Once inside, he shut the door behind him and leaned against it. This was really happening. After years of plotting and watching and waiting, he had the Beaumont Brewery—his birthright.
He felt like laughing at the wonder of it all. But he didn’t. For all he knew, Delores had her ear to the door, listening for any hint of what her new boss was like. Maniacal laughter was not a good first impression, no matter how justified it might be.
Instead, he pushed away from the door and surveyed his office. “Begin as you mean to go on,” Zeb reminded himself.
He’d read about this room, studied pictures of it. But he hadn’t been prepared for what it would actually feel like to walk into a piece of his family’s history—to know that he belonged here, that this was his rightful place.
The building had been constructed in the 1940s by Zeb’s grandfather John, soon after Prohibition had ended. The walls were mahogany panels that had been oiled until they gleamed. A built-in bar with a huge mirror took up the whole interior wall—and, if Zeb wasn’t mistaken, the beer was on tap.
The exterior wall was lined with windows, hung with heavy gray velvet drapes and crowned with elaborately hand-carved woodwork that told the story of the Beaumont Brewery. His grandfather had had the conference table built in the office because it was so large and the desk was built to match.
Tucked in the far corner was a grouping of two leather club chairs and a matching leather love seat. The wagon-wheel coffee table in front of the chairs was supposed to be a wheel from the wagon that his great-great-grandfather Phillipe Beaumont had driven across the Great Plains on his way to Denver to found the brewery back in the 1880s.
The whole room screamed opulence and wealth and history. Zeb’s history. This was who he was and he would be damned if he let anyone tell him it wasn’t his.
He crossed to the desk and turned on the computer—top-of-the-line, of course. Beaumonts never did anything by halves. That was one family trait they all shared.
He sat down in the leather office chair. From as far back as he could remember, his mother, Emily Richards, had told him this belonged to him. Zeb was only four months younger than Chadwick Beaumont. He should have been here, learning the business at his father’s knee, instead of standing next to his mother’s hairdressing chair.
But Hardwick had never married his mother—despite the fact that Hardwick had married several of his mistresses. But not Emily Richards—and for one simple reason.
Emily was black. Which made her son black.
Which meant Zeb didn’t exist in the eyes of the Beaumonts.
For so long, he had been shut out of half of his heritage. And now he had the one thing that the Beaumonts had valued above all else—the Beaumont Brewery.
God, it felt good to come home.
He got himself under control. Taking possession of the brewery was a victory—but it was just the first step in making sure the Beaumonts paid for excluding him.
He was not the only Beaumont bastard Hardwick had left behind. It was time to start doing things his way. He grinned. The Beaumonts weren’t going to see this coming.
He pressed the button on an antique-looking intercom. It buzzed to life and Delores said, “Yes, sir?”
“I want you to arrange a press conference for this Friday. I’m going to be announcing my plans for the brewery.”
There was a pause. “Yes, sir,” she said in a way that had an edge to it. “I assume you want the conference here?” Already Zeb could tell she was getting over her nervousness at his unannounced arrival.
If he had to guess, he’d say that someone like Delores Hahn had probably made the last CEO’s life miserable. “Yes, on the front steps of the brewery. Oh, and Delores?”
“Yes?”
“Write a memo. Every employee needs to have an updated résumé on my desk by end of business tomorrow.”
There was another pause—this one was longer. Zeb could only imagine the glare she was giving the intercom right about now. “Why? I mean—of course I’ll get right on it. But is there a reason?”
“Of course there is, Delores. There is a reason behind every single thing I do. And the reason for the memo is simple. Every employee needs to reapply for their own job.” He exhaled slowly, letting the tension build. “Including you.”
* * *
“Boss?”
Casey Johnson jerked her head toward the sound of Larry’s voice—which meant she smacked her forehead against the bottom of tank number fifteen. “Ow, dammit.” She pushed herself out from under the tank, rubbing her head. “What?”
Larry Kaczynski was a middle-aged man with a beer gut, which was appropriate considering he brewed beer for a living. Normally, he was full of bluster and the latest stats on his fantasy football team. But today he looked worried. Specifically, he looked worried about the piece of paper in his hand. “The new guy... He’s here.”
“Well, good for him,” Casey said, turning her attention back to her tank. This was the second new CEO in less than a year and, given recent history, he probably wouldn’t make it past a couple of months. All Casey had to do was outlast him.
That, of course, was the challenge. Beer did not brew itself—although, given the attitude of the last CEO, some people thought it did.
Tank fifteen was her priority right now. Being a brewmaster was about brewing beer—but it was also about making sure the equipment was clean and functional. And right now tank fifteen wasn’t either of those things.
“You don’t understand,” Larry sputtered before she’d rolled back under the tank. “He’s been on the property for less than an hour and he’s already sent this memo...”
“Larry,” she said, her voice echoing against the body of the tank, “are you going to get to the point today?”
“We have to reapply for our jobs,” Larry said in a rush. “By the end of the day tomorrow. I don’t—Casey, you know me. I don’t even have a résumé. I’ve worked here for the last thirty years.”
Oh, for the love of everything holy... Casey pushed herself out from under the tank again and sat up. “Okay,” she said in a much softer voice as she got to her feet. “Start from the beginning. What does the memo say?” Because Larry was like a canary in a coal mine. If he kept calm, the staff she was left with would also keep calm. But if Larry panicked...
Larry looked down at the paper in his hands again. He swallowed hard and Casey got the strangest sensation he was trying not to crack.
Crap. They were screwed. “It just says that by end of business tomorrow, every Beaumont Brewery employee needs to have an updated résumé on the new CEO’s desk so he can decide if they get to keep their job or not.”
Son of a... “Let me see.”
Larry handed over the paper as if he’d suddenly discovered it was contagious, and he stepped back. “What am I going to do, boss?”
Casey scanned the memo and saw that Larry had pretty much read verbatim. Every employee, no exceptions.
She did not have time for this. She was responsible for brewing about seven thousand gallons of beer every single day of the year on a skeleton staff of seventeen people. Two years ago, forty people had been responsible for that level of production. But two years ago, the company hadn’t been in the middle of the never-ending string of upstart CEOs.
And now the latest CEO was rolling up into her brewery and scaring the hell out of her employees? This new guy thought he would tell her she had to apply for her job—the job she’d earned?
She