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The door to the conference room swung open, putting an end to the beginning of Warren’s blustering. Bennett rushed through, wearing a turquoise blazer and a pair of houndstooth pants. The disapproving grumbles around the table started almost immediately.
Bennett held his heavily-ringed hands up in apology before slapping his palms together and rubbing them briskly. “Sorry I’m late. Airports. Traffic. Yadda yadda. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? My husband is waiting for me and I’d much rather be with him than the lot of you.” He shot me an apologetic wince.
I waved him off, absolutely no offense taken. I understood completely.
“Who are you?” Howard asked, blinking behind his glasses like an owl.
“Bennett Reeve, Esquire,” he replied quickly before turning back to the table as a whole. “Now, let’s get to the heart of the matter. Since Phillip Sinclair was formally indicted on felony charges, he is no longer eligible to even serve on the board, let alone be the chairman. Likewise, the shares he held at NIB&T belong to the Sinclair Trust,notPhillip himself. He forfeited his rights to that trust thanks to his arrest. Since Laurel Sinclair was granted her divorce last week, she is also ineligible to receive those shares, meaning they are henceforth granted to my client.” He gestured to me with a smile.
“You’re telling me yourclient,” Howard said, slicing a glare in my direction, “wants to be the chairman of this board?”
“Oh, fuck no.” Bennett made a face and waved his hands quickly. “No, no. He doesn’t give a shit who runs this place. He does, however, care about his future and will remain the controlling shareholder, which means he’ll also retain a seat on the board until such a time he feels like relinquishing it. But you’ll probably all be dead by the time that happens.”
Warren bristled visibly, stabbing a finger into the table as he spoke. “And how are we to know the trust is still intact? What proof is there that Phillip didn’t liquidate it, along with the thirty million the FBI tracked to a bank in the Caymans?”
Bennett heaved a sigh and pulled his cell phone out, typing quickly and muttering to himself. “There,” he said after a minute. “The trust’s statements for the past year will be emailed to each of you for your thorough perusal. Anything else? No? Great!”
“And that concludes my portion of the meeting. Thank you for your time, gentlemen,” I said, pushing my chair out and rising with a smile. “Good luck with your vote.”
“As a board member, you have to stay,” Mitchell said with a frown. “You have to cast a vote as well.”
“I abstain.”
Buttoning my suit jacket, I strode over to Bennett. He winked and threw an arm around my shoulders, sauntering back out of the room as the rest of the board members erupted into a very loud, very heated discussion about what the fuck just happened.
“Welcome to the millionaires’ club. What’s your first order of business?” Bennett asked with a wry grin.
“Getting as far away from here as fucking possible.”
He laughed and shook my shoulders. “That’s my boy.”
* * *
I exhaleda breath outside the apartment door, my hand hovering above the door handle. I don’t know why I was so nervous all of a sudden. It’s not like Sasha was going to be mad. This was the plan. This is what I told him was going to happen. And thank God, it worked out exactly the way I wanted it to.
So why couldn’t I stop twitching?
Well, it might have had to do with the second part of that grand plan — the part Ididn’ttell him about. Him, or anyone. Because if the first part didn’t actually work, I didn’t want anyone to know how badly I failed. So now it was time to tell him the whole truth and hope he didn’t launch into orbit.
Finally opening the door, I smiled to myself when Sasha came into view in the kitchen. He had his back to me, stirring something in a skillet on the stove. From the smell and what ingredients I could spy on the counter, I assumed it was beef stroganoff.
“Missing home?” I asked, slipping my arms around his waist and pressing my cheek to his back.
“You’re my home.” He dialed down the heat and turned in my arms, kissing me.
“I have something for you,” I said, sliding a check out of my pocket and handing it to him with the best angelic smile I could manage.
He plucked it out of my fingers with a frown, which only deepened once he opened it. “What the fuck is this for?”
“I pay my debts, too.”
“Two-hundred thou—”
I pressed my lips to his, cutting the grumbling off at the pass. He was only dissuaded for a minute.
“Roan.” He gripped my hips and pushed me back, scowling at me. “Where did you get that kind of money? I thought you said we weren’t touching the ransom money?”
“It’s not the ransom money, I swear. That was all seized by the FBI.”
