Free The Insiders by Craig Hickman

forth in the conference room.
    “You should have fired her when you had the chance,” Tate said, turning off the lights in his suite to look at the moonlit mountains surrounding the resort.
    “You know why I didn’t. There were too many rumors that I was out to get her. Letting her stay was the only way to stop the rumor mill,” Kamin said.
    “Okay. Okay. It’s water under the bridge. How do we deal with her?”
    “Something’s given her new hope.”
    “Or someone. Who?” Tate asked, becoming more agitated by the second.
    “I don’t know. Maybe Redd,” Kamin said.
    “Not likely.”
    “He hasn’t been the same since Charles was shot.”
    “No one has!” Tate said emphatically.
    “I’m not suggesting Redd did anything intentionally. An offhanded comment or a hint of uncertainty might have been the only excuse O’Grady needed to intensify her probing.”
    “You think she baited him?” Tate asked.
    “Redd’s too smart for that. But she may have convinced him …”
    Tate interrupted, “… to tell her what’s really going on? Forget it.”
    “No,” Kamin said, his voice rising. “She may have convinced him to admit his own growing uncertainties.”
    Tate fell silent. He slid open the balcony door and walked out into the cold, hoping it might help drop his blood pressure.
    “Redd’s vulnerable, Wayland,” Kamin continued. “Has been since White Horse. And if he is, we are.”
    Bristling at the comment, Tate watched a red fox chase a snow rabbit across the blanket of white into the dark pines. The more unpredictable the fox, the more rabbits it snares. He smiled and walked back into his suite. “Maybe it’s time to kill the KaneWeller deal.”
    “We can’t …”
    “Easy, Jules,” Tate said. “I know you’ve been waiting a long time to assume the helm at KaneWeller, but Musselman will give us the resources to acquire Morgan. Anything you want to do at KaneWeller you can do at Morgan or another investment house, and that includes acquiring Fielder & Company. You may be right about Redd, and O’Grady is clearly a threat. It’s time to move the game to a new playing field,” Tate said, knowing it would be brutal for Kamin to leave KaneWeller after so many years of patiently positioning himself for the top spot. But there was no other alternative, Tate mulled. Not if we expect to preserve the partnership. O’Grady had always been a free spirit. She should have been removed from the equation when Kamin had the chance. Now, it was too late. Control had been lost. And Kamin knew it. If there was any lesson Tate had learned from history, it was that control belonged to the ruthless. Whenever it was lost, it had to be retaken immediately, no matter the cost.
    “How do we kill it?” Kamin asked wearily.
    “Leave that to me. Contingency plans are already in place,” Tate said. “Right now we need to focus on Musselman. It’s time to start buying as much stock as we can.”
    “You’ve confirmed Quinn?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’ll put things in motion before I get on the plane. Buying can start first thing Monday morning,” Kamin said with a deepening resignation in his voice. He’d learned a long time ago that it never paid to disagree with Wayland Tate—not once he’d made a decision.
    “How many entities do we need?” Tate asked.
    “At least thirty,” Kamin said.
    “I’ll let Swatling know. If you have any reservations about Quinn tomorrow night, you can call it off,” Tate said, attempting to appease Kamin.
    “The stock was selling at ten percent below book value at today’s closing,” Kamin said, just having pulled up Musselman’s stock report on his screen.
    “Perfect. If Quinn is as hungry as he seems, we’ll be able to generate several billion on Musselman.”
    “I look forward to meeting him,” Kamin said, a slight glint returning to his eyes.
    “Needless to say, he’s very anxious to meet you. The depressed stock price is driving him crazy. We’re scheduled for