Page 34 of Camping with the Boss (Pride Camp 2025 #9)

Owen glares at me as he crosses and uncrosses his arms. “You can’t… I’m not?—”

“Do you want your award or not?” I ask.

“Fuck off,” he says, throwing himself into his seat.

“Owen—” Wade begins, but I cut him off.

“I have one more award, okay?”

He glares at Owen and then gives me a tight nod as he returns to his seat.

“This is the big one. The More Evil than Maleficent Award goes to drumroll, please…” River does a drumroll, and I lift my chin. “Meredith Darian for giving Owen the authorization to delete company emails and documentation, and for?—”

“Enough!” Meredith is on her feet, her face twisted with rage. “How dare you? Get out. You and your brother are fired.”

I’m not sure what to do, but I’m not leaving until Wade asks me to go. And, oh hell. He better not try to save me. “Wade?—”

He lifts his hand. “Hold on, Canyon. I’d like to hear from our board members. This is their company too.”

The man with the hair growing out of his ears stares at the ground. The other two look at each other and nod. “We’d like to hear what Mr. Drake has to say. And I hope for his sake he has the evidence to back up his accusations.”

I do. As long as no one bails on me. Wade nods to me, and I continue, “At first, I thought this Tim guy was just a terrible employee trying to skate by. It happens more than you think. But the more I learned about it, the more I realized that isn’t even close to the truth.”

“What do you mean?” Wade asks. “He was terrible.”

I nod. “Purposefully so. He set out to be the worst employee ever, so when he was fired, he could claim discrimination.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Canyon.” Wade strides over, and his scent confuses my mind. I want to tell him to go back to his spot. But I also want to keep him near me. “How could Tim know his records would be erased?”

“You’re right. There’s no way.”

“But that means…” He doesn’t continue. He can’t.

“It means this was all arranged before Tim was even hired. And there’s only one person capable of it. Only one person who knew that—” I can’t go there. “She knew the best way to blackmail you if the other stuff didn’t work.”

“I’ve heard enough.” The bald man stands. “I hope for your sake this isn’t true, Meredith. We trusted you after Frank died. You raised the boys. How could you do this?”

“Can you give us another minute, Silas?” Wade glances at Ander with a question in his eyes. Ander nods, and I grab Wade’s arm.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“I think I do. But thank you.” He touches my cheek and then turns to face the board members.

“There’s one more thing I want to add to the More Evil than Maleficent Award —such a catchy title.

” He takes a deep breath. “After our Uncle Frank died, Meredith took care of us. Her generosity lasted five…hours after our uncle was buried. She called us spoiled. And coddled. Even though we’d lost both our parents and our uncle within two years. ”

Ander moves to stand next to Wade. “She expressed her disappointment in inventive ways.” He looks at Wade, and he nods.

I want to wrap them both in my arms and protect them.

But they don’t need me. Or anyone. “Wade was nine, almost ten at the time. She struck his hands with a metal ruler. At times, accidentally cutting him with the sharp corner. He still has…” He takes a shaky breath.

“It will be easy to prove. He still has the scars.” The group is silent up to this point.

Shocked gasps and mutters ripple through the crowd.

Wade holds out his hands for the board members to see. The younger woman covers her mouth with her hands.

“Wade,” the bald man, Silas, starts, but Wade shakes his head.

“There’s more. That was how she punished me. But Ander…she made him watch. I also think it was her way of trying to sow distrust between us. And it worked.”

“For a while,” Ander says. “Not anymore.”

“Wade, Ander, I’m so sorry we missed it. We believed her lies. Frank was a good man.” He glares at Meredith, who sits with a bored expression on her face. “Her intent in bringing us here today was to pressure you to step down…but now. We’d like you to stay on as CEO of Darian Enterprises.”

I clutch my hands to my heart, relieved by his words. Wade isn’t losing his company.

Meredith stands. “I’m still chairperson of this board.”

“You sure this is how you want to play it?” Silas asks. “Because I have no problem calling an emergency board meeting and releasing a statement to the press. I’d rather take care of this in-house, but if you push—the world will know what you’ve done.”

“What I’ve done?” she asks, sounding almost hysterical as she gestures wildly to Wade and Ander. “I raised these boys on my own the same way the nuns raised me.” Her eyes flash with rage as they settle on Wade. “If you’d held your damn hands still like I asked, there wouldn’t be any scars.”

It takes everything in me not to tackle her. Or at least spit in her face. Silas hovers near Meredith as if ready to intervene.

So I focus on Wade instead.

“It’s over, Meredith. You’re no longer part of this company or this family.

You’ll never hurt anyone I care about again.

” He looks calm. Almost peaceful. “Thank you, Silas. I appreciate your support. More than you can ever know.” Wade turns to his employees.

“I know I don’t always show it, but I appreciate all of you.

Well, not Owen. He’s not only fired but will be brought up on formal charges. ”

Owen jumps up, but the camp workers, including the cooks, are standing in front of the entrance. He swirls around. “What are you going to charge me with? George would lose his ass if it wasn’t attached. And you begging some guy to call you?—”

“Ask him about Flamingos,” Al yells from his seat.

Lydia laughs and covers her mouth with her hand.

Owen stomps over to him. I glance up at Wade in alarm. Are we going to have another fight? “Shut up, you fucking?—”

“Freddy’s Flamingos, to be exact.” Al stands and talks over him.

“It’s a bowling alley chain, and Owen here has been helping them install a new digital security system.

Only that company doesn’t exist. He’s been pouring this company’s money and resources into projects that only exist on paper. And pocketing the money.”

Holy shit.

When we talked to Al earlier, he told us he thought Owen was behind everything. But he failed to mention this.

The room is quiet for a moment, and then Owen laughs. “I’m not going down for this. I want to make a deal.”

Wade shakes his head. “That will be up to the prosecuting attorney?—”

“Come on, Wade.” He grins. “Aren’t you curious why Meredith wanted you out so bad?”

Everyone shuffles as they look around, but Wade doesn’t move. “I know why.”

“Really? You’ve been CEO of Darian Enterprises for over ten years. The question isn’t why. It’s why now ?”

“Shut up, Owen,” Meredith says, glaring furiously. Then she stands and smiles at Wade. “Don’t listen to him, Wade dear. This man will say anything to get out of trouble.”

Wade narrows his eyes. “He hasn’t said anything yet.” He nods at Owen. “I’m listening.”

“She’s been sabotaging you every step of the way. It started with Tim, but it didn’t end there. She didn’t want this retreat to happen, so she paid River fifty thousand dollars to not show up.”

“What?” I stare at my brother in shock, the murmurs of outrage from everyone else barely registering.

“No,” River says, jumping to his feet. “Not exactly.” He glances around the room until his eyes settle on me. Pleading. “A week ago, I received an envelope with twenty-five thousand dollars in cash and an anonymous note. It said I’d get the other half when the retreat was called off.”

I shake my head. “River, how could you?”

“Look, I didn’t know what to do. You’re always stressed about money, Can. That money could have paid off the car. And got us caught up on the house payments. It’s not good for you to worry so much.”

I don’t know what to say. I can see how tempting that would be, but I shake my head again. It’s still wrong.

“I wasn’t going to do it, I swear.” He turns to Wade and holds out his hands.

“Dude, you and I worked so hard to put this thing together. I wasn’t going to bail.

But I went out the night before the retreat to clear my head.

And I learned that—” He glares at Owen. “You told me about the Tim thing. Details I didn’t have.

And said the company was losing money under Wade’s leadership. ”

He shrugs. “I didn’t lie.”

I get now why Al punched the guy. I want to punch him too. But I ignore Owen and focus on my brother.

“I went to see Tim. I wanted the truth. He didn’t tell me everything, but enough to know this was all a setup.

I wanted to warn you, Wade. Then Jet told me the retreat was still going and that my brother—” He stops and shakes his head.

“I didn’t spend the money. I planned to give it to Wade after the retreat and tell him everything. ”

Wade shakes out his hands. “I don’t get it,” he says. “Why would Meredith or anyone go to all this trouble?”

George clears his throat and slowly stands.

“I think I know the answer to that.” He scratches his head.

“Wade, you and Jared have been pushing for an external audit of the books ever since Tim left. Just to make sure he didn’t mess with anything.

Meredith has been fighting it. She wants an internal audit. ”

“Oh my God. She’s been embezzling money this entire time,” Jared says, as if everything is finally clicking into place.

“Ta-da!” Owen throws his arms out as if he’s the grandmaster at some fucked-up parade. “Took you long enough.” He walks over to Meredith. “Don’t piss on the tech guy, lady. They know where to hide shit.”

“Do you have proof?” Silas asks.

“Yup. An external audit will find it, but I have everything you need to put her away for a long time.”

“You’ll be implicating yourself.”

Owen shrugs. “I hope to make a deal. But whatever. No amount of money is worth working with this evil b?—”

“Arrrrgg.” Meredith lunges at him, but Silas grabs her before she can make contact.

Sirens blare in the background. Thank God someone thought to call the police.

After the police take statements and escort Owen and Meredith away, Wade gets everyone’s attention. “I have an announcement.” He takes a deep breath, and everyone else holds theirs. “As of today, I am stepping down as CEO of Darian Enterprises.”