The billionaire who stole my heart

chapter two

When I had newly gotten employed, he had made him fetch him coffee countless times till I had put my foot down and made it very clear to him that I was his goddamn colleague and not his assistant. He didn't like me, and I didn’t have pleasant feelings for him either. “That’s bullshit.” I spat. I looked at Mikel. “That’s utter bullshit and you know it.” “Do I?” He smirked. “You shouldn’t curse in the office.” He could go cry into a river about it. “We both know this promotion is mine. I deserve to be chief editor.” I growled. “Then prove it.” Mikel said, raising a challenging brow.” I looked at Mr. Dunner in confusion. He let out an exhausted sigh. “An assignment for the both of you will determine who gets to be chief editor.” “Let me guess, Mikel came up with this plan?” I scoffed. “So what if I did?” Mikel asked. “If you're that good, this should be easy peasy for you. Unless you’re scared of actually going against me.” I was more terrified of doing a footrace against my aging grandfather with arthritis and a bad hip. “What’s the assignment?” I asked, eyes locked on Mikel’s. “Both of you have to shadow a prominent, new or fairly new, fast rising company and make a full story about the ins and outs, the workings, the motivation behind the company. You have two weeks, your time starts on the fifteenth and will end on the twenty eight. You’ll report back the Monday morning after and you’ll be judged by both me and your new bosses.” Mr. Dunner said. “Child’s play.” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel. I looked at Mikel. “I’m going to beat you fair and square, again, and then, I’m going to lord it over you for as long as you work here.” “Let’s make it more interesting.” Mikel said slowly so only I could hear it. “whoever loses, has to leave the company.” I blinked, taking a cautious step backwards. “W-what?” That was taking it to an extreme I wasn’t sure of. He smirked. “Come, now, would you really want to work under me? Because you can bet your ass I’ll make it a living hell for you. Now, you are under me on the other hand.” He gave me a salacious look. I shuddered in revulsion. “Deal.” I turned around and marched out of the office wondering what the f**k I had just agreed to and cursing myself for being so foolish. I could just bet that that had been Mikel’s plan all along and I had fallen right into it. I marched to my table and sat down, fuming. Kendra approached me warily. “I heard everything. That bastard.” She hissed. “What a snake.” “Right?” She squeezed my shoulders. “You’ll beat him again. Mikel wouldn’t know how to write a good story if it hit him in the face, and you’ve been delivering big story upon big story since day one. You’ve got this.” My shoulders eased a little at her reassurance. She was right though. I had nothing to be afraid of. Mikel wasn’t going to do in two weeks what he hadn’t done in ten years of work for Keith and Telle. “Thanks, Ken.” I smiled at her. “Anytime.” She walked off. Now I just had to figure out how I was going to get some company to agree to a journalist digging into them with their permission and disrupting their business. Not just any company though, I needed to find one whose name and stats alone would secure me this win. How I was going to weasel my way into such a company before today ended was another hurdle. I sighed. f**k my life.

New proposal

Raleigh!

“Congratulations!” Mo screamed, confetti rained in the air as I stepped into our apartment minutes past five pm on the day that should have been the best day of my life but turned out to be a complete s**t show. All thanks to Mikel Summers. She must have registered the look on my face because her smile immediately died off. “Oh no, you didn’t get it. You know what, f**k that job, f**k Mr. Dunner, how could they not see how hard you’ve worked. You should totally sue them. That’d teach them to be unjust assholes.” She growled. I laughed at her fearsome expression. She really was my biggest champion. “Whoa, whoa, put your brakes on. Yes, I didn’t get the promotion, but it has nothing to do with justice.” “You had better not be about to defend whatever made them pass you by.” “I’m not. Can you just let me talk?” I asked in exasperation. “Well, we’re not letting my effort go to waste, that’s for sure.” She said, “Let’s gorge on chocolate cake while you tell me.” “Have I told you recently that you’re my favorite cousin?” I groaned. She snorted. “No, but I heard you telling Eli he’s your favorite three days ago. I won’t believe a word from your lying mouth.” I laughed. “Don’t eavesdrop on my calls.” We sat around the kitchen island and I caught her up to date on what had gone down in the office. “That sneaky, evil, conniving thing.” She hissed. “I can’t believe Mikel of all people thinks he’s better than you. Jason, I’d totally understand, but Mikel? That bottom feeder? Never.” I nodded in support, shoveling delicious chocolate cake into my mouth. “I cannot wait for you to win this thing and make him cry. Oh my God.” She threw her head back and laughed. “It's not even a competition. I honestly feel sorry for him.” “Imayhaveagreedthatanybodywholostgottoleavethecompany.” I said in one breath, muffled by the food in my mouth. She c****d her head at me, brown eyes flashing. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but did I just hear you say that you made a deal, as in, you willingly made an agreement with Mikel Summers that the loser of this thing will have to lose the company?” She screeched. “You just said that it’s not even a competition!” I cried out accusingly. “You can either trust me or not. There’s no in between.” “There’s an in between for girls who make moronic deals with the devil. What were you even thinking?” She asked. “But-“ “I know what I said.” She snapped. “I still stand on that, but this illegal upping of the stakes – wait- Dunner doesn’t know about this, does he?” “No.” “People do terrible things when they are desperate, Leigh. You of all people should know this.” She said, “You’ve just turned this into a normal, innocent office battle to a full out bloody war. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mikel has spread word that you have Ebola so no one would want to come ten feet close to you.”I sighed. “It’s alright, I’m going to win this thing. Have some faith in me.” “I do.” She sighed. “It's Mikel I have no trust whatsoever in.” “Well, in any case, we are getting ahead of ourselves. What company is even going to let me turn them into my little pet project?” I groaned. “I spent all day trying to find one and got about a million rejections. What the hell am I going to do?” “If only we knew some super successful head of some company.” Mo said. There was a pause. “Wait! I do.” I looked up at her with raised brows. “You do?” “Did I ever tell you the story of the most humiliating one night stand experience of my life?” She asked. “Something about a mix up, apples and a blindfold?” I asked. “That one?” She made a face. “Even thinking about it now, all these years later makes me cringe.”“What does your one night stand have to do with my situation?” “Well, we still kinda keep in touch.” To say I was lost was an understatement. Mo had a habit of beating around the bush, but this took the price. “His name is Mason Law and he’s the co-owner of Sprocks.” She finally said. My mouth dropped open. Sprocks was one of the biggest if not the biggest tech companies right now. They had seemingly risen out of the dust to overthrow long standing companies by leaps and bounds. The two owners had begun designing their first app from their high school days and finally sold it during college for millions of dollars. It had been all uphill for them since then. “You can get me into Sprocks?” I asked. If I wanted to win this thing, there was literally no other company better than that to get into. Just the name alone would grant me the impressive factor. Since their onset into silicon valley, nobody had yet been able to get an interview with the elusive owners. Everything the general public knew about them right now was just rumors and gossip. “I can try.” She grinned. “But Mason kinda owes me one so this is sort of a done deal.” I jumped out of my stool to fling my hands around her smaller frame with an excited scream. “You are simply amazing.” “I know, I know.” She gasped as I squeezed her tight in my arms. On Monday morning, I walked into the twenty fifth floor of the building that was home to the Sprocks company. I was in a dark green, polka dot shirt tucked into a black form fitting skirt and three inch, black heels. Professional but relaxed. The last thing I wanted was to give the impression of an infiltrator. I wanted to blend in to the point that everybody would kinda just forget I was here and I wouldn’t severely interrupt their process. “Good morning.” I smiled at the woman at the front desk. “I’m here to see Mason Law.” “Good morning. Hold on, please.” She picked up the desk phone. “What’s your name?”“Raleigh Maverick.” She nodded before speaking into the phone. “A miss Maverick for you… Alright.” She hung up, then smiled at me. “You can go on in. His office is at the end of the floor.” “Thank you.” I walked into the office and froze. It wasn’t what I had been expecting. Suited men and women were nowhere to be seen. Was this dress down day or what? Most people were in jeans and t-shirts, others had on sweatpants. Only very few people were properly dressed for the office. I looked down at myself in horror.