by Linda Cajio
A jolt of realization hit her, and she stared at him. “You don’t mean what happened with the store.”
He nodded. “You make this wonderful phone call about Lusty, and suddenly your steps are breaking, your house is nearly burglarized—”
“The steps broke before I called him,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows. “Did you happen to mention your accident when you were on the phone?”
“I remember his asking me how I was. Yes. I told him about scraping my leg on the steps.” She searched his eyes. “That doesn’t mean—”
“Cass, they were not coincidences.”
“No!” She tried to scramble away from him, but he held her down. “Dallas, I won’t believe that—”
“Dammit! Just listen for a moment, okay?”
She stilled. “I’m listening.”
Cautiously he let her go. When she made no move, he said, “I’m not sure about the near breakin at the house. Maybe he had someone do it just to frighten you and put you off-balance. The store, though, was definitely to get you rattled and too busy here to think about M & L. Even if you were a regular attendee of the board meetings, would you leave WinterLand in its present condition to go to this one?”
“No,” she admitted.
“Here’s something else to consider. Two days after the store is vandalized, he suddenly offers to buy the shares. He never complained about having only the proxy before. Don’t you think his offer came at a very convenient time for someone who might be needing money to get her business going again?”
She didn’t know what to believe. Both incidents seemed unrelated—just bad luck. But Ned had come just after the vandalism. She couldn’t deny it. Still, for him to do something like that deliberately … She tried to relive every nuance of Ned’s visit, hoping to find something that could help her one way or another.
One aspect of the situation, though, did seem strange now. She opened her eyes. “Ned said you were supposed to be in Europe.”
He grinned at her. “That’s what everybody in the office thinks. I needed a cover to come and see you without Ned’s finding out about it. He did anyway.”
“I remember,” she said slowly, “thinking at the time that Ned wasn’t surprised to see you. If I found my president where he wasn’t supposed to be, I’d have fired him on the spot.” She turned to Dallas. “He didn’t fire you.”
“What would you have thought if he did?”
“I don’t know. Yes, I do. I would have wondered about it.”
“Ned was smart on that one. An all-out confrontation with me in front of you would have been disastrous. Instead he got out fast, before you could say anything—or, worse, ask a question that was difficult to answer. He didn’t want that to happen. Not with me there to make sure you got the right answers.”
She swallowed. “He didn’t even ask why you were there.”
“It was the natural question. He gave himself away by not asking.” He chuckled. “He must have discovered I was around somewhere, but he never expected me to walk out of the storeroom like that. He’s not going to do anything else now. The board meeting’s in two days, for one thing. For another, it was obvious I’m very close to you. There’s too much of a risk that he’d give himself away.”
“Take the proxy, Dallas,” she said, afraid of what she would have to admit about someone she had trusted. “Take the proxy and represent me at the board—”
“No.”
“But why?”
Dallas saw the tears of desperation in her eyes. He set his jaw. Didn’t she understand?
“Because I love you, dammit!” he gritted out between clenched teeth. “You’d always wonder afterward if the proxy was all I ever really wanted from you. You’d never be sure of me again. Those shares, and everything that goes with them, are yours. You have to be the one to do what’s right. You have to go to the board meeting. It has to be you.”
“Dallas, please,” she whispered. “I don’t know if I can do it.”
“He lied to you, Cass. He wrecked your store. Do you want him to wreck the only other thing you have, M & L? Your grandfather didn’t leave you a gift, dammit! He left you a trust. Now it’s got to be called in!”
She closed her eyes. The silence in the room grew ominous.
“I’ll go.” she finally whispered. “I’ll go.”
Sometimes a man can do the right thing for the right reasons, Dallas thought the next morning as he watched Cass silently pack a bag. And sometimes the right thing for the right reasons was totally wrong.
This was totally wrong.
“I don’t want you to go with me,” he said.
She turned around, her green eyes wide with shock. “What?”
“I said I don’t want you to go with me.” He sat down on the bed. “I should have been happy that you finally agreed to go, and instead I stayed awake all last night, feeling as if I’d just made the worst mistake of my life.”
“But I agreed to go!” she exclaimed, dropping a negligee into the canvas bag. “This is what you wanted all along!”
“I want you to go to the board meeting by yourself. Not with me.”
She rolled her eyes heavenward. “Dallas, you’re not making any sense.”
“Yes, I am,” he said. “I finally am making sense. I feel like I’ve forced you in some way. I don’t want you to go with me, Cass, because I love you. I don’t want to be a part of your reasons for going. I want us separate from this; otherwise it will always be between us. I want to do a good job for this company, but I don’t want to do it at your expense. You just said you agreed to go with me because it’s what I want. Go because it’s what you want.”
“But, Dallas—”
“Don’t. I don’t want to know before the board meeting,” he said, standing up.
He walked over to her and curved both hands around her delicate jawline. His fingers threaded through the heavy strands of white-blond hair as he gently tilted her face up. Slowly, carefully, he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers in the sweetest of kisses.
Then he walked out the door.
Thirteen
She wasn’t coming.
As Ned Marks called the board meeting to order, Dallas glanced yet again at the darkly finished oak double doors. When they remained closed, everything inside him turned cold. He tried to tell himself her absence meant nothing as far as their relationship was concerned. She was only rejecting a company. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was telling him something on a more personal level. She had known how important this meeting was, and yet she hadn’t come.
Seated in the last chair away from the head of the oak table, he gazed quickly around at the other stockholders. Several looked unhappy; others angry. Before they took their seats for the meeting, they had grumbled under their breaths to one another and ignored Ned. They all knew what he knew, he thought. Ned was about to have his way, and M & L would go down faster than the Titanic.
Dammit, he cursed. Cass should have come for herself. Ned had ruined her store. Didn’t she care about that? Didn’t she realize that he had put some very nasty pressure on her to sell her shares? Even if she didn’t care enough about him to come, she should have cared enough to stop Ned from ever doing to someone else what he had done to her. Her absence would make the man think his intimidation tactics had worked with her. Ned wanted her shares; he’d never leave her alone now.
“The first order of business,” Ned began, “is a report from Dallas on the situation in Europe. You will all remember that he has been there, trying to promote sales.”
Dallas grimaced. He had expected this from Ned. He cared less about the job he was going to lose than about Cass’s not caring enough to come.
He leaned back in the black leather wing chair and took his time adjusting the sleeves of his charcoal-gray pinstripe suit over the gleaming white cuffs of his silk shirt. Out of the corner of his eye he noted everyone looking expectantly at him. Ned was downright gleeful.
/> “You know I wasn’t in Europe, Ned,” he said, smiling at the man. Damned if he wouldn’t take Ned down with him before he was through.
The doors to the conference room suddenly opened before anyone could react to his announcement. Cass walked briskly into the room. The others were silent as she came around the end of the long table. Dallas found himself smiling widely.
“Good morning, everyone,” she said quietly, taking the last seat across the table from him. “I’m sorry to be late, but I got caught in traffic.”
Dallas stared at her, his initial elation fading. She had come after all. But something was wrong. Not only were her words casual, as if she were late for a picnic, but her dress was of plain denim cotton, which buttoned down the front with silver buttons and was cinched at the waist with a brown reptile belt. Her hair was pulled back off her face, and the collar was rakishly turned up, bringing attention to the necklace of polished wood beads hugging her soft throat. She wore matching button earrings.
When he envisioned this meeting, he had always seen her dressed for the part in a dark business suit—a power suit that sent a message of strength and confidence. She looked more like she was about to go to lunch at a local restaurant.
One way she hadn’t looked, though, was toward him. Not once since she’d entered the room.
His heart sank.
Cass ignored the man sitting opposite her. From the moment he had walked into her shop, he had bullied, provoked, and pressured her about this board meeting, and when she had finally known that he was right, he’d walked out the door. No support, no advice, she thought furiously. Just handle it on your own, Cass. She couldn’t wait until after the meeting was over, so she could vent her fury on him.
She had to admit, though, that she’d never seen him quite like this before. The expensive suit fit like a glove on his lean body, and his tan was only enhanced by his brilliant white shirt and subtle maroon tie—every inch the corporate executive. She couldn’t help a mental smile of amusement as she remembered him soaking wet, with a crab hanging from one foot … or lying on her bed, nearly every inch of him beet-red with sunburn … or looming above her in the dark hours of the night …
She pushed her thoughts away, and turned her attention to the others, recognizing only Ned’s cousin Sheila, whom she’d met years before.
“Well, it’s very nice to see our perennially absent stockholder,” Ned finally said, from his seat at the head of the table. He still looked nearly as shocked and ashen-faced as when she’d come through the conference-room doors.
“Thank you, Ned.” She forced herself to smile at him. It surprised her that she wasn’t nervous. She knew she ought to be. But as she’d come into the room, she had caught sight of a portrait of her grandfather on the wall behind Ned. Pop seemed to be looking down at her in pleasure, and suddenly all the fear had vanished. She glanced at it now, and instantly knew she was about to do what he would have done if he’d been here.
Another thing that gave her strength was her Saint Laurent dress. She had deliberately eschewed a suit in favor of the severely tailored denim shirtwaist. She didn’t have to dress in the image of a businesswoman, she had decided. She was one, and very confident of her abilities. She’d also known Ned would be shaken enough by her presence. And if the dress threw Dallas off the track a little, she admitted she didn’t mind in the least. She brought up the first item on her own agenda.
“I’d like it noted in the minutes that I am here and will be voting my own shares,” she said in a steady voice. “According to my agreement with Ned, he votes my shares only when I am absent.”
The others gasped audibly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dallas nod at her. She kept all her attention focused on Ned. From his look, she knew he hated her. She set her jaw. He’d done a terrible thing to her, and she wasn’t about to let him get away with M & L too.
“I think that would be unwise, Cassandra,” Ned said with a falsely indulgent smile. His eyes were hard and glittering with anger. “You need to have an understanding of the company in order to vote properly, and you haven’t been to a board meeting—”
“I’ve never been to one, Ned,” she replied smoothly, and noted the other stockholders, including cousin Sheila, smiling in amusement at her words. She opened her oversized shoulder bag and removed a thick folder of papers. Setting it on the highly polished tabletop she continued, “However, one does not necessarily need to attend board meetings to understand a company’s workings. I’m very prepared, if that is your concern.”
It was a bald lie. Other than a few board notices with the company letterhead on top, the rest of the folder was a fake. Still, it looked very extensive, and that was the important thing.
“Before we start,” she went on, “I’d like to bring another matter to your attention, Ned.”
She pulled the top sheet out of the folder and pushed it along the table. Several stockholders helped it along to its destination, glancing at it first before passing it over. They ought to find it interesting, she thought with satisfaction.
Ned stared at the paper when it finally lay in front of him. Everyone stared at him.
“That is an itemized bill for the damages to my store, Ned,” she said, folding her hands on the table. “I think you’ll find it in your best interest to pay it.”
Ned said nothing. His face was red, and perspiration began to form on his balding forehead.
“Are you asking the company to pay for the damages to your store?” Sheila asked.
“No,” Cass said, looking at the other woman. “I’m asking Ned to. I don’t think he would like this discussed here.” She smiled sweetly. “Would you, Ned?”
“No!” he snapped. He went on more calmly, “We have an important meeting today, Ms. Lindley. I would suggest that if you are prepared to attend the meeting, you keep to the business at hand.”
“I believe Ms. Lindley just did,” Dallas said coolly.
Cass glared at him. Now he helps, she thought furiously. She turned back to the others. “My understanding is that the purpose of this meeting is to discuss, among other items, whether or not M & L should make a public stock offering in order to finance a chain of boutiques for the Lusty Lingerie line.”
“That’s correct,” Dallas said, smiling at her.
“I have also been informed that the banks have refused to loan the money for this project.”
“That’s right,” said one of the other stockholders, looking surprised. “And this company is not strong enough to make stock public at this time.”
“That’s only your opinion, James,” Ned began forcefully. “We will need to discuss this at length, so that Cassandra is fully informed—”
“I can attest that Ms. Lindley is well informed on the matter,” Dallas said, pointing to her folder. “Ms. Lindley and I have had several business meetings, and we reviewed the entire company structure at some length.”
Cass refused to allow a smile to crack her face. He had to know that she didn’t have anything in the folder. She also refused to blush at the thought of where those “business” meetings had taken place.
“I think Cassandra has proven that she understands the matter as well as the rest of us,” Sheila broke in, smiling at her.
Cass smiled back. Sheila was an unexpected ally. “Yes. Quite frankly, I believe that offering stock on the market at this time leaves us too much at risk of corporate raiding. M & L could not even begin to ward off a hostile take-over, and in our present financial state we’d be too costly for another company to be willing to bail us out by being a ‘white knight.’ ”
The others nodded in agreement. Dallas grinned. Ned was reddening by the instant.
Thank goodness Dallas had told her all this during their bathtub meeting, Cass thought. It sounded terrific. Like a chess player on the offensive, she pushed on.
“If the Lusty line had produced the expected profits during the last two business quarters, then maybe the boutiques could have been considered. But
it hasn’t, and therefore doesn’t merit further expansion.”
“This is much more complicated than you are obviously capable of comprehending,” Ned broke in.
He stared at her. She stared back. She’d be damned before she looked away first.
“Unfortunately, I understand all too well,” she said in a cold voice. “This board would be irresponsible in its duties to this company if it passed the stock question.”
Ned jumped to his feet and slammed his palms down on the table. “You come in here and spout off about responsibilities, when you haven’t bothered with it for years? Just who the hell do you think you are, you scheming bitch? Let’s get this straight now: I run this company, and what I say goes! Everybody here knows that! This board meeting is adjourned!”
Ned glared at each stockholder, as if willing them all to get up out of their chairs in support of him. Nobody moved. Cass saw Dallas lift his eyebrows and smile the tiniest of smiles. She also noted his hands, curled into tight fists of anger.
“I think,” Sheila said in a shaken voice, “that our chairman has proven how little respect he has for this board and this company. I see no other option but to call for him to step down.”
“I second the motion,” said an older man next to her.
“Agreed,” said each of the others, including Dallas.
They looked at Cass.
“Agreed.”
Ned’s face turned sickly white.
Dallas got up from his chair and walked to the head of the table. He took out a pen and laid it down next to the pad on the table in front of the other man.
“Write out your resignation, Ned, and sign it,” Dallas said. “You will also divest yourself of your stock in M & L. That is in your very best interest. Otherwise I’ll make sure the rest of it comes out.”
Ned stared at him.
“Be smart, Ned,” Dallas said in a dangerously low voice. “You’re getting off lightly, and you know it.”
Ned picked up the pen.
As he wrote, Cass heaved a sigh of relief and sank back in her chair. The worst was over. Still, she couldn’t help pitying the defeated man. If only he had acknowledged that his business decisions had been poor, and had taken measures to rectify them, even if it meant stepping down. But he hadn’t. Instead he’d ruined himself through greed and ego. Now he was losing the thing he wanted most. Resigning from the board and divesting himself from M & L was a harsh punishment. But a just one.
