“I tried. I really tried.” She seemed for a moment like she would break down, but then she took a deep breath. “Screw this. I’ll find something else. Keep your money, Rene. I don’t want to owe you a thing.”

She turned and strode out the door.

Gabriel shook his head. “I’m sorry. She doesn’t understand, or she does and she doesn’t care.”

Or she was sick of being treated like crap. “Roberta can be a lot to deal with. Tell her I’ll pay her the full amount we agreed on.”

“Thanks. I’ll go and let her know. She’s got a lot on her mind. We all do.” Gabriel stopped at the door. “You’re not a bad guy, Rene. They make you out to be this high-and-mighty overlord, but you’re a pretty good boss.”

He didn’t know if he should thank the younger man or not. It did reinforce the idea that everyone viewed him as the bad guy in all scenarios. He was about to close the door when he realized Gabriel wasn’t alone in the lobby.

Charles was standing there, his eyes narrowed. He didn’t seem to notice as Gabriel strode past him. His eyes stayed on Rene.

Well, it was obvious he knew something had gone wrong.

“I take it we won the Lowestone bid.” He didn’t want to play with Charles a second longer. “You’ll have to find another place to receive packages from your spy. You need to understand that I’m going to prove that you’re the one undercutting the company, and I’ll use it to strip your shares.”

He would take them from Charles and hold them in trust for his children. They shouldn’t be punished for the sins of their father.

“You’ll do nothing of the kind.” Charles’s face had gone a blotchy red, but his words were ice cold. “I’m done playing nice.”

“Nice? This is your idea of nice? Corporate spying? You cost this company money.”

“Prove it.” Charles spat the words out.

“I’m working on it, but you should understand that even without prosecutable evidence, I’m going to talk about this at the board meeting and I will accuse you,” Rene explained. “We stayed at the cabin the night of the storm, and I found the bid there in the morning. Armie saw it, too, and he can be my witness.”

“Or you’re setting me up to hide your own failure. You learned how to do that from your daddy, didn’t you?” Charles glanced around as though trying to decide if they were alone.

“I think you should leave my father out of this.”