Children of Dynasty (43 page)

Mariah steered the car toward the heart of the city. Market Street wound past Twin Peaks and then settled out into a straight run toward the skyline. In minutes, the tall buildings closed in.

The sight of Rory waiting in the building lobby threatened to burn a hole in her chest. Once more, he’d dressed in his best suit, the one that he’d worn to see Takei Takayashi. His appraisal of her was swift and hungry, darting from her coiled hair to the hem of her pants, but he greeted John first.

A handshake turned into the awkward half-hug of men who are extended family. “Sir,” Rory said.

“Call me John.”

“All right … John.” Rory broke into a grin.

He bent to brush a kiss onto her cheek. His hands gripped hers, the touch of his wedding ring both tormenting and reassuring.

Tom Barrett arrived next, with his hair tamed as neatly as Mariah had ever seen it. Since his confession the other day, he moved like a man ten years younger. “John, Mariah,” he drawled, drawing her into a bear hug that almost lifted her from the granite floor. “Campbell.”

“Call me Rory.”

Wilson McMillan joined them.

The grand old man of the Northern California developers stepped lively, sharp and ready for anything. “John.” He gripped his hand. “We’ll get this thing sorted out directly.”

Rory thought the group stood in the awkward pose of people outside a courtroom. Underlying tensions masqueraded beneath a veneer of normality, with nothing to be decided until they went inside.

An elevator arrived and they ascended to the executive offices on forty. The receptionist in the palatial anteroom to DCI looked up in alarm at the six striding purposefully toward the inner sanctum, but she did not challenge Rory. Guarding Davis’s entry, his secretary wore a blue-blood expression, but Rory brushed aside her exclamations. He opened his father’s office door.

Davis stood at the window, looking out in the direction of Grant Plaza. Only a few holes remained in the glazing on the top floor, the custom panes broken in the accident. He turned toward the sound of the latch with a look of surprise that quickly shifted to shock.

Rory confronted his father. “A group of us have come to tell you how things are going to be from now on. You know Mariah and I are married and since you’ve chosen to ignore the implications of that, we will have the board vote you out as Chairman.”

Davis gave a mirthless bark. “How do you propose to accomplish that?”

“Once they hear of your backing Tom Barrett to spy on Grant Development, it should be no problem.”

Davis shot Tom a disparaging look. “You don’t have the nerve to accuse me. You came to my office with your hat in hand.” He focused back on his son. “Rory, you know what that would do to your mother.”

Though it pained him to see his mother cast onto the board as a game piece, he kept his gaze steady. “It will be tough on her, but I think she’ll understand. Especially after the way you’ve been lately.”

Casting about, Davis focused on Wilson McMillan. “What’s your role in this?”

“Young Rory tells me you’ve used your weight with Senator Chatsworth and others to keep him from pursuing other opportunities. I came to tell you two can play that game. I may be an old man, but I’ve still got some clout.”

Davis lost a bit of his bravado. “I know you do, Wilson.”

“I saw you baiting John’s daughter about the bank loans at my house party. At the time I didn’t realize how serious the situation was.” Wilson moved closer to Davis. “I’ve known you and John a long time.” The elderly developer sounded almost kind, his usual megawatt energy reined in. “And I knew Catharine.”

Davis’s eyes flicked to Mariah at the mention of her mother’s name.

“It’s time all this came to an end,” Wilson declared, “especially now you’re all family. I’ve spoken to the chairman at First California. He’s holding Thaddeus Walker up on the Grant foreclosure, pending a merger agreement between these two.” Wilson indicated Rory and Mariah.

Rory took her cold hand and they faced his father.

“You have this all figured out,” Davis temporized. “I get dragged through the mud, along with your mother, while you,” with a hard glance at Rory, “and your new family come out smelling like petunias in the park.” Proud and stubborn, he drew himself up. “Walker will never admit what happened for the sake of his own career.” He looked at Tom Barrett. “It’s my word to the board against a man who works for Grant, is in gambling trouble, and has just lost his son.”

Mariah cut in. “He lost his son, or you took him away. I’m still waiting for the final report on the hoist cable, and we’re sending a PI to El Salvador to interview the welder who was up there that morning. When we find him, I imagine he’ll have a story a lot like Tom’s.”

Davis dropped back a step.

She kept hammering. “What did you offer Zaragoza?”

Wilson McMillan joined in. “I imagine a call from me to Dee Carpentier at the
Chronicle
would put you as a suspect on page one. She’s a bit more credible than ‘On The Spot.’”

“This is ridiculous.” Davis’s eyes met Rory’s with a question in them.

Rory remembered his father’s apparent disbelief when he’d accused him on the street after meeting with John. He looked into his heart, and at his father. Could he publicly accuse him of attempted murder? See it in the headlines?

“I didn’t do it!” came the sharp cry from the man who’d given him life.

The silence following Davis’s outburst was absolute. Then Rory heard Mariah’s ragged breath and knew his own was as erratic.

Davis gave a last look around the room for quarter. McMillan’s face was granite, Tom guilty yet unyielding. Mariah met him stare for stare, Catharine’s daughter, but her own woman. He lingered on Rory. “My own family turned against me.”

John spoke up. “There’s an alternative to any ugly business.”

As much as Rory knew his father had to go, it didn’t feel like victory to watch him close his eyes and rub the bridge of his nose, weighing the odds. At last, Davis turned to the man he’d both loved and hated in equal measure.

“All right, John.” His voice was that of a marathon runner who’d hit the wall. “What do you suggest?”

John moved forward and put an arm around Rory and Mariah. “I say we both retire and let these two get on with their life, and their business.”

He and Mariah had engineered this coup, but all Rory could feel was sick inside as the arrogant man whose profile might have crowned a Roman coin, bowed his head. “I’ll draft a letter to the board.”

The abdication should have been a triumph, but it didn’t make Mariah’s chest lift the way she’d expected. Instead, she watched Davis walk out of his own office with an unexpected ache. The door closed behind him with a snap that sounded final.

As soon as his rival had left the room, her father sighed. She met his eyes and the sheen of tears there made her own throat grow tight.

“That’s that,” he said. “I suppose we need to inform the staffs.”

Rory put up a hand. “Yes, but we need to check in with First California.”

McMillan clapped a hand on his shoulder. “What say you and I go over there while Mariah and her dad take care of Grant Development?”

John nodded. “I suppose we can’t call it Grant anymore.”

The end of what she’d always believed to be her heritage made her look to Rory. “I’m a Campbell now, but I’d hate to see the Grant name go away.”

Rory frowned.

McMillan smiled. “How about an honorable compromise? CGI, Campbell-Grant Interests?”

“Only because Campbell comes first in the alphabet,” Rory agreed. “Mariah, John?”

They exchanged a glance and nodded.

“One more thing.” Rory pointed out the window toward the skyscraper nearing completion. “I’d like to keep the name Grant Plaza. We’re going to get past this accident and make it the finest address in the city.”

Now Mariah was sure she saw tears in her father’s eyes.

“Thank you, son.” He moved to clasp the younger man’s hand.

Once she and John got to the their offices, he called a general meeting of the company to be held in half an hour. While they waited, he telephoned each manager and gave them a thumbnail sketch of what was happening.

When he hung up for the final time, he stared at the receiver. “I wish Arnold was here.”

For the first time, Mariah did not cringe at the mention of the financial manager’s name. His affection for her father seemed nothing but genuine. In fact, he would be a good man to have in the new company. “Do you think he’d come back to work for Rory and me?”

John smiled. “I talked to him about that last night. He came over and we had a game of chess.”

“What did he say?”

“I think you must ask him yourself. I already apologized for doubting him …” He trailed off and she understood his meaning.

As the hundred or so employees crushed into the executive conference room, Mariah could see on their faces that they believed the foreclosure had happened. John’s somber expression didn’t encourage them and she expected he was having second thoughts about the deal he’d made with Davis to retire.

When everyone had gathered, with the exception of Arnold Benton and engineer Ramsey Rhodes, who was out, John rapped on the table for order. “Folks, I’ve got some news that means a lot of you will keep your jobs. There will be no foreclosure.”

Smiles broke onto faces. Exclamations of surprise and delight drowned out his attempt to go one.

John held up his hands for order but it was a while before quiet was restored in the conference room. “Hold on, everybody. There will be a lot of changes. Grant is merging with DCI …”

“What the …” An oath broke from their lead draftsperson.

“Davis Campbell?” John’s secretary shook her head.

“How’s that going to work?” called a young man who’d joined the company only last week upon his college graduation. Even he knew of the legendary rivalry between Grant and Campbell.

John waited until curiosity got the better of them. When the group settled, he went on, “Both Davis Campbell and I have retired.” Murmurs and whispers broke out, but at a level he could speak over. “Mariah and Rory Campbell will be running the combined company, to be called Campbell-Grant Interests.” He glanced a question at her.

She nodded and stepped up beside him. “You all may have seen some confusing things about Rory and me this week on TV.”

The speculation grew louder so she raised her voice. “Yesterday afternoon, Rory and I were married.”

Silence greeted her last word. She stared at the assembled company and they back at her. She realized she was holding her breath.

Pandemonium erupted. Mariah’s eyes stung while applause and cheering went on and on. Why was everyone so excited about her marrying Rory?

April Perry jumped up from a front row seat and embraced her. “Congratulations. I think having your story on TV turned you and Rory into celebrities.”

Tom Barrett grabbed her into a bear hug and spoke into her ear. “Everyone believes you and Rory can make things right.”

People surrounded her, laughing, and offering best wishes. All the while, she wondered how she and Rory could make things right between them when his father might have tried to kill her.