Synergy: New Adult Romantic Suspense (U-District, #1) by Jodi Ashland

brakes and fishtailed.
    His car skidded to a stop and he took a deep breath.
    With no time to spare, he turned around, stepped on the accelerator, and sped up to fifty on the wrong side of the road.
    The red sedan closed in. The professor was fiddling with something on the dash.
    Shit, look up, you son of a—
    At the last moment, the professor looked back at the road, eyes wide in horror, and then jerked the sedan to the right.
    His front quarter panel hit the back of the red sedan. He gripped the SUV’s steering wheel tight as it swerved to the right, then the left, then the right again. Finally, he got it under control.
    In the rearview mirror, the professor’s car veered into the ditch and slammed into a power pole.
    He wiped sweat from his brow with his shirtsleeve and stomped on the gas. It didn’t matter whether the professor lived or died. It would take him a long time to recuperate from those injuries, if he recovered at all.
    Jade was on her own.
     

     
    IT SURPRISED JADE that she’d left her parents’ house after dark. She’d barely made it on time with the cake, and she hadn’t meant to stay so late. She was beyond exhausted, but spending time with her parents had really cheered her up. Dad had helped himself to two pieces of cake, and she was sure he’d sneak one for breakfast before Mom got up.
    She hadn’t realized that with her gone and Gran’s passing, Mom and Dad no longer sat in the formal dining room and made big Sunday night dinners. Well, that was going to stop. Jade looked forward to starting the Sunday night dinner tradition again, even if it meant being a guinea pig for her mother’s cooking.
    Jade had eventually broken down and told her parents about the financial issues at Synergy. It was odd Gran hadn’t mentioned anything to either of them. She must not have known.
    Dad thought it was a good idea to get an objective opinion, and his support made her day. Stan’s constant objections to her ideas had been wearing her down. Tomorrow morning, she’d meet with Professor Murti. Jade hoped after the professor reviewed the data and looked at the trends, he would be able to answer her questions, or at least make recommendations that Stan couldn’t—or wouldn’t.
    She grabbed her purse from the front seat, locked her condo for the night, and went straight to bed. Huge mistake after eating chocolate cake and drinking two glasses of wine. Even though she was exhausted, Jade couldn’t sleep. Something gnawed at her that she couldn’t put her finger on. She tossed and turned, trying not to wake her cat, Whiskers, sleeping next to her pillow. She couldn’t stop thinking about what her father had said.
    “This is your company. You need to take the bull by the horns, like your grandmother would have, and take charge.”
    But how?
    Jade stared at the ceiling for a long time, her mind blank, not providing any answers.
    What would my professors tell me to do if I asked them?
    She thought back to her master’s program. Her first course had been on competitive strategy. It had been her favorite subject, and it had tied in to every other course she’d taken thereafter. If you know the strategic direction of a company , you can make decisions that align with the strategy. A single problem can have multiple solutions, but the right solutions are always the ones that align with the strategic direction of the company.
    She remembered case studies about Walmart’s strategic decision to offer consumers products at the lowest prices. Every business decision was made to decrease costs.
    Sounds like Stan’s strategy. The only problem is that shouldn’t be our strategy. We make low-volume, high-dollar avionics equipment. Quality and timeliness is what the industry calls for. What Synergy needs is a strategy, and from there, all other decisions will follow.
    Jade bolted upright in bed.
    How could I be so stupid?
    Though the room was covered in darkness, the moon seemed to shine brighter. She was CEO of