Page 1 of Room Twenty-Four: Under Their Hands

CHAPTER1

Violetta

My head buzzes and my heart is racing out of control. The members of the board stare at me with cold eyes. I know these sons of bitches want to get me out of my own damn company.

I’ve built Winters Security from nothing. I ran it out of my house to start with. Started with just myself and a few friends that I knew that had just gotten out of the military. We worked our asses off. Long hours, not enough sleep and of course, the joy of male chauvinists who didn’t think that women could do security. Give me a damn break!

My dad brought me up in this world but after he died and his company went under before I was fifteen, I knew that I wanted to do the same thing with my life.

But no man would hire me so I started my own company and when men wouldn’t work with me, claiming that the little lady wasn’t capable of doing this kind of work, I found women that would.

We kicked ass. We did every damn little job that the bigger companies didn’t want until I built my company up to what it is today.

And now those same kinds of bastards on my board think that as a woman, my delicate sensibilities can’t handle running a multi-million dollar company.

And here I stand, having a fucking panic attack and desperately trying not to prove them right.

I’ve been working twelve and fifteen hour days for the last three months. Seven days a week. No time off and next to no sleep since I decided to take the company public.

And that’s why the bastards want to push me out. My business is just about to take off and they’re hungry for the payout.

Too fucking bad. This is my business. I’m not letting some guys from the old boys’ club think that they can take what’s mine.

All of them stare at me just waiting for me to break down so that they can sayI told you so.

“Alright. We’re ready for the big day on Friday. We will be going public and everything is set up and ready to roll out.”

“I still say that we don’t need to do that. We make enough money without going public and having to answer back to shareholders.”

Shawn fucking Hastings. The old boy just refuses to give in on this. He likes his money and he’s not willing to lose one dollar.

These are my hard-earned dollars so we’ll do what I need to do to keep my company and my bottom line healthy. I don’t care how it affects them.

“We’ve discussed this and as the majority, I’ve made the decision. We are doing it. So you might as well get used to it.”

My chest gets tight again and it feels like I can’t breathe. Like something big is pushing down on my chest.

He glares back at me and even though I want to rub my chest, I don’t. I’m not giving him one scrap of ammunition.

“Whatever you say, dear. But I still say that we’re fine as we are. We’re taking an unnecessary risk going public.”

“No. I’ve run the numbers and the different emergency scenarios that it could bring. It’s fine.”

“I don’t like that word. Fine.”

“I’m sure you don’t.” I try to push the snippy tone out of my voice but it keeps popping back up.

He glares at me, his thin mouth set in a mulish line.

I glare around at all of them. “This is my company. My choice. So you might as well get used to it.” My eyes drift coldly to all of them. “And you will have a hard time taking my company from me just in case you’re considering that. I’m in charge. I made sure that I kept all of the control that I need for the majority share.” I smile like a shark, not a friendly smile. “So now that we have that all squared away, let’s talk about the quarterly numbers.” I turn towards the youngest member of my team. “What’s your numbers, Clint?”

I sit down and let him take over with a powerpoint program for all of the quarterly numbers. Which look good. The board should be ecstatic but I know they’re not. They never are. They always want more.

After he’s gone over the numbers, I stand up and smile around. “Thank you for meeting me today. I’m very excited and can’t wait to see what our newest programs and the public shares do. We won’t be meeting next month because of Christmas. But we will be meeting early in January so Happy Holidays to y’all! Thank you!”

I stand up by the head of the table and just watch as the room clears out.

I see some of their eyes darting away from me and I know, they’re making plans. It’s a hostile takeover in the works for sure.

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