Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) (13 page)

“When can you get me another laptop?”

“I placed an order for two more yesterday. They usually take about two weeks to get in. I didn’t pay for rush delivery. Do you want me to change it? My boss isn’t going to like this one bit.”

“No, don’t rush it.” As much as she wanted answers to her questions, they needed to be smart with their money. “Just tell Timothy it’s my fault, and let me know when you have another laptop ready.”

“Will do. Bye.”

Jade cringed at Zach’s terse goodbye. It wasn’t like him to get so irritated with her, even though this was bad. And Stan, Jade rolled her eyes, Stan was just going to use this as more ammunition why she shouldn’t be running the company. Resigned, Jade dialed Professor Murti’s number.

A woman answered. “Hello?”

“This is Jade Buchanan. I’m supposed to meet with Professor Murti this morning.”

“I’m afraid my husband is in the hospital.”

“What? Is he okay?”

“He was run off the road by a drunk driver last night. He’s out of surgery in intensive care.”

It took Jade a moment to comprehend and formulate a response. “I’m so sorry.”

“Pray for him.”

“I will. Please let me know if there is anything I can do.”

“He is in God’s hands now.”

Jade turned off the ignition. The car was still sitting in the garage. Her hands were shaking and tears welled in her eyes. She had bad, bad karma. Everything around her was falling apart. She leaned her head against the back of the seat and closed her eyes.

Could anything else possibly go wrong?

TIMOTHY ALMOST DIDN’T
PICK UP
when he saw the call was from Jade. All she’d been doing since the management meeting last week was getting into other people’s business. Top that off with losing a laptop when the company was already having financial trouble.

“Hi, Timothy, I was hoping to meet with you and your team sometime today.”

“I’m rather busy, Jade. Why do you want to meet with my people?”

“I’d like to understand the issues they’re having with product delivery and quality.”

He gritted his teeth.
Who does this girl think she is?
That was his area of responsibility. “We have everything under control.”

“If that were true, we wouldn’t be having these issues.”

He gripped the phone hard enough to make his fingers hurt. “Are you blaming me for our financial problems?”

“Of course not. I just want to understand how this business is being run.”

“I’ve been here a long time, Jade. I know what I’m doing.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

Right.
“I’d prefer it if you let me run my departments the way I see fit.” He pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose.

“And I’d prefer it if you’d let me run my company the way I see fit. Since you don’t have time in your schedule, I’ll have Roz schedule time with your team and I’ll work with them directly.”

“Have you talked to Stan about this?” He leaned back in his chair.

“I don’t need anyone’s approval.”

Holy shit, the girl was going around everyone, including Stan. “Fine. Is that all? I have things I have to take care of.”

“Yes, that’s all.”

Timothy hung up on her. The girl had gall. But what did he expect? She was typical of her generation, all of them loaded with body piercings and an absolute disregard for their elders. He’d been raised to respect his seniors.

She comes in calling everyone by their first names and has no regard for company titles. And worse, she thinks being CEO means she can do whatever she wants.

Someone needed to stop the bitch. He’d spent years of hard work and determination working his way up the organization. Hell, he’d even taken golf lessons for two years so that he could impress Stan and Gloria’s husband, when he found out they played golf every Wednesday. He’d started as a manufacturing engineer, then took over as manager and later took other departments when they’d needed someone to fill in. Now he was in charge of not only Manufacturing, but also Purchasing, Inventory Control, Shipping and Receiving, and IT.

Stan should be CEO, with me by his side.
Stan had set him up rather nicely, and he wasn’t going to let some young know-it-all from a fancy college come in and ruin everything.

And Gloria, damn her. She’d been so shortsighted that her only consideration had been keeping the company in the family. He’d really expected more out of her. And on top of it, she chose Bryce to be COO. He still couldn’t believe Gloria had passed him over for someone new to the ranks. Not that Bryce was doing a bad job; he brought in a lot of sales. But he was green under the belt and shouldn’t be in that position alongside Jade.

And speaking of position, he’d read their body language loud and clear. Something was going on between them. If only Jade had taken him up on his offer for dinner. He’d miscalculated, thinking he could easily seduce her, but there was another tactic he could use instead. He grinned. When the time was right, he’d call Linda in HR and report a case of sexual harassment.

STARING INTO THE DISTANCE
, Jade recalled the memory of Bryce coming to her aid with Joshua Greenberg. The way worry lines had creased his forehead and his eyes had softened as he’d gently placed a finger under her chin. She wanted to feel the heat from his hand again on her waist and the way shivers ran up her arms when he’d tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear.

“Uh, boss, you’re gonna be late meeting with Chad.” Roz stood in the doorway, smacking her gum.

Jade blinked twice, not wanting to let the image fade. “I’m on my way.”

“Uh-huh.” Roz shot her a wicked smile and left the room.

Am I that obvious?

She headed downstairs to the forty-first floor where manufacturing and inventory was located. Roz had provided her a good piece of gossip. Apparently, one of the guys wasn’t happy about something in Inventory Control. So she figured she’d start with process improvements there. She walked to the inventory cage where a young man close to her own age was counting parts as he pulled them from a bin. Jade remained silent as he placed the parts in another bin on a cart and checked the items off the pick list that he’d pulled from inventory.

“Good morning. You’re Chad, right?” Jade said when he completed the task.

“Uh, good morning, Miss Buchanan. I’m almost finished here.”

“Do you mind walking me through what you’re doing? I’d like to understand our processes.”

“I’m pulling parts out of inventory to create ten kits for the Air Entertainment System.”

“And you’re using the pick list generated by the work orders from the manufacturing module of the ERP system.”

“Exactly.” Chad seemed impressed.

“I helped implement the Enterprise Resource Planning system a few years ago. It’s nice to see how it’s being used.”

“It’s been great. I was hired right before they got the new system. It was all done by hand prior to it being installed. I just wish we could keep up with the system.”

“What do you mean?”

“That we have more orders than we can process.”

“Now, that’s a good problem to have.” Jade smiled.

“Sure is.”

“Wow, we have a lot of inventory.” Jade walked with Chad through the cage, which looked to be about twelve hundred square feet, with bins and parts on the shelving throughout.

“Yeah.”

Jade noted his lackluster tone. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Please tell me. Something is bothering you. You don’t like having this much inventory?”

“I don’t mind having inventory we
need
. Most of the stuff over here”—he pointed to the left of where they were standing—“most of this is scrap, obsolete, or for products we don’t make anymore.”

“Don’t you need it for repairs on old units?”

“Yeah, but not that much. We have a five-year warranty on most of our products, and they hardly come back for repair. Well, that is, until recently.”

“Why don’t we sell or get rid of the excess inventory?” She scanned the high bay shelves that went back at least fifty feet. “Paying rent on this real estate isn’t cheap.”

“Tell me about it, but Stan won’t let me get rid of it. He keeps saying it won’t help the books, that we have to keep our assets.”

She understood Stan’s thinking. Inventory was considered an asset on the balance sheet. Banks compared a company’s assets to its liabilities. But this inventory wasn’t an asset; it was a liability. “I think I know where Stan is coming from. I’ll talk to him. I’m sure I can change his mind.”

“That would be great. Then I can stock more inventory for the products we are making.”

Jade looked at the unused inventory. “How long has this stuff been sitting here?”

“I don’t know. It was here when I started over three years ago. I’ve complained about it many times.”

Jade stared at him, flabbergasted. “When can you get this junk out of here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a month. We might be able to sell some of it, but we’ll have to pay for some of it to be disposed of properly or recycled. Stan’s not going to like that.”

“I’ll talk to him. I’m sure he’ll agree this is the right thing to do.” Jade headed straight to Stan’s office.

She couldn’t have been more wrong. After ten minutes of trying to explain to Stan that they needed to get rid of the inventory, he still wouldn’t budge. She leaned forward in her chair. “I understand what you’re saying, Stan. However, we’re having difficulty getting orders out the door because we don’t have anywhere to put inventory we need. The existing inventory is obsolete. It’s a liability that’s costing us money. It’s not an asset.”

“I’m sorry, Jade, but I don’t agree. I stand firm on this.”

“So do I.” Banging her head against the wall would be less painful than this discussion. “I’ve asked Chad to get rid of the inventory.”

“Without speaking to me?” Stan slapped both hands on his desk and his cheeks burned red.

Jade flinched but held her ground. “I expected to be able to change your mind. Clearly, I was mistaken. We need to do what’s right, even if it doesn’t make sense on a piece of paper.”
Why can’t you see that?

“That’s more than a piece of paper, Jade. The financial reports are what the banks look at.”

She raised her chin. This was exactly what she was trying to explain to him, but he wasn’t listening. “Then they’re looking at the wrong thing. I have a book I can give you that will better explain what I’m trying to say.”

“I was an accountant long before you were in diapers. I don’t need a book to tell me what I already know.”

Jade’s chest tightened and she stood to leave. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“I’m doing everything I can to keep this company afloat. It would help if you worked
with
me and the rest of your management team.”

The last comment stung. She was sure he was referring to Timothy. Jade left his office.

Why can’t he agree with me, even once? Why does he say NO to every idea I take to him?

Getting rid of the inventory was the right move, and she wasn’t going to back down. It was time she made some big changes around here and readjusted her managers’ attitudes.

She’d had enough.

JADE EXPECTED TO FIRE
someone today. She waited in the conference room for her managers and noted who came in on time, Bryce being one of them.

She stood at the head of the room, shoulders back, legs spread apart, chin high.

Bryce’s eyes flickered to the four gemstones in her ear. His lips twitched as if he were about to smile.

Yeah, that’s right. No more being someone I’m not. This is my show, and you’re all getting on board.

His eyes lowered to her grandmother’s necklace, which complimented her ivory silk blouse. She’d undone a couple buttons to show just a bit of cleavage. His eyes lingered there a little longer than was appropriate.

She bit back a smile. She needed to appear strong and in command, a force to be reckoned with.

His gaze continued to the short black skirt ruffled just above her knees, down her panty-hose-free legs, and stopped at her matching pumps, where a silver bracelet encircled her ankle. Realizing he must be staring, his eyes darted back up to hers and darkened.

Busted! Well, get your fill. I bought this outfit just for you.

She waited for him to break the connection between them. “Good afternoon.” She moved her focus to each manager around the table as she spoke. “I’ve called this meeting to discuss how we’re going to strategically improve operations. Our biggest customer, Avionics Systems, is threatening to go to another supplier when their contract expires in six months. The memo I sent you yesterday explains the details behind their CEO’s complaints. I want to hear your ideas on how we can address them.”

Jade sat down, clasped her hands together, and waited for a response. When she got nothing, she continued. “As senior managers of this company, I expect you to be able to give me answers. I expect ideas and respectful debate on how we can improve this business. If you are unable or unwilling to participate in this process, I am happy to replace you with someone who will.”