only weariness.
She felt his grief, recognized the anger and despair in his eyes. Pity slowly supplanted the anger. She knew how it felt to be forced into unwanted circumstances by an unchangeable fate. Oh, yes, she knew…
Except he could have changed it, some part of her that was harder and less forgiving chimed in.
If the ideas she’d come up with had been implemented a year ago, things might have been different. For all his protests about saving the company, she realized James was perhaps too tired or his vision too narrow to picture a different future.
Young blood. That’s what was needed. Renewal.
She studied Lance Carrington carefully. He was young, mid-thirties probably.
But renewal wouldn’t happen with a corporate raider. That type was only interested in a quick profit, not the long-term investment it would take to turn things around.
She met his level perusal with one of her own and got the feeling he was amused by the situation.
Okay, it was a done deal. She’d learned a long time ago that people had to move on when life dealt them a new hand. A thousand people would have to adjust. Including her.
“You know, James,” the corporate raider said, his eyes narrowed as if he were thinking aloud, “Krista is an officer of the company. She can introduce me to the staff in the morning, if you prefer. That way, you wouldn’t have to come in,” he added, his gaze on her again.
“That’s a great idea,” James said, obviously relieved to be let off the hook.
Coward, Krista thought. When the going got tough, a lot of supposedly tough people got going as fast as their feet would carry them…in the opposite direction.
Well, surprise, surprise. This was one time when she wasn’t going to stay and try to pick up the pieces. Neither was she going to be the flunky who assured the employees, people she’d worked with for over six years, that everything was going to be fine when she knew it wasn’t.
“So I’m going to be stuck introducing the man who’s going to close down the plant and cost us all our jobs?” she inquired in a mockingly amused manner.
She studied each of them for a long moment to let the question sink in.
“No, thanks.” She headed for the door. “I quit.”
“Be back in a minute,” Lance said, then strode down the corridor just in time to see the top of the CFO’s head disappear down the stairs. He followed, taking the steps two at a time, and caught up with her at the front door.
She muttered a distinct one-word imprecation while trying to get the key into the lock. Her hand was trembling, not much, but enough to make her awkward. The fury still gleamed in her eyes.
“Hold on,” he said.
She didn’t have to tilt her head upward very much to give the impression she could stare him down. She was a tall woman, probably five-nine to his six-one. Even in jeans and a T-shirt, she had a kind of grace and elegance he found very attractive.
When she added a ferocious frown to the silent treatment, he stopped the wayward thoughts and suppressed a smile. Now wasn’t the time. Okay, he could concede she had a right to be angry, at least from her point of view.
From his, it was a different matter. Based on all the company records he’d read during the two months prior to entering negotiations to buy the firm, he’d been prepared to be impressed upon meeting the financial guru. That was an understatement.
While he’d known about the clarity of her thinking, the ideas she’d developed and the sheer business acumen for one of her age and experience, what he hadn’t known, hadn’t even considered, was the physical package that went with the brilliant mind.
That sweep of hair, those big brown eyes, the tawny skin with the natural blush across the high cheekbones—
She gave a soft snort of exasperation, turned the key in the lock and sailed out the door before he’d quite got his thoughts in order.
Bringing himself back to the situation at hand, Lance hurried to catch up with her as she made a beeline toward her car.
“I want to explain something to you.”
“Explain away,” she invited airily without slowing her pace. As they neared the vehicle, she clicked the button on her key chain. The doors unlocked.
She turned to him when she stopped beside the modest car, the bright April sunlight filling her face until she seemed to glow from within. Her eyes were dark at the outer edges, he saw, but golden around the pupil. Her hair was a very dark brown, nearly black in hue. It lay against her shoulders in a smooth, shiny curtain.
He found he wanted to touch it. To touch her.
“What is it?” she demanded, interrupting the images running through his mind.
“No one’s going to lose his or her job,” he said, surprised and a little irritated at the persistent track of his wandering thoughts.
“Right.”
This was said with such sarcasm, it made him smile. Her lips whitened as she pressed them together, probably to hold in other, more scathing words.
“It’s true. If the employees are capable and reliable,” he added, qualifying the statement, “then they’ll have nothing to fear.”
“For how long?” She hooked her hair behind one ear and tilted her head to the side as she perused him. “How long until you sell the profitable operations and close down the rest, selling off the plant and equipment to the highest bidder so that there’s nothing left of Heymyer Home Appliances? Except the name, which you can also sell since it has an established reputation in the market.”
“There are no plans to do that.” Although he did have plans concerning the place, he wouldn’t discuss those with her until he was sure she was on board. She had to agree to stay and work with him first of all.
“Fine. I’m sure you’ll make the place a huge success.”
“As you’ve tried to do for the past three years,” he added softly.
She stiffened as resentment flared in her eyes and was gone, then she stared at him, her face a careful blank. “Not me,” she denied. “I just kept the books.”
The ensuing silence hummed like busy bees around them as they sized each other up. Around them, the desert bloomed from recent spring rains, filling the air with the pleasing aroma of sage and cedar and hidden woodland flowers along the riverbanks. The world seemed fresh and new. From the company’s vantage point near the forks of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers, he could hear the muted roar of the merging water. It added a pleasing ambiance to a day that had started off triumphant and now was merely trying.
Heymyer had been on target when he’d said the CFO was headstrong.
Lance was willing to let her have her way…to a certain extent, the limits being that she cooperated rather than hindered his efforts to come out of this deal with a viable, profitable company.
“I
