Page 65 of Titus

I removed my suit jacket slowly, handing it to my assistant without taking my eyes off the acquisition reports displayed on the digital screens at the front of the room.

No one spoke, which was smart, because if anyone in this room believed I walked in here this morning interested in excuses? They were about to learn otherwise.

I loosened the cuff of my shirt once before finally speaking. “Three media outlets,” I said calmly. “Three.”

The room remained silent.

“I know I’m not standing in this room just to talk to myself,” I said, my gaze shifting toward legal first. “Someone explain to me how a confidential acquisition tied to Hawk Crown Reserve leaked before the contracts were finalized.”

No one answered quickly enough. That was a mistake.

I leaned forward slightly, planting both hands on the table. “Perhaps I should simplify the question for the people in this room who are struggling with basic comprehension this morning.”

The legal director swallowed hard before answering, “Titus, we believe⁠—”

“I am not paying you all twenty-six million dollars annually for beliefs,” I said, my tone steady and lethal. “I pay you for certainty.”

The energy in the room tightened instantly.

“Now, let me ask again.” I straightened slowly. “Who failed here?”

A younger executive across the table shifted nervously. My eyes followed him as he dared to speak up.

“Mr. Hawk, we traced the leak back to a third-party communication⁠—”

“So, your answer is that your team outsourced vulnerability,” I said after I cut him off cleanly and coldly.

“Mr.—”

“That’s an interesting strategy, considering none of you seem intelligent enough to manage the damage afterward,” I said as though the man hadn’t interrupted me.

Nobody moved or looked at each other. The thing was this: fear kept executives honest, and most of all, profitable.

I walked slowly around the table now, each word measured.

“You people seem to misunderstand something about this company,” I said after I stopped behind one of the chairs. “Hawk Enterprise did not become what it is through comfort and the simple ease of how business works.”

My gaze swept across every face in the room.

“This empire is what it is today because I remove any and all weaknesses before they spread and cripple my company.”

Complete silence.

I looked directly at my legal team. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I said, “you have until noon to identify exactly who leaked that acquisition. If the Maldives go up in price because of this error…” I took my seat and calmly adjusted my cufflink. “I’ll replace every attorney in your department by the end of the day.”

“But, sir⁠—”

“You’re all dismissed,” I said, cutting off the incoming barrage of requests for leniency. “I want my answers by noon.”

By noon, legal had answers, and unfortunately for everyone seated in the boardroom, so did I.

The acquisition timeline was displayed on the digital screen as legal carefully sifted through financial records, communications, and security reports related to Hawk Crown Reserve.

Then the final image appeared. It was a private dining room at Cipriani. I stared at the surveillance still without expression. Across the table sat one of Hawk Enterprise’s senior acquisition directors beside a brunette socialite. It didn’t take long to identify the woman and learn that her entire career seemed to revolve around attending parties she wasn’t clever enough to belong in.

“I struggle to understand how some of you treat these trips I pay for as a fucking vacation.” My jaw tightened at the image, and then I turned to the man in the picture, who was currently sitting across the table from me, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s worse, you leaked a confidential acquisition over martinis with that woman?”

The man straightened immediately. “Titus, come on. I never explicitly⁠—”