No Rules, No Mercy

I'm a turnaround specialist. Companies hire me when they want the cuts to come from a stranger, so nobody has to be the villain. Hargrove Renard hired me because Julien Hargrove actually wants the truth, which almost never happens. He's twenty-nine, he runs what's left of his father's company, and he fights with me in every meeting like it's a sport. Then a client crosses a line, and Julien handles it in a way that costs me a job I hadn't even interviewed for. I told him to stay out of my orbit. I moved desks. I meant it. Then the audit came back and the cuts we designed together would hollow the place out in three years. I rewrote the whole plan without telling him. I stood up in front of the board with it anyway. He backed me. His father didn't.