The Billionaire’s Tenacious Boss (The Maxfield Brothers Series Book 1) (8 page)

A
ngie took
a deep breath as she stood outside Stephen’s temporary office. She hadn’t seen him all week. It wasn’t that she was deliberately avoiding him, but she’d been busy trying to juggle Gabe’s constant interference and Duncan’s demands.

Duncan was certainly not going to like this latest turn of events.

Squaring her shoulders, she rapped on the door. “Come in,” he said quietly.

“You are Senior VP of Duncan Enterprises,” she reminded herself “You are not going to let one man ruin that.” Repeating that over and over in her head, she opened the door and walked in. He looked up in surprise, and she tried to look casual and in control as she leaned against the wall. “I don’t suppose you know Garret Snyder, do you?”

A wry smile crossed his face. “Why do you ask?”

“Duncan has tendered for a job for him in Chicago, and Mr. Snyder won’t talk to me unless you’re with me,” she said stiffly.

Stephen tossed his pencil onto the desk and leaned back in his chair. “Really? A job? Why would Duncan want to do a construction job in the middle of selling the construction arm of the company?”

She knew why, and she knew that he knew. “I thought you wanted to save Construction.”

“Oh, I do,” Stephen said with a smile. “But you know what I also want? I want my own company to thrive. Does Duncan know that Garret is asking for me personally?”

“No,” she said coldly.

“Ah. So you’re finally finding your own wings here. Good for you, Angela. Well, to answer your original question, I don’t really know Garret. But I’ve had several conversations with him and nearly closed a deal for my company to do some work for him. But I guess Duncan undercut me. Again. So I’m sure he wants to make sure that there isn’t any funny business going on here.” Stephen smiled brightly at her. “Is there any funny business happening here?”

“Pack your bags, Mr. Maxfield,” she said. “We leave for Chicago in the morning.”

She spun on her heels and walked out with bothering to close the door. Inside, she was torn. Duncan was adamant that they bid on the job when he found out that Stephen was also bidding on behalf of Maxfield Construction. She felt dirty stealing jobs from Stephen, but Duncan was her boss. What else could she do?

The project itself was massive, and they would barely make any profit with the bid that Duncan gave. It didn’t make any financial sense, but then, quite a few of Duncan’s judgment calls made no financial sense these days.

She should tell Duncan that Stephen would have to accompany her to Chicago. Usually, they sent surveyors to the scene while Angie negotiated on Duncan’s behalf, but Garret Snyder had been adamant that Stephen had to be present.

She almost selfishly wanted to be alone with Stephen. After she wrote him off and told him no multiple times, it was illogical that she’d want to be alone with him in another city. But it wasn’t just that. She wanted to see Stephen at work. She wanted to see how far he would go to bat for the company that was stealing from his own.

“And that is all there is to it,” she told herself firmly as she entered her office.

“All there is to what?” her secretary asked. Shannon looked up with a smile. “Angie, are you talking to yourself again?”

“Just taking notes,” she mumbled. “The usual. I need two tickets tomorrow for Chicago. Leave the return trip open. I’m not sure how long we’ll be.”

“Two tickets?” she said with round eyes. “Is Duncan going with you?” she whispered.

“No. Stephen Maxfield is. And that needs to be kept quiet,” she said sharply.

Shannon looked at her with a knowing grin. “You and Stephen Maxfield. Alone. In Chicago?” she said.

“Tickets. Now,” Angie said as she rolled her eyes. Shannon was more than her receptionist. She was her friend, and she knew all about Angie’s issues with Stephen.

But Chicago wasn’t going to be an issue. Chicago was going to be smooth sailing.

* * *

“
G
arret played
along like we talked about,” Stephen announced as he walked in Gabe’s office. “I’ve already negotiated a reasonable price with him, and it’ll give Duncan Enterprises enough profit to make the board members reconsider their offer.”

“And if Garret finds out that Duncan is willing to do it for less?” Gabe said quietly as he straightened his tie.

“He won’t. He insisted that I be there, and I’ll make sure of the numbers first. If Angie lowballs us, we’ll know that we need to keep an eye on her.”

Looking around, Stephen frowned. “Where is Nathan? I told him to meet me here.”

“He was here,” Gabe said. “But he’s got something going on that he doesn’t seem to want to share with me.”

“And what’s that?”

“How would I know if he won’t share it with me? You know Nathan. Always impulsive. Taking risks. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Anyway, I suppose you should go pack. Chicago should be quite a fun trip for you.”

Stephen frowned. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean? It’s a business trip with a colleague. Why would there be any fun in that? We don’t even know if we can trust her.”

Gabe raised an eyebrow. “Winning, Stephen. I meant that it should be a fun trip because you’ll be winning.”

“Right,” Stephen grumbled as he stomped out of the office.

“Hey, Maxfield!”

Stephen turned to a man running down the hall to catch up with him. Mentally, he wracked his brain to figure out what his name was. Fine. Mark Fine. He was another Senior VP at the company, but since Stephen could barely remember his name, he knew that Fine wasn’t exactly going places.

“Mr. Fine. I’m in a bit of a hurry. How can I help you?”

“Sorry. I heard that you’re taking Angie Lopez to Chicago with you. I was hoping I could tag along. I’d had some ideas that I’d like to bring to the table.”

It was all Stephen could do not to roll his eyes. Gruffly reminding himself not to judge someone he didn’t even know, he gave the man a sympathetic smile. “I’m so sorry Mr. Fine, but the arrangements have already been made. I’ll be sure to set up a meeting with you when I return.”

A smug smile tugged at his lips. “I’m almost jealous of you. That Lopez has quite the fine ass. I wouldn’t mind a chance to have those cheeks fill the palms of my hands.”

Rage like Stephen had never known came over him. “Pack your bags, Fine. You’re fired.”

“What?” The man’s mouth dropped, and he stared dumbfounded.

“I’ll notify HR. This company has a no tolerance policy for sexual harassment and that includes sexist and sexual remarks.”

“You can’t do this.” Fine’s face grew red with anger as he blustered. “You barely even work here.”

A cruel smile crossed Stephen’s face. “Be very careful, Mr. Fine. I carry the Maxfield name. I can do far worse than simply fire you. I can make sure that the only thing you’re fit for is flipping burgers for a living.”

“I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Fine commented, but he turned and stumbled away. As his words sunk in, Stephen inhaled sharply. Protecting his woman made him nothing like Duncan.

His woman. Where the hell had that come from?

Pushing it from his mind, he hurried down the hall. His bags were in the car, and he had a plane to catch.

* * *

A
ngie stretched
and smiled as she rose from her seat. She’d been in the lobby of Garret Snyder’s office for about twenty minutes. As Stephen stormed in, he looked more than pissed.

“Something wrong?” she asked with an innocent look on her face.

“Why would anything be wrong?” he grumbled. “Been here long? I heard your plane arrived nearly an hour before mine.”

She shrugged. “We had some delays before we could land. I’ve only been here for a few minutes. I’m sorry about the plane mix-up. I didn’t have time to tell you that there had been an issue.”

“Tell me, Angie. Do you really despise me so much that you had to take a different flight to Chicago?” he asked.

She felt his eyes searing into hers. “Not despise.”

“Distrust, then? I wouldn’t do anything that you didn’t want me to do.”

“I don’t distrust you,” she said quietly. She distrusted herself. It seemed that every time she was around him, she forgot about all that she had worked so hard for. She forgot about everything but him. And how she felt about him.

“Ms. Lopez? Mr. Maxfield? Mr. Snyder will see you now.”

The receptionist interrupted them and saved Angie from voicing what she already knew was true. Smoothing out her skirt as she stood, she repressed everything and the cool mask slipped back into place. “Mr. Maxfield. After you.”

He looked almost worried as he followed the receptionist. She wasn’t sure why he’d be worried. He was the one who wanted the construction arm to work. Well now, they were finding work. He should have been jumping for joy. Even a small win was a win.

Garret Snyder was young for someone who was in charge of such a large company. She reminded herself not to be impressed. He still had a few years on her, and if she got her way, she’d soon be a young person in charge of an even larger company.

“Mr. Snyder. Thank you for meeting us.”

“Ms. Lopez. Might I ask why Duncan Maxfield isn’t meeting with me?”

They shook hands, and Angie sat down. “Well, since you insisted that Stephen Maxfield join us, he didn’t think it was necessary.” She spared a quick glance at Stephen. His jaw was clenched. What was his problem?

“Yes, I did. The relationship between Maxfield Construction and Duncan Enterprises has always been interesting. As you know, I’ve worked with Stephen before. I simply wanted to make sure that I’m not severing a relationship here. Money usually comes first in this business, but friendships are important to me.”

It was all Angie could do not to roll her eyes. She’d done enough research to know that Garret and Stephen weren’t all that close. She wouldn’t be here if she suspected that Garret wouldn’t roll right over Stephen if he felt it would help him.

“Mr. Maxfield. Will you please assure Mr. Snyder that your relationship isn’t compromised if Duncan Enterprises is awarded the job?”

Stephen nodded. “I’m fine with this. Let’s just sign the paperwork.”

Angie tried to send him a questioning look. Why was he in such a hurry? “Okay. Is there anything else you need from us, Mr. Snyder?”

Garret shrugged and scribbled something on a piece of paper. “I do have one more question for Stephen.” He smiled. “I hope you don’t mind. It’s been a while since we spoke. I’m really not certain you remember the last time that we were face to face. It’s a bit hazy for me as well. There was quite a bit of alcohol involved.”

“Mr. Snyder, I’m not sure what is going on here, but I would really like for things to stay on track. Business only, if you don’t mind,” Angie said as she jumped into the conversation. Things were getting off track, and she saw that they might be headed down an unprofessional path.

“Just a minute, Ms. Lopez. I promise this won’t take long.” Garret cocked his head and smiled. “Stephen. Do you remember?”

There was a pause. “I do,” he said finally.

“And you still called me. That takes balls. You’re putting a lot of trust in me.”

“And have I made a mistake?”

“I expected you earlier this morning. You didn’t show. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something going on that I needed to know.”

Stephen shrugged. “I left a message with your receptionist. I ended up having to take a later plane.”

For a moment, the two men did nothing but stare at each other. Finally, Angie had enough. “Gentleman. This is not a cockfight. If you’re not going to whip it out, then we need to get back to business. So whatever you guys had going on needs to wait for another day. Now, if I’m not mistaken, Mr. Snyder has a job for us to complete. What is the estimate that Duncan has bid for the job?”

Garret slid the paper across the desk. When she looked at the numbers, her heart began to race.

“Problem, Angie?” Stephen asked.

“Problem?” She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Stephen, this is huge. We take this job, and we’re well on our way to making Construction profitable again!” She felt a surge of excitement as she stared at Garret. “Yes. We will definitely do this job.”