Last Kiss Goodbye. Rita Herron

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ could get away with saying such things in public since he was one of the biggest shareholders.

      “He’s jeopardizing the image of the company.”

      “He’s also made this company rich,” another said, one of the few who still believed in Jason. “He’s the reason SENTEL, Incorporated is in existence.”

      “And he’ll be the reason it fails if we’re not careful.”

      Dennis looked over and saw Jason arguing with Mr. Hansen, one of the key members of the board of directors. He gripped his hand into a fist and then released it. He wanted the company for himself. It was time. He no longer wanted to be overshadowed by Jason’s brilliance or crass behavior. They’d risen higher than they’d both imagined, but Dennis felt that Jason was now a risk to that dream. Dennis hadn’t grown up on the streets of Baltimore the way Jason had, but he’d tolerated Jason’s rough ways because he made him money.

      Now his usefulness was coming to an end. With the release of the new software, and the profits that would follow, Dennis felt ready to rule on his own. But he wished Gwen Duggin were here. She was the one person who knew Jason. How he thought, and why he acted the way he did. After her death, Jason had buried himself in work and buried the man he used to be. Dennis had little interest in resurrecting that man. He just wanted to find a way to remove his old friend so that he could be free of him forever.

      Stephanie approached him. “You said he was a sure thing.” Annoyance and hurt were clear in her voice.

      “I was wrong,” Dennis said, guessing from her tone that she had called the number Jason had given her.

      “I don’t like being made a fool of.” She moved in closer to him, and he could smell the wine on her breath.

      “Neither do I.”

      She arched a perfectly trimmed brow. “So we have a common enemy?”

      “It looks that way.” Dennis took a sip of his wine. “I want him gone and you want him punished, but there’s not much we can do. I don’t want the company to suffer.”

      “The company doesn’t have to. I think I know a way.”

      “I’m listening.”

      “It could be risky, and he might not fall for it.”

      “He trusts me, and that’s all you need to know.”

      “Good, then I know of a plan that will get him put out of the way for a long time.”

      As he listened to Stephanie’s scheme, Dennis’s smile widened.

      One year later

      A cold March wind blew past like a desolate breath as Jason stared at a man he’d once considered a friend. The two stood in the parking lot outside their office after a long day. “What do you mean I’m out?”

      “The board voted, and we’re replacing you.”

      “But I built this company.”

      “And we thank you for it. But you’re a liability now.”

      “I can fight this. It will be a cold day in hell before I—”

      “You’re lucky this is all that’s happening. Mrs. Armstrong accused you of assaulting her.”

      “What? You know I didn’t touch her.”

      “It’s her word against yours. Who do you think they’ll believe? That’s the problem with you, Jason. You think it’s all about honesty and integrity, but in business it’s about image and getting people to believe you. You know how to make money, but not everyone respects you.”

      Before he could reply, Jason saw them. Several men, looking very serious, wearing what looked like identical dark suits, came up to him. “Mr. Jason Ward, you’re under arrest for fraud.”

      “What?” He stared at them, unable to process what was happening.

      “I’ll get you a good lawyer,” Dennis said as the officers led him away.

      But no lawyer could help. Dennis had skillfully turned everything Jason had done over the past year to save the company into “questionable dealings,” including the high-risk venture he had discussed with Dennis and the company lawyers, to see if the idea, though risky, was viable. They had concurred that, although the approach appeared a little shady, he was on the right side of the law. Now he’d been charged with an obscure fraud violation he never knew even existed. In an instant, his image was shattered, and he knew that, although he couldn’t prove it, he was being prosecuted because of jealously and false accusation, and that Dennis and Mrs. Stephanie Armstrong were behind it.

      Initially, he fought the charges long and hard, but soon discovered how difficult it was dealing with the federal government. The evidence presented was stacked up against him, and without the company’s wealth to back him, his lawyer told him that he wouldn’t be able to win and that he should make a deal. He did and was convicted, in spite of his willingness to work with the government and the fact that he had no prior record, and was sentenced to fourteen months in a federal penitentiary.

      The fall of Caesar. The last person he’d trusted had betrayed him. But betrayal and disappointment were nothing new to him. He had gone through a lot growing up in the foster care system in Baltimore. His adoptive mom had given him a chance, once he’d aged out of the system. He had no memory of his real parents. As a child he just remembered going from one home to the next and having to take care of himself.

      His adoptive mom, Beatrice Ward, had made a difference in his life. She saw what others didn’t. At eighteen, he’d given up on having a real family of his own; then she’d come along. He remembered now that she never liked his best friend, Dennis, when he’d introduced him to her. Dennis’s parents had briefly fostered Jason, and they’d struck up a lifetime friendship. At least that’s what he thought. After graduating from high school, he’d earned a degree in industrial engineering while Dennis got an MBA, and the two friends decided to build a company together. Work had been his saving grace after Gwen died.

      He still couldn’t stand being alone or quiet with his thoughts, but prison had forced him to face himself. To face the harsh description of the man the prosecuting attorney had portrayed in court, saying he was a brute, ruthless, a reckless man. He would lay down his sword. There was nothing more to fight for. Everything that had mattered to him had been taken away. He couldn’t even face his mother and refused to see her when she came to visit. He wanted to disappear. That was until he heard she was ill, and he knew he had to be there for her. That’s when the old fire in him returned. He became a model prisoner, and with the help of a new attorney, he served only nine of the fourteen-month sentence.

      Eventually the ruling was overturned, but the damage had been done. The nine months he spent being locked up had been like living in a nightmare, and he just wanted to get on with his life. While the TV cameras and news reporters had been there when he’d entered the prison, no one was there when he came out. Only a small news article was placed on the last page of the major local newspaper. He was still a wealthy man, at least on paper, but he had enormous legal fees, and his reputation was now in ruins.

      Jason spent the next six months making sure his mother, who had been diagnosed with a slow-growing uterine cancer, got the care she needed. She was the most important СКАЧАТЬ