Teaching The Boss

Chapter Twenty-One

Sam checked his watch for the twentieth time in the past half hour. He'd left plenty early, but the bumper-to-bumper traffic made the hair on his neck stand up.

Simon had warned him plenty of times that they only had this one window to get Donald. If he missed the meeting and April's graduation because of traffic, he didn't know what he'd do.

But he had a plan. He just had to go into the restaurant, lay out the ultimatum for Donald and make sure he knew Sam had to have the shares by the next morning, and get the hell out. He'd probably miss the beginning of April's ceremony, but might just be able to get there before they called her name.

He could snap a picture, send her a congratulations text right as she got back to her seat and make sure she saw him in the audience. Boom. Best of both worlds. He'd have Donald on a spike exactly where he wanted him, and April could see that she was important to him.

He looked at the time and mentally calculated how long it would take to get to Radio City Music Hall in this traffic. An extra special gift to the graduates was that the ceremony was in the esteemed building. This had to be timed perfectly for him to make it there to see April.

His phone chirped from his briefcase, breaking Sam from his concentration. Unlike the other calls he'd gotten that morning, his heart didn't skip a beat. He'd given up hope of April suddenly calling to apologize. Business call after business call taught him not to hope. If he had any chance of fixing this, it would have to be in person and today.

Simon's name flashed on the screen. Sam answered the call. "Hunt here."

"I wanted to make sure everything was on schedule," said Simon.

Sam's head fell back as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm on my way right now. Is everything set on your end?"

"DuFord confirmed he and your father are about to finalize the deal. Are you sure you can get there in time?"

"I told you I could," bit out Sam.

Simon let out a sigh of relief loud enough to echo through the phone. "Just think. In a few hours, you might not have a care in the world."

Sam blinked as the thought trickled through him. He could get rid of Donald for good. Finally prove once and for all that he could beat Donald at his own game. But Simon was wrong. Even if this all went off without a hitch, there was no escaping his problems. This wouldn't get April back.

His breath left his body at the thought. What if she couldn't forgive him? He might not get to her graduation in time, and even if he did, there was no guarantee she'd forgive him. He'd been repeating to himself over and over again that she would get over it, but this was April.

She wasn't some temperamental schoolgirl. She knew what she was doing and what she wanted. If she told him she didn't think this plan was a good idea, maybe she had a point. How much did he really know about DuFord? How much did he really know about Simon?

"Give me a call when it's done," said Simon. "I want to know everything that happens."

"Will do," said Sam. The words left a bad taste in his mouth and Sam tried to push his unease as far away as possible. This was a good plan. He'd thought it over thousands of times. Get in, tell Donald he was screwed if he didn't help Sam, and then hightail it out to Radio City Music Hall and tell April she was the most important thing to him.

His heart flipped at the thought. He couldn't look her in the eyes and say that. His car was taking him farther and farther away from April with every passing second.