Claire pointed her trembling index finger straight at my chest:
“You’re an employee of Whitaker Construction! My father Martin is an Executive Regional Director! He outranks you in the corporate hierarchy! If you don’t turn around, get in that elevator, and leave this vault immediately, I will have my father fire you before sunrise!”
I did not raise my voice.
I did not step forward.
I reached into my Carhartt jacket, pulled out my smartphone, and tapped the master enterprise dashboard icon on the screen.
I turned the high-resolution display ninety degrees, holding it three feet from Claire’s face.
Displayed on the screen in crisp, unassailable corporate typography was the certified **State of Ohio Secretary of State Business Registry**, paired with the central banking ledger of **Whitaker Construction & Infrastructure Holdings LLC**:
`ENTITY NAME: WHITAKER CONSTRUCTION & INFRASTRUCTURE HOLDINGS LLC`
`FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN & SOLE SHAREHOLDER: COMMANDER DANIEL ARTHUR MERCER-WHITAKER`
`CAPITALIZATION: $16,940,000.00 (LIQUID ASSETS // EXCLUDING BEDROCK EASEMENTS)`
`TOTAL REGIONAL EMPLOYEES: 412`
`SUBSIDIARY ENTITY: COLLINS REGIONAL MAINTENANCE DIVISION (100% WHOLLY OWNED)`
I scrolled down to the active payroll disbursement authorizations:
`EXECUTIVE PROCUREMENT DIRECTOR: MARTIN COLLINS ($240,000.00 / ANNUALLY)`
`FLEET LOGISTICS MANAGER: GREGORY COLLINS ($95,000.00 / ANNUALLY)`
`SITE COMPLIANCE INSPECTOR: BRADLEY COLLINS ($115,000.00 / ANNUALLY)`
`TOTAL NEPOTISM PAYROLL ALLOCATIONS: 47 COLLINS FAMILY MEMBERS`
`AUTHORIZING SIGNATURE: DANIEL A. WHITAKER // CEO`
Claire’s eyes dilated until the brown rings practically vanished into her pupils.
Her jaw dropped open, her breathing seizing in her throat with a wet, strangled gasp:
*k-k-k.*
“Sole… sole founder…? Sixteen point nine million dollars…?! You… you own the entire company…?!”
“I built this company from a single flatbed truck when I retired from active naval special warfare, Claire,” I spoke, every word dropping like an eighty-pound iron anvil into thirty fathoms of sub-zero ocean water:
“For eight years, I allowed your father to believe he was an executive genius.”
