Chapter 13 — The Board Meeting
561 Words
The first real test of their new, careful equilibrium came three weeks later, at a board meeting for the newly restructured Rossi Textiles — now technically a subsidiary of Cole Industries, though Damian had quietly insisted, over the objections of his own legal team, that Antonio Rossi retain an advisory seat and that Elena be given a formal position on the board herself, something no one had expected and everyone in the room clearly had opinions about.
"You didn't have to do that," Elena said afterward, catching him in the hallway outside the boardroom while the other executives filtered out around them. "Give me a seat. Give my father a voice in decisions about his own company."
"I did, actually." Damian loosened his tie slightly, the gesture more unguarded than anything he did in front of the board itself. "It's your family's legacy. You should have a say in what happens to it, regardless of anything else between us."
"That's not what the old Damian Cole would have done. The one from the headlines."
"Maybe the old Damian Cole was overcorrecting for something," he said, quiet enough that only she could hear it. "Twenty years of building walls high enough that nobody could take anything from me again. It occurred to me somewhere in the last month that walls that high also keep out the things worth keeping."
She didn't have a response for that, not immediately, so she settled for walking beside him toward the elevator in a silence that felt, for the first time in weeks, comfortable rather than strained.
It was in the lobby, waiting for the car, that Richard Voss appeared again — apparently a fixture of every event that mattered in this particular slice of the business world, materializing with the same unsettling smile he'd worn at the Hendricks Gala.
"Elena. Damian." He nodded to each of them in turn, his eyes lingering a beat too long on Elena's new board badge. "I heard about the restructuring. Very generous of you, Cole, giving the Rossis a seat at their own table. Almost makes a person wonder what changed your mind."
"Nothing that concerns you, Richard," Damian said, his voice pleasant and utterly cold, a tone Elena was starting to recognize as his particular weapon of choice for dealing with Voss specifically.
"Everything concerns me, eventually." Voss's smile widened fractionally. "I have a long memory, and an even longer patience for watching things play out. I'll see you both at the Ashford dinner next month, I imagine."
He walked away before either of them could respond, leaving behind the same unsettled feeling he always seemed to leave in his wake.
"What does he want?" Elena asked once he was out of earshot. "Really want. Not the vague threats."
"Leverage," Damian said grimly, watching Voss's retreating back with narrowed eyes. "He's wanted a piece of Rossi Textiles for years, long before any of this. I bought it out from under him during the original buyout, and men like Richard Voss don't forget being outmaneuvered. He's circling, waiting for a c***k to exploit. I'd rather he not find one."
"Is there one?" Elena asked. "A c***k, I mean."
Damian didn't answer immediately, and something in his silence told her, more clearly than words could have, that the answer was more complicated than either of them wanted it to be.
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