Page 99 of Fall Apart

Yes. Clay, I’m goingFull Lizzy -something I wasn’t planning on doing tonight.

“It’s funny you mention shareholders.” I smirk at him with a wry, grin, batting my eyes innocently.

I love it when these self-righteous idiots make it easy and walk right into their own mistakes.

His nostrils flare in irritation as he eyes me with open disdain now, any semblance of his carefully crafted, polished veneer gone.

“I work in corporate accounting and finance, specializing in auditing.” I take the last sip of bourbon and set the glass on the table, feeling more emboldened than ever. “And funny enough, yourextremelycapable employee here thought something was off with all of your GJF Inc. invoices on your most profitable, under budget projects lately.”

I look at Clay, who quirks his head at me, wondering where I’m going with this. I wink at him, flipping my ponytail over my shoulder before turning back to his boss.

He glares at me, pure rage in his eyes, probably miffed that the little blonde princess is about to skewer him. “You better watch yourself,” he says through gritted teeth, not wanting to draw more attention to the unfolding scene than we already have.

“Nope, I’m good,” I tease playfully. “I wasn’t planning on bringing this up tonight, but you just had to go and be the asshole everyone says you are.”

He looks back at me, then to Clay, and now Kayleigh and Grace standing behind us.

“Bringing what up?”

“Oh.” I bring my fingertip to my lips in mock thought, drawing out the syllable. “Just the little issue of you stealing from your shareholders. It was pretty clever, always swooping in at the end of your jobs that come in under budget. Pocketing the profits for yourself by paying theconsulting firmyou conveniently own. It was almost always the exact the amount you came in under budget too. Then you skip out on paying your shareholders and investors their portion of profit.”

I smirk at him, relishing in the deer in the headlights expression.

“I’ll admit, it took me a second to figure out what GJF Inc. was, but someone just reminded me of theGolden Jensen Familylegacy. You really should have come up with a better name.”

“You little bitch,” he snarls, stepping towards me as that bewildered look turns to rage.

And that’s when shit goes sideways.

I wince as he comes towards me, then I hear the thud of flesh and bone crunching and a gasp from someone nearby. All of a sudden I feel the sensation of something wet all over my chest.

I open my eyes to see that prick on the floor, grabbing his jaw in dismay with his empty glass shattered next to him. To my pleasant surprise, Clay is standing at my side, his arm pressed to my front protectively. This close to me, I know he wasn’t the one to deliver the blow. He would have been justified in every way to lay this scumbag out, but my heart pounds knowing his first instinct was to put himself in front of me.

When I raise my eyes, I’m shocked to see my dad standing over Mr. Jensen, rubbing his fist. His eyes are blazing in a way I’ve never seen.

“Dad?”

He looks at me, his eyes softening before looking down at the asshole on the floor.

“What the hell are you doing, Charles?” He grabs his jaw and rubs it, his eyes flickering back and forth between my dad, me, and Clay.

“It’s Mr. Frank,Randall,” my dad replies in a tone reminiscent of the one used to scold Charlotte and myself when we were worse than usual. “And anyone that talks to my daughter that way has no business being a part of my company. I don’t care if you’re a minority shareholder or not, you will have nothing to do with this company any more.”

He looks up in pure stunned disbelief and I savor the moment the realization settles in. I look at Clay who has an equally stunned, albeit much more pleased look on his face.

“Remember how I said I had a couple more teensy things to tell you?” I raise my hand between us and shrug, holding my thumb and forefinger apart with the tiniest gap between them. “Well, I found out my dad bought the majority stake in the company and I also pieced together what this shit bag was doing thanks to what you told me earlier.”

Clay wraps his arms around me. He looks at me softly, his big, well worn hands rubbing my bare shoulders. “I knew you were the smart one between us.”

An angry voice on the floor behind us interrupts the moment and we both turn to see Mr. Jensen staring at my dad. “Your daughter? I had no idea. I’m sor-”

My dad waves a hand at him to shut up. He’s somewhere between full on business mode and this new, protective dad mode. “I honestlydon’t give a shit if you knew she’s my daughter or not. No one should ever talk to a woman like that.” My dad looks at me softly and I nod, a grin spread across my face, watching him do all I’ve ever wanted, just be a dad.

Standing aroundoutside the Grand Lodge at the valet circle is an interesting vibe to say the least. The last guests are filing out, whispering about the events of the night. Kayleigh and Grace are going on about our new group chats. Even after Clay got me a towel, I’m still a sticky mess from the soda but I hope dry cleaning will rescue my dress. But honestly, I don’t really care because I can’t take my eyes off the two men that make me feel so protected.

My dad walks over with Clay, both of them smiling at me in a way that melts my heart in one fell swoop.

“So I think I convinced your boyfriend not to quit.” My dad tilts his head to Clay, who lets out a low laugh. “And maybe take a promotion to do a little more design work since I hear he has quite the hidden talent for it.”

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