She didn’t know if it was the fact that she knew how deeply Bull had hurt and betrayed Slade, or if it was the uneasy feeling she’d had the few times she’d been in Bull’s presence, but Mandisa was just as worried about Slade walking into that meeting as Slade seemed to be abouther.
Bull didn’t seem like the roll-over-and-take-it kind of guy. He seemed more like the fight-dirty-and-take-what-I-want type. Slade was honest—he wore his heart on his sleeve, and she worried Bull would crush it if given half the chance. She just hoped Slade knew what the hell he was doing. If he didn’t, this was going to blow up in all theirfaces.
* * *
Finally, my wayward son has decided to grace us with is presence,” Bull snarled as Slade walked into the conference room. “I hope we weren’t keeping you from somethingimportant.”
Slade swallowed the venom attempting to rise in the back of his throat. Giving in to his need to argue with Bull wasn’t part of theplan.
Get in, let him carry on as he usually does, and end it before he knows what’s happening tohim.
Bull eyed him carefully. He always did after landing a blow. It was how the old man gauged how hard he should come back with the follow-up blow. The glint in Bull’s squinted eyes begged Slade to take the bait. But Slade sat quietly in his chair and greeted the entire board as he normally would, refusing to give in to Bull’stactics.
Slade could feel the heat of Bull’s gaze following him. He calmly walked the length of the table and sat in his designated seat at the opposite end, facing his father. He tipped his head and leaned an elbow against the armrest as he watchedBull.
“Where’s that no-’count leech you call a best friend. Isn’t he going to fulfill his duties here today,boy?”
Slade raised the laptop screen and tapped a few keys before meeting his father’s eyesagain.
“If you’re talking about Aaron, he’s away on company business.” Slade hit the last key, and then pointed to one of the flat-screen monitors hanging from the wall. “He’ll be attendingvirtually.”
Everyone in the room raised their eyes to the screen to watch Aaron tip his hat in greeting as he took his seat in front of the webcam.
Bull balled his hand into a fist, silently venting his frustration. This was a game, and the first point had gone to Slade. Bull wasn’t happy about that atall.
“There’s only one item on the agenda today I feel needs our attention.” Bull leaned back in his chair as he spoke, giving a passing glance to the other board members seated at the table. “C.E. Stuart is looking to acquire Venus. I’ve laid out line by line the details of this deal in the individual copies of the prospectus sitting in front of all ofyou.
“Venus has performed well, but not as well as it should have. L.I. has had to plug in a good deal of money into it. If we take this deal, we relieve ourselves of a potential problem and make a killing in thesale.”
Anger rose quickly in Slade. He wrapped his hand around his armrest and squeezed until he could feel the bite of the metal pressing into his flesh. The man couldn’t even be bothered to spare the time to ease his bullshit down the board’s throat. He was going to try to choke them all with it and steal Slade’s company right off thebat.
Slade lifted his eyes to the monitor to get a glimpse of Aaron. The brief blink of Aaron’s eyes was all the sign Slade needed to initiate plan B. Fuck sitting back and taking it. This fight was about to getugly.
“I fail to see what potential problem you’re talking about. Venus is one of our largest moneymakers. Why would you want to get rid of it?” Slade watched the other board members nod inagreement.
“Yes, it is making us money now. But if you knew anything about how business works, you’d be able to see the warning signs as early as Ihave.”
“With an MBA in finance, I’m confident there isn’t much I don’t understand about business. What I find mysterious are your business practices, but I’m sure you’ll be happy to explain them to me indetail.”
Slade kept a straight face as he watched a muscle twitch briefly at the corner of Bull’s eye. The old man was getting angrier, and Slade didn’t much care. This was his family’s heritage. Slade couldn’t let Bull do this to him without afight.
“Slade, I know you have a persecution complex. I know you think every decision I make is about you. But if you’d stop and realize that I don’t run my business on emotion, you’d know this was a gooddeal.”
“I think you meanmybusiness, Bull. It’s mine, always has been, always will be. And you don’t get to steal it from me brick bybrick.”
Bull laughed a bit. The slick smile he wore when he thought he was winning climbed on his face. “As CEO, I damn surecan.”
Slade picked up a nearby remote and tapped a button. Instantly, all of them one by one opened to a collage of documents displaying on thescreens.
“Ladies and gentleman of the board. My father is right in his assumption that he can sell off individual bits of my company as he sees fit. He is in fact the CEO, and that’s definitely in his purview. But what he can’t do is use this company as a bargaining chip to secure lofty, personal business deals forhimself.”
Slade watched the same smug smile on Bull’s face begin to waver slightly as he recognized the document on thescreen.
“What you’re all looking at right now is a detailed copy of this proposed sale. In exchange for the sale of Venus and its holding of Sweet Sadie’s formula and stores, L.I. makes a very generous amount of money, and Bull gets a cushy corner desk over at C.E. Stuart,Inc.”
Slade repositioned himself, leaning back comfortably in his chair and crossing one leg over the other. Bull was busted, and everyone in the room knew it. The only thing left was to take out thegarbage.
A moment later Slade’s secretary entered the room with an armful of folders, placing each one carefully in front of the seated boardmembers.
