A Merger by Marriage (Las Vegas Nights 2)

“And now that you know I’m not?”

“I will.”

The idea that his cousin wanted to take over Stone Properties gave JT a great deal of satisfaction, but there was still the problem of not having enough shares to remove Preston as chairman of the board. He refrained from bringing it up. The mood at the table had brightened considerably and JT wasn’t about to kick sand on the fire.

After several more drinks over which Brent spelled out his plan to fix Stone Properties, JT’s cousin grew somber.

“Are you drunk enough to tell me what went wrong between you and Violet?”

“No.” JT offered an unhappy smile. “But I’ll tell you anyway.”

He then explained about Tiberius’s files and how Violet had been in possession of one on JT. “She played me.”

“How do you figure?”

“Every dirty little secret I have was in that file.” All except one. The worst one.

And no one would ever know what happened the day his mother died. How he could have been the one to save her if he hadn’t disobeyed her.

“She knew exactly how to make me...” JT stopped. He’d been about to say make me fall in love with her. Because that’s exactly what had happened. Suddenly he felt ill.

“Make you what?” Brent prompted.

“Make me trust her.”

“She seemed pretty trustworthy to me,” his cousin said. “Loyal, too.”

“She is.” JT was aware he wasn’t thinking straight. “I mean she seems trustworthy.” In fact she had been. Violet hadn’t done a single thing to hurt him. Quite the opposite. She’d supported him.

JT dropped his head into his hands. “Oh, hell.”

“I’m guessing you just realized you messed up.”

So what if she’d had a file on him. So what if she’d memorized the damned thing. The fact that he refused to let her in, to open up his past so she could understand why he retreated the way he did, hadn’t left her much choice. Given her open nature, it must have been stressful for her to come up against his defenses day after day. Sure, he’d let her in a little, but that could only have given her hope that he’d share more.

But how could he let her in when what lay hidden was so ugly? He was selfish and filled with bitter anger. His childhood scars made it impossible for anyone to love him, even Violet. So he’d pushed her away.

“I don’t feel like drinking anymore,” JT said, besieged by the need to retreat and regroup. His nerves were raw and exposed. If he went into the stockholders’ meeting like this tomorrow, his father would eat him alive. “I’m heading back to my room.”

“Sure.” Brent regarded him with concern. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“No, but after some aspirin, a shower and a few hours’ sleep, I might be able to get through tomorrow.” What happened after that was anyone’s guess.

* * *

Her grandfather’s Gulfstream enabled Violet to arrive in Miami an hour before the shareholders’ meeting was set to start. JT wasn’t expecting her and she wasn’t sure what sort of reception she’d receive. With each mile of road that passed beneath the town car’s tires, her anxiety grew until she ran out of time to worry. She’d arrived at Cobalt.

The Stone Properties’ flagship hotel was a towering thirty-story structure that overlooked the bright blue waters of Biscayne Bay. Everything about the lush landscaping bordering the circular driveway and the glassed entrance to the lobby was staged to impress. But as Violet exited the town car and headed inside, she noted a dozen tiny flaws in the way the staff conducted themselves and spied the dust lingering in the decorative moldings. At a quick glance everything appeared to be functioning, but Violet’s trained eye recognized mismanagement.

Crossing the two-story foyer, Violet made her way to the conference room where the annual meeting was taking place. She picked up her pace when she saw the doors had already closed. If she’d hoped to slip in unobtrusively, she’d underestimated the number of stockholders who would be attending.

There were less than a dozen people scattered throughout the chairs that faced a raised dais with a podium in the middle. Seven pairs of eyes shifted in her direction, but she only cared about a particular pair of hard blue ones.

Simmering with ill-concealed annoyance, JT sat beside his cousin, Brent, half way up on the far side of the room. He didn’t look happy to see her, but she hoped that would change when he understood why she was here. She took a seat in the back of the room while Preston ran through the day’s agenda. As stockholder meetings went it was fairly routine. They would vote to accept the company’s financials as well as several amendments to the bylaws. The agenda had been sent out months ago so no one really needed the review, but clearly Preston Rhodes enjoyed hearing himself speak.

While Preston spoke about the success of the company under his leadership and the direction he was taking Stone Properties in the future, Violet watched JT. He sat like a statue, his expression tight and unreadable. If things had gone differently, she’d be sitting beside him, offering him silent support. Her heart ached at the distance between them.

At long last, the explanation of what they were voting on wound down and they were invited to mark their ballots and bring them up to the ballot box. An external auditor would then count the votes while the shareholders enjoyed a specially prepared lunch. Everyone in the room knew it was all being done to satisfy the bylaws. Preston had control over the majority of the shares. What he wanted was what he would get.