hear the soft mew but couldn’t locate the source.
“Here, kitty,” she called, squatting down in hopes the animal might come to her. With several shrubs around the edge of the house, it was likely it was a litter behind the plants.
“Don’t worry, Leah,” Jessie called from around the corner. “The mom won’t go far. She probably went hunting and left her babies under your porch where they’d be safe.”
Leah tried to move the bush aside, peering through the branches to find the kitten, but she couldn’t see anything in the dark recesses of the shrubbery. As much as she wanted to continue trying to find the poor thing, Leah figured Jessie knew better than she did. The only time she’d ever been around cats were the strays in the alley near where she grew up. She rose and made her way back to the front of the house.
“I leave food and water for them in the barns, so they’ll be fine,” Jessie said.
Leah glanced back over her shoulder at the side of the house and thought she saw a small pair of eyes peering out at her, but they were gone too quickly for her to be sure.
“What do you say we go to my office and look over the files for the boys before they arrive, so we can coordinate our efforts between the sessions with me and the horses and their evening sessions with you?”
Leah could feel herself slipping into her doctor mode, ready to read the background on each teen, so she’d know exactly what sort of issues she’d be facing when she met with each boy. This was her comfort zone, where she excelled. While she wasn’t about to let anyone know why she was so good at her job, she was eager for them to see just how good at it she could be. She would help these kids realize how much control and power they had over their lives, even facing desperate and hopeless circumstances, the same way her mentor had with her.
“Lead the way.”
G AGE FELT LIKE he was drowning in recriminations. He’d finally contacted his team of attorneys today, only to be told that his mistake was going to cost the company nearly twenty million in settlements. They hadn’t been prepared to take a hit like this. It was going to set them back by almost ten years in research and technological advances, unless they cut costs somewhere else in the budget.
A quick call to George had made one thing clear: Masters and Cooper were adamant that the cuts come from staff layoffs. George, on the other hand, wanted to figure out another way and needed Gage, as CEO, to back him against the other two.
Now, not only was he faced with a twenty-million-dollar mistake on his head, Gage could be the reason nearly four hundred of their employees were laid off. Logically, it was a simple decision that would solve every issue they faced. If he sided with Masters and Cooper, they could put the entire mess behind them.
But the decision wasn’t as simple as it sounded. These were good people, with families, people who had worked with him for years, helping to build this company into what it was today. These were people who had taken a chance on the new start-up, entrusting their livelihood to two graduate students. The risk had been accepted years ago and should have passed by now. These families should be celebrating security now; some of them were nearly retirement age. It was wrong to let them go simply because he’d made an error. It was Gage’s mistake, not theirs, and now, the company would recover but those four hundred employees might not. He didn’t want to punish their loyalty and betray them so that he didn’t lose money. But, if he didn’t, there might not be an Iconics if he couldn’t figure out a way to recover.
Gage couldn’t live with himself if he backed Cooper and Masters, even if it meant saving his own reputation. He had to figure out another way.
A quiet knock at the door jerked him back to his present, where he was busy wallowing in self-pity on the queen-sized bed in the cabin. Closing down his email and setting his
“Here, kitty,” she called, squatting down in hopes the animal might come to her. With several shrubs around the edge of the house, it was likely it was a litter behind the plants.
“Don’t worry, Leah,” Jessie called from around the corner. “The mom won’t go far. She probably went hunting and left her babies under your porch where they’d be safe.”
Leah tried to move the bush aside, peering through the branches to find the kitten, but she couldn’t see anything in the dark recesses of the shrubbery. As much as she wanted to continue trying to find the poor thing, Leah figured Jessie knew better than she did. The only time she’d ever been around cats were the strays in the alley near where she grew up. She rose and made her way back to the front of the house.
“I leave food and water for them in the barns, so they’ll be fine,” Jessie said.
Leah glanced back over her shoulder at the side of the house and thought she saw a small pair of eyes peering out at her, but they were gone too quickly for her to be sure.
“What do you say we go to my office and look over the files for the boys before they arrive, so we can coordinate our efforts between the sessions with me and the horses and their evening sessions with you?”
Leah could feel herself slipping into her doctor mode, ready to read the background on each teen, so she’d know exactly what sort of issues she’d be facing when she met with each boy. This was her comfort zone, where she excelled. While she wasn’t about to let anyone know why she was so good at her job, she was eager for them to see just how good at it she could be. She would help these kids realize how much control and power they had over their lives, even facing desperate and hopeless circumstances, the same way her mentor had with her.
“Lead the way.”
G AGE FELT LIKE he was drowning in recriminations. He’d finally contacted his team of attorneys today, only to be told that his mistake was going to cost the company nearly twenty million in settlements. They hadn’t been prepared to take a hit like this. It was going to set them back by almost ten years in research and technological advances, unless they cut costs somewhere else in the budget.
A quick call to George had made one thing clear: Masters and Cooper were adamant that the cuts come from staff layoffs. George, on the other hand, wanted to figure out another way and needed Gage, as CEO, to back him against the other two.
Now, not only was he faced with a twenty-million-dollar mistake on his head, Gage could be the reason nearly four hundred of their employees were laid off. Logically, it was a simple decision that would solve every issue they faced. If he sided with Masters and Cooper, they could put the entire mess behind them.
But the decision wasn’t as simple as it sounded. These were good people, with families, people who had worked with him for years, helping to build this company into what it was today. These were people who had taken a chance on the new start-up, entrusting their livelihood to two graduate students. The risk had been accepted years ago and should have passed by now. These families should be celebrating security now; some of them were nearly retirement age. It was wrong to let them go simply because he’d made an error. It was Gage’s mistake, not theirs, and now, the company would recover but those four hundred employees might not. He didn’t want to punish their loyalty and betray them so that he didn’t lose money. But, if he didn’t, there might not be an Iconics if he couldn’t figure out a way to recover.
Gage couldn’t live with himself if he backed Cooper and Masters, even if it meant saving his own reputation. He had to figure out another way.
A quiet knock at the door jerked him back to his present, where he was busy wallowing in self-pity on the queen-sized bed in the cabin. Closing down his email and setting his
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