Give in to Me (Heart of Stone #3)(47)
Author: K.M. Scott

“Yes, Mr. Stone.”

Michelle sat down and got back to whatever work she had after months of me being absent. Before I walked into my office, I stopped and thought about what she’d just said. Never once had she called me anything but Mr. Stone, but now, it felt wrong. Mr. Stone was my father. I was Tristan.

“Michelle, do me a favor, would you?”

She spun slowly in her chair to face me and nodded. “Of course, Mr. Stone.”

“Call me Tristan. We’ve known each other long enough that you should call me by my first name.”

A broad smile spread across her face. “Thank you, Tristan.” Hesitating, she added, “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

“Well, let’s hope you have the time to. We’ll see after the meeting today,” I said as I headed into my office for the first time in months.

The fact was there was a real chance the Board of Directors would inform me that I was no longer able to handle the CEO position, in their opinion. My absence might just have been too much, and if they did move to replace me, I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to fight it. I should have wanted to, but as I stood there in my gorgeous corner office looking out the windows at the city below, I wasn’t sure. I had enough money to take Nina anywhere her heart desired every day for the rest of our lives.

Why would I stay working in that corner office for another of those days?

Michelle’s voice interrupted my thoughts to let me know the time had come. “It’s nearly three, Tristan.”

Without answering her, I took one last look around my office, just in case that was the last time I could call it mine. As much as I wanted to run off with Nina and never look back at this office and everything about the company, something inside me wasn’t quite ready to give up yet. I’d never been meant for this, but after taking the responsibility on, it had become part of me, part of who I truly was.

Michelle was waiting for me with a supportive smile, and as I walked by, I heard her say under her breath, “Knock ’em dead.” That’s exactly what I intended on doing.

The conference room teemed with board members all ready to discuss the future of Stone Worldwide. The sea of faces turned toward me as I took my seat at the head of the long polished wood table. Never before had I looked at these people and seen them as strangers like I did at that moment. They looked like me in their expensive suits and silk ties, older than I but sitting there like me in comfortable leather chairs discussing topics that until today I actually tried to care about, but now I felt like we had nothing in common.

Noticeably absent was Karl, however.

Lawrence Meister, the chairman of the Stone Worldwide board, sat to my right halfway down the table and nodded silently at me to give the signal it was time to begin. “Tristan, we’re happy to see you’re back. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.”

I took a deep breath and began. “I’ve never felt close to anyone on this board, unfortunately. If I had, my time away may have been different. That being what it is, I’m here today to let you know that if this board is planning on removing me from my place here, you’re going to have a fight on your hands. I am Stone Worldwide. When the world thinks of this company, it thinks of me, just as it thought of my father before me. Each of you may think you can take my place and do a better job, but the fact is, you can’t and you won’t have the chance.”

“Tristan, I’m not sure what you thought, but no one here wants that,” Lawrence said as he scanned the surprised expressions on the faces of the men around him. “We’re here to find out what you plan to do now that you’re back.”

“First, I’m curious where Karl is. He’s got some supporters on this board and his actions need to be discussed.”

A few of the board members whispered to one another at my mention of Karl, but no one volunteered any information to explain his absence. Lawrence’s expression showed he knew nothing of what I suspected were Karl’s plans to take my place at the head of the company.

“Karl contacted me when this meeting was called and informed me that he would be late. What’s going on here?”

I opened the folder Daryl had given me containing all the information concerning Rider Pharmaceutical, Cordovex, and Cardiell. Taking the first packet off the top of the pile, I passed the rest to my right for each member to have for their own. As each man scanned the facts surrounding Rider and its heart drugs, their eyes grew wide in horror. Even the members I’d suspected of backing Karl looked shocked at the information Daryl had gathered.

“What you’re looking at is the information the Feds will have concerning a subsidiary of Stone Worldwide. My father gave Rider Pharmaceutical to Karl Dreger to run, and for years he handled the company without a misstep. However, just after my father died, leaving his position to me, Rider found itself in trouble with Cordovex. As you can see on page two, the drug was deadly. The FDA knew, and Rider pulled it voluntarily, but it still held the patent.”

James Sheridan, one of the members I’d believed supported Karl in his takeover plans cleared his throat and asked in a shaky voice, “Is this company responsible for Rider’s actions?”

I knew what he was afraid of. As a Stone Worldwide stockholder, Sheridan worried more about his portfolio than helping Karl climb over me on his way up the corporate ladder. Nodding, I spoke the truth that no one in that room wanted to hear. “Of course. This board will have to answer for its actions in this matter also, especially considering how accommodating you’ve been to Karl Dreger’s ambitions over the years.”

Whatever support he’d had evaporated as they read page after page of his malfeasance as the head of Rider. While the members of the board began to mutter their disbelief, Karl himself came through the conference room doors full of confidence and oblivious to the shitstorm he’d just stumbled into.

He stopped next to my chair and looked down at me, his beady eyes telegraphing his smugness. “Nice to see you again, Tristan. A few days more and you may not have had that seat.”

Leaning back, I stared up at him and smiled. “We were just talking about you, Karl. Sit down. I think you’ll be very interested in this. Perhaps you’d like to give us a rundown of how Rider Pharmaceutical is doing.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down as I slid one last copy of Daryl’s report toward him. He hadn’t read more than a few words before his hands began shaking.