Chapter 19: Proxy

The heavy man in the gray overcoat did not raise his voice.

"The first payment was due at midnight Friday, Mr. Reyburn. I was kind enough to wait for your party."

"Not here," Gavin said. His mouth barely moved.

"Where, then?"

"Monday," Gavin said. "After the vote. You'll have everything."

The man looked at the stage, the banner, and the dock crews standing with their arms crossed.

"Monday," he said. "Nine o'clock. I'll attend as Marrow Ridge's representative and as a creditor. Bring the signatures."

He walked out between the rows, and nobody clapped for him.

All weekend I slept five hours a night at most.

The fourth-floor boardroom had its leaf in the table and forty folding chairs along the walls.

Every shareholder had come, some from Cleveland, some in work boots, with sealed proxies in their hands.

Emmett sat at the back of the room in the suit he'd worn to Desmond's funeral.

He had no vote, and no seat.

He watched me, and I watched the door.

Gavin took the head of the table at five to nine.

His jaw had gone yellow under the makeup.

Odette sat at his right with her laptop closed and her hands folded on top of it.

The collector took the corner seat nearest the door, with his folio on his knee.

"Shareholders," Gavin said. "Thank you for coming. Before we vote on the sale, one housekeeping item."

He nodded, and a screen came down from the ceiling.

The garage video played.

Emmett's fist, Gavin's head against the pillar, the sound of it.

"This is the man advising Mrs. Reyburn," Gavin said. "He assaulted me in a public parking structure. The police report is attached."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Sent Me the Green Dress, So I Took His Company from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.