Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) (8 page)

“No.”

“How can they be declining when we’re bringing in more sales?”

“I keep bringing in the orders,” Bryce said, “but it doesn’t seem to be doing us any good. Month after month, our profits decline.”

Jade couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It had been a few years since she’d reviewed the financial statements. She’d created the reports one summer after she’d helped implement the new financial system, and she remembered running the reports for a ten-year period, graphing the trends. Sales and profits had steadily increased, especially after Bryce had come on board. She could see every detail on those reports as if she held them in her hands right now.

Jade turned to Stan. “What are we doing about this?”

“The only thing we can do about it. We’re driving down costs.”

“It doesn’t seem to be enough,” Timothy finished.

Jade was shocked. She needed to see the financial summary and review the trends. Why were profits declining when orders weren’t? How could things have changed so drastically over the past several years?

Because Gran was sick, that’s why.

It ticked her off that the managers hadn’t kept the company running smoothly when her grandmother was sick. Even if Gran had kept her illness a secret, they still had a job to do.

“Anyone got anything else?” Stan asked.

“Yeah, I got one,” Timothy replied. “Did you hear back from Jethro Air? It’s been over two weeks.”

“Not yet. I’ve been checking my email regularly. I’m waiting for them to approve the financial arrangements. I’ll check again when I get back to my office.”

“I asked Zachary in IT to forward all of Gloria’s email to me,” Jade interrupted. “I’ll look for it when I get back to the office.”

“Why did you do that?” The rise of Timothy’s voice increased with his agitation.

Because I’m the CEO.
“Because I should be reviewing Gloria’s email first.”

“I need to know immediately when a contract is approved because my team has to set up demand for it. I’ll tell Zachary to set it back to the way it was,” Timothy said.

“If you don’t get your information in a timely manner, and it impacts your work, please let me know. Otherwise it stays as is.” Jade stood firm.

Timothy gripped his pen so hard his knuckles turned white. “Zachary works for me.”

“And you work for me.” Jade leaned forward.

All eyes focused on her. The room became eerily silent. The managers were expecting her to give in. Gran’s words echoed in her mind.
Never back down from a challenge, Jade
.

“Bryce?” Timothy seemed to be hoping for backup.

“Jade has made a decision. Obviously she feels this is an important issue.” Worry lines formed on Bryce’s forehead. At least he didn’t try to change her mind or override her.

“Compared to what, our declining profits?” Timothy asked Stan.

Stan held up his hand. “Does anyone have anything else to bring up?” When no one responded, Stan stood to leave, signaling the meeting was adjourned.

Jade’s eyes burned, and her cheeks were on fire. She prayed no one noticed. She remained seated until the room emptied. No one so much as glanced in her direction except for Bryce. He opened his mouth to say something and decided to leave instead. She was sure he could see the humiliation etched on her face.

Does Timothy really think Bryce or Stan can override me? And worse, how could Stan not respond? Does he really think I feel email is more important than declining profits? Why didn’t Gran or my parents ever mention the decline? Why didn’t Stan or Bryce?

None of this made any sense. She understood the historical trends; at least two years ago she had. Sure, there’d been a small decrease in profits for a couple of years, which Gran said was due to gas prices increasing the cost of goods, but sales had always outweighed the increase. It had never been anything to worry about.

Maybe they’re lying to me, hoping I’ll bail out in a year because the company is in trouble? But that would mean all the managers are in on it, and that doesn’t make sense, unless this is a conspiracy by them all to get rid of me.

She was getting paranoid. Could the company really be in trouble?

Jade had a ton of questions with no answers. She rubbed her temples. She was going to have to face Stan again, and this time, dammit, she was
not
going to be a pushover.

STAN WASN’T HAPPY
to see Jade standing at his door again. She’d deliberately gone behind his back after she’d agreed not to pursue the email issue. He inhaled deeply and motioned her in. “Have a seat, Jade. What can I do for you?”

Jade sat on the edge of the chair. “I’m worried about the financial issues we’re having.”

Stan leaned back. He’d have to let the email issue slide for now. “Profits aren’t as high as they used to be, and that’s why I’m keeping tight control of expenditures. I monitor our financial condition closely.”

“I know you do. This just came as a big surprise. Two years ago, the financial reports looked fine. There was a slight downward trend, but nothing like what you indicated today.”

“We have peaks and valleys in our financial reports just like the stock market. It’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“I’d like to review the income statement and balance sheet from the last two years.” She sat tall and looked him directly in the eyes.

“Jade, let me handle this.”

“Did my grandmother know?”

“I tried not to burden her.”

“I want to see the financial statements, Stan.”

He eyed his desk drawer. What he really needed was a drink. “There’s something else we should discuss first.” He clasped his hands in front of him on the desk.

“What is it?”

He held back his irritation. “It was inappropriate for you to a make a decision about the email without talking to Timothy first, especially in front of the other managers. You undermined his authority.”

“But—”

“He’s in charge of Operations, which includes inventory control, manufacturing, facilities, and IT. How would you like it if someone made an executive decision without talking to you first?”

“I wouldn’t like it, any more than I liked you running
my
meeting. How is that not undermining my authority?”

Stan leaned back in his chair. His eyes burned. She had a point. “You’re right, that is technically your meeting. We hadn’t discussed you coming or taking it over.”

“Exactly. And why didn’t anyone mention the management meeting to me? I’m not here so I can sit in my grandmother’s office and look pretty. I am the CEO, and this is my company now.”

Jade actually expected to take on the role as chief executive? Gloria should have named him CEO, but he understood, for legal reasons, that she wanted it to stay in the family. Of course, Gloria had really wanted him to run the company. Apparently, Jade hadn’t gotten the memo.

He’d try another tactic. “Don’t you think, given your experience level, it would be best for Bryce and I to run the company while you learn from us?”

Jade pursed her lips like Gloria often did. “Gran has been training me to take over this company since I was five years old, Stan. You’ve heard her teach me about quality and finance and who knows what else at the dinner table. Granted, none of us expected it to be so soon. I thought I’d have at least another ten years to be mentored by her.”

“You can have that. Let
me
mentor you.”

“Given what you told me this morning, our company is in financial trouble. No offense, Stan, but I don’t think you’re the person who should be mentoring me. I want to see those reports.”

Stan leaned back. Jade was going to be a problem. He sighed. “I’ll have Donald bring you the reports when he gets in tomorrow.”

“Good.” Jade left with a smug smile on her face.

Stan poured another shot into his cup. The remnants of the coffee barely darkened the honey-colored liquor. Jade was going to make his life extremely difficult if she kept this up, and he had enough trouble keeping the bank from digging too deep.

ORANGE AND YELLOW FLOWERS
splashed over Donald’s new Hawaiian shirt. After getting back from Maui, he was ready for Seattle’s chilly June weather to get into the seventies. It was strange to be standing in the door of what was now Jade’s office and see her sitting at Gloria’s desk and typing on the computer. The young girl he’d mentored over two years ago was now a grown, beautiful woman.

Jade glanced up and waved him in. “Nice tan. Did you just get back?”

“We flew in last night. Tanya wanted to stay another week, but with everything going on here”—Donald cast Jade a concerned smile—“I know you need me.”

“You know I do.” She grinned. “Are you limping?”

“I have the knees of a retired linebacker. They don’t have a lot of legroom on those island puddle jumpers.”

“Yeah, it’s like they think we’re sardines. I hope you feel better soon. Who is the necklace for?”

He held up the clear plastic bag holding a shell necklace. “It’s for my niece. Purple is her favorite color.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet. She’ll love it.”

“Here, I brought these for you.” Donald placed a box on her desk.

Jade eagerly opened it. “Ooh, I love chocolate-covered macadamia nuts.”

“You think? The last time I had a box sitting on my desk, you ate half of them.”

“I did not.” Jade laughed. “Did I?”

“You know you did.” He grinned. “Here.” Donald handed her the reports Stan had asked him to drop off. “I’ve included the income statement, balance sheet, and capital expenditures for the past two years. Need anything else?”

“I’ll take a look at these and let you know. Zachary is setting me up with the database so I can run my own reports. Until then, I hope you don’t mind doing this for me.”

Donald’s blood pressure spiked. His palms began to sweat.

“Are you okay?” Jade asked.

Stay calm.
“Just feeling bad that we’re in this situation, and you have to deal with it, especially after you just lost your grandmother.” He ran his fingers over his bearded chin.

“You’re going to help me get out of it, right?”

“Damn straight. Anything in particular you’re looking for?”

Jade opened the box of nuts. “I’m just trying to figure out why our profit margins aren’t increasing with sales.”

“Stan has been reining in costs for a while now, but if you ask me, it doesn’t seem to be helping.”

“Do you have any ideas?” She popped a nut in her mouth and closed her eyes while the chocolate melted in her mouth.

“I’ve run some reports myself. The costs of goods are rising.”

Jade covered her mouth as she spoke. “Do you know what from?”

“Off the top of my head, the increased cost of fuel along with increased taxes. You can thank good ol’ Uncle Sam for that. And a semiconductor factory in Japan burnt down last year, causing a shortage of memory chips and a spike in the cost of goods for our Airflight Management Systems and our Airflight Entertainment Systems.”

“I’d be interested in seeing your reports.”

“Sure, no problem. The cost of doing business is going up.” Donald circled his thumb against his two fingers in a money gesture. “So how are you dealing with being our new CEO? It’s got to be tough for you.”

“It is. I still can’t believe my grandmother forced me into this.”

“Yeah, it came as quite a shock to everyone here, especially Stan. He wasn’t thrilled about it.”

“Figures. He didn’t say anything, although he does disagree with me on pretty much everything.”

“Everyone was expecting Stan to become CEO.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Hang in there, you’ll do fine.” Donald glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting in five. Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll bring copies of my reports by later.”

“What, no stupid joke?”

Donald stopped at the door. He was letting his nerves get to him. “Okay, I got one. Why did the chicken run out of the store?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“He forgot his chick book. Get it,
chick
book?”

“Yeah.” Jade laughed. “That was a bad one.”

“I know.” He smiled. “But it made you laugh.”

“Thanks, I needed that.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” Donald left and headed to the men’s restroom, moving as swiftly as his weight allowed. He splashed water on his face and wet a paper towel to put on the back of his neck.

Why is Jade so worried about the finances?
He’d have to work overtime tonight to get the reports together with adequate explanations.

He couldn’t risk losing this job or his wife.

JADE JUST ABOUT JUMPED
OUT
of her skin when Bryce snuck up behind her in the break room. “Did Roz let you know I needed to speak to you right away?”

She noted the irritation in his voice, which seemed to be a constant feature these days. “Roz mentioned something.” She wasn’t exactly sure what Roz had said. Jade was starting to get a migraine, and her head hurt too much to think. She pulled her private stash of honey out of the cabinet above her.