Page 62 of The Rebel

Their breathing.

And with fisted hands, palms that were filling with sweat, knowing I couldn’t stay in this hallway despite how much I wanted to, I took two paces inside.

Even with my eyes on the oval table, I could feel all the stares hit my face.

I could sense the combination of personalities overflowing in this large room.

I could smell the mixture of perfume and cologne.

They could identify this room with whatever title they wanted, but it was a battleground.

And within these walls, a war was brewing.

Still not looking up, I balanced on my four-inch heels, straightened my shoulders, held in the bile threatening to make an entrance, and moved past the threshold. I quickly scanned the empty chairs on the near side of the table, and I sat in the one that Ridge had pulled out for me.

Seated wasn’t any better than standing. This position only made my stomach pains more prominent.

And it deepened the realization that I was here—and couldn’t escape.

That I would have to endure every moment of this meeting.

I’d never felt silence as thick as it was in here, like a dense fog that clouded the air, making it even harder to inhale.

That lasted for several more seconds before our attorney, who sat two seats away from me, finished shaking our hands andsaid, “Ray,” as he addressed my father, “and Ridge, Rhett, and Rowan, I suspect you already know everyone in here?”

“Sure do,” my father replied.

“And do you know Jenner Dalton, one of the partners of The Dalton Group?” our attorney then asked.

My father reached his hand toward Jenner. “I’ve heard all about you. It’s nice to meet you.”

“And you, Mr. Cole,” Jenner said.

Jenner shook my hand as well as my brothers and said, “We’re here for one reason. To get everyone in this room on the same page. We realize there are decades of history between?—”

“Three decades, to be exact,” my father clarified.

“Yes, three,” Jenner said. “That’s certainly a long time and a time frame that’s allowed opinions and assumptions to form. We’re not going to address any of that today. That’s not what this meeting is about. The past is in the past, and as competitors within an extremely lucrative market, tension is bound to form. But it’s tension that no longer needs to exist.” He folded his hands on top of the wooden table.

Except my brothers didn’t agree with him.

Because that tension was an extremely sore subject in our family.

For as long as I could remember, this wasn’t a competition.

This was a match that the Coles intended to win.

“Our purpose for today,” Jenner went on, “is to finally bring the two families together. To start things with a completely clean and fresh slate. Because as of next week, when Walter and Ray sign the paperwork, Spade Hotels and Cole International, the two largest hotel brands in the world, are going to become one.”

“The merger of the century,” our attorney added.

A merger that my brothers and I had never expected.

Until my father had dropped the news on us yesterday when I returned to LA.

And now, as we sat in this battlefield, on the executive floor of The Dalton Group, I could feel a set of eyes boring through my body.

I could smell the sage and burnt orange as though my nose were pressed against his neck.

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