A Kiss of Color: The Complete 3 Book Collection (39 page)

Helena thought that what her friend cited as a breakdown had actually been good for her. Brandy didn’t have to keep attesting to other people that she was strong. Everyone knew that she had to be strong to have been under her parents thumbs for as long as she had and come out relatively unscathed. Helena was just glad she had the pleasure of calling the talented attorney her friend.

She kept herself busy with caring for Isaiah, who had developed a slight cold. It took Xavier’s reassuring her that everything was going to be alright for her not to work herself up into a frenzy, so worried was she about her mother going free. Eventually, however, Isaiah’s forehead cooled and Helena allowed herself to sleep easy.

At least until the morning Xavier was summoned before the board members of XTech.

Helena had fallen asleep next to Isaiah in the bed, exhausted after a long interview the previous evening. It pained her that her body seemed to be healing so slowly. Though Susan had told her that she would soon be ready for intimacy, she wondered how she was going to be able to finish her MD when just walking around the house for half the day tired her. Susan assured her that her strength would come with time.

She was stirred back into consciousness by Xavier’s low voice speaking on the phone. “I understand. Of course. I’ll be in later on this afternoon.” Half awake, the young woman squinted through the lowly lit room to see her lover sitting on the edge of the bed, his phone clutched in his hand. Xavier’s posture was unusually stiff for someone who had just woken up.

Yawning, she straightened to reach out and touch his shoulder. “Xavier, are you alright?”

The man looked over a sculpted shoulder at her with dark, worried eyes. “I’ve been called into the office. The board members want to see me.”

Helena was immediately awake. She turned on the bedside table light, moving carefully as not to wake Isaiah. She slid across the expanse of bed to wrap her arms around her lover. She felt her heart pounding in her chest and was sure her knees would be weak if she tried to stand. But for Xavier, she had to be strong. She had to believe, as Brandy did, that he would come out on top. He was innocent. Everyone who knew him closely knew the truth of that statement – and soon, the rest of the world would too.

“Xavier, it will be alright.” She murmured softly, pressing a soft kiss to his neck. “We can handle this. They just want to talk to you.”

Xavier exhaled a long breath, turning to face her as he took her hands in his. “I think we both know that it’s going to be a little more than that.”

Of course they did. All the questions that had been unanswered for the past few months were probably going to be made clear – and almost certainly not in the way they wanted. They had spent the last few weeks preparing for something that they really had no definite details on. They had been expecting a court date – and when one hadn’t been handed down that they had relaxed a bit…probably too much. Now, when the meeting was requested before the actual trial, they were caught unawares.

Helena glanced at the clock. It was barely seven in the morning. They hadn’t heard anything from the company in weeks and now, out of the blue, they were contacted at an ungodly hour. She was studying physical medicine, not mental medicine, but Helena knew a mind-fuck when she was faced with one.

“Just stick to your guns, Xavier. We’ve been ready for this. You just need to speak to them. You know they’re going to try to get you to rise, and you just need to keep your cool. Let them do all the talking.” She placed her hands on Xavier’s broad shoulders, massaging them gently. “Brandy is working on the case and Horace has the evidence. We’ll be alright.”

He nodded slowly, laying back against the coverlet to place his cheek against his sleeping son’s. He stroked the soft down of Isaiah’s head before kissing his forehead lightly. Helena lie down next to him and for a few precious minutes, she pushed everything from her mind. In this moment, they were a family, and she had to believe that everything would be alright.

Eventually, however, Xavier had to rise and prepare for his eight thirty meeting. While he showered, Helena called Brandy to explain to her what was going on. Thankfully, Xavier’s sister was a lot calmer than she herself had been, and reassured her that she’d prepared her brother for this moment.

After that, there wasn’t much Helena could do besides nurse Isaiah and hold him close. Though she’d come to realize that she would love her child before he was born, having him with her was like an instant calming agent. She knew that she had to be there for him, and so, when she held him, it was almost impossible for her to lose her cool.

When Xavier emerged from the bathroom, he was clad in a tailored suit that hugged his long form, his hair slicked back, his stubble trimmed, and his blue eyes determined. He looked every bit a CEO, which reminded Helena that even if they did manage to take the company away from him, it wouldn’t last long. Her lover was the heart and soul of the organization, and without him, they couldn’t possibly maintain XTech’s high customer service and technology standards.

“Wish me luck, honey.” Xavier kissed her, long and lingering, and Helena fought the urge to yank him back down in bed and beg him to ravish her – to lose herself in him. Instead, she merely touched the back of his neck lightly, offering up Isaiah for him to kiss as well.

“We
both
wish you luck, Xavier.”

With a small smile, her lover pecked Isaiah’s cheek before grabbing his briefcase and heading out the door. Swallowing her apprehension, Helena followed him as far as the threshold, before waving goodbye as he slid into his car, off to his office for the first time in weeks.

If the young woman had a free hand to cross her fingers, she would have. Perhaps, if this went well, they might not have to fight as hard as they thought.

**

Xavier tried to clear his mind.

For the first time in almost two months, he was allowed past the police guard at the front entrance of his office building – admitted to a place that had become strange and hostile to him. While he recognized some of the staff from the lobby, they all refused to look at him. It was quite obvious that the tide had been turned against him, and his lips pulled together in a tight line as he approached the turnstile that led to the elevator bay.

To his dismay – but not surprise – he found that his access had been revoked and his card was useless. He was signed in as a visitor to his own corporation. Still, Xavier refused to be cowed, even as he was escorted by a security official into the elevator.

The glass walled enclosure allowed him to look over the plethora of media waiting anxiously outside to snap up any information. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that none of this mattered. He had done nothing wrong. What mattered was bringing the real criminal to justice.

When he exited the elevator on the top floor, he could feel all eyes on him. He also felt the conspicuous absence of those he had trusted the most. Friends, programmers and techs…so many people had been replaced. Of course, Margaret was gone, as was Daniel. His head held high, Xavier ignored the accusing stares and proceeded straight to the board room.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open.

The board members stared at him with familiar faces he’d once thought he could trust. Six men who had once given him the funding and support to make his dreams reality. Now, they were obstacles – and he could tell that whatever camaraderie they’d once had was gone. His gaze passed from cold expression to cold expression and he swallowed thickly. Only one person was absent – Leonard Harvey, the lead board member and his one-time close friend. Was it possible that he hadn’t the heart to do this to Xavier? The notion was a comforting thought.

Especially when apprehension was beginning to make him feel like the monster everyone made him out to be.

But, he had to do this. Both for his family and the career he had spent so long building. He would not roll over and go quietly.

“Xavier,” A tall man with steel gray hair and piercing green eyes spoke first. “Thank you for coming.” There was, of course, no gratitude at all in the man’s voice. “Please, sit down.” He gestured to an empty chair directly across from Leonard’s vacant seat. Xavier said nothing, but merely took the position he was offered, looking coolly at each and every board member.

The feeling of betrayal was so thick in his gut that he felt almost sick with it. Next to him, an aged red-head pulled a thick sheaf of papers from a leather satchel before tossing them on the table before Xavier. “We are here to discuss terms of your signing the company completely over to your principal stock holder.”

Despite his resolve not to show any reaction whatsoever, Xavier couldn’t prevent the incredulous expression that stole over his face. Signing over the company to the senior stock holder? Then Leonard
had
turned on him! He was the one behind all of this!

The man who had once been like a grandfather to him.

Though every impulse in his body urged him to throw the papers halfway across the room, he forced himself to keep his cool. Inhaling slowly, he fixed the redhead, Joseph Frasier, with a look that could melt the polar ice caps. “I have heard nothing of these papers before today. Why?”

“Because we knew you’d be too damned proud to do it.” Another board member snapped, his face bright red at Xavier’s cold tone. “You’re too young to run this company, Thompson, and all of us have known it for a long time.”

Had they? Really?

These men had shaken his hand and agreed to fund him before there had even been a proper company. They’d promised him their support, and assured him of the soundness of his ideas, and treated him like family. He
was
XTech, and they had come along for the ride. And now, they were saying that they had never believed in his decisions?

This entire scenario reeked of conspiracy.

“Fred, it hurts me that you would say that.” Xavier replied, his tone stiffly civil. “You and every other man in this room told me that you would back me one hundred percent. That I was one of this country’s greatest technological minds and you would make it your duty to see that I get the recognition that I deserve. Or have you all suddenly forgotten that?”

At his comment, more than one of the board members had the dignity to look affronted- some even guilty. But that guilt faded as Joseph fired back. “We made you, Thompson. You climbed to the top with our money, rode our heels, and now, we want what’s due to us.”

What more could they possibly want? As the company’s chief stockholders, they were perhaps the only people profiting more from XTech than Xavier himself. There was nothing else
to
demand.

Signing over rights to the company to a sole person – lead stock holder or not – could only be detrimental to them. They’d be losing their privileges right along with him.

None of this made any sense.

And if they wanted him to sign papers into Leonard’s name, where was he? The bastard could at least have the decency to face the consequences of his actions.

“If I’m to sign the rights for XTech over to Leonard, what purpose do you have here?” He inquired softly. “I assume if that’s your ultimate goal, all of you have already signed your names on the dotted line, which means that we have nothing more to discuss. This is something for me and Leonard to sort out privately.”

And
oh
, would they sort it out. Despite his age, Leonard wouldn’t know which way was up when Xavier was finished with him. Who had put him on this path? And when had he decided that long lasting friendships meant nothing over personal gain? Did he really believe that he could run this company without Xavier? The very man who had built it?

“We’re here for support.” Joseph rebutted nastily, frowning deeply. “The media has already informed us on how unstable you might be, so we’re here for the lead stock holder’s protection.”

Xavier’s eyes widened.

Leonard’s protection? What the hell were six old men going to do to protect another old man? Xavier’s anger was immense, but he knew the right thing to do would be to hand Leonard over to the authorities. Did these guys really think that he was going to maim a man twice his age in front of them?

“What
happened
here?” The words left his mouth before he could stop them, tinged with the pain of the past few weeks. “The last time I was in the office, I considered you all family. I invited you into my home God knows how many times. You helped me build this company. You know what kind of man I am. How could you turn against me like this?” His hands fisted atop the table at the gravity of this meeting. “I have an infant son, and Helena is recovering from a difficult birth. You would have me sign away my son’s birthright and Helena’s right to adequate medical care? The men I know wouldn’t be so heartless.”

For a moment, silence reigned in the room. The men looked at one another, and all at once, some of them seemed less certain than before.

It was clear to Xavier in that moment that they didn’t really want to do this. Leonard was herding them – pushing them in the wrong direction. Now, whether that was threatening them or offering them the world, he didn’t know, but if he could make them reconsider…perhaps there would be no need for a trial. Everything could go back to the way it was.

“I…can’t sign this.” Xavier murmured lowly. “It goes against everything I stand for, and you know that. If I sign, I lose everything. If I don’t sign, I still might very well lose everything. What is my motivation supposed to be?”

“Self-preservation.”

A low, very familiar voice answered his question and Xavier turned to face the doorway, shocked at the figure that suddenly appeared.

It was Daniel.

But he looked completely different from the last time Xavier had seen him.

The morning he’d returned to work from caring for Helena, Xavier had spoken with Daniel – laughed with him and thanked him for all the help he’d given him in carrying out the company’s recent merger. Then, the young man had a friendly, slightly nerdy vibe and had worn button ups and suspenders every day.