Page 27 of Always Salty

In that teenager’s place was a man that looked frightening as hell and ate board members for breakfast.

Copper’s t-shirt stretched as he reached out and pulled a chair back for me to sit down on.

I did, not caring that it wasn’t at the head, but at the right of the head.

Once seated, Copper took the seat at the head of the table and then leaned back in the chair as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Lynch asked, looking frantic.

He was nervous.

Good.

“I think by seeing me here, Lynch, that you can use deductive reasoning to spell it out for you,” Copper drawled. “Now, let’s get started. Who goes first?”

“You are not CEO of this company,” Martin Palmer said, sneering. “We don’t have to answer your questions.”

“Not yet, no,” Copper agreed. “In fact, I think we’ll keep Keely as the CEO for now. I’ll be the assistant CEO.”

I nearly groaned.

Just when I thought that I was getting out of this hellhole…

“That’s not how this works.” Martin Palmer’s jowls shook as he stood up, his manicured hands fisting on either side of his personalized custom leather notebook. “There is a line of checks and balances, and you have not been voted…”

“Martin, does your wife know that you liked to fuck teen girls when you go on your overseas trips?” Copper asked curiously.

Martin paled.

“And you, Scroggins.” Copper turned to the man that was clearly mad, but not willing to stand up and confront Copper. “Are you willing to vote against me when I know that your daughter is in deep with a cartel leader in Nicaragua? How would your family, the straight-laced law enforcement that they are, feel knowing that you not only condone the relationship, but helped set them up?”

Scroggins’ eyes went wide.

“Beaufort,” Copper continued. “What was it that I learned last month? That baby that your wife and you had last year. Wasn’t it with your mistress? Not your surrogate?”

Beaufort went from his usually tanned self to a much paler version. “How…”

“I’ve had a lot of years to look into all of this,” he said. “I have something on each and every one of you. I’ve made sure to have so much dirt, that even if you find a way out of what I just shared, I have just as much, if not more in the wings, ready to go. You fight me on this appointment, and I’ll ruin each and every one of you.”

“Why are you doing this?” Palmer raised his voice.

“Because you all stood by and let Pettigrew fuck us all over,” he revealed. “You forced my granddad to waste his life savings to fight y’all in court. You fought and you made our lives a living hell. Me especially.” He narrowed his eyes, leveling each and every one of them a scathing look before he went on. “I deserve this. I want this. You will sell me all of your shares, and by sell, I mean give. You will get the fuck out of our lives. You will stay so far out of our sight that we forget you exist. And god help you if you decide to fight this, because I’m angry, motherfuckers. I’m so fucking angry that I’m willing to take every one of you down with me if I have to. Don’t. Test. Me.”

I was so proud of my brother that I could scream.

This was what I’d been waiting for.

For the last six years that I’d been playing this game, I’d hoped and prayed that this day would come.

Now that it was finally here…

Euphoric.

That was how I was feeling in that moment.

My brother dropped me off at work with a promise that he would be back to pick me up in the morning once I got off.

I handed him my keys without asking why he couldn’t use his bike and said, “I know that your place is furnished and all, but there are renters in it. We can kick them out after we give them notice, but they’re good people. I would hate to kick them out without giving them ample time to move first.”

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