Royce (4 page)

“Now, tell me who that man was and why he has reason to want to hit you. I must admit, I’ve been under the same strain since I’ve met you, but not enough to actually follow through.” Kasey glared at him as he continued. “You have been a pain in my ass since you stopped me in the hall of my own building.”

“Then don’t make rules you have no intentions of following.” She laid her head back on the bed and closed her eyes. “Haven’t you heard that ‘he who makes the rules is a man of great leadership?’ I don’t think I’ve ever read where ‘I make the rules and I say fuck them.’”

She’d forgotten about his mother and looked over at her when she laughed. The woman was certainly his mother. She had the same glint in her eyes when she was laughing. Kasey looked over at Royce. His glint didn’t seem to be from laughing.

“Miss York, are you in the habit of biting the hand that feeds you? And I’ll decide when you are fired from my company. Who was that man and what did he want with you?”

She turned away from him to answer. She wasn’t ashamed of being a bastard child, but she was ashamed of the bastard who was her father. “His name is Gilbert MacDonald and he’s my father. At least in the sense that he was the sperm donor that created me. He’s not been much of anything else. He and my mother never married.” Kasey looked at the door when it opened.

“Miss York, your lunch is here. Shall I bring it in or wait until later? You know what the doctor said.” Abby seemed a bit miffed again, but Kasey didn’t care.

“I know what he said and I still don’t care. Bring it in please, but don’t expect me to eat any more of it than I did this morning. I’ve told you three times I don’t care for it. And I want to go home.”

Even to her ears she sounded childish, but no one would listen to her. She didn’t want any broth and she certainly didn’t want any hot tea, all they would give her. She turned her head away when the tray of “food” was put on the little table.

“What is wrong with you? Are you nasty to everyone or just those that try and help you? Christ, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as caustic as you are.” Royce stood up and started taking lids off of the containers. “You’ll eat every bit of this or, so help me, I’ll hold you down and pour it down your throat.”

Kasey glared at him. “Try it.” Her voice was low and full of intent. He paused for several seconds as they glared at each other. She was glad that she’d made him think. She wasn’t one of his minions who jumped when he barked. And she didn’t fucking work for him.

“Royce, why don’t you go get you and me a nice sandwich from the deli across the street? I’m sure that Miss York and I can get this lunch business squared away.” Neither of them looked at Annamarie. “Royce.”

He finally looked at his mother and gave her a short nod before leaving. He turned to look back at Kasey before he walked out the door and that look said volumes. He told her that if she hurt his mom, she’d be a dead woman. Well, she had news for him, she didn’t care.

“Oh goodness, no wonder you don’t want this. It’s crap.” The woman began taking the rest of the lids off the other bowls and cups as she tisked around. “Good heavens, is this suppose to be helpful or kill you? This won’t do, not at all. Why, if I had a dog…nasty.”

The nurse came in a minute later and with instructions to take “this vile tray away.” The nurse left. Annamarie pulled out her cell phone.

“Darling, pick up some of that wonderful chicken broth while you’re there and see if Dominic has any of that delicious beef broth he uses for his roast beef sandwiches…yes, I did look at it and it’s nasty. Hold on, let me ask her. Kasey, sweetheart, Royce wants to know if you would care for some tea with your lunch or would you like some bottled water?”

Kasey was reasonably sure that it hadn’t been put that way, but didn’t quibble over the delivery of the question. She told her that she liked iced tea, not hot, and water would be fine if it wasn’t available.

Chapter 4

“She has worked for you just over ten years. But for reasons I can’t figure out, she’s only considered part-time.”

Royce looked at his brother Jesse. “What do you mean? You know we have a number of employees that are considered part-time. It works out well for all of us.”

“Yeah, but for her…look at her average weekly pay. I checked with records and the girl averages about eighty hours a week. I mean, Christ, that’s more than you work in a week and she does it consistently.”

Royce picked up her payroll sheet. It looked like over the past year she’d worked enough hours to triple her income. He looked over at her hourly wage and then back at Jesse.

“She ever apply for a full-time position?” He knew the answer before his brother showed him the applications. There were over three dozen of them.

“She’s been applying for a full-time spot since she was hired. Those are only over the past three years. She can’t apply and be turned down but every six months.” Jesse pulled out another sheet from the file in his hand and handed it to him. “These are her job performances. In order to be eligible for the yearly bonus, it’s required that you score a seventy-five or above. The bigger your score, the bigger your bonus.”

Her scores were fantastic. Nothing below a ninety-seven and several one hundreds. All the comments seemed to center around her good deeds and her ability to do her job. He looked at Jesse again, knowing he was missing something.

“She can’t get them. The bonuses. She’s not eligible because of her part-time status. White had been keeping her as part-time so that his bonus would be bigger. The less he gives out, the bigger his is for his department. Kasey was caught where he wanted her. A great employee who needed to work and who did it very well and no bonus.”

Royce leaned back in his chair and read the comments in the spaces for the supervisor she worked for.
“Exemplary work.” “Good work ethic and code of conduct.” “Amazing trainer, keeps things running when I’m not available.”
And there were more than that.

“Find out what her bonuses would have been, change her status to full-time retro from the day she was hired, and give her the benefits that she’s entitled to.” Royce took the next sheet of paper he handed him. “Christ, you’re good.”

On this sheet were the bonuses she’d been entitled to, a check for the amount, and the change in her status. Both needed his signature to complete. Also, there was a form to have her promoted to White’s position.

“I thought you’d want someone in the position that you knew would do a good job. She’s the best you have in that department. From all accounts she runs the department when he’s not there or even when he was. There’s not one employee there who wouldn’t jump for her.”

Royce figured as much. Every time he saw one of the other officers, they asked about her. She was very well liked. He wondered if anyone of them had felt the bite of her tongue when she was pissed, but didn’t ask. She was entirely too mouthy as far as he was concerned.

“Let me think on this promotion for a bit. She won’t be back for awhile yet so I have time.” Jesse laughed and Royce glared at him. “She isn’t exactly what I’d consider management material is all.”

“Sure. And this has nothing to do with the fact that you’re attracted to her, I suppose. Mom said she isn’t afraid of you. I think that’s hilarious.”

But Royce had stopped listening. “Attracted to her? When hell freezes over. The girl has the most annoying, mouthy, bitchy…well, as far as I’m concerned, there aren’t enough adjectives to describe what she is. Attracted to her. Mom, right? She put you up to this. Well, she’s wrong.”

Jesse stood up and gathered his papers. “Me thinks thou doth protest a bit too much, brother dear. Admit it, she’s gotten under your skin. Even I can see that.”

“Under my skin like a festering splinter. Get out of my office before I have to call in the security that you’re so fond of.”

Jesse left laughing. Royce wanted to get up and pound his brother in the head until he stopped, but knew that it would only make matters worse. He leaned back in his chair to wonder why his mother thought he was attracted to Kasey.

She was beautiful. Her hair was the color of fall, dark and light reds and browns that made him think of warm nights in front of the fire snuggled under a blanket together. She’d probably hog all the blankets, but it would be fun trying to take them from her. Or trapping her beneath them to grab a few kisses. He stopped that train of thought.

Her eyes were a shade of gray he’d never seen on a woman before. Steel gray with highlights of dark blue that darkened when she was pissed. He’d seen them that color more often than not and he smiled. He did seem to push her buttons.

She was tall and, with her ill-fitting clothes, he’d been hard pressed to figure out if she was as big as she looked or just sloppy. He’d heard from her uncle that she’d been requesting new uniforms for over three years and every time they came in, they were bigger than before until she just stopped trying. Jay thought it was White trying to put her in her place. Royce was beginning to see that he might have been correct. Then he wondered if Jay knew what his niece had been putting up with and decided that he hadn’t. Jay York would have torn the man to pieces for his niece.

He’d been intrigued by her the moment she’d stopped him in the lobby. He’d never been stopped before and, while that surprised him, he’d wished her timing had been a bit better. But when White had come up and started ordering her around he wanted to see how she’d react to finding out who he was. He supposed that he wanted her to see him as godlike, the man of all men. But she’d only seemed like she was going to the guillotine.

She’d handled that well enough, better than he’d expected. She’d not backed down nor done anything but her job. He smiled. She was a pain in his ass and though he wouldn’t admit it to his family, he was beginning to be attracted to her. He picked up his coat and the check and started for the door. Time to pay the piper, he thought, and see her face when he gave her the check.

~~~

Leah watched the man coming toward her. She knew who he was. Her daughter had complained about him endlessly for the past few hours. And she had described him to the letter. All the way from the way he walked like he owned the ground beneath his feet to the top of his dark curly hair that needed a good comb through and a pair of scissors. Leah smiled when she saw the frown on his face. Here was a man who could give her daughter more than she ever dreamed. If either of them were to stop bickering at each other long enough to see it.

“She’s getting a bath. Well, they’re trying to give her a bath. She’s hurting so bad that they had to give her a shot to ease the pain, but she wants to be clean more,” she told him when he stood next to her. “She claimed that she couldn’t stand her own odor.”

Royce looked at the door and then back at her. “She can be quite vocal when she’s displeased, can’t she? Would you like to go get a cup of coffee while we wait? I’ve not had lunch yet either if you’re interested.”

Leah nodded. “Thank you. They just started so they may be awhile. She asked me to leave so that she could cuss without repercussions. I think I might have heard a few of them before I got the door closed. That poor nurse.”

“Yes, well your daughter can be nice when it suits her. Not to me, but I’ve seen it a time or two with you.” Royce smiled and took a bit of the sting out of his words. “I’m sorry. You probably don’t want to hear me bashing your daughter right now.”

Leah laughed. “Kasey always has been a bit headstrong. I think I wanted her to be independent so badly I over-encouraged her to be outspoken as well.” They were seated in the large cafeteria when she spoke. “She’s my biggest champion. I love her with all my heart.”

Royce laughed. “She does love you too.”

They ate for a few minutes before Leah looked up at the man again. “I’m dying. Soon, as a matter of fact. I have an inoperable brain tumor that is slowing killing me. Or quickly, I suppose. I have less than six weeks left on the year they gave me. I don’t think it’s…I won’t live to see her married or happy with a family of her own.”

He looked embarrassed then he looked her in the face. “My secretary told me about your illness. Bobbie, I think she knows your brother Jay. She said you’d been ill for a while before they found it.”

“Yes. Kasey blames herself for that, but I can’t convince her that it’s not her fault. She seems to think if she’d not gone away to school and had been home to see what was happening, I might have been able to get it taken care of. But she couldn’t have. It was too big before anyone found it. I’m just lucky that I’ve had the past few years to prepare and be with her.” Leah looked away, her heart suddenly too full to think.

“I’m sorry, Miss Y—”

She smiled back at him when he started to apologize to her. “I didn’t tell you for your sympathy, Mr. Hunter. I told you because I wanted you to know about my daughter. She’s not as bad as she seems…well, not near as bad. She just hates hospitals. I do, as well. When I was first diagnosed she spent nearly all the time with me. Six months, as a matter of fact. And the hospital hadn’t been…they weren’t kind to me as they are with her right now. The administration frowns on people without insurance coming to take up their bed space when others with money can be there. Kasey works too hard to pay the bills I incurred. And she refuses to let me help her when I can work. She seems to think it’s her duty to take care of me.”

“She is owed some money from my firm. A great deal of money. If I give it to her, what will she do with it?”

Leah smiled at his question. She thought the man knew what her daughter would do with the money, but she answered anyway. “She’ll pay what she can on my bills. If there is any left over, she’ll insist on paying this one as well. Kasey hates to owe anyone anything.”

Royce straightened up, clearly offended. Leah wondered if the two of them realized just how much they were alike. Both had a pride that rolled off them in rivers.

“She was hurt on the job and I take care of my employees, Miss York. She will have to learn to live with disappointment if she thinks I’m going to let her pay on my bills. And if she tells you any differently, you let me know. I’ll set her straight.”