CHAPTER TWO
But by late that afternoon, everything had changed.
Grace had showered again and left for work.
The children had gone to school. And Tommy was still in bed, catching up on his sleep, when he was called to Trammel Trucking, Grace’s corporation, for an emergency board meeting.
The only information he was given was that an expansion decision had been finalized without board approval or authorization.
Tommy had business to attend to at his own corporation, and had every intention of going to his own office once he got up. He even attempted to phone Grace to find out what was going on.
But he couldn’t reach her. Her phone was off, which meant she was tied up in meetings of her own.
He could have phoned her secretary, but he didn’t go that far.
As chairman of her board of directors, he knew he had no choice but to go over to Trammel and find out what was happening.
But in the back of his mind was her new chief of operations, and if he had any hand in this unique situation.
After showering and dressing and making his way over to Trammel, he was already not in the best mood.
But when he walked into that boardroom and saw Grace seated side by side with Orenthal “Orrie” Neal, her new COO, as if they were in some kind of cabal just the two of them, Tommy was convinced this was all Orrie’s doing.
He was trying to manipulate Grace into his way of running a business, which was always aggressive, and Tommy was pissed.
He was also pissed that the meeting was already contentious before he’d had a chance to gavel it into session. But when everybody saw that the chairman had entered the room, the bickering ceased. Tommy sat at the head of the table and called the meeting to order.
Everybody tried to talk at once, although Orrie and the vice-chairman were the two that were really going at it.
Instead of shutting it down, Tommy let them keep at it.
Because he wanted to take the measure of this new addition to Trammel.
He was a black man of above-average height with that kind of overly-muscular body that turned women on.
His hair was trimmed to-the-skull low, giving off a conservative businessman vibe, and although he wore a very nice Armani suit, it was unremarkable compared to the tailored suits Tommy favored.
But it was his face, with that deep-dark-toned skin, those pearly-white teeth, and sparkles in his alluring eyes that elevated him.
He had charisma in spades. And Grace, Tommy noticed, agreed with everything her new COO was saying, and she was defending him vigorously, as if she was already under his spell.
“I’m not attacking his character, Grace,” said the vice-chairman.
“I’m simply questioning his judgment. Our totals are down year-over-year and I don’t see anything to suggest that fact is going to be changing any time soon.
But yet he’s talking about an expansion into southern markets that could rip away the little profits we’re barely receiving as it is. ”
“It’s a bold, audacious plan,” Orrie said, “I’ll admit it’s a bold plan.”
“Bold isn’t the word I’d use,” said another board member. “Risky is the better word.”
“Okay, let’s take that word then,” said Orrie. Tommy noticed how Grace was watching him and holding onto his every word. “Let’s call it a bold, risky plan. But if our plan succeeds the rewards, ladies and gentlemen, will be astronomical.”
“And if it fails it’ll be the end of Trammel,” said Tommy. And when Tommy finally spoke, everybody looked and listened. “We aren’t taking that risk.”
Orrie was a daring man, and a very self-confident one, but he wasn’t about to mix it up with Tommy Gabrini. He knew his history. He knew his mob ties. He looked to Grace to handle Tommy.
“Have you even looked at the expansion plans, Tommy?” Grace asked him.
“The ones drafted a few years back? Yes I have.”
“Not those,” said Grace. “The new ones I asked you and the board to review several months ago. The ones I decided to give final approval this morning.”
“Tommy, please tell Grace she does not have the authority to give final approval on expansions without the approval of the board.” The vice-chair slammed his hand on the table to demonstrate how emphatic he was.
But Grace was just as emphatic. “How many times do I have to tell you, Curtis, that I only need board buy-in if it concerns mergers and acquisitions.”
“That’s not accurate, Grace,” said the vice-chair.
“It is accurate,” said Orrie. “Mergers and acquisitions were the only two carve-outs in the bylaws. This expansion project doesn’t concern either one of those. Grace has final approval on expansions period.”
“Since when are you an expert on what powers Grace has? Your ass just got here!”
“His background is in corporation expansionism and you know that, Curtis. That’s why I hired him. And that’s why he’s at this meeting.”
“But why now, Grace?” asked another board member. “The last time this came up you said you would give us a chance to review the matter.”
“That was four months ago!” Grace said with animation.
“Every month I keep telling this board that if we don’t expand we’ll continue to contract until we will fail.
I’ve waited month after month for a decision, and you’ve given me none.
I’ve been nothing but fair to this board when I could have moved ahead without any buy-in from any of you. But I didn’t do that.”
“Until now,” said the vice-chair, eyeing Orrie.
Grace exhaled. “The time is now. No more delays. I’ve already given the go-ahead.”
Tommy looked at her. “Under what authority did you give that go-ahead?”
“If it’s not explicitly stated in the bylaws,” said Orrie, “then the CEO has carte blanche.”
“That’s bullshit,” Tommy said.
Orrie was shocked by his guttural language, but the other board members were delighted. Leave it to Tommy, they felt, to put that upstart in his place.
Although Grace wasn’t shocked by Tommy’s language, she wasn’t delighted by it either. “How is it bullshit, Tommy?”
“You can override the board on decisions not expressly mentioned in the bylaws,” Tommy said, “but you can’t override the chairman of said board.
If every board member is against that decision and the chairman agrees with it, then your decision carries the day.
But if the chairman disagrees along with the board, then the chairman carries the day. ”
“Where is that in the bylaws?” asked a frustrated Orrie.
“Article 91, Section 4,” said Tommy.
Orrie didn’t expect him to have an answer.
But Grace did. She was staring at Tommy.
They both made it clear years ago that they were not husband and wife concerning any business-related matters, and they kept that understanding all those years.
But this was near and dear to Grace’s heart.
She believed in expansionism with all she had within her.
“Are you saying that you agree with the board that we shouldn’t expand? ”
“That’s what I’m saying, yes,” said Tommy. “There will be no expansion. Now I have a business of my own to run,” he said, rising to his feet. The Gabrini Corporation was ten times the size of Trammel, and he’d been away all week. “Is there anything else?”
Orrie looked at Grace. But Grace was frowning at Tommy.
“This hasn’t been resolved,” she said forcefully.
“You told me from day one that I was in charge of this company. That’s why I’m asserting my right as the owner of Trammel Trucking to approve expansion over the objections of every board member, and you too if I have to.
I’ve been asking for board buy-in for months and all I’ve gotten were delays. No more delays!”
No one had ever seen mild-mannered Grace so animated. “I approved it and I’m not changing it.”
Tommy’s jaw tightened. Everybody at that table knew he could be a bastard of bastards if you pushed him. Grace was pushing him. “And I said it is not approved. Now who the fuck you think is gonna win that battle?”
Grace was so angry that she could hardly contain herself. Still staring daggers at Tommy, she stood up and walked out, leaving the door flapping open behind her. Orrie, knowing he had no business at that table except by order of his boss, hurried out behind her.
And that act alone, Orrie running behind Grace as if he was running behind his woman, was too much for Tommy.
He hurried out of that boardroom too, and caught up with Grace and Orrie at the elevator.
When he made it up to them, he grabbed Grace by the arm and all but dragged her across that room and then flung her into one of the private offices so that they could have a private conversation.
Then he slammed the door, opened his suitcoat, and placed his hands on his hips. “Don’t you ever defy me like that!”
But Grace wasn’t backing down. “How am I defying you? For years I’ve been telling you what I know is best for this company. And I’ve never been wrong. But every time I want to expand, I get pushback. Every single time. Well I’m tired of it, Tommy. I’m not backing down.”
“And you think I am?”
“I’m the owner of this company and I have rights that I’m going to finally exercise.”
“Why now, Grace? Why all of a sudden it has to be now? Does Orrie Neal have something to do with this sudden need to expand?”
Grace was offended. “Don’t you even try to make this about him. Did he advise me with his expertise on corporate expansions? Yes. But that’s as far as it goes and you know it!”
“What were you doing at his house?” Tommy blurted it out before he realized he had done so. He hated playing the jealous husband, but that shit had been eating at him ever since it happened. And seeing her with him today didn’t help.
Grace frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Tommy stared at her. If Jeremy was lying about that day, then that would come out too. But either way, this shit was coming out and it was coming out now.
But then Grace’s frown lessened. Jeremy wasn’t lying. “I had to pick up some contracts from Orrie, so I dropped by his house one day after lunch.”
“And you decided to stay all day?”
“We were talking business, Tommy.”
“What business did you have to discuss with him that you couldn’t discuss here at Trammel?”
“We just started talking, okay, and time got away from me.”
“What were you talking about?”
“Little of nothing. The Seahawks. The weather. And yes, expanding Trammel. But it wasn’t planned that way. We just got comfortable talking, and we talked all afternoon.”
“And you changed clothes there?”
Grace frowned. “Why are you making this seem so sordid? He’s my COO and I was at his house. So what?” Then she shook her head. He knew her better than that. “I’ve got work to do,” she said, and moved to leave the office.
But Tommy grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. They were face to face. And Tommy knew, in that instant, that if Grace ever left him again it would destroy him. It would be the end of him. He needed her just that much. But did she need him?
And with that question lingering in his mind, he eased his grip on her and then released her.
Grace saw that sadness in Tommy’s eyes she often saw when bad memories were attempting to overtake him, but expanding meant too much for her to back down now.
Because if she gave in to Tommy the way she’d been giving in to him all those years, she’d never get her wish.
She’d always be solicitous to what he wanted at all times, and her wants would have to take a backseat to his.
She was getting tired of that. She left that office.
When the door closed him in, a part of him knew Grace had every right to put her foot down.
She wanted expansionism for years. Long before Orrie hit the scene.
And he knew it was rather rich of him to accuse her of impropriety, who’d never done shit before, when he’d been the perpetrator of improprieties throughout their marriage. That part of him understood her anger.
But another part of him, perhaps the bigger part, was scared that a man like Orrie could give Grace the kind of lover without the baggage that Tommy (and every Gabrini) carried. That she would find comfort in his arms. And that was the part that made him refuse to back down too.
He left that office and Trammel altogether. His decision was final and he knew it. There was be no expansion this year. But Jeremy hadn’t driven him two blocks before his phone was ringing, and it was Tiffany again. She usually left a text message. But this time she phoned.
“I can’t talk right now, Tiff.”
“Tommy, you’ve got to come. I’m still in the same room I sent to you in my text messages. I’m still at the same hotel. You’ve got to come. This can’t wait any longer. They’re after me.”
Tommy frowned. “Who’s after you? What are you talking about?”
“Please come, Tommy. You know I wouldn’t bother you like this if it wasn’t absolutely essential. Please come!” And then she ended the call.
Tommy leaned his head back. He’d just gotten back in town and already all hell was breaking loose.
But she was right. She wouldn’t bother him like that.
“Take me to the Fairmont,” he said to Jeremy.