject: Press Release

Grayson,

I have looked over all of the information Cal sent over, and based on what I have seen, I understand the concern. Hopefully, the attached press release will help undo some of the damage created by Rock Solid’s actions.

I discussed an additional campaign to help refocus the spotlight on something positive in all of this, but I didn’t go over it with him. I wanted to get your input.

What if Cave starts a charitable fund for victims of DUI and their families? Ten percent of select purchases, on a specific day, will be donated to the fund and perhaps Cave can match the monies raised.

What are your thoughts on this?

Regards,
Trey
Trey Miller
T.M. Enterprises

I would have gone directly to Cavette with this one, but I could tell he was spun up about everything, and I think Grayson would be great at handling this. If anything, he can tell me whether or not his grandfather would like the idea or if it needs to be different.

Cave’s
headquarter phone number flashes on my office phone and Grayson’s voice comes through. “I just got your email, Trey. Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah, so what did you think?”

“The release is fine. There isn’t much we can do because they already screwed us by putting the whole thing out there like they did, but this response is better than nothing.”

“I’m really sorry about all of that.”

“Me too,” he laments. “I feel really bad for Faith. She’s really taking a lot of heat on this.”

“What did her boss say?”

“Nothing really. They apologized for her actions and notified she would be dealt with. Pops tried to set them straight, but they dismissed him.”

“I’m familiar with
the tactic,” I mutter. “So what’s next?”