Laura's fingers stabbed her keyboard, the glare of the screen matching hers. If alcohol and regret could poison her life, then tea and anger could make up for it by fuelling her work.

She was still running on ire when Geri waltzed up to her desk and set a pile of folders down. Unlike Laura, her busty, blonde friend had the luxury of painting the town without getting caught red-handed. Geri casually curled a stray lock around her finger and dangled a cookie in front of Laura to bribe her attention.

She bit. The bait flew from the hook.

Geri attacked. "So, who was that hot snack? And what happened? You never walk out of the director's office unhappy."

Laura rolled her hazel eyes as she crunched into the cookie. "That was Henry's son. Big old manchild born with a silver knife in his mouth. Charlie Spectre."

His name grated her throat and defiled the taste of buttered crumbs on her tongue.

"Oh yeah?" Geri twirled her statement necklace nonchalantly, a frail attempt at masking her curiosity. "What did he want?"

"The lion wanted to hunt, but the kitten wasn't hungry." Laura scoffed and fiddled the folders, tucking the wayward corners into a neat stack. She lowered her voice, wary that an open office didn't stop the walls from growing ears.

"He's going to become our boss, Geri, and I have to hold his hand up the ladder. It's insulting. But if I don't do it, we're going to be stuck with an incompetent leader."

Geri tapped the table with a manicured tip and bit her lip nervously. "So what are you going to do?"

Laura's eyes narrowed on Charlie, who now strode out of the office with his father.

"I'm going to have some fun with this asshole."

♥

The boardroom buzzed as the management's top sharks circled the bulky meeting table.

Laura settled into her seat, the high of being invited to sit with the big kids for Monday huddles long faded with the cushion on the chair.

Her eyes crawled over Charlie as he stepped in. His arms were now decently covered, though his white shirt stretched so tightly around his chest he might as well have turned up in cling wrap.

At least he had the sense to wear a tie.

Her gaze fell to the file in his hands and a devious smile possessed her. She'd handed him the data on Friday and given him the entire weekend to prepare – not that it would've been enough. The document was riddled with complex annotations that a beginner would need a hieroglyphic cypher to decode.

If she couldn't beat him with resistance, then she would kill him with sweet, malicious compliance.

After a short struggle with the projector, the presentation winked to life. Charlie cleared his throat and launched into his spiel.

"We ended our fiscal year on a good note in December. Profits across the board rose ten percent. Since we struck the deal with Sattler Industries in January, our growth has climbed in the last three months. If our estimates are to be trusted, we're on our merry way to another ten percent increase in overall profits this year."

Laura huffed. So he made the numbers sound pretty, but that leech was only parroting simple stats off the slides. If she'd pulled a lazy stunt like that, she would still be stuck in the pit labelled Junior Executive.

Charlie rounded off his presentation and snapped his file shut. He scanned the room with inordinate confidence, his stiff jaw upturned in a haughty brag.

"Any questions?"

You barely skimmed the surface, Laura jeered internally. Of course there are questions.

The managers sat in silence.

For the first time in that boardroom, Laura felt jitters.

Nothing in this company had ever reduced her nerves to such a shuddering mess. Not when she interviewed for the job in this exact seat, nor when she stood exactly where he did and was bombarded by jabs of criticism.

But in that moment, watching the managers so willingly gulp down whatever Charlie Spectre had looted from the back of the bar, she was governed by nothing but pure, undiluted spite.

"I have a question," she piped up, drawing stares from around the room. "Our numbers rose thanks to Sattler Industries, but our rate of growth is flatlining. Is it safe for us to stay the course, or should we look into new strategies?"

The heads swivelled back to the front, where Charlie stood glowering.

Laura raised her brow scornfully.

He scowled. "Well, Rain, that would depend very much on whether your team is competent enough to bring more clients to the table, wouldn't it?"

Henry rose from his seat beside Laura, his voice rumbling with quiet rage. "That's enough. If there are no other questions, that's all for today."

The managers eagerly extracted themselves from the eye of the storm. Henry glared at the warring pair.

"My office. Now."

He strode out of the room and Laura stood up to tail him, but her advance was halted when Charlie stepped in front of her, his eyes flickering with fury.

"Why did you embarrass me in front of our management? How dare you give me inadequate data and drop a question like that?"

She scoffed. "The data wasn't inadequate. You were. You wouldn't know what to do even if you had a world of spreadsheets in front of you."

"And whose fault is that?" He challenged. "All you had to do was give me the proper material, and you failed even something as simple as that. I shudder to think of the clown show you are running here."

Anger collided with malice and smashed through her mind, the sharp debris exploding from her mouth as rage.

"You have some nerve. I can't believe you expect me not only to hand you the map and key, but also to hold your hand and escort you to the treasure chest. You don't know how much we have slogged for this company – and now you want me to print you a cheat sheet while we all pretend you're sitting for a test you never have to take!"

Charlie's jaw clenched. Silence clung to the air for a ceaseless second until Henry's command roared through the hallway.

"LAURA. CHARLES. NOW!"

♥