But beyond that, was there more to the two of them than a son? What was this emotion that kept making him want to give up sound business logic and do what his gut insisted and save Cari's job? Was it love? He didn't know. His mother had been unable or unwilling to describe what love was. All that Dec could remember was that he never wanted to feel the way his mother had felt. She'd lost herself in drink to numb the way she felt when she'd realized his father had married her for her money.
What if everything Cari had done had been to get him to try to betray his cousins and save her and her sisters?
He rubbed the back of his neck and knew there were no answers here in the past. He had to make a decision today. He had to trust Cari and the new life that she seemed to want to build with him.
That future shouldn't frighten him as much as it did, but he didn't know how to build a life with her. Or anyone. He didn't feel content or safe with the thought of having Cari by his side because he knew how fragile his hold on her was. He had no idea how to stay. Six weeks was one thing, but a lifetime? Could he do it?
Would she even want him for that long? He hated not knowing. This, he realized, was the worst part of falling for Cari-he didn't know how she really felt about him. Was it just that she wanted him to be a father to his child?
She'd said she wanted to talk tonight. What did that mean? After the meeting, if he saved her, would she tell him of her true feelings or would she move on?
He shook his head. He wasn't going to change his mind or his plan for Infinity because of her. He'd just have to hope that she was smart enough to get that even though he wanted to make a life with her he couldn't do something that made no business sense.
He left the house and hoped he wasn't doomed to follow in his parents' footsteps. They hadn't planned on being miserable all their lives and yet neither of them had ever found any real happiness. He finally realized that he'd spent a lifetime running and moving so he'd never be in the situation he was currently caught in.
He loved Cari Chandler and he knew without a doubt that he was going to disappoint her today. He hoped that it would be the only time he did it, but he wasn't sure that it would be. His relationship skills stunk and he believed that her sisters would never approve of him in his life.
He knew the kind of pressure that put on a couple. He had grown up in a house where two families had been in conflict. As he drove to the Playtone Games campus, he thought that maybe old Thomas Montrose was having his last laugh on Dec. The son of the son that Thomas thought would never measure up was going to be the man who gave him the one thing that the rest of the Montroses couldn't. The real revenge that Thomas had wanted-bringing a Chandler to her knees not just in the boardroom but in life.
And Dec knew this because he was going to sacrifice his own chance at future happiness to save Cari from him. He knew he wasn't the right man for her and this morning had given him time to recognize that he had changed, but not enough to be able to tell her that he loved her. And she deserved a man who could do that easily and tell her that every single day of her life.
Fourteen
Emma and Jessi were depending on her to wow the board of Playtone Games when the meeting started, but Cari was nervous as they waited in the empty conference room.
"Did Dec tell you what was in his report?" Emma asked.
"No. He'd never do that," Cari said to her sister. "He's very loyal to his cousins. Just like I am to you both."
"We get it. How serious is this thing between you both?" Jessi asked. "Patti said that Kell wasn't too happy with Dec that he was dating you."
"How does Patti know that?" Cari asked, feeling a little of her confidence dip. She hoped that Dec would have found a way to save all the jobs at Infinity, but she was realizing that was just a silly dream. No matter how much revenue she found with new opportunities, jobs were going to have to be cut.
"John's out here for a visit. He played volleyball with Dec and Kell and Allan and apparently there was some discussion that involved you."
Cari wondered if he'd told his cousins about DJ. She could think of no other reason for the argument. She knew that Allan had already known they were dating, thanks to that conversation in her conference room.
She didn't have time to say anything else to her sisters as the door opened and in walked Kell Montrose. The first thing that Cari noticed about him was that his eyes were icy and hard. He looked over at the three of them with such disdain she felt a chill move over her. And Cari knew that this wasn't going to go the way she'd hoped it would.
Allan came in next, looking pensive and serious, and then came Dec. He didn't look at her or her sisters, and she nervously shuffled her presentation in front of her on the conference table.
Jessi reached underneath the table to pat her thigh and she squeezed her sister's hand before she cleared her throat.
"Before we get started, I'd like to tell you about some changes to our financial revenue streams," Cari said. "Would you allow me to do that?"
"We weren't expecting this," Kell said. "I doubt anything you could say at this point would change our plans."
"This is a significant addition to our bottom line and exceeds the targets I discussed with your CFO six weeks ago," Cari said. She might be a pushover where her staff was concerned, but she could be as tough as nails when it came to fighting for them.
Kell turned to Allan. "Did you give her financial targets?"
"Yes. They are aggressive and she wanted to figure out how to save more of her head count."
"We didn't discuss this," Kell said.
Cari was glad she wasn't Allan, as Kell looked like he wasn't too pleased with his cousin. "No offense, Cari, but I didn't think you had a chance of meeting them. I'd like to hear how you are going to do this."
Cari nodded to Jessi, who passed out the presentation that she'd prepared with the financial numbers. She led them through the financial statement, which showed a clear 25 percent increase in profit margin with the addition of a new game.
"But this is all theoretical," Kell said.
"No, it's practical," Cari retorted. "I have a demo of the game on my iPad if you'd like to play it."
"A playable demo?" Dec asked. "When did you have time to develop it?"
"We used an existing game skeleton and changed the assets to Christmas. I used the staff who were scheduled to develop a new game for the second quarter next year, as we aren't sure if we'll need a game then. They have really worked hard on it."
She handed the iPad over to Kell and all three of the men took a turn playing the demo before handing it back to Cari.
"I'm impressed. This is the kind of innovative thinking we reward at Playtone," Kell said.
"I'm glad to hear it," Cari said.
"Make sure that Dec has a list of everyone who was involved in this project," Kell said.
Cari nodded, and Dec smiled over at her. She felt good about the presentation, and she hoped it was enough to make Kell see that there was merit to this generation of Chandlers.
"Should we reconvene in a few weeks?" Emma asked. "Now that you've seen what else we are capable of?"
Kell shook his head. "No, this changes nothing of our current plans. Dec, please begin your presentation."
Emma paled and Cari felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as Dec stood up. "I've had copies of my report made and they will be available to you three after the meeting."
"Why not now?" Jessi asked.
"I don't want you reading ahead and reacting until I've had a chance to explain. The new revenue stream will be added to my revised report, but as Kell just said it really doesn't change much of what we already had planned.
"When I first came to Infinity Games I noticed there was a lot of redundancy between what we do here at Playtone and what you do. For example, we don't need two technical development directors, so that is one role I recommend we cut."
Cari felt the anger simmer inside her as Dec went on and on, talking about all the areas he thought should be cut. She heard him say that three-quarters of the staff should be kept on as they were hard workers and possessed "cutting-edge design knowledge." At least some of her people were going to make the cut.
"Finally, I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am recommending we cut the executive staff of Infinity Games," Dec intoned in an emotionless voice. "Though Cari, Jessi and Emma all seem to work long hours and are viable in their roles, there is simply no need to keep them all on. Initially I was going to recommend cutting all three but over the past six weeks I've seen how much the staff at Infinity depends on Cari. She's their cheerleader, motivator and they all work harder when she asks them to. I think she's an asset as long as we keep the Infinity staff on and recommend keeping her in an operations-officer role."