Love and Other Wicked Games (A Wicked Game Novel) (5 page)

“Not all of us have a bloody Duchy to support us, McAlister! Don’t you feel bad about that money?”

“No, I don’t. Because the Duchy is and always has been well managed—it’s modestly profitable and the people are happy. But it was never worth either of our fathers’ time to corrupt because its potential for increased earnings is so meager—very meager in case you haven’t noticed the difference in how this home is run as of late.” McAlister circled his hands around and then slapped them against his side. “Your home on the other hand, Uncle… still as opulent as ever which leaves me no other choice than to believe you accept the way the mills—”

“You know very well that I don’t! That I never have. My father bought that first mill just after your father’s fifth birthday—before I was even born!—and he ran it like a tyrant until his pockets were lined in gold. When your father took over and bought the other mills he was even crueler and greedier... Those mills have haunted me all of my seventy years—more than twice as many years as you’ve even been alive. I’ve seen more horror, sadness, and pain than I can even say. It—
it sickens me
—But...” He shook his head and covered his face with his hand. “Oh, McAlister.”

“But you won’t help me.”

“No. I will not,” he said firmly with a grimace. “I’m just too old to change my ways now…”

“Uncle, you cannot continue to dwell on the past; on what did happen or what might have happened. There’s nothing that can be done for that now and it does not serve you to continue to carry it with you. Leave it where it belongs—in the past.”

Uncle George hugged himself and turned away.

McAlister leaned towards him.

“You know very well, just as well as I do, that those things that happened—those threats against you and your family—they were the work of my father,
not
the other shareholders. They may be old and stuck in their ways but they have no penchant for violence—”

“I can’t bear to chance that again!” Uncle George turned around and shook his head repeatedly from side to side, his body vibrating. “Not knowing what might happen or when. Always looking over my shoulder. Always being afraid. And not just for myself. It was a bloody living nightmare!” He took one deep breath to calm the shaking. “You know, I’m glad Verna took the children and left. I am.”

Uncle George’s bottom lip quivered as it always did when he talked about his late wife. “She didn’t deserve that. It wasn’t the life she signed on for. I only wish—I only wish that she had wanted to come back after I gave up my fight and the worst of it was over. Or that she would have let me be there when she fell ill... but I suppose she didn’t want to live with a coward any more than she wanted to live in danger.”

He looked up at McAlister with misty eyes. “So, no. I’m sorry. Help me God, but I can’t do it. I won’t. I won’t take that risk again. Even with Verna gone for so many years now. And—and the children having written me off long ago…”

“Then what’s still holding you back? Still trying to protect yourself?” Cal slapped his hands against his thighs.

“Yes…” Uncle George hugged himself more tightly and his lips twitched. “And—and you…”

Cal waved his hand. “I don’t need you to protect me. I need your help.”

“You’d think differently if you were in my position… If you had someone to look after…”

“Well, then I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I don’t. Only me to worry about... and an old man who’s only danger is himself!” Cal shook his head. “But it wouldn’t matter if there was someone else. I would do this anyway.”

“So it is true, then?” Uncle George’s voice was more uneasy now.

“What’s true?”

“That you’ve been meddling around the mills in disguise. Talking to the workers, taking notes, stirring up trouble…” He started pacing and wringing his hands together again as he muttered under his breath.

“So it’s also true then?”

“What is?”

“That they’re having me followed.” McAlister sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again. “I had assumed as much but you’ve just confirmed it for me. I take it that it was the other shareholders who told you what I was doing?”

“Yes. But what does—”

“And how else would they know, unless they were having me followed?”

The color drained from Uncle George’s face. “I hadn’t thought…” He pointed his finger at McAlister. “See?
See?
I told you. Oh, I told you this was dangerous. This is how it starts. First they follow you, they intimidate you, and then—”

“And then what? They beat me with their canes? They wouldn’t risk scratching those ghastly things after the money they spent on them.”

“This is not a joke!”

“I never said it was! Fearing them on the other hand, now that’s something to laugh at.” McAlister chuckled once with a smile. “They’re old and their greatest concern is maintaining the status quo—it’s lined their pockets for decades and they don’t want anything to jeopardize that…
I
jeopardize that.” McAlister jabbed his finger into his own chest. “But hurt me? They can’t or they’ll jeopardize the company even more. It’ll be stuck in limbo for God knows how long while lawyers fight over what to do with my shares and my votes…”

Uncle George sighed and looked at his nephew, his eyes heavy with sadness and worry. “If you’re not afraid, why do you continue to avoid the meetings?”

“Because they still want me gone. They just have to do it the right way—by voting out my involvement and taking away my voice in the company. But the bylaws say a vote of that magnitude requires proof.”

“Proof of what?”

“That I’m doing something to undermine the company and its investments. I don’t know
who
they have watching me—maybe it’s their young sons or nephews in disguise—but that’s why they’re having me followed. They can watch me all they want, though. They won’t find anything incriminating.”

“I don’t understand. If they won’t find anything, as you say, then why avoid the meetings? Things are becoming very tense and it’s put me in quite a predicament… Now if you were there then—”

“Isn’t it obvious, Uncle? Not finding anything will just make them more desperate, so I wouldn’t put it past them to fabricate something. Maybe they’ll even try to have me dragged back and force me to sit for a vote because they can’t vote me out if I’m not there—another bylaw.” McAlister lifted his hands above his head and then shrugged as he dropped them. “So, for now avoiding the meetings is my best defense.”

Uncle George began to shake again, apparently still unconvinced of McAlister’s safety and intentions. “But how can you say you’re not harming the company? How—”

“Because if I was, I wouldn’t be trying so hard to come to an amicable solution, a solution that won’t destroy the company and will protect their investments—perhaps even improve them!”

“Oh, McAlister.” Uncle George shook his head as if to say that McAlister had lost his mind. “Even small reforms would be costly, you have to know that. And larger reforms, those could drain the company dry. How could it ever be any other way?”

“Because it has to be.” He held a finger up to stop his Uncle’s protests. “There has to be another way if this is to work. And it must work.” McAlister said, punching the doorframe. “All I need is more time to prove that reforms will not destroy the company. I can prove it, I’m sure I can and—”

“Then what? Say it was somehow possible. What does it matter what you can prove when your vote will still only count for forty percent?”

McAlister crossed his arms and gave his uncle a sly smile. “I’ll convince you to vote with me.”

Uncle George’s mouth trembled and he shook his head from side to side as he again made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the reforms. McAlister felt a short pang of regret for his harshness and persistence. When he thought about, he knew that his Uncle was a good man—he was just afraid of the past, and rightly so. But fear was not a good enough reason to turn his back on others in need. McAlister knew that he had to push him if there was to be any chance of ever gaining his uncle’s support. And he didn’t just want his uncle’s support, he needed it if he was to ever implement any of the changes he wanted to make. So McAlister set aside his own guilt and pushed his uncle once more.

“I will. I swear I’ll convince you, but I need more time.”

Uncle George shook his head again, the skin on his hollow cheeks flying from side to side. “They won’t let you! This will just get worse and worse and no matter how you try to avoid it, it will all catch up to you eventually…”

“I know that very well. I’d be lying if I said I could just ignore the shareholders and the meetings forever.”

“Then why don’t you do it now? Go to a meeting, sit for the vote, and just get this all over with.”

“What would be the point in that?”

“They’ll leave you alone.”

McAlister raised his brow. “Even if that was the case, putting my position to a vote is not as simple as that. The good news is that due to the implications of this sort of vote, the bylaws allow the shareholder in question to cast a vote if they so need—a sort of balance in the system. So, of course I’ll choose to vote if and when it comes to it. But as you’ve just pointed out, I still only hold forty percent. Not enough for a majority… which is why I’m in this situation in the first place…”

“But they can’t remove you without my vote. The other four only hold forty percent between them as well, so it would be a tie. They need my twenty percent to break the tie and have a majority. And I won’t vote against you, McAlister.”

“I know that, Uncle, but that’s exactly the problem. You won’t vote against me, but I also know that at this point you won’t vote with me. On anything. And I’m not sure which is worse. Without you they won’t have enough votes to remove me, but without you we’re also at an indefinite standstill.”

“What do you mean?”

“Once the vote has been put up, the matter must be resolved by majority vote. All ties must be broken. Until that time the shareholder in question is suspended of their duties. I’d still have my shares, of course, but I’d no longer have a voice in the company. My vote would no longer count. It would be the four of them and you… and in that scenario, with forty out of sixty votes, they would hold majority voting power. Which is exactly what would happen if they vote me out anyway. It’s a win for them no matter how it pans out.”

Uncle George’s face went white. “Bloody hell.”

“Maybe you haven’t read any of the bylaws, Uncle, but I’m certain the rest of them have. And I’d guarantee they’re counting on this. For now anyway, because they won’t settle for just pseudo-control of the company.” McAlister ran his hand down his face and then rubbed his eyes. “They know what happened to you before: all the threats, what happened to your family… Most of them were around for it. They know that if you had to choose—”

“No…”

“If you had to choose,” McAlister said raising the pitch of his voice, “they know which way you’d go right now.”

Uncle George lowered his head, knowing McAlister was right

“Family or not, they know all it will take is a little push in the right direction and they’ll have your vote because you’re too afraid to—”

“But you said that they weren’t dangerous!” Uncle George snapped his head back up to look at McAlister. “You said that they won’t—”

“They won’t. But you’re too tired and too afraid to find that out for sure. When push comes to shove, they’ll have your vote. You know it and so do they.”

Uncle George lowered his head again, ashamed. “Just stop this all. Let someone else—”

“Someone else. Someone else! There is no ‘someone else’ because everyone is doing just what you are and passing it along.” McAlister rapped his knuckles against his Uncle’s chest. “You have no idea. No idea! When was the last time you spent time in the mills? Walked the streets where the workers live and saw
how
they live? If you thought what you saw thirty years ago was bad, you have no idea. It’s only gotten worse. It’s squalor and sadness and despair... All because everyone passed it along to ‘someone else.’”

“I’m telling you McAlister, let it go. I’m begging you. You’ll make no friends. Everyone will be against you—”

“I’ll be just fine.”

“Against all of this? It can’t be done. You’ll be on your own trying to change a system that’s been established for decades…” Uncle George shook his head and his voice cracked. “You’re just one person…”

“And so was Hart!” McAlister threw his hat on the ground and his voice caught in his throat at the mention of his late childhood friend. But God dammit it all, if he wasn’t worth ten of me. More even.”

“This isn’t about Hart.”

“But isn’t it? If it hadn’t been for him I never would have—I wouldn’t know—” McAlister cleared his throat. “If there was ever proof that one person can make a difference in the world, it was that man. And Hart wouldn’t let me give up. He’d tell me power doesn’t come from numbers but from might, so stop complaining and do what I know is right. So I will. I refuse to give up until I’ve done everything I can.”

“I was just like you once.” Uncle George smiled sadly and looked his nephew right in the eyes. “But I got tired and old and nothing I did made any difference. It just made my life harder. It just made my family’s life harder. You have to pick your battles.”

“I pick this one. And eventually I’ll convince you to pick it again too.”

“McAllister—”

“Cal,” he said, finally correcting his uncle. “Call me Cal.”

“Cal.” His Uncle swallowed hard and shook his head. “Oh, you idolized your father so much as a child. And loved him. Quite a great deal. You didn’t know who your father really was when you took on his nickname. Few of us did at the time, or at least few of us admitted to it... But I wish you’d let me call you something else. You don’t have to let that name define you anymore and you don’t have to keep it...”

“But it does define me! And I must keep it! It’s so much more than a name now. Can’t you see that?” Cal’s heart raced and he had to take a deep breath as the growing energy pulsed through his veins. “This name is a reminder and a symbol of what he did and what I must change... And it’s the person I will be if I don’t.”