Chapter 17: The Board

Bennett's POV

On Friday morning I put on the gray suit, and Joanna fixed my tie.

She did it badly on purpose, so I would have to stand still.

"Don't hit him," she said.

"I haven't decided."

"Bennett."

"I'll keep my hands in my pockets."

She kissed me once, hard, and went to find Teagan.

I took my grandmother's arm in the elevator of the Hargrove Hotels tower, and she patted my sleeve.

"You look like your grandfather before a fight," she said.

"Is that good?"

"It is the only reason I married him."

The board met on the fortieth floor, around a table that seated eleven.

Nine of them were already in their chairs when we walked in.

Gavin had taken the seat at the foot, where he always sat.

He wore a navy suit and the slow smile, and he smiled at me.

"Gran, what a surprise," he said. "The board doesn't normally meet on a Friday."

"It does when I call it," said Beatrice.

She sat down at the head, where nobody had sat in two years, and set her cane against the table.

"Bennett," she said.

I opened the folder and did not read from it.

"Four million dollars was drawn from the renovation fund over twenty-two months," I said. "It went into a company that owns no hotel."

"Every payment was matched by money from Veronica's father, who is here."

At the far end, a silver-haired man in a long coat raised two fingers off the table.

He looked at no one.

"That company belongs to Gavin," I said. "I have the account records, and I've given them to the board's auditors."

"It was a bridge loan," said Gavin. "I was going to put it back by spring."

"With what?"

"The merger. The Arbuthnot partnership."

"The partnership that ended a week ago, when you lost your fiancée in public."

A man near the window made a sound in his throat.

Gavin leaned forward, calm and reasonable.

"Everyone here knows I've worked for this company since I was twenty-two. A family argument isn't a reason to take it from me."

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