The Bad Boy's Princess

Ch. 4 - Rattling the Stars

Jace.

"Mr. Vanderbilt, did you still want to move forward with Lodge Industries' proposal? They have sent over the prelim negotiation documents to be signed, awaiting your review and final approval." Cara had her usual resting bitch face which terrified most people, especially our new trainees, but it was one of my favorite characteristics of hers. She was real.

"What are your thoughts?" To be honest, I didn't want the deal to not come to any fruition when I hauled my ass to New York and not to mention, ran into the nightmare of my existence. I didn't want it to be a waste.

Or was that what I was telling myself? Jesus Christ.

"I recommend demanding a form of security from them to establish a stronger obligation on their end while letting them know that we hold the dominant place in this partnership." This woman really was wicked smart that sometimes I feel like she wasn't getting paid enough for all the shit I put her through and for all her gory ideas.

"Move forward per your advice." I nodded my head cautiously. "But don't go overboard with the security, we don't need them to take it as disrespectful child play. Make sure you go through the entire provision in-depth to the pin needles with legal and draft me a memo regarding every single possible outcome and potential damage control."

"Yes, sir." With that, she was heading to the door before she stopped and turned around. "Sir, there is a little bit of an issue that you should be aware of."

"What is it?" Christ, it wasn't even 10 o'clock in the morning yet. It was too goddamn early for issues.

"Ms. Lodge is going to be handling the M&A and overseeing the entire agreement from start to finish. An agent from Lodge Industries notified us earlier this week but no one wanted to take the suicide mission of telling you." Cara cleared her throat. For the years she has worked for me, I've never seen her get choked up.

"You've got to be shitting me. Ask them to change their counsel." I couldn't help but groan and restrain myself from throwing my entire desk out the window. "Fix it, Cara."

"Sir, I've attempted to mitigate the situation and speak with both the in-house counsel team and the contracted firm, but she will be spearheading the project." Cara sighed. "I'm sorry, sir. But you still have plenty of time to rescind the acceptance and trash the entire project. We're not in need of this partnership that badly."

"If I did that, my Dad might actually come for my life." I sighed. "I'll manage. Thank you, you may go. Cancel the rest of my plans for the day."

"Yes, Sir." Another thing I adored about Cara. She didn't ask questions.

My tie suddenly felt too tight, as if I were getting claustrophobic in my favorite suit. I loosened it and tried to mitigate my own situation going on inside my head by calling Harry, who was in a meeting. Cameron, who was probably in the wilderness somewhere with no reception. And then Charles, who surprisingly picked up within seconds.

"Are you dying?" He asked.

"No..."

"Then, I'm hanging up. I'm a bit occupied right now." He answered hastily. I didn't have to ask to know what the hell that phrase meant. I invented that phrase.

"Who are you even doing right now on a fucking weekday morning? Don't you have a job or something?" I scoffed. "Jesus Christ."

"Said the dude who's calling me on a weekday morning? Don't you have properties to acquire and people's lives to ruin or some shit, Mr. CEO?" Well, whatever or whoever the hell he was doing definitely did not sound happy in the background. "Jay. Can this wait?"

"Avery is spearheading the entire M&A if I go through with the deal with Lodge Industries." That got his attention real fucking fast. I could hear the bed move in the background from his shift.

"What?" He sounded like a serious, decent adult now. "Why?"

"How the hell would I know? Aren't you guys close? Go ask her yourself, and while you're at it, talk some sense into her as to why this would be a horrible fucking idea."

"I don't think this is about you, Jay."

"I never said it was. I just said to go fix it." I couldn't help but chuck my baseball at the tan leather couch in the corner of my office before getting up to pour myself a tall glass of liquor. "Please."

"Just because I really don't have the time nor mental capacity to revisit that chapter of your life and have to put up with that horrendous version of you right now, I'll try my best." Charles sighed in defeat after a long pause. "Although I don't see why you'd assume she'd listen to me. Or anyone really."

"That girl still manages to drive me fucking insane, even now." I poured myself another glass. "I just don't want to have to be reminded of everything, every single day I go to work."

"I think you guys are mature enough now to not let petty things like awkward tension get in the way of your guys' work, which both of you value so much." Charles really did mature after college, so much that he was giving me advice now. As if the Earth was suddenly a square.

"I know." Another glass. "Go back to wha- who you're doing. Thanks for the talk, I really needed a voice of reason."

"Oh, how the tables have turned." And with that, he hung up faster than I could think.

Charles did exactly what he said he would, he graduated from Columbia and was now a CEO in his own rights, overseeing their Group's subsidiaries in New York. Harry ended up going to Georgetown instead of Princeton and I've never seen another person more miserable than he was. His parents were definitely lower in our rank of favorite parents and they treated us decentlywell, so we couldn't imagine what Harry had to go through when we weren't there.

Realizing that I was not going to get any work done after the bomb Cara just dropped, I finally admitted defeat and called for my driver. But before I left the office, my phone started ringing and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the caller ID.

Avery Lodge.

Bloody Hell.

Have I been doing anything bad recently that bad karma just seems to be taking a heavy interest in chasing me?

The only reason I still had her phone number was that Avery had kindly come to take a very drunk Ali back to her place last year and I had to resort to dropping my pride and called her to make sure my sister was okay.

I just never got around to deleting it after that. Just in case some shit like that happened again.

"What?" The liquor really didn't help with my pissy mood right now.

"Hi, Jace. I just wanted to reach out to form an understanding and agreement with you that the M&A is really important to me and to Lodge Industries, so I hope we can be civil with each other." She was cool, calm, and collected. Long gone was that shy new girl at King who always had her head down and was terrified of being around strangers. The girl who found comfort in me.

"Ms. Lodge, I haven't even reviewed the final written agreement nor approved of it yet. And from now on, please contact my assistant or anyone from our legal department." As I was about to hang up, she said my name again and I couldn't go just yet for some fucking reason.

"If you're available, I can gladly meet with you to negotiate anything further and discuss the reasons why IRIS would greatly benefit from our partnership." She was determined and stood her ground well.

Snap out of it, Jace.

And maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was her sexy ass tone, or maybe it was all the above. But I wanted to see what she was going to do and hear what she was going to say to move me. So of course I went against every logical atom in my body and did the one thing I was probably going to regret.

"What time?"