“Hadley,” Gabe said urgently, “I’m going down to my office. Hadley?”
But Hadley didn’t answer because she was standing stock-still, staring at a thin, brittle-looking woman who’d risen from a sofa in the lobby.
“Mother? What are you doing here?”
“That’s hardly a way to say hello to your mother, is it?” Irene’s smile was a little unsteady.
Their last interchange had hardly been standard fare, either, Hadley thought as she mechanically kissed her mother’s cheek and hugged the sullen-looking twins. “I thought you were in Gstaad.”
“We were supposed to be,” muttered her sister Kaya.
“We thought we’d surprise you.” Irene caught Hadley’s hands and drew her down to the couch she’d been sitting on. “The hotel is beautiful, but it’s no place to be all alone on the holiday. I’ve been thinking about it ever since our conversation the other night went badly.” Irene clasped her hands around her knees. “Your father was obsessed with the idea of coming back early and I thought maybe you and I could clear the air, so we took the Gulfstream back last night.”
Which explained the expressions on the faces of the twins. And then her mother’s words sank in. “Dad’s here? Where?”
“I think he went that way,” Irene said, waving vaguely toward the executive wing. “We’ve only been here an hour or so. We’ve been waiting for a room.”
“And waiting,” added Lara.
“Don’t listen to her, it’s gorgeous here,” Irene said.
Robert would have found his way to the nerve center of the hotel, Gabe’s office. Where Gabe would be. “Excuse me, Mom,” Hadley said, “I’ve got to go find him.”
“Wait,” Irene protested. “You can’t…I need to talk with you about the other night.” Her lips tightened. “I think I hurt your feelings and I didn’t mean to.”
She’d thrown heedless barbs, barbs that still stung. But her eyes held genuine regret now—and confusion, as though she didn’t quite know how to get out of the morass she’d created. She twisted her hands together, hands that were starting to look old, Hadley realized.
And a wave of compassion whisked through her. She leaned over to hug her mother. “We’ll talk, Mom, really talk,” she promised, and rose. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be all right.”
“Can I help you?” Gabe stood in the doorway to his office, staring at the man responsible for the misery in Hadley’s eyes. Robert Stone wore an open-collar white shirt under a navy sport coat. His still-thick hair shone silver at the temples.
“Yes, all right, good,” Stone said into the telephone, ignoring Gabe. “Fax the final document here.” He hung up. “Who are you, another flunky?”
“I’m Gabe Trask, the general manager.” Gabe crossed to the desk. “This happens to be my office.”
Stone gave him an indifferent glance. “About time you showed up. I’ve been here since two.”
“So I’m told. I’m also told you’ve been bullying staff, demanding operational documents and generally stirring up trouble.”
“I own this miserable pile of bricks. I don’t need anyone’s permission for anything I do.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to come in here and run roughshod over my staff.”
“I don’t believe in coddling.” Stone looked at him coldly. “People are paid to get a job done. And as far as trouble goes, it doesn’t need any stirring. Where’s my daughter? I expected to find her here.”
“She’ll be in shortly. She’s doing a walk-through.”
“You’ve got her doing your work now?” Sarcasm was ripe in his tone.
Gabe chose to ignore it. “Hadley does what she wants to do.”
“Funny, somehow when she got here what she wanted to do turned from operating in the best interests of Stone Enterprises to blowing money and wasting time.” He leaned back in Gabe’s chair. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“Maybe for the first time in her life she’s figured out what she really cares about.”
Stone’s eyes were scornful. “And I suppose you helped her figure that out.”
“No, she worked it out on her own.”
“I sent her with a straightforward assignment—to get this business running lean.”
“Is that what you call it?”
“You watch it. You’ve been playing it fast and loose with no accountability for far too long. I send in one of my best managers and suddenly she wants to let you keep going, business as usual. She hasn’t executed any of her original plan and now I’m hearing about some damn-fool idea plan to buy a ski resort. That’s not my daughter.”
Gabe thought of Christmas Eve and the desolation in Hadley’s voice and fought to hold on to his temper. “Maybe it is your daughter for the first time in her life. Maybe you should start paying attention.”
Stone sat up, his feet thumping to the floor. “Don’t you sit here and try to tell me about my daughter, you parasite.”
“Someone ought to. Your daughter cares about more than just meeting your ridiculous profit targets. What matters to her is this hotel and the people in it. Her priority is taking care of them, not scratching out a pissant three or four percent more profit in the short term that’ll end up costing more money in the long run, employees be damned.”
Stone’s eyes narrowed. “My father might have accepted that load of crap. Don’t for a moment think I intend to. I’ll take this place apart and sell it off piecemeal if I have to.”
“Try it,” Gabe invited, slapping his hands down on the polished mahogany and leaning across it. “This hotel is a national historic landmark. I’ll have the press and the law all over you so fast it’ll make your head spin. We’ll fight you all the way.”
“‘We’ll fight you’? I suppose you mean you and my daughter. Oh, you’re slick,” Stone said contemptuously, “I’ll give you that. I should have come here long ago. I couldn’t understand why Hadley was behaving the way she was but now that I’m here I’ve got a pretty good idea.”
“And that would be?”
“Don’t get cute with me,” he growled. “I’ve chased off pretty boys like you before. You smell money, you think you’ve found yourself an easy ride. Well, I can protect my daughter from people like you.”
“Hadley doesn’t need protecting, except maybe from you,” Gabe snapped back. “She’s smart enough to take care of herself. If you’d just let her go you’d wind up making far more than you could ever want from this property. But that’s not really what this is about for you, is it?”
Stone rose. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You interrupt a vacation, take an overnight flight from Switzerland just to deal with a business whose entire revenue is probably smaller than what you pay for jet fuel each year.” Now it was Gabe’s turn for contempt. “You’re not here about the money. You’re here because you want to control her, because you can’t stand the thought that she might be thinking for herself.”
Stone’s eyes turned into slits. “I want you out of here,” he barked, pressing his hands onto the wood of the desk.
“You’re here because of Whit.”
“Get out,” he snarled.
“No.” Hadley stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the tableau in horror. Gabe turned to her and she read fury and relief in his eyes. “What are you doing?” she asked her father desperately.
“What you should have done long ago.” He stared at her, his brows drawn together thunderously. “How many times have I told you to go with your gut? Your first instinct was to fire him and you should have executed. Now I’m taking care of it for you.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gabe’s head snap toward her. “I didn’t know the operation then,” she protested.
“It has nothing to do with the operation and you know it. One of the first moves is always to reduce head count and salary overhead. This is a good way to start.”
“You can’t fire him. He’s the center of the oper
ation.”
“Don’t you dare question me.” She’d never in her life seen Robert so angry. “I never dreamed you could be so irresponsible. You’ve damaged the interests of the company and you’ve hurt your mother and your sisters because you let your head be turned by some pretty boy. If you want to salvage anything at all you’ll sit down and figure out how to get things running right.”
“But you don’t understand,” she said desperately. “I’ve told you that—”
“You don’t tell me anything.” His voice cracked like a whip. “You refuse this and you are finished. I’ll give you one chance and one chance only. I want this operation on track and I want measures implemented by the end of the week. After that we’ll figure out your future. If you have one. You’re not the person I thought you were, Hadley.”
Obey or else. Perform or be punished. It was the same unyielding rebuke she’d heard her whole life. But how could she defy him? If she did, she’d be walking away from everything she’d ever known. Panic washed through her.
“There are some cuts we can’t make.” Her voice shook; she could hear it. “The head count has to stay.”
“The head count drops by twenty percent. You know the rule.”
“The normal rules don’t apply here.”
“The rules always apply.”
“But…”
“Are you going to continue to defy me?” His voice rose. “Twenty percent cuts on staffing and on operating costs. I want a plan together by the end of tomorrow. It shouldn’t take long—you’ve already got a preliminary strategy in your initial memo.”
She knew there were reasons to disagree but they dried up in her throat.
“Don’t do this,” Gabe said urgently. “It goes against everything you’ve said. You know what he’s asking. Are you willing to do that for him?”
Hadley looked from face to face. Her ability to speak had deserted her. It had come to this, the moment of choice. There was no evading it anymore. Not now, she wanted to scream, but it wouldn’t matter. Her career, her livelihood, her father, her family against Gabe and the hotel. It was an intolerable choice, an impossible one.
“Are you?” Gabe persisted.
She moistened her lips. “Gabe, I…” Her helpless pause said the words she couldn’t.
He nodded slowly. “I see.” He stood a moment, his jaw working, then turned and walked swiftly out the door.
“Now about these cuts,” Robert said.
The words broke her free from her suspended animation, and suddenly she realized what had happened.
And she whirled to follow Gabe.
She caught him just outside the hotel. It was like being on a capsizing ship, with the world shifting crazily, nothing making sense. “Gabe, wait, please.”
He turned to her, his face tight and furious. “What do you want?”
“I’m sorry, he’s being awful. Don’t go.”
“I don’t have a choice. In case you didn’t notice, I just got fired.”
“It was a mistake, you have to know that,” she said desperately. “He’s angry at me and he’s taking it out on you.”
“Do you think I give a damn about him?” Gabe demanded.
“Don’t go. We can figure a way out of this.”
“I don’t think so.”
She felt suddenly cold. “What do you mean?”
“I sat in that office and I watched you turn into someone I don’t know. I thought I knew what you stood for. You made a promise to the people here, never mind to me. And now the minute things get tough, you bail. You’re betraying everyone.”
“I’m not betraying everyone,” she said hotly. “I’m dealing with him the only way I know how. Walking away isn’t going to help. If I stay, maybe I can minimize the damage.”
“Oh, what, like you’re suddenly going to stand up to him and tell him where to go? Cross a few names off the layoff list behind his back? Face it, Hadley, you’ll do what he wants. You’re still trying to top that bar. He says jump, you ask how high.” Gabe’s words were scathing.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying do what you know is right. Tell him no.”
“You make it sound so easy.” She rounded on him. “That’s not your father in there. It’s not about your family, your career.”
He looked at her grimly. “Not anymore, it’s not.” He turned toward Cortland House.
She ran after him. “Don’t treat me like I’m being a coward here. This isn’t the movies. If I tell him to take a hike I walk away from everything, Gabe, everything I’ve ever known.”
He spun to face her. “Weren’t you the one who was telling me you didn’t fit? How much this place means to you? Let me tell you what you’re giving up if you give in to him—you’re walking away from the place where you finally did fit. And you’re walking away from everyone in it, from the people who trusted you, people who thought you meant it when you gave your word,” he said furiously. “And you’re walking away from me.”
The words hit her with the force of a blow. Unimaginable, impossible. Unbearable. “Don’t make this about you and me, Gabe,” she pleaded. “It’s hard enough.”
“It’s the same thing, don’t you understand? It’s about what matters, who you are. What you just turned your back on.”
“I’m not turning my back on you.” Say it, just tell him. She swallowed. “I love you. I’d never betray that.”
“You just did,” he said coldly.
“Why are you doing this?” she cried.
Because he was desperately hoping that the most important moments of his life hadn’t been founded in illusion? He’d thought he’d known her, thought he’d found a partner, someone he could make a future with. And then she’d changed before his eyes. Or been revealed for what she was all along.
He’d known in his gut that eventually she’d leave, that rural New Hampshire wasn’t going to be enough for a woman who’d grown up conquering the universe. He hadn’t thought he’d lose her because she’d never been there to begin with.
“Go ahead, stay here, work for him. I thought maybe there was more to you than that. I guess I was wrong.”
You’re not the person I thought you were, Hadley.
She’d bared her soul to him and he hadn’t even noticed.
She’d taken the biggest risk she knew how to take and it hadn’t mattered. Instead, he’d thrown out to her the ways she’d disappointed him, he’d given her a list of failures.
Just like her parents.
It was as though she were walking on the surface of a frozen lake and the ice had broken beneath her feet, plunging her into water so cold it froze her blood. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think of anything except the awful truth—she’d thought it was real love, true love, love the way it was supposed to be. Instead, she’d just walked into a different version of the same situation, like a pet going from one owner to another. How had it happened? How could she have been so blind?
She wanted to rail, she wanted to weep, she wanted to sink to the ground. Instead, she held on. “So basically you’re angry at me because I’m not doing what you decided I should?”
“It should be what you decided you should.”
And emotion flared into bright, diamond-hard anger. “You’re damn right it should. You’re just like my parents, all of you, treating me like I’m some little circus dog that only gets a treat when I perform. I’ve got to turn my back on my family to earn your love? Well, you can go to hell, Gabe. If I’m not the person you thought I was that’s your problem. I’m done with trying to jump over the bar, no matter who’s holding it.”
And turning on her heel, she strode away.
The anger carried her all the way back to the office, where Robert still sat behind Gabe’s desk in Gabe’s chair.
She stalked through the door and slammed it shut behind her. “How dare you walk in here and fire him without cause.”
“You recommended it, back when you were watching out for the company inst
ead of your personal life.”
“I sent three different follow-up memos countermanding my initial recommendations and giving detailed reasons why, and you ignored them deliberately.”
“I ignored them deliberately? I did? What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” he asked savagely, shoving a fax of the Crawford Notch confidentiality agreement in front of her. “I explicitly forbade you to turn this deal. Explicitly. Do you think that because you’re my daughter you can get away with ignoring policy and procedure, that you can pull Stone Enterprises into financial obligations in direct defiance of my orders?”
“I never thought being your daughter brought me any special privileges,” she threw back. “All it’s ever brought me is grief.”
“You get what you earn. You’ve come up here and been to totally ineffective. You’ve disobeyed orders, failed to achieve goals and completely compromised your authority by getting involved with the hired help.”
“What I do in my personal life is my business.”
“Not when it hurts my business,” Robert snapped. “I sent you up here to do a job, not dally with the help. Haven’t I taught you anything? You keep emotion out of it.”
And she lost the slippery grip she had on her temper. “Keep emotion out of it?” she demanded. “It’s about nothing but emotion for you. You’re not making business decisions here, you’re trying to destroy your father.”
“I’m trying to get this business operating up to speed,” Robert thundered.
There was a roaring in her ears. “This isn’t about profits,” Hadley said savagely. “It’s not the hotel, it’s the fact that it’s something that Whit loved, something that was precious to him. You want to know why? Go down by the ballroom and look at that picture on the wall. It was precious because it reminded him of a time you were all happy. So he screwed up. He loved you and Grandmother, right to the end. He loved you, and all you could do was block him out because he hurt you.”
“The past has nothing to do with this conversation.”
“It has everything to do with this conversation,” she retorted. “The man’s dead and you’re still trying to punish him. He made mistakes. People do, and you’re supposed to let them get past it. But not you. All you can do is obsess over it. You focus so much on the man who was out of your life that you never have had room for those of us who are in it.” She caught a breath. “For years, I’ve worked myself blind trying to please you. It’s never been enough, never. And it never will be. So guess what, it’s over. I quit. I’m done.”
Under The Mistletoe (Holiday Hearts #2) Page 20