Super

Chapter 19: Plot, Counterplot

Serena's eyes narrowed as she smiled. “I'm beginning to see where you're going with this. Yes, I do have a friend like that, one of the reasons I made it through college at all, actually. Chris and I used to go trolling for guys together, but he also forced me to study with him so that I could stay in school and keep hanging out together. He's a hell of a lot more discreet than I am, now that I think about it.”

“All right, this is my best plan for you. Since your parents seem to want someone with the family name running the company, find that you suddenly have an interest in it. Get them to name you to a position where you can have some influence and eventually take over, but make it clear to your parents that you're going to need a competent lieutenant because of your obligations to the team here.

“Then get Chris on board. Let him know he'll be running things, but needs to keep you in the loop because of your dad's wishes. Also, tell him that he's going to be in charge of an internal hostile takeover to throw out your dad's chosen guy and that if he can, he'll be in charge of the whole thing and you'll be a figurehead.

“Be at the office a couple days a week and be seen, wear cute business suits, maybe go to a couple of meetings—be sure to bring Chris with you, if you do—sign some papers. Eventually, your dad will retire and leave running the business to you—at which point you've hopefully gotten rid of his guy—and you can pretty much allow Chris to run it from there on out. It's probably smart to continue to be involved enough to be seen though, so keep that in mind going forward. What do you think?”

Serena looked excited, smiling broadly. “It's more than I wanted to do originally, but it sounds like it'll work like a charm.”

Lex gave her friend a pleased nod. “Also, since we have no way to know how in league your parents and our sponsors are, you might want to 'forget' the phone they issued you when you talk to Chris about this, and keep your plans as much as possible just between the two of you.”

“Can I come to you for more advice, if I need it?”

“Sure, but be careful of what you ask where they're listening to us, so that hopefully no one will be able to figure out what your plan is.”

They fell silent after that, Lex trying to eat a little more but being mostly unsuccessful between the pain in her head that chewing caused and her unstable stomach. While discussing escape details over dessert, something occurred to Lex.

“Casey,” she said, looking over at the other woman, “there's one thing I forgot about. You're going to have to figure out what you want to do about Lou.”

As she said it, Lex winced at the look on Casey's face, as she went white and her mouth opened with a gasp as if someone had punched her in the stomach.

“I didn't think...you're right, though,” she said hoarsely, then swallowed.

“He could probably come along with us if he wants to, but we'd have to get a new identity for him, too, to be safe.”

“Who's Lou?” Serena asked, her eyebrows pulled together.

Everyone was silent for a moment, and Lex looked at Casey. The blonde pulled herself together after a few seconds, but her eyes darted left and right as she looked at everyone else for a moment, then shook her head.

“He's my boyfriend,” she admitted.

“You dog! You have a guy, and you didn't even tell me,” Serena said, appearing both surprised and happy.

“I didn't intend to tell anyone, well, except Lex, but since they're always listening in on us...” Casey trailed off, shaking her head.

Riss interrupted then, to Casey's obvious relief, saying, “Sorry to cut in, but we've got about five minutes left of usable audio to cover our conversation, so if there's anything else, we need to cover it before the time's up.”