46 Familial Bonds (7)

Kyro had a feeling his office was becoming a circus instead of the solemn work place it was supposed to be. At ten o'clock, Jeffrey had come over to report on his findings about Sheila's choice to hire Fank, and not three minutes later, she showed up herself as well. Her reasoning for it was that Jeffrey was going to do his damnest to portray her decision in the worst light possible so she would get fired.

From then on, the conflict escalated into the two siblings arguing like they were at home and Kyro leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. He waited in hopes that the two would remember where they were, but it was showing up to be just a waste of time. It was never going to happen.

"Enough," he ordered, cutting off their bickering. "So you want to say that you thought his connection with me was an insignificant matter?" When Jeffrey opened his mouth to speak, Kyro lifted his hand to silence him. "Let her speak."

The guy wasn't happy, but he nodded in acknowledgement. At least someone in the family seemed to be aware of the power structure.

Sheila first smirked at her brother, then turned to Kyro. "He actually didn't apply himself. I was looking for market researchers since we've been falling behind in this area and came upon him. His recommendations and achievements were impeccable so I checked it out more, but they all showed up to be real. After the collapse of his inheritance, he seemed to have straightened out and started seriously working.

"I talked with him a few times after that. When I approached him, he was surprised and reluctant, but I managed to convince him that this was a great opportunity for him." She hesitated for a moment, clearly not certain if she should continue, but then said it anyway. "I told him you were fine with it and had a professional outlook on this."

'Professional outlook, huh?' Kyro barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He actually didn't care one bit for Frank. The guy was just a child in a game of adults. What worried Kyro were the people who were probably standing behind him. What did they expect to learn by putting in such an oblivious spy inside his company?

"And you didn't find it important enough to give me a heads up?"

The most dangerous thing he could come with now was some kind of publicity act. If he demeaned or fired Frank, there would probably be hell to pay. And even if he didn't, it wouldn't be hard to pull some nonsense out of thin air now that he was here and present it as evidence to how monstrous and cold-hearted Kyro was.

His image didn't matter much to him, but the company as a whole would take a hit. Their sales would drop, and he had to avoid it at all cost. They just started to rise back up after the whole acquisition chaos.

"No," Sheila stated, hands on hips. "If I told you, you would have prevented me from hiring him, which would have been a great loss. His energy is exactly what our marketing is missing. There are people with more experience around, but no one with his particular set of skills. Due to having been an inheritor, he's used to dealing with those older and more experienced than him with respect but not blind deference. I'm certain he can liven up that department of walking fossils we have here."

The last remark was a stab at Kyro, but he couldn't refute it, so he didn't. Those old fossils might not be the greatest at what they did, but they were smart people, and those that stayed when the ship was sinking and helped Gale and him right it up. He wasn't cruel enough to throw them overboard now that the ship started sailing again.

"Sorry about that." Jeffrey didn't look as certain of the decision as his sister, even if as the head of HR he should have taken a look through the new hires before they were accepted. "I agreed with her on that one."

"Agreed? Not anymore?"

"I- I don't know. It seemed like a good idea before..."

"Before I called you here, right?" Kyro asked, his temper rising. Jeffrey was Gale's friend and Kyro hadn't interacted with him much. All he knew was that he was good at his job and did it well, so what the hell was this hesitation? "Did you think I was gonna smile and say good job? Or were you gonna run to Gale and have him stand up for you?"

His raised voice took Jeffrey aback. The man smiled sheepishly, looked at his sister, then back at Kyro. He then shook his head. "No... I-I—"

"What he's trying to say," Sheila said, interrupting him, "is that he hadn't looked over the applications. He just passed them without reading a single name."

"I didn't!" Jeffrey was instantly furious. He couldn't really shout at his boss, so he found an underling, which just happened to be his sister. "Shut up. You don't even know what you're speaking about! Don't slander people if you don't know anything. What kind of underhanded method is this? Do you really think you're gonna be promoted just because you drowned your superior in baseless—"

"Enough!" Kyro didn't have time for this stupidity. "Both of you - free. Leave my office." After a moment, he added, "Sheila, send my secretary all the information you collected on Frank."

There was fury in the woman's eyes, but she nodded and said "Yes". The two then stormed off, probably creating chaos and mayhem wherever they went.

'Whatever I said about this ship having righted itself out was clearly just a joke… Why is that guy our head of HR? He couldn't tell me anything and just looked at how to put his sister down. Does she distract him so much, or did we hire an imbecile?'

Feeling exhausted already, he sent a message to Gale to ask if Jeffrey was always this useless. If so, they were going to be in need of a new head of HR.