Chapter 8
JEREMIAH
“Drive, you stupid fuck.” I slammed my palm down on the soft leather of my steering wheel, sliding it into place to lean down on the horn. My brand new Aston Martin’s horn joined in with the rest of the impatient drivers sitting in traffic.
My radio blared hard rock, drowning out the noise some. I leaned my head back on the buttery leather of the neck rest and jerked the wheel to the side. I had to get around this asshole driving like he was out for a Sunday afternoon cruise if I was ever going to get to work.
“It’s Monday fucking morning, old man,” I said, not giving a fuck that the guy who was driving was probably not even that much older than me.
Pressing down on the accelerator when I navigated to a faster-moving lane, I drove like a demon to get to work. I was late as fuck already, thanks to construction near my apartment. My morning was clogged with meetings. Neil called ten minutes ago to tell me the first guys on my calendar were already waiting.
Ain’t no rest for the wicked. I sighed, wondering if it was possible to feel this drained and frustrated before you even got to work to start the week.
My weekend started off nicely enough with the guys and dancing with that girl who, I wasn’t ashamed to admit, had already fueled a couple of my fantasies since Friday night. It went to shit after that though. First, she left, and even though I tried to stop her as soon as I spotted her making her way to the exit, she ignored me and waved goodbye from her cab.
Then Bart, Shawn and I drank too much, and I woke up with a pounding headache. At least there was no lasting damage. Nothing on social media or the front page of us drinking tequila like it was the last night the stuff would be available.
We lost Tanner early on. Apparently, he ran into some girl he knew from years ago. We stayed at the club for another few hours, then stumbled back home.
Neil called me first thing in the morning. He was unsympathetic to my hangover and informed me we had work to do. I spent the rest of the weekend working with him to get interviews scheduled for secretaries to replace Jannie today and going over some of the stuff I would need to know before I got stuck into the mall project.
The hours dragged by, and just when I thought I was finally going to get some peace and quiet, Neil left. But not before reminding me I had to get to my weekly golf game with my father and some of our investors.
Honestly, I had no clue how my father did everything he did. I got to the golf course right in the nick of time. Dad was already there, looking fresh and rested as he sipped on a Bloody Mary and held court telling stories of his early days to the men who would make him richer before the day was out.
Nothing phased him or slowed him down. The man was a machine. I knew for a fact he spent the weekend working too, yet it looked like he’d spent two weeks relaxing on a tropical island when I got to the course.
Truth be told, I’d never coveted his lifestyle. Nor the way he’d groomed Jack from an early age to take over the companies. I just wanted to sleep in, eat out on the beach and fuck the day away. That life suited me just fine.
But then Jack decided to go snowboarding. Thanks to his adventures and the death they led him too, that life of mine was gone.
I was in Jack’s place now. The only Williams boy left. It forced me to be someone I wasn’t terribly interested in being. It used to be the two of us. Back then I had a choice. Not anymore. Now, I could see the box I had to fit into and I was being shoved in from all directions to just fucking fit.
Traffic got heavier the closer I got to my office. My patience was being stretched to the limit. By the time I parked my car with an echoed squeal of the tires in the cavernous parking structure at my office, I was in a piss-poor mood.
True to Neil’s word, there were people waiting on me in the conference room when the elevator doors slid open on my floor with more in the lobby. Opaque glass walls with the words Williams Inc: Executive Floors in curved metal lettering blocked off the office areas from that accessible to the public.
A round reception desk with several sleek, black couches welcomed people to our floor. Massive windows behind the desk let in loads of natural light, a fun fact I learned and didn’t give a shit about when I got the tour of the office on my first day. The windows offered an impressive view of arguably the greatest city in the world—which I did care about.
Arlene, our receptionist, pushed a pile of message cards across her desk when she heard my footsteps thud on the gleaming tiles. “Good morning, Mr. Williams. Busy day today. The phones have been ringing off the hook. These are the messages the callers specified as urgent. I’ll bring the rest by your office later. There are also—”
I held my hand out to stop her. The woman was efficient as fuck, talked a million miles an hour and thankfully, was old enough to be my grandmother. But I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with all this shit right now.
This was what secretaries were for. Oh wait, I don’t have one of those anymore.
My sarcastic thought died in my head when Arlene gave me a sympathetic smile. “It’s going to be a rough one today.”
“No shit,” I muttered, half expecting Arlene to berate me for my language. She was an institution at Williams Inc. Jack and I had grown up speaking to Arlene on the phone as the first line of defense for my father.
She ignored my remark, motioning to a few people waiting for me. “I’ll send them in as soon as you’re settled. They’ve been waiting longest.”
“I’ll take care of it,” I assured her. Walking through the crowd, I went to my office, closed the door and ignored all those people waiting for me. Some were here for meetings, like the ones Neil had in the conference room, but I was assuming the others were here for the interviews.
I felt a dull headache building at the base of my skull. Making a decision on the fly, I grabbed my phone and put a call through to my father’s personal secretary. Like Arlene, Mary Jane was a stalwart and had been with my father for years.
“Good morning, sir,” she answered crisply. In the background, I could hear people talking and phones ringing, but Mary Jane didn’t let anything rush her. “What can I do for you?”
“Jeremiah. Not sir.” I corrected her for what felt like the millionth time. A losing battle, but I wasn’t going to stop fighting it. “You’ve probably heard Jannie’s gone. Interviews for her replacement are this morning. I’ve got a meeting scheduled and a hundred people out there waiting for me.”