"What?"
"He's asking about your ducks," Carter interrupts, perching on the edge of Adam's desk, his eyes heavy-lidded as he watches my assistant. "I like them. I think that might be my favorite bowtie yet."
Adam doesn't shift his eyes from me, mouth twitching in annoyance. "The board members have been arriving for the past five minutes," he announces, his tone coolly professional. "You'd better get in there."
"Have you got?—?"
He taps a large pile of folders next to his keyboard. "Right here. I've also organized for the catering company to arrive in twenty minutes with a light refreshment?—"
"God, I hope there are bagels."
Adam’s eye twitches, continuing like Carter didn’t say a word. "As well as informing security about their duties.”
"Do they know who they're watching for?"
He jerks his chin down. "But Leslie assures me he's on the golf course today with Darius and won't be an issue."
That makes me pause. "You're in touch with Donald’s PA? And you trust her?" She seemed like a good sort, but I'd never had much to do with Leslie, and you just never knew with some people.
Adam lowers his voice, even though no one else is around. "This might be shocking, but your father isn't well-liked. Leslie was only too happy to help, but she won't say a word about her involvement. As much as she can't stand Donald, she appreciates her paycheck too much to risk it." His mouth curls in the smallest smirk. "I also took the liberty of offering her a small bonus from you."
I smile, appreciating his initiative. "This is why I pay you the big bucks."
“Not for long, but I suppose if I'm not dealing with him"—he jerks his head in Carter's direction—"anymore, that might be enough of a bonus."
"Hey!" Carter protests.
Adam rolls his eyes, but still doesn't look in Carter's direction. Instead, he looks down at his watch pointedly and I rap my knuckles against his desk. "Thanks, Adam."
I head off, whistling at Carter to fall in line, ignoring his grumbled, "I'm not a fucking dog.”
As soon as we enter the conference room, I see Adam was right. The table is almost completely full and most of the board members look disgruntled.
"Good morning, gentleman," I announce smoothly, striding for the head of the table, enjoying the way silence smothers the room. Carter follows me silently, taking his seat to the left of mine. I remain standing, gripping the back of my chair and looking around the table.
To my right, Carl Ledger, clears his throat noisily, his glare as intimidating as a mouse to a cat. "What's the meaning of this meeting, Declan?" He raises an eyebrow, as if he's talking to a child who's speaking out of turn. "The quarterly meeting is next month," he says condescendingly. "We don't have time to just jump when you call. The ability to call meetings of the board like this is reserved for emergencies."
I lift one brow, looking around the room to find the majority nodding their heads in agreement. "And clearly, you know this isn't an emergency," I say, the edge in my tone getting their attention. "Such an interesting choice of words you used, Carl, especially when you've been in my office every other day with your...concerns." My other brow joins the first one. "In fact, most of you have been demanding an unusual number of meetings with me. It's almost like there wasn't a unanimous vote by this board to appoint me as CEO three years ago."
"Now, see here—" Carl blusters, but I silence him with one look.
"It's not your turn to talk," I say, holding his stare until he clamps his mouth shut. "Even though this board appointed me CEO, I've learned that many of you no longer believe I earned or deserve the position." The silence is deafening, more than one panicked glance being thrown around. "I've been curious about why that might be, especially consideringthe substantial increase in profits since I took over for my father. But once I started looking, it wasn't difficult to figure out the source." A brief pause, before I add, "It also wasn't hard to figure out who’s been sabotaging Nexus Capital deals and affecting our bottom line since I took over, either."
On my left, Barry, leans forward, eyes bugging out of his head. "What the hell are you talking about, Declan? Who would dare to sabotage Nexus?"
I casually take my seat, leaning forward to press a button on the intercom in front of me. "Adam, if you could bring the packets in now, thank you."
"Yes, sir."
He's pushing through the glass doors in less than a minute, efficiently striding around the room and handing each board member a file from his hands. Papers rustle as they all start looking through everything I've handed over a year's worth of evidence that covered the entirety of Nexus Capital’s existence.
"Th…this... this can't be true," Ledger stammers out, desperate eyes searching out mine.
"Why not?" My mouth pulls down in a concerned frown.
"Insider trading, embezzlement, false statements...What possible reason could your father have for doing all this to his own damn company?" Ledger demands, a telling glint in his eye.He knew. If not all of it, at least some. I sit back, watching him impassively as he gears up to sling an accusation at me. "This is clearly manufactured."
Someone at the other end of the table reaches the bottom of the papers, gasping dramatically. "You'reresigning?!"
