Awakening Book One of the Trust Series(69)
He walked into his room, closing the door slightly behind him. “Night, Caitlyn.”
Caitlyn put up her block as her mind raced with what had happened back in the living room. She and Declan almost crossed a line that should not have been crossed. She groaned into her pillow loudly. She and Declan were friends and she knew that was all she had felt for him. But something in his gaze made her catch her breath and she was unsettled with how that made her feel.
She continued to rustle in her sheets, tossing back and forth. Caitlyn took a steadying breath. They had their argument in the arbitration tomorrow. She cleared her mind as Declan had taught her to do over the past few weeks and after a while, fell into a fitful sleep.
The next morning she woke up, not surprised to see Declan and Derrick already working out their arguments and their concessions. As she stepped out the door, she saw Declan glance up quickly at her, before hurriedly looking back down at the map.
As she poured herself a cup of coffee, Derrick greeted her with a quick. “Good Morning. Sleep well?”
She took a sip. “I slept alright. Strange bed and all.”
“Well, we are hoping to get this wrapped up this morning. I spoke to several members of the Tribunal this morning in regards to the offers we are proposing. They agreed, so now it is a matter of convincing Monroe.”
When they walked into the meeting precisely at noon, they were surprised to see that Henry and Sierra were not there. They sat down expectantly. Monroe greeted them with his easy smile. “Good afternoon.”
Derrick raised his eyebrows. “Good Afternoon. Where are Henry and Sierra?”
Monroe pushed some papers towards the three of them. “I had requested of them not to be here. I wanted to have two closed sessions with each party. Yesterday… well, let’s just say that there were some interesting requests that were not exactly reasonable and they did it more so to get under your skin. If they are not going to treat the proceedings with the respect that it deserves just to goad the Trust, then I’ll proceed with how I see fit. I met with Henry and Sierra already once this morning to hear their arguments in greater detail, and will call them in later this evening or tomorrow once my final decision has been made.”
Monroe asked them to outline their plan. He was not surprised when they obviously did not agree to the last two requests, but he listened with keen interest at their offer.
They did offer part of Texas along with Oklahoma for recruiting. But furthermore, the Trust agreed to open talks regarding international lands, something that the European and Asian factions of the Trust had been reluctant to do until recently. Those lands had never been dictated by treaties, and the Cine Tofa, primarily an American ideal until the past decade, did not have as much of a presence as they would like abroad.
Monroe was surprised by this offer, but he seemed to agree that the terms were acceptable, but wanted specifics on the new geography regarding the recruiting. After a couple of hours hashing out the exact border agreements and the terms of the international talks, Monroe stated that this was a reasonable agreement and advised calling the Cine Tofa contingent in to give his resolution and decision.
Derrick and Declan thanked him for his time and a few minutes later, Henry and Sierra walked in, obviously surprised by how quickly they were called back. Declan glanced briefly at Caitlyn before turning his attention to Monroe.
“Thank you all for joining me back here. After talking to both parties, I believe that we have a resolution that is agreeable to both sides. The ruling is, the Trust will move the recruiting borders as follows-” Monroe produced a map in the air. “They will give up approximately half of Texas and they will allow the Cine Tofa full recruiting rights in Oklahoma, beginning immediately.”
Henry’s eyes narrowed. “What about Illinois?”
Monroe’s face calm on the outside, but his voice held an even but dangerous tone to it. “Illinois is still within the Trust’s recruiting area. You forget Henry, that it is my job to study very closely the recruiting lines, and if they were to relinquish Illinois, the balance would be tilted in your favor. Unless the Trust had readily offered it, I was never going to agree to that term.”
“But-”
Caitlyn noticed that Declan squeezed his folded hands together. Monroe turned his attention to Sierra, who had kept quiet. “Sierra, since Henry obviously cannot respect my role, perhaps you would like to explain to him the guidelines surrounding an arbitration?”
Sierra just shot Henry a severe look and Henry, while still defiant, pressed his lips shut.