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She nodded and calmly took a sip of her tea before saying, “I am against this sale, and my voting record reflects that. But I didn’t tell them anything.”
“Unlike you, she actually cares about this company,” Knox said. “Which is why when this meeting is over, she’ll still have a job and the rest of you won’t.”
Thadeus barked out a harsh laugh. “You might be able to stop the sale, but there’s nothing you can do to any of us. See, Knox, you were born with every advantage in the world, but I have the thing you always lacked. Drive. You’re not fit to lead this or any company.”
Knox smiled. “You’re right about that. I’m not fit to lead this company.” He gestured to Kay. “But she is.”
Thadeus opened his mouth to spew more vitriol, but Tenley didn’t give him a chance. She leaned forward and rested her forearms on the table. “Look, this is proving to be a lot less entertaining than I thought it’d be, so let me break it down for you. Knox and Kay are voting against the sale of the company. Per the terms of Knox’s inheritance, he’s also allowed to appoint someone of his choosing to the board.”
He rolled his eyes. “Let me guess. You?”
She grinned. “Nope. The terms state someone ‘qualified’, and I can assure you I’m not that person.”
Knox pulled a stack of papers out of the file folder he had in front of him out and slid them down to Thadeus. “I’m appointing Luther Wilson, esquire. And in that stack of papers, you’ll see that he has given me his voting proxy. Guess what? He votes no sale.”
Thadeus ignored the papers. “That only ties the vote.”
“See, that’s just one more thing you’re wrong about, hon,” Tenley said. “Waylin is also voting no to the sale.”
Waylin’s eyes went wide. “N-no I’m not.”
Thadeus snorted. “Waylin votes how we tell him to vote.”
She smiled sweetly at him before turning back to Waylin. “He’ll vote how I tell him to from now on. Honestly, Waylin, did you think you were smart enough to not leave a paper trail when you framed Knox for embezzlement?”
The color drained from his face. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Aw, bless your heart,” she said. “I have the proof—and trust me when I say I have enough of it to put you away for years.”
He didn’t need to know she was bluffing or that none of her evidence would be admissible in criminal court. She’d just keep that info to herself.
His eyes flitted to Thadeus, looking for help, and finding none.
Knox cracked his knuckles, causing Waylin to flinch like he’d been struck. “He can’t get you out of this. The only play you have to avoid prison is to vote our way and become my little board bitch.”
Tenley nodded. “I mean, even if we did send you to prison, there’s no way someone like you would survive without becoming someone’s bitch. Might as well be Knox’s, huh?”
Waylin swallowed hard. “I vote no on the sale,” he said quietly.
“You might win on this one issue, but I’ll make your lives so miserable from here on out that you’ll wish you’d stayed in prison,” John snarled at them.
Tenley felt her lip curl involuntarily in disgust as she eyed the asshole who put a hit out on Knox so that he could make a few more million. “Wrong again. Because you’re resigning. Right the fuck now.”
“Or else what?”
“I’m so glad you asked. Or else I go to the cops with the proof I have that you put a hit out on Knox. See, just like Waylin here has learned, even transactions done on the dark web can be traced by someone who really knows what they’re doing. Especially when someone is dumb enough to hire my ex, who grabbed me instead of Knox.” She tsked. “Next time, maybe do some due diligence before you hire a hitman, yeah?”
Thadeus’s sneer dropped off his face as he turned to John. “You put a hit out on him?”
“Oh, don’t act all morally superior,” John snapped. “I only did what you didn’t have the balls to do.”
Tenley rolled her eyes. “Long-story-short, you’re going to disappear today, or I’m taking everything I have—which is a considerable amount of shit—to the authorities.”
“I’ll take my chances,” he said. “Go ahead. The courts will take years. By then, I can have eight judges in my pocket.”
She blinked innocently at him. “Oh, did you think the attempted—and miserably failed—hit was all I had on you? I also checked your financials, asshole. Think the IRS will take years to come after you and lock you up for fraud and tax evasion to the tune of at least twelve million?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as the fury seemed to drain out of his bones. It took several loaded seconds, but he eventually muttered, “I resign.”
