“Two down,” Zach said without preamble when I sat down, his gaze not lifting from his phone.
“Two down?” I repeated, tempted to smack the device out of his hand, but I held back. “Are we doing a crossword puzzle, Zachary?”
“Two of the Thayer board members are resigning,” Nate said. “Effective immediately.”
“I only needed one to maintain majority,” I said. “There are really two who are leaving?”
Zach grinned when he finally looked up at me. “It turns out fear is contagious.”
“Which two?” I asked.
“Watson and Sanders,” Nate said. “Watson is claiminghealth reasons.Sanders took the retirement package and asked if we could have his name removed from future correspondence.”
I exhaled slowly. “Well done.”
“We should probably talk about filling one of those seats,” Zach said, straightening up in his chair. “I was thinking maybe we should reach out to Sterling?”
I nodded immediately. “That’s a good idea. He’ll bring balance. Float it to him and let me know what he says?”
“Sure thing,” Nate agreed. “It wouldn’t hurt to have someone else who’s loyal to us on the board. The remaining members are suddenly very interested in loyalty. Like they have a damn clue what that means, the vultures.”
I leaned back, my fingers steepled as I shook my head. “Let them sweat. They don’t deserve mercy.”
They exchanged a look, but it was Nate who finally let me in on what they were thinking. “You’re enjoying this one a lot more than most.”
“No, I’m just enjoying watching Jane not have to fight alone anymore. Those assholes have been taking advantage of her for much too long, and they never fucking intended on keeping their promises to her. The way I see it, they stole from her.”
“Stole from her?” Zach frowned, sitting up even straighter now. “If we need to get a PI involved?—”
“Not like that,” I said on a long sigh. “You’ve seen the offers she had on the table. The money she could’ve made and the benefits she would’ve had working for any other company. It’s not even just that. Think about how much time she spent fighting for a legacy they were never going to let her keep.”
Nate’s eyes suddenly widened, shining with disbelief and a healthy dose of humor. “Oh, man. You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”
“I know,” I muttered. “I might kind of like my wife. What’s right is right, though. So again, let them sweat it out for now. Keep them guessing.”
My brothers nodded their agreement, then gave me the last few updates about what was going on with the Thayer deal. I went directly from that meeting into the next, and by late afternoon, I was so ready to get the hell out of town.
I packed up, buzzing with a kind of energy I hadn’t felt in years. I told myself it was the success we’d achieved this week, not the idea of a weekend away with my wife. I didn’t know if I believed that anymore, but we’d had a pretty damn good week, so it wasn’t impossible.
Outside, the snow was coming down hard in thick, relentless sheets. Even though Thayer Steelworks was only a mile away, it was slow going, my tires slipping and my knuckles white on the wheel.
When I finally got to her building, I shook the snow from my coat and headed upstairs, finding her long before she even knew I was there. It wasn’t hard to track her down, though. I definitely hadn’t needed anyone to show me to her.
All because Jane had a man backed into a corner near the windows, his shoulders hunched and his face pale. I recognized him vaguely from our files, the manufacturing head, I thought.Big salary. Tiny balls from what I’ve seen.
“I don’t care what the preliminary report says,” Jane was saying, her voice low and lethal. “An injury happened on your watch.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said quickly.
“You didn’t report it properly.”
“No, ma’am.”
“And now OSHA is sniffing around because you tried to bury it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I leaned against the wall, watching and glad she hadn’t noticed me yet. It gave me the opportunity to observe her go scorched earth on a negligent, dishonest head that probably hadn’t earned his position on merit, but by his relation to someone on the board.
