“The FDA rep will be there too. Gloria, please make sure we have the room set up. I don’t intend for the meeting to go on long.”
Vick’s phone went off, the ringtone signaled her mother was calling. I wasn’t surprised when she silenced it and pushed past me to get to her desk.
“I’ll have the room ready,” Gloria murmured. “And Jett?”
“Yes?”
“Your day is about to become very difficult. Remember, it’s worth it.”
Gloria sometimes got that way with me, giving foreboding advice. At first, I ignored it, but when it became a reality every single time, I started paying close attention. Now, I took her words like the gospel they were.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Exactly what I can’t tell you.”
At 1:15 p.m. on the dot, Bastian and Cade Armanelli waltzed in wearing all black suits with two large guys trailing them. Their presence today was purely to intimidate, not negotiate. I saw it in their eyes, in the fact that they didn’t bring a corporate team but a mob team.
I shook my head at Bastian. “Your muscle isn’t necessary here.”
“And yet, I feel better having it just in case.”
“Suit yourself,” I shrugged and waved them into the conference room. I’d asked Bob, Gloria, and Jax to be at the meeting. No one else needed to be present, but Harvey had requested Vick. She waited at the table, stock-still. Her thick gray-speckled dress looked as stiff as she did. The last thing I needed on my mind was an angry woman—especially the one I was sleeping with—during one of the most important meetings of the year.
Mr. Young, the rep from the FDA, was ushered in by Gloria. She let him know he could take a seat wherever he liked.
“Jett Stonewood.” I offered my hand and he took it in his meaty one. His firm handshake didn’t linger or squeeze me too hard. After our research, I knew he was only about ten years older than me. For the type of position he held in the FDA, I was surprised by how young he was.
“Weston Young. Nice to finally meet you. Little unfortunate that it’s under these circumstances.”
“Agreed.” I turned toward the conference table. “Have a seat and as soon as Harvey gets here, we’ll talk.”
“Sure.” As he introduced himself to people around the table, Vick stood up and gave that terrible fake smile that I knew was bullshit. My team followed suit, and then Weston got to the Armanellis. I saw the way his hand trembled as he took Bastian’s.
He knew exactly who was at the table and exactly the risk he took by being here.
After a few moments, laughter could be heard in the hall; voices of both a man and a woman. Levvetor’s main man, Harvey, strutted in, a sparkle in his eye as he announced himself and the woman next to him.
“Everyone,”—his voice boomed, boisterous as ever—“I can’t thank you enough for coming out today. We need this. Levvetor needs this. Right?”
He turned to the tall blonde woman who stood in front of us as if on a stage, hands folded perfectly in front of her, nails painted the same color as her dress, and her amber eyes scanning the room just the way Vick’s did. When they landed on Victory, they hardened.
Like mother, like daughter. Vick’s body jolted with an emotion I’d never seen on her. She glanced at me in dread and then back at her mother. She mouthed, “No,” trying to silently communicate something before the meeting started.
Harvey rambled on though. He saw nothing transpiring. He’d come to put on a show, and he would do it, come hell or high water.
“Mrs. Blakely was wonderful enough to accompany me to the meeting. The FDA has concerns about our product. Isn’t that right?”
Mr. Young stood and introduced himself. Then he went on to say, “We thoroughly test every product that we make available to cancer patients. I’m a part of that team. I’m happy to meet you today and discuss it.”
“It’ll come to a vote within your administration, but I want you to know the side you should be voting for. I think we can do that without Jett discussing dairy and without Bastian here, huh?” He tried to nudge Weston gently into his court.
“I hope so. Right now, I need to see more evidence. We’re working on testing, and I hope your teams are working on alternative ingredients too.”
Harvey nodded vigorously and then turned to Mrs. Blakely again. “I wanted to introduce you to Mrs. Blakely. She and Vick here, who is an employee of Stonewood Enterprises, can provide you with a perfect example of why this drug needs to be an option for patients with leukemia.”
Since the age of eighteen, I’d been privy to major negotiations. I’d been in conference rooms where people screamed at one another, threatened each other’s lives, negotiated billions of dollars, voted down saving thousands of lives. I watched my father never, ever show his true feelings in those meetings. He was the boss. The unwavering, rock-solid foundation of Stonewood Enterprises.
Harvey’s words tested my composure as the new boss. No part of me should have portrayed surprise at his words. Quite frankly, I should have already had the information. But my mind scrambled to catch up, snapping up bits of memory to come to a quick conclusion: Victory’s mom must have had leukemia. It all made sense—her desperation to save the company that saved her mother, her knowledge of Levvetor when Bastian brought it up, avoiding her mother’s calls, unable to cope with their new relationship.