Chapter 11 - The Man Waiting at the Gate
Three weeks after the red Heritage GT left Apex Luxury Motors, Claire Bennett thought the entire ugly episode had finally become nothing more than an embarrassing family story.
She was wrong.
At 7:12 on a Monday morning, Claire coasted her blue Raleigh bicycle through the security gate at Bennett Logistics headquarters, lifted one hand to greet the guard, and noticed a man standing across the street.
Derek Sloan.
He looked nothing like the polished salesman who had once strutted across the marble floor in Italian loafers.
His expensive haircut had grown uneven. His navy suit was wrinkled. A cardboard coffee cup trembled slightly in his hand.
Claire stopped pedaling.
Derek immediately stepped off the curb.
“Claire.”
The security guard moved forward, but Claire raised a hand.
“Stay there, Derek.”
He obeyed.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Derek swallowed.
“I need five minutes.”
“You had five minutes at Apex,” Claire replied. “You used them to destroy my property and threaten me with arrest.”
“I know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Derek looked toward the enormous Bennett Logistics campus behind her.
“I can’t get hired anywhere.”
Claire’s expression remained calm.
“That sounds like a consequence.”
“Every dealership in central Texas knows what happened.”
“You did it in front of twenty witnesses.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
Derek rubbed both hands across his face.
“My wife left.”
Claire’s expression shifted slightly, but she said nothing.
“She took our daughter to San Antonio. The lease on my car is three payments behind. The bank started foreclosure proceedings on my house Friday.”
Claire felt no satisfaction.
That surprised her.
Three weeks earlier, she might have imagined enjoying the moment.
Instead, Derek simply looked pathetic.
“What do you want from me?”
“A job.”
Claire stared at him.
Derek quickly continued.
“Not management. Not sales. Anything. Warehouse. Loading dock. Cleaning bathrooms. I don’t care.”
“You expect my family to employ you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because nobody else will.”
The honesty stopped her.
Derek lowered his eyes.
“I spent fifteen years believing money was proof someone mattered. Then I met someone with more money than everyone I knew combined, and I treated her like garbage because she wore dusty sneakers.”
Claire folded her arms.
“That revelation came very conveniently after you lost everything.”
“I know.”
“There it is again.”
Derek almost smiled, but shame killed it.
Claire studied him.
“Did you apologize to Noah?”
Derek went silent.
“That’s what I thought.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“You knew how to find me.”
Derek looked away.
Claire pulled out her phone.
For one terrified second, he thought she was calling security.
Instead, she dialed Noah.
He answered on the third ring.
“Morning, Claire.”
“Are you at Apex?”
“Since six-thirty. First inventory meeting.”
“Congratulations on becoming unbearable.”
Noah laughed.
“What’s up?”
Claire looked directly at Derek.
“I have someone here who says he wants another chance.”
Silence.
Noah understood immediately.
“No.”
Derek’s face collapsed.
Claire remained quiet.
Noah exhaled.
“Sorry. That came out fast.”
“You’re allowed to say no.”
Another pause.
“What does he want?”
“A job.”
“At Bennett?”
“That’s what he says.”
Noah went quiet again.
Finally he said, “Tell him to come to Apex at noon.”
Derek stared at Claire.
She raised one eyebrow.
“No promises,” Noah continued. “No job. No forgiveness. Just a conversation.”
Claire ended the call.
Derek’s eyes were wet.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.”
She placed one foot back on the pedal.
“If you really changed, prove it to the person you used your power to keep down.”
Derek nodded.
Claire rode through the gate.
She had traveled barely thirty yards when her phone buzzed.
A message from her father.
Come upstairs when you arrive. We have a problem.
Claire entered headquarters ten minutes later and found Thomas standing over a conference table covered with legal documents.
Arthur Davies sat beside him.
Neither man looked happy.
Thomas slid a folder toward his daughter.
Claire opened it.
At the top was the logo of Apex Automotive Group.
Beneath it were three words.
NOTICE OF ACQUISITION OFFER.
Claire looked up.
“Who’s buying Apex?”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“A company called Meridian Automotive Partners.”
Arthur adjusted his glasses.
“And according to our preliminary investigation, Meridian’s acquisition adviser is a man named Victor Hale.”
Claire had never heard the name.
But Thomas clearly had.
“Who is he?”
Her father stared through the windows at the Austin skyline.
“Someone I buried in court twenty-two years ago.”
Claire slowly closed the folder.
“And now?”
May you like
Thomas turned toward her.
“Now he’s coming after everything connected to our family.”
