Chapter 122.
Wyatt leads them through a small anteroom, then down a long, bright corridor. Finally, he walks them into the real boardroom, giving his father a slight shove in ahead of him.
Alek is trailing behind, ready to watch another strange scene play out.
“Hey,” she hears Ward Hillshire say as he stumbles forward after another shove from Wyatt.
“You’re lucky he doesn’t kick your ass,” Jack says to Ward.
There are four men and two women at the boardroom table. Expensive clothes. Controlled faces. But their eyes flash the same way predators’ eyes do when the door opens on something unexpected. They look angry.
“Ward?” one of the women says. “Would you care to fill us in on what exactly is happening?”
Ward spreads his hands. “There was nothing I could do to stop them.”
“True,” Wyatt says. “And now there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
Ward looks over at his son.
“As it happens, my son did prove something to me, whether that was his motivation or not,” he says. “But as full of himself as he’s feeling, I still think he’s making one more monumental mistake.”
“Trust me,” Wyatt says. “I’ve made bigger. The biggest was trusting you to do the right thing at the start of all this.” He shakes his head. “So much of this didn’t need to happen.”
Wyatt walks to the far end of the room. He motions for Alek, Jack, Hannah, and Zhi to come stand behind him, and for Jimmy to take the seat at the head of the table. Whoever had been in charge before, Alek sees that Wyatt Hillshire is in charge, at least for now.
Wyatt remains standing at the front of the room.
“This doesn’t need to take long,” he says. “You thought this was one man’s sickness. It wasn’t.”
He points at the table.
“This was a board decision.”
The room goes cold.
Wyatt starts naming names—controlled, clinical, lethal.
Alek watches the faces as he does. Not guilt. Not horror. Annoyance. Like he’s interrupting a meeting.
Thomas Waldrip, tech titan.
Jeanne Starr, international finance.
Li Chang, arms.
Juan Escarra, manufacturing and influence.
Helen Trengove, supply chain.
Gianni Volpe, pharma.
Wyatt slides a folder across the table. Six signatures stare back.
“Congratulations,” he says. “You’re all on the murder paperwork.”
Jeanne Starr speaks first. “Ward, you told us the games would be contained. A controlled stress test. You promised no . . . headlines.”
Ward looks at the ground. She rolls her eyes.
“The people we see here at this table are among the richest and most powerful on earth,” Wyatt says. “Unfortunately, it’s why over time they’ve proven themselves to be the most dangerous, while they line their own pockets.”
Wyatt smiles without warmth.
“My grandfather foolishly thought these people would be loyal to him even after he was gone, and remain loyal to his ideals,” Wyatt says, spitting out the words. “He wasn’t wrong about a lot, my grandfather. But he was wrong about that.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Thomas Waldrip booms. “Gavin was my friend and everyone at this table knows it.”
“Sure, he was,” Wyatt says. “Whenever you needed another favor from him. Or to cut you another sweetheart deal on your latest merger or acquisition.”
Waldrip starts to respond, but Wyatt holds up a hand to stop him. He is very much in charge here, Alek sees. More confident than she has ever seen him.
“And how exactly do you know all this?” Helen Trengove asks. “Nobody saw Gavin for the last year of his life. Perhaps longer than that.”
Jimmy leans forward.
“I can answer that,” he says. “He didn’t want any of you to see him. But I found him in London, just over a week ago. As weak as he was, we spoke for hours that night. He was one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met face-to-face. And still full of fight. And he had one message for all of you.”
Jimmy looks around the table, one face at a time.
“He said you were going to pick his bones the second you thought he couldn’t stop you. And the only thing he regretted was that he wasn’t young enough to fight right along with us when the time came!”
“Sounds like him,” Wyatt says.
Ward scoffs. “Pity.”
Wyatt snaps his head toward him. “Shut up.”
Ward smiles. “Or what?”
Wyatt doesn’t blink.
“Or I put you in a room,” Wyatt says, “and let you learn what it feels like to have no exit from your own nightmares.”
Jimmy starts addressing the people watching him stone-faced from the table.
“He asked if I would be his advocate after he was gone,” he continues.
“Why not Wyatt?” Alek asks.
“Because at the time, he was worried that Ward might still try to have Wyatt killed,” Jimmy says, getting revved all over again.
“Oh please, even I wouldn’t go so far as to harm my own son,” Ward says.
“Of course you would,” Wyatt says. “With me out of the way, you would become the only heir.”
“Something else your father wanted me to know?” Jimmy says to Ward. “He was about to fire everybody on this board—including you. He said he should have cleaned house a long time ago and the other board members were never going to come around to his way of thinking. The next day, he was dead.”
“How?” Alek asks.
“A great heart finally stopped beating,” Wyatt says.
“I was gutted,” Jimmy says. “But I knew it was time for me to step up, like he asked.”