Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40972 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40972 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
One of the lawyers spoke up. “He’s right. You can’t be in here. You don’t have a vote in this.”
He narrowed his eyes at the lawyer who’d spoken, a man who never tried to veil his dislike of Julien. “Am I not allowed to give an explanation of this? Of me being attacked?”
William pointed at the screen. “There’s nothing there.”
“I assure you, there was something there.” He pointed at Emory. “I’ve been attacked more than once, hence the bodyguard.”
Another lawyer stood. “Mr. Davenport, we ask that you leave the room as you cannot be in here for the vote.”
He knew they were right, but it took every bit of his strength of will to turn and leave the conference room. He didn’t bother waiting in the hall, but returned upstairs to his office, shutting himself and Emory in the room. He started to pace, wearing a path in the short carpet until Emory stepped in front of him.
“Julien, you do realize that William must be behind hiring the penumbra, right?”
“Of course. What I want to know is why. It’s obvious what he hopes to accomplish—me out as CEO. But what good will that do, and what the fuck did I do to him to warrant this?”
“He’s the chief financial officer, yes?”
Julien stopped pacing, staring at Emory. “The discrepancies,” he murmured. “William knows I will find out what he’s been doing. Which is stealing. What doesn’t make sense is that I discovered the issues the night I was first attacked.” He had said something to William, though. And there’d been roughly three hours between that and the attack…
“A preemptive strike then.”
“Let’s head to William’s office. I plan to confront him myself.” Julien closed his hands into fists. “I will not just step aside and let them oust me from my own damn company.”
He walked down the hall, noting the stares of people lingering near the walls.
“Mr. Cummings isn’t in his office,” William’s assistant said as he walked to his door.
“I’m well aware. I’ll be waiting for him inside.”
“But—” She broke off, cheeks flushing.
Julien made himself comfortable in William’s office. It was another half hour before William arrived. He didn’t look happy.
“I take it your vote didn’t go down as you hoped?” Julien said when William gave him a startled expression. “I’m not out?”
“You’re on leave while they have a third-party firm investigate.”
“So, there will be audits. That’s the last thing you wanted, isn’t it, William?” Julien stood, his frown fierce as he stared down his CFO. “You thought getting rid of me, in my own damn company, would keep everyone from finding out that you’ve been stealing?”
“You don’t understand a goddamn thing, Julien. You need to back off looking into that data that was collected illegally.”
He didn’t show his surprise though he most definitely was. This wasn’t about the missing funds, but about the sorcerers gathering in Seattle? “What the hell is going on?”
“Nothing you need to be in the know about. I’m serious, Julien, you need to stop looking into this.”
“So you hired a penumbra to fuck with me? No, this had nothing to do with all that and everything to do with you not wanting me to discover that you’ve been doctoring the books.”
William’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “Julien, you’re messing with things you have no hope of understanding. It’s not your world.”
“But it is mine,” Emory said quietly as he stepped closer to William, gray eyes narrowed.
William backed away from him. “I have no issue with you, angel.”
“You do when you’re behind the attacks on Julien.”
Julien didn’t miss the way he almost caressed his name and neither did William, who looked between the two. He just shook his head and stopped, his gaze on Julien. “I’m serious, Julien. You need to back off or you’ll regret it.”
Emory growled. “Are you daring to threaten him right in front of me?”
A brush of magic swept through the room, and Emory’s wings seemed to expand.
“I can tell you’re a wizard,” Emory said, voice low. “I can also sense that you’re not a very powerful one.”
William lifted his hands, but Emory shot forward, grabbed both his wrists, and twisted them around his back, shoving him into the wall.
“You’re going to regret trying magic on me, wizard.”
“Just get him to stop investigating.”
“You know who I work for, don’t you? You think he doesn’t know what’s going on?”
All the color washed from William’s face.
“How are you involved in this, William?” Julien asked. “Besides trying to get me ousted from my own damn company. If you’ve been stealing, that audit is going to show it, so all this has been for naught.”
“I’m not saying anything else.” William’s voice was muffled by the wall.
“It’s too late for you anyway,” Emory said, still using that soft, menacing tone that had Julien feeling things. The muscles in his arms were bulging with the force he was using to hold William to the wall, and some strands of his silky blond hair had come free of the bun.