"Speak for yourself, Allan," Kell said, his anger palpable in the room. Kell was never going to want to make peace with the Chandlers.
As far as Dec was concerned, he had lost two things today-his son and Cari-because he no longer wanted to be a Montrose and live under the mantle of hate that they'd all been raised under. He understood his mother so much better right now than he ever had before this moment.
As he stood in the doorway, he saw Allan get to his feet and stride around the table toward Kell.
"We're not kids anymore, Kell," Allan said in a soft but commanding voice. "You're the CEO because we voted you into that position. But remember who owns the majority of shares." He leaned down to his cousin. "You either back down on this and let us find something that will make the future better for all of us or you might find yourself defending your job at the next meeting."
Kell cursed savagely under his breath, balled his hands into fists and pounded the conference room table. "I can't do this right now." Then he stalked out of the conference room.
Dec just looked at Allan. "Why are you backing me? We're not blood."
Allan came over and squeezed his shoulder. "We are blood. And we always have been. Once Kell calms down, he'll realize that your son is the future of both of our game companies. That it's more than making sure that Thomas gets one up on Gregory. After all, his grandson is a Montrose."
Allan had a point. But Dec didn't really care about all that. He could only think of Cari. He had thought he would be able to appease her after the meeting, but he'd heard the heartache in her voice and he knew that there was no way he was going to be able to win her back easily.
Allan stepped out of the conference room to go find Kell and try to calm him down, but all Dec could do was sink into a chair and think about how much he loved Cari. Business, money and the Montrose name meant nothing to him if he didn't have her by his side.
He picked up his cell phone and saw on the screen the picture Cari had taken of him and DJ. She'd given him so much more than he could ever thank her for, and she deserved more from him. Something that would show her that he really had changed.
But grand gestures weren't his thing. He might be the man to force a change, but to woo someone he had no idea how to begin. He hoped that confessing his love for her would be a start, but he had a few other ideas, as well.
It would take some time to put his plan in motion, but that was okay; he wanted to leave nothing to chance. Last night when he'd held her and come up with his plan to save her job, he realized he'd been too narrow in his thinking. He and Cari were part of something bigger, and he knew that he was going to have to get her sisters on board before he went after her and won her back.
Fifteen
"Sorry about breaking down," Cari said later that night when she was ensconced on Emma's living room sofa. DJ and Sam were playing quietly on the floor and she felt a little more normal now that she'd had a pint of Ben & Jerry's One Sweet Whirled.
"You were entitled to," Jessi said. "I would have socked Dec if he'd done that to me."
Cari half smiled, but she didn't think that was amusing. "I don't want to talk about Dec. We should be thinking of a plan to ensure they have to keep the three of us on staff. I'm sure that if I have the finance department rework our new figures-"
"We don't want to talk business now," Jessi said, interrupting her. "We all heard you say that you loved Dec. What are you going to do about that now?"
"I don't know," she said. "I really thought he'd handle everything differently. I thought … Well, I guess that doesn't matter. I can't make him into any man other than the one he is. And I get why the takeover and being a Montrose is so important to him."
"Yeah," Jessi said. "He's adopted."
"How do you know?"
"I had him investigated. I sort of guessed that he was DJ's father, too."
"How?" Cari asked.
"The investigator talked to the staff at the Atlanta hotel where you stayed and found out that Dec had been there, too. The timeline worked out to make him the dad."
Cari nodded. She should have known Jessi would figure it out. She was like a dog with a bone when she got on something.
"I suspected that Dec might be DJ's father when you started dating him," Emma added. "You'd been so careful to keep every man away." She put her empty ice-cream pint on the coffee table next to Cari's and Jessi's.
"I wasn't planning to say anything about DJ to him," Cari said. From the moment she'd decided to have the baby, she'd realized she had only herself to depend on. And then Dec reappeared.
"What happened? You never really said too much about it," Jessi asked.
"It was just a crazy attraction and we ended up in bed. The next morning he was gone, and I felt stupid so I didn't try to get in touch with him. I mean, at first I didn't realize he was a Montrose," Cari said.
"So when you realized you were pregnant?" Emma asked. Her sisters were both watching her intently.
"He had been out of the picture for so long and I didn't really want him back in it. It was so overwhelming, you know?"
"If I had found out I was pregnant I'd be freaking out," Jessi said.
"So would I," Emma said with a wink.
"You should have told us, Cari. I would have been the one to liaise with Dec if I'd known."
"You couldn't have protected me from this, Em. No matter what we did in the office, once I heard his name I knew I had to tell him about DJ."
"Why?" Jessi asked. "He forfeited his rights when he walked away."
"Because he's DJ's father," Cari said. "And you know we love our parents no matter what. Remember how Dad was always trying to please Grandfather and Grandfather never had anything nice to say?"
"I sure do," Jessi said. "Okay, I see your point, but I think you should have let me go back in there and pop him one. He was definitely being an ass today."
"He was on the spot. His cousins wanted him to gut all of us and he must have felt torn. I should have gone easier on him," Cari said.
"No, you shouldn't have," Emma said. "It doesn't matter where he was coming from. He owed you the respect of talking to you before he went in there with his proposal. They have to worry about their bottom line, so I'm not saying he should have done anything differently as far as cutting Jess and me, but he shouldn't have sprung it on you the way he did."
She wasn't surprised to hear Emma defending both her and Dec. Emma had always been fair-minded and she understood the way that business worked. They all did. "I guess I was just hurt, and the anger from Kell was scary. I don't want my son to be related to them. They are all so hard."
"I agree," Jessi said. "Allan isn't as bad as Kell, but you could see that they were definitely all united."
Cari sighed. "I'm kind of mad at Grandfather for doing what he did-cutting Thomas Montrose out of the business. I wonder why he did it."
"I don't think we'll ever know. But you'll certainly have a good story for DJ when he's older about why we don't like his dad's family."
That made Cari sad. She knew she'd let anger get the better of her today and she wished now that she hadn't. She should never have stayed on in her role once Dec came into the picture. She was never going to be blasé where he was concerned. "I should have stepped aside."
"It's too late now. We just have to move on," Emma said. "I think the staff would go with us if we started a new company."
Cari shook her head. She didn't want to be part of a new feud with the Montrose cousins. One where she and her sisters were starting on the losing end. She'd sacrificed too much to the feud already and she was done with that.
"You don't think they would?" Emma asked. "Dang, I thought they were more loyal."
"They might, but then Playtone would come after us again. I don't want to keep fighting the same battle," Cari said. She looked over at her son and decided it was time to go home. She wanted to hold on to DJ and pretend that she hadn't stripped emotionally bare in front of Dec and he hadn't just left her standing there naked.
"I'm tired, girls. I think I'm going to head home. We can meet tomorrow to figure out our next moves."
"Are you okay to drive?" Jessi asked. There was concern in her voice and Cari wondered if her sister realized that a broken heart hurt worse than any other pain. Then she remembered that despite that outer toughness Jessi had a really soft heart.