Karen & Alexa Ch. 02

This room spoke of privilege, of breeding, of an Old World heritage. It felt somehow decadent, but ... powerful. She had to admit that, against all her millennial sensibilities, she liked it. She could appreciate the trappings of it.

Dangerous. She wondered what Alex thought of it.

"Karen, you and I may have some differences of opinion, but we have never been at war," Alistair said, just loud enough for the sisters to hear him, although the other people in the room were unlikely to anyway, since they were sitting or standing elsewhere, and big-band music was playing over the concealed stereo system. "Would you agree with that assessment?"

"I would indeed," Karen replied, nodding. "I've always had a soft spot for you, uncle. Which is saying something, given my general disdain for our kith."

He smiled genially and looked at Alexa. "You handled yourself most admirably, Alexandra. I don't think anyone has ever struck anyone during a board meeting before."

Alexa shrugged: "I doubt the family has ever allowed a snot-nosed brat a place at the table before. I trust it won't happen again."

Alistair almost laughed. "That was just Roddy trying to flex his muscles and assert himself. He learned quickly. And I somehow doubt Karen would have allowed that to continue, even if she was not so direct about it."

"Why, uncle, it's almost as if you expect me to put a laxative in Ripley's water in order to have him suddenly run out of the room and leave his seat," Karen remarked blithely, a hand to her breast and feigning looking aghast. "But yes, I had no intention of allowing that idiocy to continue."

Alistair tilted his head slightly, and as if assessing her. "Would you do your old uncle the favour of telling him what it is you seek to accomplish during this week?"

Karen looked at him levelly. "I will be honest with you, Alistair, because I do like you. But what I'm telling you is simply the common sense of what is happening. I will retain control of majority shares, I will continue on as CEO, and my father's will is going to remain unchallenged."

"That is a major sticking point with several family members, yes," the older man admitted, nodding gravely. His hair was silvery rather than ash-blond, but he had the cool blue eyes of a Blackwell. "And to be honest, I am somewhat perplexed by your stance, since everyone knows that you have next to no interest in involvement with our business endeavours as a family."

"You're correct, my interest in the individual endeavours is next to nil," she agreed. "I have a fantastic life as an internationally respected physicist who teaches at a prominent university. But my interest here is in the family's legacy, uncle. With my father gone, I won't see the Blackwell legacy torn apart by wolves."

"Do you trust only yourself to have such altruistic motives?" he asked, preparing to be offended.

"I can count on one hand the number of people I trust to have our family's legacy and actual best interests at heart," Karen replied readily. "Three of them are sitting here, and the other two are my husband and son."

Alistair didn't respond at the mention of Mike and Alex immediately, but seemed to consider. "It is true, Alex is as much a Blackwell by birth as anyone, but the push is to consider him a DeBourne, and therefore of no relevance."

Karen shrugged: "My surname is Gordon, but here I am. And I think everyone would readily admit that I'm as Blackwell as they come."

"In your own way, and all the ways that count, certainly," Alistair allowed. "People are desperately trying to figure out how to remove you, or buy you out, to wrest control from you."

"I know," Karen replied plainly. "And a good-sized part of me would be happy to oblige them, uncle. The temptation is strong. But family and legacy mean something to me, and I won't let that disappear because the wolves are at the door."

"Barbarians at the gate, hm?" he mused, taking another sip of his Scotch. "And you are concerned that no one would find anyone else an acceptable CEO and chairman, and we'd simply splinter into little bits, the Blackwell legacy to be no more."

"I'm not concerned, I am convinced that is true," Karen stated. "Nobody would be any happier with you in charge, except for you being a man, of course. Roddy will still be fighting you, not to mention Kirk and Greg."

Alistair sighed, looking into his tulip glass. Karen was right, of course; the family was in danger of fracturing. Whoever happened to be 'in charge' at the time would have the unforgivable black mark of letting the Blackwell name fall into irrelevance, and nobody wanted that. But everyone was still fighting to enlarge their share of the profits.

They were longtime merchants and industrialists; there had even been a peerage attached to the Blackwell name, until they had moved to the New World. Such a legacy could not simply be allowed to waste away over money.

But could this remarkable woman really hold them all together?

"Why are your husband and Alex not here?" he asked.

Karen smiled to herself, noting the use of her son's name, but not her husband's. Everyone was so frightened of Mike that he almost never had a name. He had become Voldemort to them. It stood the Blackwell psyche on its ear, that someone from a bumpkin family in the backwoods of northern Ontario could possibly outshine them, but that's what Mike had done. And they resented him for it.

"Because people need to be reminded that I don't need them to keep this house in order," she said firmly. "I chose not to bring them. Roddy should be at least as afraid of me as he is of Michael."

Alistair considered and then looked at Alexa. "And now we have you to consider, my dear. Your thoughts?"

Alexa was silent for just enough moments to give her words poignancy. "Uncle, one of these days, my sister may grow bored ... yes, bored ... with this sort of nonsense, especially if people won't behave themselves and consider the family. When that happens, she's going to give the reins to me, and people will be wishing for my big sister to come back."

She let her words weigh with a few moments of silence, letting her uncle consider. Then she continued. "This family will not fracture on Kar's watch, and sure as Hell not on mine. Kar is too nice in some ways. I'd happily annihilate Uncle Rod if he keeps this up. He'd be bought out and I'd send him to live in Dildo, Newfoundland if he made me angry with this nonsense."

"If what I witnessed back in the boardroom wasn't anger, than I'd hate to see you in full froth," Alistair laughed. He then sighed again and looked at his elder niece. "Karen, if you have nothing absurd planned, then I will not oppose you and your currently stated intentions. I believe you, since you have no actual vested interest in the business doings."

"Thank you, Uncle Alistair," Karen replied, nodding. "That is a relief, to be honest."

"Are there any other surprises you intend to unleash on us?"

"Well, I guess you'll just have to wait and find out now, won't you?" Karen said, looking over the rim of her glass as she took another drink.

***

The afternoon session was a tense one, certainly. Voices were raised, arguments broke out, many of them directed at Karen, who remained calm and strong as steel, never betraying her emotions. Most of the arguing stemmed from discussing Jonathon Blackwell's will, since he bequeathed majority control of private stocks to his daughter. Even though he had been certified compos mentis at the time he had written the will, many people still disputed his decision, declaring that redistribution of the assets was not only fair, but necessary.

The addition of Alexa changed the dynamic significantly, since she stood up several times during the arguments, leaning forward and directly calling out her various family members for their unseemly and jackal-like behaviour. She never yelled or got strident, but her voice had a potency to it that could not be ignored.

Whatever plans and battle lines had been drawn up prior to this meeting often went astray, since Karen had subtly shifted assets and stocks around, opening new opportunities for people, often at the expense of someone they'd previously been conspiring with. She watched calmly as the bickering around the table lost focus, with accusations of sabotage flying back and forth. No one seemed to notice that she had been at the source of it all.

Even when Karen was not being attacked, Alexa often stepped in, chastising family members for their unseemly squabbling. She was the only 'European' there, and expressed no small amount of annoyance and even disgust at their behaviour. Ripley just glowered at her from his place standing against the wall, but she took absolutely no notice of him. As long as he shut up, he would remain unbruised.

"Karen's not even directly involved in the companies and steadfastly refuses to be!" their cousin Greg had argued, scowling at her. "She just sits there on top of the majority assets, like she's queen of the damn mountain!"

"That's because she is queen, Greg," Alexa growled, looking at him, her eyes flashing. "Do legal niceties mean nothing to you? If my father had thought she was incompetent, do you think he would've put her in charge?"

Everyone remembered Jonathon Blackwell, that imperious and often ruthless patriarch that nobody dared cross. One of his cousins had once, and Jonathan had destroyed his assets and bought him out for almost pennies on the stock market. No one had seen cousin Felix since he slunk away to live in the Bahamas.

Defiance was the only way to dispute Alexa's contention. To argue against a legal document that declared Jonathon Blackwell to be of sound mind when he'd drafted the will. If he had considered her incompetent, he most certainly would not have put her in charge. But if he was in charge of his faculties, why put a woman in charge who had no interest in running the empire?

"Because I am the one person in this family actually dedicated to keeping it together," Karen replied evenly, still sitting at the head of the table. "The rest of you would have torn it to shreds years ago, if I hadn't intervened on my father's behalf several times during his illness."

Everyone listened to her quietly, knowing better than to interrupt.

"Where were you?" she almost demanded, keeping the hurt out of her voice as she thought of her father. "When the man who was the leader and patriarch of this family was ill, when he was dying, where were you? Were you at his side? Did he know of your loyalty to the family legacy, something we can trace back centuries? No, because there was none!"

'Hey, now!" Denis said, standing and glaring at Karen from halfway down the table. "He wasn't the only --"

"Oh, do shut up, Denis," Alistair said angrily, interrupting his kin. "You were as bad as Roddy for trying to tear away as much as you could during Jonathon's health crisis. You showed up once in a while, pretending to care, but all the while you were on your damn phone, trying to maneuver yourself into a position to take over! It was ... vulgar."

"You don't speak for all of us, old man!" spat the younger entrepreneur. "Haven't you got your own considerations in Asia to worry about?"

"Tied in to this family, willingly," Alistair said in barely-contained fury, his face colouring. "This old man understands loyalty and legacy, you little whelp."

The squabbling and bickering continued, all the while allowing Karen to observe the shifting dynamics in which people who previously supported one another suddenly became foes. She could see several of them subtly checking their phones, no doubt looking for updates on their secret plans to gain advantage with the company's assets and seeing only chaos caused by the others. Through it all, Karen seemed to remain in the clear. Her father had taught her well.

But would it be enough?

***

"Are you sure you won't join us?" their uncle asked as they left the building. "We are going to La Planque."

"We appreciate the offer, uncle, but Alexa and I will opt out tonight," Karen replied, smiling and nodding. "We're still here for another four days, and perhaps we'd best relax before the circus begins anew tomorrow."

Alistair smiled: "As you wish, Karen, but I insist you allow me to treat you both to dinner at least once while you are here."

Karen sighed and walked up to her uncle, looking into his eyes. While the Blackwell men were not as tall as the DeBournes, they weren't exactly short, either. Karen and Alexa, both on the tall side, could look at them comfortably.

"Uncle Alistair," she said, putting her hand over his heart. "If I have my way this week, the family will be brought to heel once and for all, and you will see us much more often, because I will not be so loath to visit my family. I promise."

He nodded and gave her a kiss on the cheek and watched as the girls departed in a limousine, taking them back to the Frontenac. Once the vehicle was moving, Alexa sighed and rested in the seat, looking at the ceiling.

"How do you do it?" she asked wearily.

"Just ... ask me when we get back ..." Karen replied quietly, staring ahead at nothing. Something in the way her sister had answered her compelled Alexa to drop the matter for now, and the ride was a silent one. Alexa closed her eyes and felt a warm relief when Karen took her hand and gave it a squeeze. They remained like that until the chauffeur dropped them off at the front of the hotel.

Karen, whom Alexa considered to be regal and rather stoic to begin with, was unusually subdued on the trip up in the elevator, still saying nothing. She seemed to be waiting for something, although Alexa couldn't really tell what.

They entered their spacious, luxurious suite, and Karen was still quiet. Alexa closed the door and followed her sister into the main room, stripping off her bright red jacket. "You okay, Kar?" she asked.

Karen had likewise taken off her blazer and was now standing at the window, looking out over the city. She had her arms crossed and a finger pressed to her lips. Alexa now could see that she was refraining from crying.

Everything dawned on her at once, almost like a wave rolling over her, and she suddenly felt very heavy with the realization.

"Oh, God, Kar," she breathed, drawing close. "I'm so sorry."

"I ... I don't know ..." the older sister whispered, her voice cracking as she stared out the window. "I ..."

Alexa did the only thing she could think of and pulled her sister into a tight hug. She felt Karen shudder and begin crying. Alexa bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt them sting with tears. The sisters stood motionless while Karen wept, and before long, Alexa joined her, tears flowing freely.

"C-c'mon," Alexa managed to say, turning and leading her sister down to the couch. "We don't wanna stain our blouses ..."

Karen allowed Alexa to sit her down, and Alexa removed her older sister's crème-coloured silk blouse, leaving her clad in her brassiere. Alexa then stripped herself out of the shirt she was wearing before taking Karen's hands in hers and holding them while the elder sister allowed herself to weep. Alexa's eyes were bleary with tears as well.

"I don't want to be the tyrant they think I am ..." Karen managed to say, saying at her sister as if looking for support. "But how can I save my family from itself if I'm not that tyrant?"

"I don't know," Alexa admitted, caressing Karen's hands, hoping it helped. "I'm so sorry I'm not Mike, Kar; I know he's who you really want to be here."

"I do want him here," Karen agreed, nodding, "Oh, Lord, I want my husband here. But I can't let him be here, they think he's my kryptonite."

Alexa sniffle-stifled a laugh. "You've got the role of kryptonite backwards, Kar, but I know what you mean. I ... I wish I knew how to help, or what to say."

She took her sister gently by the cheeks and leaned in closer, looking into her eyes "They don't know how lucky they are to have you at the helm, keeping them from wrecking the ship and sinking it."

She didn't know how or if it would help, but she kissed Karen several times, even as they both cried. "I ... can't imagine what you're going through, because I just met them all today, and I am so horrified. I would've walked away, if you hadn't taught me better, Kar."

Karen kissed her younger sister back, ignoring wet cheeks and running mascara. "I wish dad was here," she rasped. "He'd know what to do to make them behave."

"He's not," Alexa said, choking back a sob. "And he could only be him, Kar. He couldn't be you. Mom always told me that you were smarter than either her or dad, and they both knew it."

Alexa took a deep breath, trying to compose her thoughts. "From what mom's told me, he just taught you everything, right? Like critical thinking, and the how's and why's of business and so on. But he never told you what to do."

She tried to smile. "You're not dad. You've gotta do this your way. And so far, it's working pretty damn well."

Karen looked into her eyes: "I just don't know if it's enough."

"Time'll tell, really," the blonde pointed out. "But you've already disrupted several plans, and we know Uncle Alistair is not going to cause trouble, since he believes you."

They rested their foreheads together, still holding each other's cheeks, and closing their eyes. Karen tried to control her crying, finally arresting it. "I guess I've just been fighting a delaying action up to this point. And while that's stressful, I know that I need to actually fight now, to get right into things and straighten them out."

She looked into Alexa's eyes again, and the younger girl could see the hurt. "I don't want to keep fighting my family."

"I don't want to either, Kar," Alexa whispered. "What we were doing today was necessary, but we didn't have to like it. If they weren't a bunch of fucking wolves, none of this would be happening. We're not wrong, Kar, they are."

"Part of me really wants to walk away."

"Me too, because you never would've convinced me last year that this could be worth my while," Alexa agreed. "But it is, Kar. I see it now. And it means something to me."

She got off the plush chesterfield and knelt in front of her sister, holding her hands and looking up at her. "We stick to the plan. Your plan. There could be ten times as many of 'em, Kar, and they still wouldn't be a match for the two of us. And we'll save them from themselves, even if they don't like it."

Karen smiled through her tears and caressed her sister's lovely face. "I know. I just need to cleanse my body of their nonsense with tears sometimes."

"If you say so, Nienna," Alexa giggled, her own eyes still somewhat glassy. "I wish I could help more."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'd still be crying if Michael was here," Karen assured her. "Nothing would change that."

"Gotta say, I don't blame you," the blonde sighed. "They're a lot to deal with. How can I make it better?"

Karen considered: "Well, it's definitely bath time. I need to get the tension out of my muscles."

"Oh, I was just planning to fuck that out of you when the chance arose," Alexa mentioned.

Karen smirked. "Well, I would hate to see good intentions go to waste. Let's go, we'll bathe, order up some food, and then work out our frustrations on one another. Sound good?"

"Best thing I've heard all day ..." Alexa purred as she pulled Karen to her feet and led her to the huge marble bathroom.

***

The sisters were kneeling in the middle of the large marble hot tub, arms wrapped around one another, breasts squashed together, and kissing sloppily. They moaned into each other's mouths, reveling in the feel of the hot water churning and foaming around them. Alexa broke the kiss at last, looking at her older sister, sapphire eyes blazing with lust.