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“With my life. He’ll keep her safe.”
“He better.”
The board room door opened. Will’s dad and grandfather entered along with York and Scout. Will and I had been waiting for the better of twenty minutes. Usually, I’d be irritable as shit, but their delay had given me time to talk to Will privately.
“Gentlemen,” Will’s grandfather greeted and sat beside Will. He clasped his grandson’s bicep and winked. During all this crap with the breach, Peter, Will’s uncle, had been in Europe overseeing their foreign affairs. I didn’t know much about it, other than Will’s dad and grandfather didn’t want Peter involved with the stolen money. It was fucked up if you asked me. Will thought so too and had grumbled about some family hierarchy shit he wished he could change.
Odd. The old man had a glimmer in his eyes, but this meeting wasn’t a happy one. Alarms were going off. Had they held information from me?
“Let’s get to it,” Will’s dad said. “First, let’s all take a deep breath.” He inhaled, a smug, cocky glint in his eye.
“Dad, you’re acting strange.”
“That’s because I’m damn happy, William.” He inhaled another breath.
My eyes cut to Will’s across the banquet table, and at the same time my phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out. Norris had arrived at Miranda’s house. I gave Will a slight nod to let him know.
“So!” Mr. St. James clasped his hands together and grinned. Since I’d started working for the company, I hadn’t seen him smile once.
York cleared his throat. The tension radiating from my boss was palpable. It concerned the fuck out of me, and the muscles in my neck coiled.
“Dad, get on with it, please.”
“Yes, of course, William.” His eyes danced around the room. “We’ve recovered the money.” He reclined in his luxurious chair and steepled his hands in front of his chest.
“What?” Will was out of his seat. “All of it?”
“No, not all of it. Seems Jason has made a few splurges, but we’ve recovered ninety-six million.”
Will dropped into his chair, a stunned expression on his face. “That’s fantastic! Unbelievable. How’d you do it.?”
“York here. I’ve told you, William, he’s the best.”
“So then it’s over? You got Jason and the others?”
“No, we haven’t gotten them. That will be tomorrow night. Isn’t that right, York?”
“Yes, sir. We expect Jason and his associates will have a major falling out over the money and the truth will come out.” York cleared his throat again.
I’ll be damned. York was the best of the best, and ever since he wanted me gone, he quit telling me anything important. But I was sure he had used his connections with the Bratva to recover the stolen money.
“William, you’ll need to be at the meeting as planned.” Mr. St. James turned toward me. “Axel, you’re fired. I want you to leave the premises of SJI immediately.”
“What?” Will was on his feet again. “No!”
“Sit down, William,” his father barked. “Axel broke the chain of command. He should have told York immediately what you’d been up to. If he had, this whole goddammed mess could have ended long before the fake affair began.”
“Yes, I know. But Axel has been protecting Miranda all this time. I told you he brought in Tessa Long, a former Ranger, to work with her and has some biker club members watching her right now in Spokane. Axel has helped me, and I’ll be dammed if I stand by and let you fire him.”
“You don’t have a choice,” his father yelled. “I am still the head of this family and president of SJI. I’ll do as I damn well please!” He slammed his hand on the table.
Son of a bitch.This couldn’t be happening.
“You’re making a mistake,” Will said in a calm voice. “Axel did nothing wrong. He did what I needed him to do. If you want to fire someone, fire me. You can run SJI until you take your last breath for all I care. Hell, you can bring in Henry, who knows nothing about SJI, or Simone.”
“William,” his grandfather said in a hushed tone.
“No. Now you all listen to me. I did what I thought was best for this company. I put my life and my relationship with Miranda on the line to protect our clients’ money. I nearly lost it all to spare the family any shame and scandal. Nobody has sacrificed more than me! I could have lost Miranda forever and my child!”
