The words were so unlike her usual careful responses that Victoria stared. For an instant she was ready to accuse Jenny of insubordination. Then her gaze fell on the photograph again, and the accusation evaporated beneath the much larger problem. If Darien had intended to invest, she had personally driven away the last source of financing the company might realistically obtain before its cash ran out.
"Get Marcus," she said. "And pull up everything we have on Cole Ventures."
Marcus Brooks arrived carrying a coffee he no longer wanted. He listened to Jenny describe the lobby incident, then asked her to repeat the part about security. When Victoria admitted she had demanded an escort, he set the cup down without looking for a coaster. The coffee spilled onto an expense report, leaving a brown stain across a line of numbers. Neither of them moved to clean it.
"Please tell me you didn't actually have Darien Cole removed," Marcus said.
"I didn't know it was him."
"You didn't know it was him," Marcus repeated, as though the sentence had to be examined for hidden meaning. "Did you ask for identification? Did you call Jenny? Did you look at the invitation?"
"He arrived in a polo shirt and sneakers. He didn't look like an institutional investor."
Marcus glanced down at his own carefully pressed shirt, then back at her. "He is famous for dressing casually. He talks about it in interviews. It's one of the reasons he insists on meeting founders personally."
"How was I supposed to know that?"
"By reading the briefing. Or by letting him speak. Or by treating a stranger as a human being even if you thought he was nobody important."
Victoria pushed back her chair. "I don't need a lecture. I need a solution."
Marcus went very still. For months he had warned her about the company's financial risks. For years he had watched qualified employees withdraw from meetings because disagreement with Victoria carried a price. He had long believed that Ashford's culture would eventually create a crisis the company could not talk its way out of. He had not imagined the crisis would begin with an outstretched hand in a hotel lobby.
"The solution would have been not to do it," he said. "Now we have to find out whether there's any path left."
Victoria reached for her phone. She found Darien's number in the contact card Jenny had created and pressed call. It rang until a recorded voice invited her to leave a message. She spoke with the polished warmth she used when negotiating contracts, saying there had been a terrible misunderstanding and that she would love to reschedule at his earliest convenience. When she hung up, she called again, hoping the second attempt might somehow carry the urgency the first had lacked.
"Stop," Marcus said. "He's either traveling or choosing not to answer. More calls won't change what happened."
"If I can explain, he'll understand."