Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Julien
Early the next morning, Julien’s assistant came into his office without warning and shut the door behind her. “Mr. Davenport, something is going on I think you should know about.”
“What is it?”
“A meeting was called with the board of directors. It’s happening right now. I would have warned you, but I didn’t hear about it until just now.”
Julien stood, his gut tightening in anger. “You’re saying they are meeting without me? Right this moment?”
She nodded and bit her lip. “Apparently, William called an emergency meeting.”
Julien knew exactly where they’d be meeting, so he looked at Emory, whose features had tightened in concern. “I’d like you to come with me.”
“Of course.”
He strode from the office. This had to be some kind of move against him, and knowing it was coming from William actually…
Well, it hurt. They weren’t exactly friends, but William had always been someone he trusted.
Until recently anyway. There were others on the board who’d love nothing more than to see him ousted.
He got onto the elevator, Emory by his side, and it didn’t escape his notice that he was getting a feeling of strength just by having the angel with him.
Emory had nothing to do with the company, but his presence alone bolstered Julien’s sense of not being completely alone.
The night before had been special to him, sitting and talking in the dark more than any of the rest—though that had been pretty damned spectacular.
But now, all those warm feelings he’d had all morning were gone.
He stepped out onto the second floor and walked to the last conference room. He paused outside the door and looked at Emory. “You are welcome to come in there with me or wait out here. If this meeting is concerning me, they won’t allow me to stay anyway.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Julien gave him a clipped nod and opened the door. The first thing he saw was a video playing of him in the parking garage being attacked. Only, the penumbra wasn’t visible on the screen, so he looked completely insane, swinging his arms around.
All heads turned his direction, but he only had eyes for William, who was standing next to the wide screen. He was happy to see William paled and couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Julien, you need to recuse yourself,” William said.
“The subject of this meeting is obviously me, so I should be here.” He stepped farther into the room, making sure to meet the eyes of each of his board of directors. “Let me guess. William has called for a vote of no confidence.” He didn’t make it a question.
One of the lawyers spoke up. “He’s right. You can’t be in here. You don’t have a vote in this.”
He narrowed his eyes at the lawyer who’d spoken, a man who never tried to veil his dislike of Julien. “Am I not allowed to give an explanation of this? Of me being attacked?”
William pointed at the screen. “There’s nothing there.”
“I assure you, there was something there.” He pointed at Emory. “I’ve been attacked more than once, hence the bodyguard.”
Another lawyer stood. “Mr. Davenport, we ask that you leave the room as you cannot be in here for the vote.”
He knew they were right, but it took every bit of his strength of will to turn and leave the conference room.
He didn’t bother waiting in the hall, but returned upstairs to his office, shutting himself and Emory in the room.
He started to pace, wearing a path in the short carpet until Emory stepped in front of him.
“Julien, you do realize that William must be behind hiring the penumbra, right?”
“Of course. What I want to know is why. It’s obvious what he hopes to accomplish—me out as CEO. But what good will that do, and what the fuck did I do to him to warrant this?”
“He’s the chief financial officer, yes?”
Julien stopped pacing, staring at Emory.
“The discrepancies,” he murmured. “William knows I will find out what he’s been doing.
Which is stealing. What doesn’t make sense is that I discovered the issues the night I was first attacked.
” He had said something to William, though.
And there’d been roughly three hours between that and the attack…
“A preemptive strike then.”
“Let’s head to William’s office. I plan to confront him myself.” Julien closed his hands into fists. “I will not just step aside and let them oust me from my own damn company.”
He walked down the hall, noting the stares of people lingering near the walls.
“Mr. Cummings isn’t in his office,” William’s assistant said as he walked to his door.
“I’m well aware. I’ll be waiting for him inside.”
“But—” She broke off, cheeks flushing.
Julien made himself comfortable in William’s office. It was another half hour before William arrived. He didn’t look happy.
“I take it your vote didn’t go down as you hoped?” Julien said when William gave him a startled expression. “I’m not out?”
“You’re on leave while they have a third-party firm investigate.”
“So, there will be audits. That’s the last thing you wanted, isn’t it, William?” Julien stood, his frown fierce as he stared down his CFO. “You thought getting rid of me, in my own damn company, would keep everyone from finding out that you’ve been stealing?”
“You don’t understand a goddamn thing, Julien. You need to back off looking into that data that was collected illegally.”
He didn’t show his surprise though he most definitely was. This wasn’t about the missing funds, but about the sorcerers gathering in Seattle? “What the hell is going on?”
“Nothing you need to be in the know about. I’m serious, Julien, you need to stop looking into this.”
“So you hired a penumbra to fuck with me? No, this had nothing to do with all that and everything to do with you not wanting me to discover that you’ve been doctoring the books.”
William’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “Julien, you’re messing with things you have no hope of understanding. It’s not your world.”
“But it is mine,” Emory said quietly as he stepped closer to William, gray eyes narrowed.
William backed away from him. “I have no issue with you, angel.”
“You do when you’re behind the attacks on Julien.”
Julien didn’t miss the way he almost caressed his name and neither did William, who looked between the two. He just shook his head and stopped, his gaze on Julien. “I’m serious, Julien. You need to back off or you’ll regret it.”
Emory growled. “Are you daring to threaten him right in front of me?”
A brush of magic swept through the room, and Emory’s wings seemed to expand.
“I can tell you’re a wizard,” Emory said, voice low. “I can also sense that you’re not a very powerful one.”
William lifted his hands, but Emory shot forward, grabbed both his wrists, and twisted them around his back, shoving him into the wall.
“You’re going to regret trying magic on me, wizard.”
“Just get him to stop investigating.”
“You know who I work for, don’t you? You think he doesn’t know what’s going on?”
All the color washed from William’s face.
“How are you involved in this, William?” Julien asked. “Besides trying to get me ousted from my own damn company. If you’ve been stealing, that audit is going to show it, so all this has been for naught.”
“I’m not saying anything else.” William’s voice was muffled by the wall.
“It’s too late for you anyway,” Emory said, still using that soft, menacing tone that had Julien feeling things. The muscles in his arms were bulging with the force he was using to hold William to the wall, and some strands of his silky blond hair had come free of the bun.
He looked so hot, Julien wasn’t even thinking about the possible loss of his position. It didn’t matter anyway because the third-party investigation would clear his name and show William as the thief he was.
A rumbling rolled through the office, and the ground began to shake more violently than it had in the past. Emory let go of William and reached for Julien, yanking him into the doorway of the attached restroom and wrapping his arms around him.
William took advantage of the earthquake and raced from his office.
“He’s getting away,” Julien bit out as file folders started falling from the shelves and the glass in the windows rattled.
“He won’t get far. Xavier will find him and learn everything he knows.” Emory tucked his face in Julien’s neck as the world shook around them.
When it finally stilled, Julien didn’t move right away because Emory just felt too good wrapped around him and he was enjoying his breath on his neck. “That was a bad one,” he murmured quietly. “There’s something magical happening isn’t there?”
“Yes. Xavier is investigating it, and it seems your CFO knows at least some of what’s going on. Did you notice he had a staff tattoo on his wrist when I had him against the wall?”
“No. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ve seen the same one on someone else.”
Julien didn’t feel bad for William because he deserved whatever he had coming to him.
Surprisingly, he was content to stand here and feel Emory against him while the sounds of frantic people outside the office told him it was utter chaos out there.
He did smirk though. “You know you can let go now, right?”
“I don’t want to.” The words were breathed against his skin right before Emory pressed his lips to Julien’s neck.
Heat streaked through him, and he forced himself to step away before he ended up walking back to his office with an erection. He stared at this fucking beautiful man who was completely disrupting his world, and all he could think about was getting him alone somewhere.
They’d be alone a lot now, so he’d have plenty of chances.
But Julien was still pissed. Pissed that someone—probably William—had hired that penumbra and actually videotaped that attack.
Pissed that even with a third-party investigation, he had no way of explaining the video, and it made him look bad.
He’d worked too hard to have his own damn company yanked out from under him.