His Until Dawn (Kissing the Boss Book 3) Read online

  Momentarily forgetting where I was, who I was standing in front of, what was at stake, I glowered at him, mouth almost on the floor. "Are you joking? You didn't coerce me."

  He kept his gaze straight, staring down the table, his face that perfect poker mask. "I used my position as her superior to press her. I assume all responsibility."

  This started up a firestorm of whispers with the people on the other end of the table, while Chairman Hamazaki's brows furrowed.

  "No!" My shout stopped all action in the room. I resisted the urge to haul Nobuki up by his perfectly starched shirt collar and shake some sense into him. Didn't he see what I was trying to do? Why the hell did he have to be so stubborn, especially at such a crucial time like this? "He's lying."

  Which started up the whispers all over again.

  I dropped into my seat and glared at Nobuki. "What are you doing? I'm trying to save your job, you stubborn bastard."

  "Wasn't it your dream to work at this company?" he said, keeping his gaze forward. Damn it, what I wouldn't give to know what was going through his mind. "I can work at any other company I wanted. But working for Shokogan has been your dream. If you get fired from here, what're the chances of finding another job with another publisher? Minimal, I would think. It makes more sense to fight for your job than mine. I'm doing the logical thing."

  His words hit me like a hammer to the chest. For a moment, I even forgot to breathe.

  Unexpectedly, heat rose in the back of my nose, and I thought I was going to start bawling right there again.

  The handsome devil was trying to save me.

  But this time, I had to return the favor. I didn't want to be the princess in the high tower. I wanted to be the princess in shining armor on a white steed, galloping to save her lover.

  "If you're not going to fire them both," said Mrs. Katsura, adjusting the corner of her glasses with her fingertips again. "Then might I suggest you fire one of them? It must be shown we are not free and loose with our rules, Chairman Hamazaki."

  The man she called Saito laughed out loud. "Looks like we've got both of them volunteering. Should we make them play rock-paper-scissors? That's fair, isn't it?"

  Mrs. Katsura glared at him. If looks could kill, he'd be halfway to the funeral home.

  He returned her glare with a wide, toothy grin, waggling his fingers in an insolent fashion.

  The head of HR's face went red, and I thought I saw steam coming out from her ears.

  Mr. Hamazaki coughed unobtrusively. "Please, let's not jump down each other's throats. We are deciding the fate of two people, after all. That should be our priority."

  Mrs. Katsura huffed and crossed her arms, turning around so her back was to her amused counterpart.

  Nobuki took a deep breath, shifting in his seat. "I realize that I am asking for much, but I would—"

  He paused, as did everyone else as we heard a commotion that was going on just outside the door.

  A woman shouted out loud, and someone shouted back at her. It sounded like Harada…and…Ayaka?

  Mrs. Katsura rose from her seat, her mouth open. "What in heaven's name is—"

  The door thumped once before it was pushed open with such force that Mr. Shimatani's cup of water fell over, creating a flood of water down the table.

  Mr. Shimatani jumped up, cursing softly, swiping at the moisture forming on his dark charcoal pants, but he was the only person who cared about the spilled water.

  Everyone else was gawking at the chaos playing out in the doorway.

  Harada stood in the doorway, using his body as a barricade as Ayaka tried to force her way in, shoving her heel into his instep.

  "Return to your stations!"

  "Hell, no!"

  He yelped as she pressed down harder, her face creased in concentration.

  "Jesus, woman, what the hell are you doing?"

  Her gaze met mine and a triumphant smile blossomed on her lips. "Rika!"

  With a vicious elbow into his side that left the security guard crumpled over, she paraded into the room, casually adjusting her hair as though she hadn't beaten up a hapless security guard.

  She positioned herself next to me and put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.

  But it wasn't only her.

  I watched, stunned, as Tadashi Murai sauntered in, followed by Sakurako from HR, and Haru, as always with her group of fan girls, although none of them looked particularly happy to be there.

  And there were more. Some people I knew by name, some I saw in the cafeteria, some who stood in the same lines with me waiting to get past the security scanners in the mornings.

  It seemed like half the company was standing in that room and Mrs. Katsura frantically scrubbed her glasses on the hem of her blouse.

  "What is the meaning of this?" Her screech echoed in the room that no longer seemed so large and intimidating anymore. "Why aren't you at your desks?"

  Ayaka tossed her head, her jaw squared. "We're employees of Shokogan, valued employees, and we will not stand for the mistreatment of Rika Hasegawa and Nobuki Miyano."

  I gaped at her, all thought gone from my mind.

  Mistreatment of…what?

  "Mistreatment?" echoed Mrs. Katsura weakly, her face going white. "I don't—"

  Saito began to laugh, a deep, belly laugh that was infectious and even though I was aware of the gravity of the situation, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing along. "So much for your termination of employment, Maeko."

  "I told you not to call me that!"

  "Chairman Hamazaki," said Ayaka, her hand tightening on my shoulder. "If you fire either of these two employees, I'm afraid you'll have to fire us all."

  The bottom dropped out of my stomach at her words.

  What the hell was she saying?

  Bewildered, I stood up and stared at the group collected behind me, all of them grim faced, as though ready to plunge into battle.

  For someone as insignificant as me.

  Hotness prickled the corners of my eyes. "Why are you doing this? I'm not worth it, you guys. What're you going to do if they fire all of you?"

  Haru cocked a hand on her hip, giving me that typical Haru sneer. "I'd like to see them try. I'm the best damn thing that's ever happened to this company. You know how often I get headhunted?"

  Tadashi winked at me. "Besides, if they fired everyone here, can you imagine the trouble HR's going to go through to replace all of us? Not to mention, we have Ayaka, the darling of the Financial department and Saku here, who's second in command in HR. The old battle-axe would rather cut off her own fingers before she even thought about firing Saku."

  Next to him, Sakurako smiled ruefully, pink blossoming high on her round cheeks. "I think he's overestimating my importance to Mrs. Katsura, but I would bet they wouldn't dare fire us all." Her smile turned into a grimace. "I hope, anyways."

  Nobuki said nothing as he turned to face the other side of the table. "There you have it, Chairman Hamazaki."

  Mrs. Katsura was sputtering with rage while the other heads of department merely seemed shocked and horrified.

  Meanwhile, I was still trying to come into grasps with what was going on.

  All these people…

  I sat back down and reached up, putting my hand over Ayaka.

  A girl could not ask for better allies, better friends.

  I wouldn't cry now. When I was alone, I'd let the waterworks flow. But for now, I wanted to show that their collected support gave me strength.

  Ayaka's hand flexed under mine.

  "Do you think we won't terminate all your employment?" screeched Mrs. Katsura. "How dare you underestimate us!"

  "Uh-oh," whispered Tadashi. "That wily witch with a B is calling our bluff. Did anyone see that one coming?"

  "Now, just one minute!" The head of the Financial Department and Ayaka's immediate boss stood up, hands braced on the table. "I think we're being too hasty here. You can't suggest we fire everyone. Do you have any idea what th
at would do to the company? It would cripple Shokogan!"

  "Shokogan will rise again." Mrs. Katsura's nostrils flared. "It has faced worse disasters. World War Two, for one thing."

  "Yes, I can see how this mutiny could be comparable to having our building bombed," said Saito wryly.

  She whirled on him, pointing a shaking finger at him. "Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

  He raised a brow at her. "Actually, no. You just told me to stop calling you Maeko." His lips spread in a slow smile. "You never told me to stop talking…Maeko."

  Mrs. Katsura's eyes widened behind her glasses, and I thought she was going to suffer an aneurysm right then and there. Which would've been the perfect end to this absolutely horrendous day.

  Chairman Hamazaki clapped his fingers to get the attention back again. "I think we've wasted enough time."

  The breath caught in my throat.

  Oh God. Was it going to happen now?

  Who was he going to fire?

  He looked around the room, blinkingly owlishly. "Except for Mr. Miyano and Ms. Hasegawa, would everyone please get back to their job?"

  "Chairman Hama—" started Mrs. Katsura, swelling with anger.

  "Mrs. Katsura," interrupted the older man. "Please attend to your duties. I'm sure you have many things to attend to."

  She deflated visibly. "But—"

  His eyes narrowed. "Are you implying I cannot fulfill my duties as the CEO of this company?"

  "No, that's not what I—"

  "Please," he said and nodded to the security staff clustered around the doorway, looking terribly unsure of themselves. "Escort everyone out of this room. I will speak alone to the two parties involved."

  Ayaka lifted her chin. "You can't fire them. Shokogan needs them."

  "I shall take that under consideration, Miss Sono. I believe you have a job to do?"

  "But—"

  "It's okay." I squeezed her hand. "Go."

  "I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone," she hissed. "He can't fire you."

  Nobuki cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses. "I don't believe that will happen."

  Ayaka turned startled eyes to him. "Are you serious?"

  He slid her a glance before turning back to Chairman Hamazaki. "I'm always serious when it comes to matters like this, Miss Sono."

  "Ayaka, it's fine, I promise," I insisted. "You can go."

  She sighed and withdrew. "Okay. We'll all be outside."

  The rest of the room left with mutters and glances in our direction, until Harada closed the door and left us alone with the chairman.

  A few seconds passed and the old man sighed, tugging loose his tie at the knot. "My, my, such a fuss. I'm not sure if my heart can take this kind of stress."

  "My deepest apologies," murmured Nobuki, casting his eyes down.

  Mr. Hamazaki leaned back in his seat and looked at me, a rueful tilt to his bushy eyebrows. "You know, he's always been that way with me. I've never once had to tell him off for being an impudent brat. I don't know if I ought to commend his mother or condemn her. But no matter what I say, I'm sure she will just tell me to put it where the sun doesn't shine." He winced. "Then again, Yuuko always had such a way with words."

  I blinked, not comprehending. It sounded a lot like he knew Nobuki as a child.

  "I'm sorry, I don't…" I began hesitantly, looking first at the Chairman, then at Nobuki whose face was a stone wall as usual.

  "I'm saying that Nobuki has never once given me any kind of trouble, not even as a child. I suppose he's making up for lost time."

  I held up a hand, trying to stop the conversation before it got truly out of hand. "Wait, wait. I'm sorry. I don't understand."

  "I mean, my grandson has never had a day of trouble in his life." The old man's eyes twinkled. "You must be a truly exceptional young woman, Miss Hasegawa, to elicit such a reaction from him and the other members of this company."

  My jaw hit the floor. "Grand…son?"

  Nobuki coughed.

  "Chairman Hamazaki is my grandfather."

  Silence reigned for a few moments while I digested his words.

  But it didn't go down right and I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you, Mr. Miyano."

  Chairman Hamazaki made a small sound in the back of his throat, rubbing his chin in a thoughtful manner. "I find it interesting that even though we are the only people in this room, you have yet to dispense with the formalities."

  "Formalities?" I said weakly. "I'm not sure if I—"

  He rolled his eyes up. "Oh, come now, I'm not a fool. I may be old and weak, but I know my grandson well enough to know there is truth to the rumors floating around the company for the past week." A brow rose. "That and the way he treated you when the security guards tried to take you away. I must say, I never thought my grandson would ever grow to care for anyone. He's always been such a cold, formal thing."

  "He's not cold or dispassionate," I said, forgetting who I was speaking to. "Nobuki is one of the most passionate people I know!"

  I clapped a hand to my mouth, horrified and embarrassed I could say such things to the company CEO.

  But the damage had already been done and things once said cannot be unsaid.

  Next to me, Nobuki sucked in a breath and the chairman chuckled, the sound coming from deep in his stomach.

  "Oh yes." He nodded. "I thought you might say that."

  The smile slipped off his face as though it had never been there at all. "Now the question is…what do I do with you?"

  Meanwhile, I was still trying to come to grasps that the chairman was Nobuki's grandfather.

  I held up a hand. "Wait, please. You're Nobuki's grandfather?"

  He nodded. "On his mother's side. Yuuko is my middle daughter. I have three daughters."

  I flicked a glance at Nobuki's expressionless face. "But…Mr. Miyano told me that as a child, he wasn't rich."

  "You are referring to his father's rather unfortunate lack of business acumen," said the old man. "Yes, there was a time when my daughter and grandchildren suffered for it."

  Nobuki stiffened, his hands curling into fists on the table. "We didn't suffer."

  Mr. Hamazaki sighed and leaned back in his seat, his gaze contemplative. "I'm sure it's easy for you to say. If Yuuko hadn't gone against my wish and married that foo—" He closed his mouth with another sigh. "If she hadn't married Daikichi, she wouldn't have had to work in a restaurant. Your sister wouldn't have had to work part-time at a convenience store."

  Nobuki's face darkened.

  The old man tilted his head to one side. "On the other hand, if Yuuko hadn't married Daikichi, then I would've never had such exemplary grandchildren. Makoto is training junior champion athletes, while here you are, the youngest manager in Shokogan history." His gaze slid to me. "His relationship to me is a closely-guarded secret. After all, I did publicly disown my daughter after she married a former Yakuza member."

  I was mind-boggled, and the inside of my head was curiously blank. "Why didn't you help your daughter or grandchildren when your son-in-law lost his job?" I nodded to Nobuki. "Did you know your grandson tried to get a job delivering newspapers when he was a child to help pay the bills?"

  "Rika," said Nobuki. "Forget it. It was a long time ago."

  Mr. Hamazaki winced and his shoulders slumped. "I…am not proud of myself then. I told Yuuko that if she divorced Daikichi, she could have anything she and her children wanted." He tapped the table, a corner of his lips twisting up in a facsimile of a smile. "She told me to go to hell and the next thing I knew, she was flinging plates of fried rice at a Chinese restaurant."

  Nobuki's lips thinned. "Can we not talk about this? What's the point of rehashing the past?"

  "Perhaps an old, stupid man wishes to make amends." Chairman Hamazaki's voice wavered and my own chest tightened in sympathy.

  "It doesn't matter. Dad's doing well and Mom has anything she wants," said Nobuki, adjusting his glasses.

  "Indeed," replied his grand
father. "Which brings me to you two. Unfortunately, I am now faced with the problem of your, hmm, rather inappropriate office contact."

  For some reason, I was having a really hard time understanding everything. "I don't understand. Why did you tell me about Nobuki's past? What does that have anything to do with our situation now?"

  "I suppose I did do that in a roundabout way, but I was comparing what I thought I knew about my grandson to how he is now," said Chairman Hamazaki. "While being an outstanding student, an efficient, competent employee, I thought he lacked…hmm, passion. I was not sure if he cared for the job at all." The old man pulled his chair back around to face the table and looked at us over his steepled, bony fingers. "I don't have long in this world, but I want to go knowing that I am leaving Shokogan in the best hands possible. If my grandson feels nothing for this company, is it not a grandfather's duty to set him free? That is the conundrum I faced, until a week ago. Until the rumors started of a certain manager and his executive assistant."

  He laughed. "I couldn't believe it when my secretary told me the people involved where my own grandson and his secretary. Nobuki has always been straitlaced and very proper, almost annoyingly formal. I couldn't understand how such a breach in conduct could have happened. But then I met you."

  His smile widened.

  "I don't know how you did it, but you roused an entire company to fight on your behalf…to fight for my grandson, whom I'm sure did not go out of his way to make allies." He shook his head, starting to laugh a little under his breath. "But when you fell and he went to you, I saw passion in him after all. He can feel. He's not a mindless, emotionless automaton after all. And you are the one responsible."

  My face went hot. I had no idea where I was supposed to look. "I'm not that great. I don't even—I'm…"

  I was stammering like an idiot, but to be honest, I felt like one, so talking like one was to be expected, right?

  "Nobuki, what would you have done if I fired her?" he said, his gaze back on his grandson.

  Nobuki's eyes narrowed. "I would have resigned in protest."

  Chairman Hamazaki let out a loud burst of laughter, hitting the table hard. "You see! My grandson has feelings after all!" Then he turned to me. "And you, Miss Hasegawa, what would you do if I fire Nobuki right now?"