But now, all those warm feelings he’d had all morning were gone.
He stepped out onto the second floor and walked to the last conference room. He paused outside the door and looked at Emory. “You are welcome to come in there with me or wait out here. If this meeting is concerning me, they won’t allow me to stay anyway.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Julien gave him a clipped nod and opened the door. The first thing he saw was a video playing of him in the parking garage being attacked. Only, the penumbra wasn’t visible on the screen, so he looked completely insane, swinging his arms around.
All heads turned his direction, but he only had eyes for William, who was standing next to the wide screen. He was happy to see William paled and couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Julien, you need to recuse yourself,” William said.
“The subject of this meeting is obviously me, so I should be here.” He stepped farther into the room, making sure to meet the eyes of each of his board of directors. “Let me guess. William has called for a vote of no confidence.” He didn’t make it a question.
One of the lawyers spoke up. “He’s right. You can’t be in here. You don’t have a vote in this.”
He narrowed his eyes at the lawyer who’d spoken, a man who never tried to veil his dislike of Julien. “Am I not allowed to give an explanation of this? Of me being attacked?”
William pointed at the screen. “There’s nothing there.”
“I assure you, there was something there.” He pointed at Emory. “I’ve been attacked more than once, hence the bodyguard.”
Another lawyer stood. “Mr. Davenport, we ask that you leave the room as you cannot be in here for the vote.”
He knew they were right, but it took every bit of his strength of will to turn and leave the conference room. He didn’t bother waiting in the hall, but returned upstairs to his office, shutting himself and Emory in the room. He started to pace, wearing a path in the short carpet until Emory stepped in front of him.
“Julien, you do realize that William must be behind hiring the penumbra, right?”
“Of course. What I want to know is why. It’s obvious what he hopes to accomplish—me out as CEO. But what good will that do, and what the fuck did I do to him to warrant this?”
“He’s the chief financial officer, yes?”
Julien stopped pacing, staring at Emory. “The discrepancies,” he murmured. “William knows I will find out what he’s been doing. Which is stealing. What doesn’t make sense is that I discovered the issues the night I was first attacked.” He had said something to William, though. And there’d been roughly three hours between that and the attack…
“A preemptive strike then.”
“Let’s head to William’s office. I plan to confront him myself.” Julien closed his hands into fists. “I will not just step aside and let them oust me from my own damn company.”
He walked down the hall, noting the stares of people lingering near the walls.
“Mr. Cummings isn’t in his office,” William’s assistant said as he walked to his door.
“I’m well aware. I’ll be waiting for him inside.”
“But—” She broke off, cheeks flushing.
Julien made himself comfortable in William’s office. It was another half hour before William arrived. He didn’t look happy.
“I take it your vote didn’t go down as you hoped?” Julien said when William gave him a startled expression. “I’m not out?”
“You’re on leave while they have a third-party firm investigate.”
“So, there will be audits. That’s the last thing you wanted, isn’t it, William?” Julien stood, his frown fierce as he stared down his CFO. “You thought getting rid of me, in my own damn company, would keep everyone from finding out that you’ve been stealing?”
“You don’t understand a goddamn thing, Julien. You need to back off looking into that data that was collected illegally.”
He didn’t show his surprise though he most definitely was. This wasn’t about the missing funds, but about the sorcerers gathering in Seattle? “What the hell is going on?”
“Nothing you need to be in the know about. I’m serious, Julien, you need to stop looking into this.”
