Page 14 of Recklessly In Love With A Ruthless Savage

Monday hit quicker than a backhand. After the morning stand-down, everyone sat on edge, as everyone stood, clock-watching like our lives depended on it. I had tried to research the new owner but he was a goddamn ghost. Net worth articles, corporate mumbo jumbo, but no face, no background, no anything.

Who the hell was he?

Suddenly, Tyra crashed into the room like she'd been running a marathon.

“They’re here,” she gasped. She gave me a weird smirk before practically falling into her seat.

The room froze. The door swung open. Two middle-aged women in power suits. Four men trailing behind them. All tailored, all polished. But none of them were the reason Tyra looked like she saw a ghost. No. He walked in last. And my heart fucking stopped.

Six-foot-four of pure danger. In a three-piece suit that molded to his broad body. His gray eyes were intense and sharp enough to slice glass. And when those eyes locked on mine and the world disappeared.

Seconds.

It was only seconds. But it cracked something inside me wide open. He broke the gaze first, and somehow, the air felt colder because of it. He moved with the kind of control that made you wonder what he’d be like without it. I barely kept my jaw from dropping as he sat directly across from me.

Crew Sanderson.

It was him. The man from the gala that I had allowed to fuck me into a coma this weekend. The man who ruined me with one weekend and a thousand memories I never planned to have.

He slid off his glasses, leveling the room with that stare. As he positioned himself at the head of the conference table.

“Good morning,” he said, voice deep, steady, lethal. “If you’re unclear, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Crew Sanderson, owner of Phoenix Healthcare Group.”

No soft welcome. No warm speech. Crew didn’t deal in sugarcoating. He was straight to the muthafukin point.

“Some of you will continue on this journey with us. Some of you will not," he said. "Effective March first, the following individuals are terminated.”

The silence was deafening. Crew rattled off names like reading off a grocery list with zero emotion. Admissions. Kitchen. Maintenance. Gone.

"Collect your severance from the front desk. You’re excused," he said simply, leaning back in his chair, every inch a king in his court.

It was ruthless and efficient. But it was also sexy as hell and I hated myself for thinking it. The rest of the meeting covered facility upgrades, expectations, upcoming evaluations. Everything he said screamed one thing:

Change was coming so get on board or get run over.

As the meeting ended, individual team meetings were scheduled. Clinical just so happened to be first. I stayed seated, pretending not to be stealing glances at him while also pretending not to be undressing him in my mind. But Crew?He wasn’t pretending at all. The way he looked at me said one thing. He wanted me, and this time, he wasn’t letting me run.

CHAPTER 6

Crew

“The purchase of the new building is in order and the date of transfer is still scheduled for the first of March. I already have the names of the staff members that you will be terminating. George has the list and cost projections of the renovations and new equipment. The car taking us to the new site will be here in the next fifteen minutes. Please do not get in here and scare the good employees away. You have teeth for a reason, let them see that beautiful smile,” Janelle, my general manager joked.

Janelle had been with me since I bought my first nursing home in my twenties and her expertise was indispensable. Janelle and her partner Delema were the backbone of my organization. They ran the day-to-day aspects of my facilities whenever I wasn’t able to be hands on and there was no one else I trusted more with my business. Plus, they were the only people other than my grandfather that could put me in my place and call me out on my bullshit.

“Whatever, Janelle. It’s not my job to coddle them, it's my job to whip them into a five-star building," I told her.

“You’re right, but you can do all that and still be a nice guy.”

“I am nice.”

“To who?”

“You still have a job don’t you? I asked her, cocking my head to the side.

“Touché, mean ass. Well at least let me and Del deal with the employees who won't be reporting directly to you. That at least will keep them from having mental meltdowns every other day after you give them the evil eye,” she said with a knowing smirk.

Janelle and Del often said I had a frightening presence but I felt that I was just a direct individual who didn’t believe in smiling in the face of every idiot that came into my presence. The drive to the facility was a beautiful one. This facility was on the outskirts of Timberline, a thirty minute drive from the larger city of Brookview. The facility was smaller than the others that I currently owned but it had larger grounds and potential to be one of the nicest. The facility had good bones, it just needed a few renovations, supplies and building-wide training. Mostly operations, the clinical team seemed competent. I thought with an influx of well trained staff they would be a force to be reckoned with. I knew this wouldn’t be easy but I was determined for this building to be just as successful as my others.

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