Chapter 4 - Breakfast With the Enemy
Victor Reed entered the suite at 9:02 a.m.
He was sixty-one, silver-haired, perfectly tailored, and smiling like a man arriving for brunch.
Two attorneys followed him.
Graham had Naomi on video conference.
Daniel and the flash drive were hidden in the adjoining room.
Victor looked at my wedding ring.
“My goodness. It really happened.”
I crossed my arms.
“Disappointed?”
“Surprised.”
“You shouldn’t be. Apparently I make terrible decisions after midnight.”
Graham almost looked amused.
Victor didn’t.
“May I sit?”
“No,” Graham said.
Victor sat anyway.
“The board meets in fifty-eight minutes.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then perhaps we can save everyone some embarrassment.”
He slid a document across the table.
An annulment agreement.
I read the first page.
Five million dollars.
Confidentiality clause.
Immediate resignation from Reed Global.
I laughed.
Victor tilted his head.
“Something amusing?”
“You think five million dollars makes me disappear?”
“For most people, yes.”
“I’m not most people.”
“That’s becoming painfully clear.”
Graham stepped forward.
“Leave.”
Victor ignored him.
“Avery, my nephew has not told you everything.”
“Then tell me.”
Victor smiled.
“Ask him why he hired you.”
I looked at Graham.
He said nothing.
My stomach tightened.
“Graham?”
Victor leaned back.
“Three years ago, Avery Bennett was a project analyst at Hartwell Logistics. She uncovered a billing discrepancy that exposed a forty-million-dollar procurement fraud.”
“I know my résumé.”
“But do you know who recommended you to Reed Global afterward?”
I looked at Graham.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were good.”
Victor laughed.
“No, Graham. Tell her the rest.”
Graham’s jaw tightened.
“I suspected internal theft.”
I stared at him.
“You hired me to investigate your own company without telling me?”
“I hired someone who questioned numbers other people accepted.”
“You used me.”
“I protected you whenever I could.”
“By keeping me ignorant?”
Victor smiled.
“Marriage off to a wonderful start.”
I turned on him.
“You planted the drive.”
His smile faded slightly.
“Can you prove that?”
“Soon.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
There.
Fear.
Small.
But real.
He stood.
“You have until ten.”
“For what?”
“To sign the annulment agreement and surrender all Reed Global property.”
“And if I don’t?”
Victor approached until only a few feet separated us.
“Your mother’s audit becomes the least interesting thing that has ever happened to her.”
Graham moved instantly.
He stepped between us.
“Threaten her again.”
Victor looked at his nephew.
“And what will you do?”
Graham’s voice dropped.
“Find out.”
For several seconds, neither man moved.
Then Victor smiled.
“There he is.”
He straightened his jacket.
“The son your father tried so hard to civilize.”
Graham’s hands tightened.
Victor walked toward the door.
Before leaving, he looked back at me.
“One piece of advice, Avery.”
“I’m sure I’ll treasure it.”
“You think Graham married you to save you.”
Victor smiled.
“He married you to save his empire.”
The door closed.
I turned toward Graham.
“Is that true?”
He didn’t answer quickly enough.
“Graham.”
“The company employs forty-three thousand people.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“If Victor gained control—”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He met my eyes.
“Both.”
The answer hurt because it was probably the first completely honest thing he’d said.
“You needed me.”
“Yes.”
“And I needed protection.”
“Yes.”
“So we made a deal.”
“Yes.”
I removed the wedding ring.
Graham stared at it in my palm.
“I’m still going to help you stop Victor,” I said. “But don’t confuse that with this being real.”
Something changed in his face.
“I don’t.”
That somehow hurt more.
At 10:00, the emergency board meeting began.
Victor appeared on-screen from another suite.
Twelve directors joined.
Naomi presented the trust documents.
Victor presented the chapel photographs.
Then he attacked me.
“A junior executive,” he said, “somehow acquires confidential corporate information, marries our CEO hours before a trust deadline, and expects this board to consider that coincidence?”
I leaned toward the camera.
“I’m not a junior executive.”
Victor paused.
“I manage eleven states, seventy-two infrastructure contracts, and more than six billion dollars in active projects. If you’re going to frame me, at least read my résumé.”
One director coughed to hide a laugh.
Victor’s face hardened.
Then Daniel entered our suite.
He silently handed Graham a piece of paper.
Graham read it.
Then passed it to me.
My blood went cold.
Daniel had traced the encryption key.
The drive had been created on a Reed Global executive machine.
Registered to Victor’s office.
We had him.
Graham leaned toward the camera.
“Victor.”
His uncle smiled.
“Yes?”
“You wanted the drive.”
Victor’s expression froze.
Graham placed it on the table.
“Now you can explain to the board why it was created from your office.”
Silence.
Victor recovered quickly.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Then another director interrupted.
“Graham, we have a problem.”
“What?”
The screen changed.
Reed Global’s stock price was collapsing.
News alerts flooded the screen.
REED GLOBAL CEO IN SECRET VEGAS MARRIAGE
FRAUD ALLEGATIONS ROCK INFRASTRUCTURE GIANT
FEDERAL INVESTIGATION EXPECTED
Victor smiled.
Graham stared at him.
“You leaked it.”
“No,” Victor said calmly.
May you like
“I ended it.”
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