First Comes Love - Ashlee Price Page 0,2
here. Decker walked out yesterday.”
“Shit.” Suddenly realizing that I’ve been pacing, I stop dead in my tracks. I knew that guy was off the first second I met him, just passed off my uneasiness as wanting to be in the producer chair myself. “So StormTV has no crew.”
“Well—” Another low groan. “Yes. I’m so sorry, Mr. Storm.”
A sick urge to laugh twists in me. “Thank you, Madeline,” I’m able to make myself say. “Is there anything you need?”
“No, I’m fine, really. Thank you.”
She speaks with a careful clip, but I can still hear the anxiety in her voice.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her, with more assurance than I feel. “I’ll get this sorted out. I’ll have a new crew there in days. As for you, you get home and rest as long as you need.”
“Good luck, boss. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
“You just concentrate on getting better. Thanks again.”
I freeze, staring off into space.
Shit.
First Dad dying, and now this. StormTV is a major moneymaker for Storm Media. Without it…
I don’t let myself finish that sentence.
“That bad?” Ulric asks.
“Yeah, I… I’m sorry, boys, I have to go.”
Harry grins lopsidedly. “Don’t be all sorry. We’ll be here when you have time.”
On my way back to the office, I call up Landon, tell him, “We have a problem.”
**
They’re all waiting in my office when I get there.
“You’re lucky I felt like a stroll downtown,” Emerson says, running a hand through his golden hair, blue eyes narrowed. “Otherwise you’d have had to wait a good hour until I was done practicing.”
Noah snorts, intones in a caveman voice, “Piano love. Piano life.”
We crack up, even Emerson. “Not all of us can be business superstars.”
Although truth is that Emerson turned down the Storm position Dad handed to him, decided to go out in left field and try to become a concert pianist of all things.
“I’m no business superstar,” I grumble. “I’m just the guy who got thrown into the president position.”
My brothers all like to pretend that being cooped up here in this office is my calling or something. Like dealing with all the shit Dad left behind is just a blessing.
“Same here,” Landon says, his muscled arms tensed as he rubs at his light-brown-haired temples. “Minus the president part. It’s not like I have some undying love for poring over figures from five years back.”
Nolan gives him a sympathetic pat. Landon really did get the short end of the stick for this one. As hard as running this company seems without Dad, making sense of the books which Dad self-admittedly ‘played by his own rules’ is damn near impossible.
“Anyway,” I say. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Catastrophe,” Nolan agrees morosely.
I don’t call my brothers in for many business meetings, but when I do, they know it’s serious. All it took was a one-text summary of what had happened, and they were here within minutes.
“What are our options?” Landon asks.
Emerson crosses his arms across his chest, his fingers absently drumming out some chords from some piano piece. “Hire a new crew, obviously.”
“What’s to stop the same thing from happening again?” I say. “The rainforest in Corcovado National Park is no walk in the park, and Decker came with all the right credentials.”
“He was an ass,” Nolan says simply.
“An ass you all wanted to hire,” I remind him. “You ignored my reservations.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Landon states. “We’ll just have to choose better next time.”
“I plan to,” I say.
All eyes swivel my way.
“Greyson,” Emerson begins, “You’re not seriously suggesting—”
“Actually, I am,” I say. “What better way to ensure that we don’t run into the same difficulties again? That, and getting each crew member vaccinated.”
“I don’t like it,” Landon says simply. “You’re supposed to be the president. You can’t just go gallivanting off here, there and everywhere, just like…” He trails off, scowling.
“Just like Dad used to?” I point out. “Too bad. I’m going.”
Three cool pairs of eyes greet me. I have to get my temper in check if this is going to fly, even if I am pissed. I didn’t want to be president, but if I am, there should be some perks attached to it. One of them being that I get to decide what I do, when I want.
Which technically I can, but I’d rather not deal with three pissy brothers while I’m gone.
Taking a breath, I force my tone into a neutral one. “C’mon, admit it, me being there will speed everything along and make everything that much easier.”
“Not to mention that you get