“Got it.”
I watched as the sadness at the mention of Rogers’ name slipped from Tristan’s face. Stepping close to him, I ran my hands through his hair and kissed his cheek. “Three gives you a little time. Any plans?”
Turning toward me, he winked. “A few things, but first this hair has to go. Time for the Tristan Stone Karl knows all too well to finally be back in full force.”
Chapter Fifteen
Tristan
After I’d run a few errands and gotten rid of the boy band angst hair, I was finally back to being myself again, and it was time to return to the building I hadn’t seen in over four months. The lobby looked the same with its white marble floors and dark wood walls, and as I passed through security I saw the guards’ eyes widen just a little as they recognized me. The oldest one, a man named Bill who’d worked for the company since before I was born, gave me a tiny smile, as if to let me know that he was glad to see me back where I belonged.
Not that I necessarily believed being back at the helm of Stone Worldwide was where I belonged. As I waited for the elevator doors to open to take me to the twenty-fifth floor and my office, I looked at the reflection of myself in the metal panels. The same old Tristan Stone I’d been every day of my time in that building looked back at me wearing my usual suit and tie, but I didn’t feel like that man anymore. My time in exile had given me a lot of time to think about my life, and the thought of spending the rest of my adult years in this building no longer seemed right. After the coke and the booze, I finally found out who I was in that old home my mother had loved, and it wasn’t the man in front of me now.
That didn’t mean I was ready to hand over the company to the likes of Karl, though.
I exited the elevator on the floor that housed my office suite and saw Michelle’s face light up as she realized her prodigal boss had finally returned. I could only hope that the reception I received from the Stone Worldwide Board of Directors was half as terrific.
Michelle stood from her desk, obviously excited and with a big smile said, “Mr. Stone! Your office is just as you left it. No one has stepped foot inside, not even security or maintenance. Just as you instructed.”
I stopped at her desk and responded to her welcome with a smile of my own. “Good afternoon, Michelle. Thank you for holding down the fort. I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
“Mr. Dreger was an almost constant visitor, but I never let him in. He certainly was persistent, though.”
“Thank you for taking such care to make sure of that.” I turned to head into my office and noticed that there was something different about my assistant. My eyes traveled down her body to a slightly noticeable baby bump. Michelle was pregnant.
“I’ve been gone a long time, haven’t I?” I asked as I pointed to her stomach. “When’s the happy day?”
She rubbed her hands over her belly and smiled. “I didn’t know the last time we talked. I found out in January. We’re due in early August.”
“Congratulations, Michelle. Does this mean I’m going to lose you?”
“For a little while, at least. I’m hoping to return after my six week leave, but we’re going to have to find care for the baby. It’s a big change. We need to find a new apartment first, though.”
Michelle paused and a blush came over her cheeks. “I’m sorry. Here I am chattering on about me while you have a big meeting ahead of you. I did as Daryl said and notified all the members of the Stone board that you wanted a meeting at three today. The ones who are out of town will be teleconferencing, but they all said they’d be there.”
Chuckling, I said, “I’d rather talk about you than the meeting with the Board, but thank you for handling it. I have a few minutes before I have to head down, so I’m going to gather my thoughts so I’m ready.”
“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.
“Rider? I think you’ll find it’s doing just fine,” he sputtered out. Looking up from the stack of papers with enough proof to cost him everything he’d earned, Karl scowled. “What the hell is this? You all aren’t believing this, are you?”
“Yes, they are, Karl, and so are the Feds. Killing people is not only bad business. It’s wrong. When it comes out that you knew what Cordovex did and still brought it back as Cardiell, you’re going to be the one to pay.”
His eyes darted around the room, searching for an ally that no longer existed. Looking like a trapped animal, he swallowed hard. Sweat beaded on his brow, even as the fight inside him struggled to overcome his fear. Thrusting his chair away from the table, he stood upright and shook his head violently.
“This is fucking bullshit! I’m not going to stand here and take this. That company was nothing when I took over. It was nothing!”
Lawrence shot me a glance and calmly spoke up. “Karl, I think it would be better if you got your things in order and spoke to counsel. What we’re seeing in this report means you’ll have to go.”
As if the chairman’s words set something off inside him, Karl turned toward me and spat out, “You don’t know who you’re fucking with, son. You’re not going to take me down. No fucking way.”
“Time’s up, Karl. And don’t call me son. I’m Tristan Stone, son of Victor and Tressa Stone.”
I watched as the mention of my mother’s name made his eyes flash with rage, and he stormed out of the room, slamming the doors behind him. While the members of the board sat in stunned silence at what they’d seen, I stood and leaned down to place my hands on the table. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me, I have a mess to clean up.”
“Before you go, can you tell us if anyone died this time? There were no details in the report about Cardiell,” James Sheridan asked, obviously concerned.
Shaking my head, I said, “Not that we know of. Hopefully, we’ve caught this early enough.”
Sheridan slumped back in his seat, his expression one of disbelief. “My mother takes Cardiell. To think that bastard knew what it could do and still let it be sold to people.”
“If you’ll excuse me gentlemen.” Even though I understood his horror, I had to deal with Karl and the repercussions that would inevitably fall in my lap. Returning to my office, I asked Michelle as I passed her desk, “Can you get Harvey on the phone? Tell him I’m going to need him on this Rider thing.”
Dialing the phone, she said, “Daryl had me call him earlier. He made sure to send what he’d found over to his office so he’d be ready when you called.”
“Good. Let me know when you get him.”
I opened the door to my office and heard her say behind me, “Is everything going to be okay, Tristan? They’re not going to blame you for this, are they?”
With a shrug, I tried to downplay how concerned I truly was. “What’s that saying—the buck stops here? As CEO, I needed to know what Karl was up to. I didn’t. I don’t know what they’ll do.”
The truth was I really didn’t know what they’d do, but whatever happened, at least Cardiell would be off the market and Karl wouldn’t be hurting anyone anymore.
“I have Harvey on the line,” she yelled in as I sat down at my desk.