Daniel saw his boss's jaw tighten, and Daniel, who knew where everybody in the company was buried, felt his own stomach drop because Daniel knew that name, too. "Meridian," Travis repeated. "Yes." "Howard."
Travis's voice had gone soft, which was a thousand times worse than if he'd shouted. "Reed Capital owns 60% of Meridian Credit Partners. We bought the stake four years ago. I sit on their lending committee."
"I sit on it." "I know," Lassiter said quietly. "So you're telling me—" Travis took a step toward his chairman.
"That the predatory bridge loan that's been strangling this company, the confession of judgment that's about to put 62 people out of work Monday morning, the trap that turned a survivable cash crunch into a death sentence..." His voice dropped to almost nothing. "That came out of a company I control." "Yes," Lassiter said :
The courtyard didn't make a sound. "How?" Travis said. "How does my own lending arm write a loan like that? A confession of judgment."
"Howard, we don't do those. I've got a written policy against them. How does that happen without it crossing my desk?" Here, Howard Lassiter did the bravest and most foolish thing he'd done in 14 years. He told the truth.
"Because I approved it," Lassiter said. "I sit on the Meridian committee in your place when you're traveling. You were in Singapore. The deal came through."
"It was profitable. The terms were aggressive, but the borrower signed willingly, and I..." His voice cracked. "I waived your policy."
"I told myself it was one deal. I told myself you wouldn't care about one midsize real estate borrower in California. I approved it, and I didn't tell you. Then eight months later your acquisitions team flagged Whitmore as a turnaround target without realizing the loan choking it was ours."
He stopped. "I've been sick about it for weeks. I came down here today to tell you, and then all this happened and I lost my nerve. But you can't sign that folder without knowing."
"Because if you acquire Whitmore Holdings while Meridian holds that loan, a loan I approved against your own written policy, and it ever comes out, it's self-dealing. It's a conflict of interest big enough to put your name in the papers. It could trigger a regulatory review of the whole Meridian acquisition. It could cost you the bank."
Travis Reed stood absolutely still. For the first time all afternoon, through the insults, the threats, the humiliation, the slow reveal, the calm had gone out of his face. Not into anger. Into something deeper.
The look of a man who has just discovered that the rot he'd come to fix was, in part, his own. "So let me understand," Travis said slowly. "I rode 400 miles to save 62 jobs from a debt trap. And the debt trap was set by my own house."
"By my own people. With my own money. While I wasn't looking." He turned and looked at the dusty Harley like it might tell him something.
"I spent 20 minutes lecturing that man." He gestured at Ethan without looking at him. "About character. About how the way you treat people when you think nobody important is watching is the only honest thing about you."