"Behold! The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!"
~ Percy Jackson (Son of Poseidon)
Kids do indeed grow up, Trevor thought as he stared at another tax reports of his father's. This was the life of an adult taking his father's place, finances and business meetings until you dropped dead.
Trevor sighed as he signed off on another report from months ago. The sales team always had needed Paul Rossi to confirm his financials, but now that he wasn't here anymore Trevor had to do it for him. It was boring work, especially since Paul hadn't let Trevor in on most of the business dealings he was signing off on.
A deal with the Black Tiger gang? Why had Trevor not been brought along?
He put the papers back down on his desk and put his head in his hands. Sometimes he wondered why his father couldn't have been more trusting of him before he died. How was Trevor supposed to catch Momentum and concretely connect Carlton Laboratories to hiring him to kill the CEO of their biggest corporate enemy if he was still in the dark about everything Paul had done?
Like, why had he been buying the crates of PF-08-02 from the old minions of X? What was the point of buying some boring old super soldier serum? Had he been planning on making the labs create a cure to the serum, reversing its effects and making any super made from it powerless? If so, the only known super who used that serum was Sonic, miles away in Empire City and not connected to anything to do with Rossi Corp (unless you counted the fact that the hero's best friend was the CEO of Carlton Laboratories, their main competitor).
(Actually, that theory wasn't too far-fetched.)
But, Trevor didn't think that idea was likely. Taking away Sonic's powers wouldn't necessarily slow down Carlton Laboratories in their conquest to take down Rossi Corp.
Other options included making a super soldier army (like the serum was originally intended for) and trying to make himself a super, but both would have required the people involved to be Potents, and Trevor didn't think it was possible to find enough for an army or that his father was one.
Trevor was trying to make the labs reverse engineer some anyways. Maybe he could find out why his father wanted some and use it to continue on his work.
While looking through his father's things, Trevor discovered just how deep Paul was in to researching the supers. Potents were what he called the people who didn't have superpowers, but they had the potential to gain them. It was the reason not everyone who was struck by lightning or who fell in a batch of radioactive waste got powers. The ones who died or got severely injured didn't possess the PF-08 gene. Those who did possess the gene, Potents, would acquire some superpower because of the experience. It was unknown how many people in the world possessed this gene seeing as you'd have to test the entire world for it and most people probably went through their entire life without knowing they could've been a super.
Trevor doubted his father was a Potent, it just didn't seem right.
There was a knock at the door. Trevor brightened and told the person at the other side to come in. Ian must've ended early.
His smile faded into disgust and loathing when he realized the person walking through the door had blonde, not red, hair.
"You were expecting someone else?"
Trevor narrowed his eyes. "That's none of your business."
Lacey Carlton put her hands up in defense. "Hey, I didn't mean to assume anything. I'm just here on business, as usual. Did you forget that I called to say I'd be stopping by this week?"
"I must've thrown out that reminder," Trevor noted nonchalantly.
Lacey was thrown off, as he hoped.
"Well, I somehow hoped you would take this position more seriously than to ignore a fellow powerful CEO."
"I'm taking my job seriously by ignoring you, in my father's legacy."
Carlton frowned and crossed her arms, "I am trying to treat you like an adult, but you're making it quite hard. Would you please stop accusing me of atrocities for one moment so we can discuss business?"
"I never accused you of anything."
She scoffed. "Oh, please. We both know you think I had something to do with Paul's death. I've already tried assuring you that I was not involved."
Trevor stayed silent.
"Besides, we need to talk about picking up the pieces of an agreement your father was making with me before his untimely death. My board of directors think it's time to try and rekindle our deal."
"What deal?" Trevor asked suspiciously.
Lacey tilted her head. "He seriously didn't tell you? I thought it was why you were so cold to me all of those times before."
"Know what?"
"You're father and I were planning a merger of our two companies, I thought you knew?"
Trevor's heart stopped for a moment, skipping a beat. "No, you were planning a take-over of Rossi Corp. My father assured me you wouldn't dare try it while he was alive and that was why you needed him out of the way. You probably thought you could convince me to hand over my throne if you told me my father would want it. Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but my father would never have made a deal with you."
Lacey Carlton's gaze hardened to glass. "I guess there were a lot of things you didn't know about your father. He probably thought hiding the deal from you would shield you from the confusion involved. We always had a mutual respect for each other, Paul never really hated my husband or his Uncle, the CEO before him. We just happened to be on opposite ends of the business world. We decided over many meetings it would be profitable to both of our companies if we teamed up and shared our resources."
Trevor couldn't and wouldn't believe it. There was no way his father would ever agree on a merger with a superhero loving maniac like Lacey Carlton. His father's opinion of the Carltons was less than favorable. There must've been some other explanation.
Trevor started to laugh uncontrollably, it was the only way he could deal with the information being presented to him.
"Why are you laughing?" Carlton asked, confused that he wasn't in distress anymore.
"Because there is no way my father agreed on a merger."
"But-"
He stopped her with a gesture of his hand. "The only way he would ever have agreed to a merger was if he was going to double cross you. My father had another plan up his sleeve and you never suspected. Don't kid yourself thinking you knew anything about my father's motivations."
Lacey Carlton sighed frustratingly and put her hands on her hips. There was no way she was going to break his stubbornness.
The door suddenly burst open as Ian ran through, a smile fresh on his face. He probably thought he'd be walking in on Trevor working through papers in need of a stress reliever, not two people in a battle of wits.
"I can come back," Ian offered, looking hesitantly between Trevor and Lacey.
"Ian?" Lacey asked, confused.
Trevor furrowed his eyebrows at Ian, "You know the Carltons?"
Well, that wasn't good.
While working for Rossi Corp Ian had never come in contact with Carlton Laboratories, which meant Trevor had no reason to think Ian had ever even spoken to the CEO, but Ian knew Lacey from before Rossi Corp, a time he didn't like to speak to Trevor about.
"Um, yeah. I've talked with them a couple of times." Ian offered, not looking at Lacey. He was hoping she wouldn't make the situation worse by saying something revealing.
"And you never told me?"
Ian opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. There was no good way out of this mess. "I never thought it was important. It wasn't like I worked at Rossi Corp at the time and they were just coincidental run-ins."
(That is, if you call Blue Archer and his wife showing up at MASKED headquarters to speak about some villain with the agency's best agents as a coincidental meetup.)
Lacey Carlton knew Ian as an agent of a top secret super monitoring organization, not as an employee at Rossi Corp. The realization passing over her face meant she was figuring out that either Ian was undercover or she thought Ian was betraying MASKED and giving vital information to Trevor about superheroes.
Let's hope she was realizing the truth.
Lacey turned to Trevor, and apologetic smile on her face. "I didn't know you hired the son of the Secretary of the State. We met a couple years back when my husband was still the CEO of Carlton Laboratories and we were visiting with the White House to talk about super regulation. I'm glad you have such a great person working on your team now. How long has he been here?"
Trevor seemed closer to believing the story than he was before. "A little over a year."
Something flashed through Lacey's face. Ian knew she was connecting the dots. That was around the same time someone stole Sonic's blood to reverse engineer some PF-08-02 serum. It wouldn't take an idiot to figure out that was the reason Ian was working for Rossi Corp (that is if they had enough information to know to piece it together).
They only found out what happened to the serum three months ago, when Ian told Paul Rossi of its existence after a tip from one of his sources. Lacey was told by MASKED that there was more serum in circulation – that the batch destroyed was not the entirety of what was made, which was why she was so eager to merge with Rossi Corp. She was sure, as well as Ian was, that Rossi Corp had the resources and the means to find out where the rest of the dangerous serum was and why X was so involved.
Trevor was, of course, clueless to all of this information. He didn't know that Ian happened to show up right after a famous superhero was kidnapped. He didn't know that Ian had been spying in Rossi Corp's dealings since day 1 and sending the information to MASKED. He didn't know that Ian was really using his resources to investigate the PF-08-02 case, not to find the identities of the many supers residing in Kingdom City. Trevor didn't know that Ian already knew the identity of every super in Kingdom City and was feeding him false information.
It was for his own good. MASKED assured Ian that giving their information to the head of a company famous for its anti-super sentiments was not a good idea, even if he thought Trevor was different from his father.
"That's great," Lacey smiled, not letting any real emotions flash on her face. "I hope that we can continue our conversation soon at your Charity Ball."
She turned and left, but not before sending a look Ian's way. She would no doubt be contacting Agent Argent when she left, demanding to be in on the mission that involved her best friend. Ian didn't know her well, but he knew her well enough to know that the CEO was as stubborn as they came. Maybe even more so than his sister had been before she became . . . someone else.
Ian turned to Trevor when the door closed. He could see Trevor deciding what to do about this situation.
Trevor sighed, started to speak, and then stopped. He clenched his fist and scrunched his face before looking up at Ian, a million emotions running through his features. "I know you aren't ready to talk about your past, but you could've at least told me that you know my biggest business rival personally."
"Personally is a bit of a stretch."
"Fine, the fact that you even know her is a concern."
"A concern?" Ian asked incredulously, "Do you think it's going to suddenly ruin your business if I saw her once or twice? Besides, I didn't know her after I started working here. I didn't even remember seeing her at that meeting until now. Why can't I keep some things to myself?"
"Keep some things to yourself?" Trevor fired back, "You keep everything to yourself!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, like you don't know."
"Is privacy a crime?"
Trevor slammed his fist on his desk, "Maybe it should be!"
They were both breathing hard, Trevor could barely look at Ian.
"You can't blame me for being curious to know the kind of person you used to be," Trevor defended. "There are periods of your life that are shielded in smoke and you won't give me clear answers whenever I try to ask about them. How am I supposed to trust you when you don't trust me enough to share your past?"
Ian hardened his gaze. "I thought I told you I wasn't ready to open up about my past? You know it hurts me."
"Yeah, well maybe I can't afford to give you that luxury anymore."
"You can afford? Since when has it been your right to know everything about me?"
"I think as your boyfriend I have the right to know about your past, no matter how dark you seem to make it out to be."
Ian bit his lip and shook his head. He suddenly turned sour on Trevor, "Yeah, and how many people even know about me? Your only friend found out on accident because he bumped into us at a coffee shop. Were you ever planning on telling him? Or anyone? How much do you think it hurts me to have to hide what I feel for you every day?"
"You knew what you were signing up for when you got involved with me," Trevor retorted.
Ian lowered his eyes, "Well, maybe I'm tired of always being dragged along."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that until I'm treated as an equal, there is nothing between us."
Trevor was as stubborn as anyone, and Ian knew that. He knew that when he walked out the door, Trevor wouldn't be running after him anytime soon.
Ian stopped thinking about the mission, about keeping a watch on Rossi Corp. He was only thinking about himself and his feelings.
What he didn't know was that while he was breaking down in the hallway right outside the slamming door of the CEO's office, Trevor was doing the same thing right on the other side of the door.
Yay! Poor Ian, I can't imagine how he must be feeling stuck between duty and love.
This chapter was more of an information dump combined with some relationship troubles. Will they get back together before the end of this book? Will Trevor ever find out about Ian's real job?
Who's your favorite Percy Jackson character?