Chapter 27 Bad Guys Closing In
Chapter 27
bad guys closing in
“Good morning, gentleman,” Wes said, stalking into the room, the inner lair of BookLand, like he owned the place—and he did. Today would determine if that were still the case. He was dressed to intimidate in a navy blue Armani suit with matching vest over his crisp French blue shirt, polished off with a power tie and cufflinks that cost as much as most people’s weddings. It was a suit that was tailor-made specifically for a moment like this.
It was a power-play number and every eyeball in the room knew it, since they all looked up at his six-foot-three-inch frame and turned toward him with fear in the whites of their eyes. His desired response to what was about to transpire.
Oh, how hell was about to rain down and scorch the earth. He didn’t like cowards, and the board had made a cowardly play. Not just last week, but today as well.
“What are you doing here?” Mr. Harper, the president of the board, said.
“I heard there was a secret meeting today to decide if I should still be CEO.”
“This isn’t a secret meeting,” another board member said, a quiver in his voice.
“Then why weren’t Randy and I included in the email? What? No one has anything to say? Not a word? Well, and since I am the agenda, I figured my brother and I should be here. And we have a few words to say.”
On cue, Randy walked in looking like a grown-up businessman with an ace up his sleeve. There was no ace, and his sleeves were a bit too long, but he finally looked more like a VP than a Swiftie—a direct result of Wes dressing him today and lending him a simple black suit for the meeting.
Wes walked to the head of the boardroom table, followed by his brother, looking each and every traitor who’d tried to undermine them in the eyes. It wasn’t hard to tell who’d voted against them; their faces were white as paper the agenda was printed on. After carefully reading the secretary’s notes from the last meeting, Wes also learned that the board was to vote this morning on strengthening their power and firing Wes, citing that he wasn’t performing up to task.
If it hadn’t been for a few loyal members who’d believed in upholding his father’s will, he would never have known that this meeting was happening.
“According to the will, you and your brother have to make this opening a success. Nowhere does it state you have to be CEO,” Harper pointed out, his chest puffed, accentuating his spare tire, which was waging war with the bottom button of his vest.
“How is he supposed to make the impactful and strategic decisions from the mailroom?” Randy asked, resting a hand on Wes’s shoulder. The sign of brotherly support touched Wes.
Harper crossed his arms over his chest. “That isn’t our problem.”
“Well, it will be the second I file a lawsuit against you for using the emergency clause as a way to skate around the rules of having all voting board members present. Especially two of the shareholders who own a collective forty-one percent of the company.”
“You were out of town.”
“But I was reachable, so the proper procedure would have been to have notified myself and my brother. Oh, and if you go ahead and relinquish me from my current position, my attorneys assured me that we’ll be caught up in litigation for years.”
“You can’t do that,” Mr. Harper said. He was so outraged spittle had collected in the corner of his mouth. He was the one who was gunning for the CEO position. “You’d destroy the company.”
Wes looked at Randy for confirmation. Randy nodded. “My brother and I are ready to burn this company to the ground rather than go against my father’s wishes,” said Wes.
“Your father didn’t even have faith in his own son,” Harper said, and it was as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. “Which is why he called you in to babysit Randy. For god’s sake, the kid took off on a world tour to follow some teenager around for a few months after his father passed. What kind of VP does that?”
“She’s a grown woman, and what the hell do you mean ‘babysit’ me?” The second question was addressed to Wes, but Harper kept harping on.
“Didn’t your big brother tell you that your dad wanted you nowhere near running the business, so he called his bastard to run the show? Do you really think he’ll give you the reins when his year is up? Because he doesn’t have to, he can go on forever keeping you from your birthright.”
Randy looked at Wes as if pleading with him to discredit Harper. To tell him it was all a lie. But Wes was done lying. Summer was right, he was a different man than he’d been a couple of weeks ago, and he was about to prove the trust and pride she felt for him.
“I wanted to tell you but there was an NDA preventing me.”
An NDA Harper had just broken, making replacing him even easier.
“We’re brothers,” Randy said quietly. “That trumps any NDA. It trumps everything. Is that why you went with me to Mystic? To keep me away from the business?”
“I went with you because you said you needed a wingman and I wanted to get to know you better. As a brother should. Dad kept us apart for years and I didn’t want him to win with us being estranged.”
Wes knew the minute he said the word “win,” a word the old Wes would have used and the real reason he had gone to Mystic if he were being honest, that he’d lost his brother’s respect.
“Well, I guess Dad won, because no real brother of mine would view our relationship as a game to be won. If you knew me at all, you’d know that I hate liars. I spent a lifetime with liars as parents, girlfriends, friends, coworkers, all underestimating me and using me for whatever they could get from me. I thought you were different. Guess I was wrong.”
And with that Randy left the room. Wes wanted to follow but there was a vote to be held.
“You’re a bloody wanker, you know that, Harper? And you’re excused from your duties. I am using the ethics and morality clause, not to mention breaking the NDA, to buy your shares back.”
“You can’t do that. I’ve been with this firm since before you were born!”
“I ran it by legal this morning and they said I can and I will. Breaking the NDA was just the icing on the cake. You can go quietly or you can go to court. Either way I will bury you and you know it.” Wes faced the room. “Does anyone oppose me?”
Not single hand was raised.
“As for replacing me as CEO, do I hear any yeas?” Not a one. “Nays?”
Every other board member raised their hand.
“Now since that’s settled, I’m going to find my brother and then look closely at each one of you to see if I need to buy back your shares as well.”
By the time Wes located Randy, he was in his office already packing up his personal things in a box. Wes noticed that the framed photo of them on a skiing vacation when they were little was in the trash.
“So that’s it? You’re just going to leave?” Wes asked, standing at the threshold, not wanting to push himself on his brother, even if his heart was breaking over someone else walking out on him.
“What do you expect me to do?” his brother asked without looking up from his desk.
“Fight. Prove them wrong. Dad didn’t leave you this company, because he wanted to start a war between us, make the rift bigger. Don’t you get it? Even from the grave he’s trying to get in the last painful dig. Keep us apart. Remind us of our place.”
“Well, it worked. I can’t even look at you without thinking everything was a lie.”
“You were right back there—brotherhood trumps any NDA. I was more worried about the state of the company and keeping it in the family than I was about my brother. Now that I’ve stopped viewing things through success-driven eyes I see how much this must hurt you. I betrayed you, brother.”
Unsure what to do next, Wes pulled a play from Summer’s handbook and went to the heart of the matter, with honesty.
He crossed the room and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I might have omitted the truth, and yes for a time I worried if you could handle running the company, but I was wrong.”
Randy looked up. “So you think I can?”
“The question is, do you want to?”
“Hell no.” Randy collapsed in his seat. He looked so lost and hurt it reminded Wes of one summer back when they were kids and Wes had been there for a rare visit, and he’d found Randy sitting on the curb outside the property gate crying. He’d had a tennis match and lost. But he was crying because he’d overheard his dad say to the winning parent, “You must be so proud of your son. I know I’m not with mine.”
And their dad had done it again, and Wes had played a part in the scam. And for that he was livid—with himself.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to carve out your own path.”
“I want to do something that I’m good at.”
“You have so many talents. One of them is connecting with people. Which would make you the perfect head of business development.”
“You think?” Randy’s excitement actually broke through his insecurities.
“I know. You’d be able to make partnerships with publishers, authors, vendors like Starbucks. I watched you seamlessly slide into the Russo family like one of their own. You have a god-given talent for making people feel comfortable, a part of the action. I could never do that.”
“You can and you did. Look at you and Summer. You two are the perfect match.”
Wes was a little stunned at his brother’s observation. He’d been trying to hide just how deep his emotions were for Summer, but clearly he hadn’t convinced anyone.
“I’m leaving when this project is up and running, don’t forget.”
“Are you leaving for the next project, or are you running away from the possibility of being happy?” Randy asked. “I know you had the rug ripped out from under you and that happiness isn’t your usual state of being.”
That wasn’t true. This past week he’d been happier than he could remember. Even when he and Summer were arguing he was happy. When they were sharing dark secrets and discussing difficult topics from childhood he was happy. God, and when they kissed he could barely contain himself, which was why a kiss usually led to sex. But not all the time, and even then, with blue balls and all, he was happy.
“I have to oversee the next project,” he said. “You know how hands-on I am.”
“We took care of that today; it won’t happen again. So maybe it’s time you go hands-on with another part of your life. You can work from here. You’ve been managing your company successfully from Connecticut for nearly a year, why can’t you keep doing it long-distance? Hell, move corporate headquarters here if you have to. If she’s worth it, then fight for it. Isn’t that what you just told me to do?”
Summer was more than worth it, and that was the problem. When it came to her he was punching out of his weight class. She wasn’t just beautiful; she was captivating and a breath of fresh air. What you saw was what you got. Only, where she was happy-go-lucky, Wes was jaded.
“Do you love her?” Randy asked, as if he already knew the answer.
“Love?” Wes choked. “We’ve only known each a few weeks.”
“You’ve been circling each other for months. And when you know, you know.”
All that Wes knew was that the thought of getting on that jet and never seeing her again made an ache the size of a golf ball form in his throat. But he didn’t want to string her along when he couldn’t see marriage in his future. Once upon a time he’d imagined marriage and kids, the whole thing, but he’d never seen that kind of love growing up. Hell, his own dad hadn’t even wanted him.
He’d thought he’d found it in his ex-fiancée, but then she’d left him when his company went through a rough patch and he wasn’t worth millions, and it had further tainted that dream. Then his dad had passed and both of his companies had needed all of his attention. They still did. So no, he wasn’t sure he wanted to reopen that box.
“I’d still be gone two weeks or so every month. Summer deserves more than a drive-by husband.”
“Summer deserves to be loved by the man she loves.”
Wes’s stomach crammed into his chest, nearly choking him, which was fine since his lungs stopped working. “She loves me?”
“Of course she does. You’d have to be an idiot not to see the way she looks at you,” Randy said. “That woman is crazy about you.”
There was no way in hell that a sweet and joyful woman like Summer could ever fall for a man who chose his job over love. Although looking back, he and his fiancée hadn’t been together so much for love, it had been compatibility and convenience.
What if she actually, somehow, magically was in love with him? Was he stupid enough to walk away from that?
“Man”—Randy clapped him on the shoulder—“welcome to the club. It only gets better from here.”