by Lori Ryan
But Mr. Sutton’s mother was apparently a romantic who cared more about her son’s marital status than the state of the family business. She placed her shares in a trust, with Jack holding the proxy voting rights.
If Jack wasn’t married by the time he was thirty-five, the trust remained in place, but the proxy rights reverted to his Aunt Mabry. Yesterday, Mabry told him she was going to use the strength of those shares to make a bid for Chad to take Jack’s place as CEO.
For some reason that wasn’t clear in the conversation Jennie overheard, Mabry wanted to hurt Jack.
If he wanted to stay in his position as CEO, Jack either needed to have enough board members on his side to know he could win a vote…or he needed to get married before he turned thirty-five. Next week.
If Jack was married, the shares his mother left in trust would become Jack’s outright. Mabry wouldn’t be able to touch him.
In the two months Jennie had filled in as secretary for Jack Sutton, she’d heard no mention of a fiancée or even a serious girlfriend, so she’d almost fallen out of her chair when she heard Jack tell his aunt he planned to marry his fiancée at the end of the week.
If you believed the tabloids, Jack Sutton had a different woman on his arm every week. Jennie could imagine most of them were hoping to be the one for him.
She smirked. The one to take his wallet and run away with it. She would bet that most women saw his money, his cars, the bank accounts that had to total in the billions and all think they could be the one to spend it all for him.
So, yeah, it had been a bit of a surprise when he’d said he was marrying one of them. When his aunt pressed for a name, he was vague and told her she could drop by the next afternoon to meet his fiancée.
As Jennie listened in on Jack’s meeting with Andrew, Jennie finally figured out why he’d told his aunt such a flat-out lie.
Chapter 5
“Not good news?” Jack knew from the look on Andrew’s face he didn’t have anything but bad news.
“Barton’s death put a real kink in things for us. He held eight percent of the shares. Mabry holds ten percent. It seems that John’s shares were left to his son, Bryan. I made some calls to try to find out more about the son so we can figure out how he’ll vote, but I can’t be certain yet.”
Andrew didn’t have to tell Jack that was bad news. Bryan didn’t like Jack. It was stupid really, but it was what it was.
Andrew went on. “It turns out that Bryan Barton went to school with Chad. What I haven’t been able to find out is whether they were friends, enemies, or indifferent,” Andrew reported.
“It won’t matter,” Jack said. “Bryan doesn’t like me.”
Andrew’s brows went up.
“I brought a woman to a charity event once. I don’t remember her name. Vivian or Vixen, something like that.” He waved a hand. “Turns out they had been dating. She wanted a proposal and he wasn’t moving fast enough, so she hit on me thinking she could make him jealous and back him into a corner. I needed a date that weekend.”
Jack shrugged. She’d been nothing more than a woman on his arm for the night. Honestly he wasn’t even sure if they’d had sex afterward.
But she’d been more than that to Bryan. He hadn’t gotten over that. He’d been cold to Jack since then, which was ridiculous since it wasn’t like they were in high school. Hell, even if they had been in high school, Jack would have thought the grudge was ridiculous.
Andrew shook his head. “If Bryan votes with Mabry, and she has her shares plus control of the proxy shares—they’ll have a small majority.”
Jack leaned back in his chair and let out a frustrated growl. “This is a nightmare. How is it all falling apart at the last minute? If we don’t have Bryan on our side, she can push me out.”
He looked to his friend. “I know it’s wrong to talk about a man’s death like this, but the timing couldn’t be worse. It’s not the money that matters to me.” He didn’t really need to tell Andrew that, but he did.
Jack had been more than comfortable before he took over Sutton Capital, having inherited a chunk of money from his grandfather and more from his parents when they passed.
At this point, though, saying Jack was comfortable didn’t begin to cover it. He was stupid rich. Andrew had helped Jack wisely invest his inheritance and the money he had earned over the years. Jack had more than enough money to last him ten lifetimes, whether he worked another day in his life or not. This wasn’t about the money.
“My grandfather and dad started this company from the ground up. I’ve done a damn good job expanding it, too,” Jack said, crossing his arms as if he dared Andrew or anyone else to deny the assertion. He was proud of the way his dad had trusted him with the company, and proud of what he’d done to grow it in the time he’d been in charge.
“I know. We all do. That’s why any of the existing board members would have voted for you. Your risky decisions pay off even when they shouldn’t and people trust your judgment. But, Bryan Barton is a wild card. We can’t predict what he’ll do.” Andrew shook his head. He leaned forward, his forearms resting on his thighs. He looked at his longtime friend. “I guess you’re going to have to get married, bro.”
Jack grunted. “I’m not getting married. I like my life the way it is,” Jack said.
Even as he said it, he knew on some level he was lying to himself.
He would kill to have what his mom and dad had when they were alive; his parents shared a love so powerful, it lasted until the day they died.
He’d yet to come close to that with any of the women he dated.
Andrew sat quietly and let Jack vent. The ability to do so was one of Andrew’s strengths—knowing when to be quiet and wait out a storm. Jack knew there really wasn’t anything his friend could say for the moment, but it helped to gripe.
“I’m perfectly happy living as a bachelor. I don’t know why my mom couldn’t understand that. Just because they had a great marriage doesn’t mean that’s the only way I’ll be happy, does it? Well, does it?”
Yeah, it does, thought Jack, but forced that thought out of his mind. He had never met anyone who made him feel the way he knew his mother and father felt together, so he was careful not to let those hopes surface anymore.
Andrew remained silent but shook his head.
Jack knew he sounded more like a toddler than the CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation, but he had come to realize a long time ago he wasn’t cut out to have the kind of love his parents had found. Being forced to marry to save his company sent his mood into a downward spiral.
A knock sounded on the door and Roark Walker poked his head in the door, entering when Jack waved him in.
Roark had been good friends with his mother and father. The tall man had hair that had gone white that he kept cropped close to his head and deep brown skin that never seemed to wrinkle or age despite his sixty years.
“You holding up?” Roark asked as he sank into the other seat in front of Jack’s desk and nodded a greeting to Andrew.
Jack shot him a look. “I’m about to lose my company because I haven’t fallen in love. Happy birthday to me.”
Roark gave a little shrug. “There are worse things.”
Jack could only stare at the man. Sure, there was cancer and car accidents and shit like that, but was the man really telling him there were worse things than losing control of the company that was your life?
“Can we challenge the will? Maybe get an emergency stay keeping my aunt from exercising her rights to the votes.” Jack had to try something. He wouldn’t just sit back and let her take his company away from him.
Roark shook his head. “When your mom told me what she wanted to put in her will, I sent her to a friend of mine who does trusts and estate work to write up the trust. It’s solid, Jack. You’re not going to get around that.”
“If I can get an injunction I can figure something out. I could have someone try to buy Bryan’s shares. He doesn’t need to know it’s me.”
Roark was shaking his head. “Jack, your mom wanted to see you married. She wanted you to find the happiness she and your father had.”
“What are you saying I should do? Run out and find someone to marry in five days?” He wanted to hit something. Or throw shit. Here he’d been claiming he wasn’t going to have the kind of outburst he might have in high school, but he was going to lose control if he didn’t get this shit in check fast.
“I’m saying maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing for you to step back from the company.” Roark raised his hands in surrender when Jack’s look went from dark to downright black. “I’m only saying, your mom saw the way you’ve made this company your everything, made it your life. She didn’t want that for you. Maybe you need to honor that.”
Jack slammed his hands down on the desk. “Fuck!”
His mom just hadn’t understood that he wasn’t like her and his dad. For one thing, they’d fallen in love before his family had made all their money. Neither one of them had to wonder if that person was with them for their money.
Jack was so lost in the emotions roiling through his gut he barely noticed when Roark slipped from the room leaving Andrew and Jack alone again.
“We can gamble that your aunt won’t be able to get the swing votes she needs or we can go to Chad and ask him to step in and stop her. Nobody’s even asked him if he wants to be the CEO. Honestly, I think it’s time to ask.” Andrew suggested.
Jack ran his hands through his hair and leaned back in his chair to think. He stayed that way for a few moments and then sat up and turned back toward Andrew before speaking.
“Chad’s never mentioned anything to me that makes me think he’d want a shot at being in charge, but he’s competitive. You know that. And I don’t want to ask him to choose between his mom and me. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but I remember what my Aunt Mabry was like before her husband walked out on her. You can’t see it now because she’s so filled with hate, but she wasn’t like that when I was growing up. Hell, I once loved her as much as I loved my own mom. When my uncle left her, she cracked.
“Hell, Chad might side with her which pits me against him. And if Chad stands up to her and sides with me, she’ll think he’s abandoning her too. I can’t do that to her. I know it’s crazy, but I can’t.” Jack crossed to the window on the other side of his office and stared at the view of the Yale campus. His commitment to what was left of his family warred with his drive to protect his position as CEO.
“I still don’t understand why she’s focused on hurting you,” Andrew said as he shook his head.
Jack sighed. “She went after my dad before me. When my uncle left her, she wasn’t able to lash out at him because he just took off. He left her almost all their money and Chad was an adult, so custody wasn’t an issue. There was no fight she could throw her anger into. I think she needed to lash out at someone and my parents were happily married. That seemed to make her angry so she began to attack them. Now that they’re gone, she’s moved on to me.” He shrugged, knowing his aunt’s anger made no more sense than his need to protect her in the face of it.
“All right, but let’s walk through this. Even if she gets the board to vote you out, we can try to convince Chad to refuse the position. He might.” Andrew reasoned.
“Even if he does, at that point, the board’s confidence in me will be shot. If my own aunt takes me out, they’ll question my ability, so even if Chad refuses the position, they’ll go outside for a new CEO instead of coming back to me. And, even if none of that happens, if she has the proxy rights, she can make every decision that comes before the board into a battle. We have a great board right now with really sharp people. We work well together. She’d tear this board apart if she had those voting rights, and the company could crumble given enough time.”
Jack couldn’t see any way around the mess he was in. And he knew he didn’t want to ask Chad to make this choice.
He laughed, the realization of what he’d told his aunt hitting him. “I told Mabry I was getting married, for God’s sake. She’ll be here at three o’clock to meet my fiancée. Hell, I thought I was just buying time. If I don’t have those votes...”
There was no humor in his laughter, only frustration and disbelief that something like this could have happened without him getting out ahead of it.
He was always ten steps ahead. Always.
“That’s three hours from now. Let me see if I can find out which way Bryan might vote or come up with something else. I tried tracking down Chad earlier so I could casually mention Bryan and see if they were friends, but I haven’t been able to reach him since he left your house this morning.” Andrew said.
“Okay. Let’s work the problem. We can’t exactly call Bryan Barton and ask what his vote would be since he’s burying his father tomorrow. If the man wasn’t still holding a grudge against me, he would if we pulled that shit. But, let’s try to talk to other alumni we know to see if Barton and Chad were tight in school. And, keep looking for Chad to see what you can get out of him without letting him know what’s going on.”
“Why not tell him what’s going on?”
Jack shrugged. “Why tell him if I don’t want him to solve the problem?”
“Maybe he’ll have an idea. Another way out?”
“Can’t chance that.” Jack turned back to his desk. “He’ll want to go to his mom, and I’m not ready for that.”
“I’ll let you know what I come up with. In the meantime, start running through your little black book and figure out which of your booty calls may be looking for something more permanent,” Andrew said as he strode out of the office.
“Oh man, that isn’t funny,” Jack groaned.
Chapter 6
Kelly sat at the café table waiting for Jennie to arrive. She usually loved lunches with Jennie and if anyone could cheer her up, it would be her. She’d started spying on her boss a few weeks ago and always had something funny or interesting to talk about.
Kelly could never get over how gutsy Jennie was. She was the queen of espionage when it came to getting the scoop on things and probably should have been a journalist. The woman would kill at a career like that.
But she couldn’t get in the mood for lunch and gossip today. With no real job prospects in sight, it was beginning to look as if her bachelor’s degree in Political Science was every bit as useless as people said bachelor’s degrees were nowadays. To top it off, she’d finally received the last of the results of her applications for law school and the news wasn’t good.
Well, that wasn’t true. Most people would say the news was very good, but if you couldn’t pay for your school of choice, it didn’t matter if they accepted you.
Kelly looked up to see Jennie coming toward the table and pasted a smile on her face for her friend. She didn’t want her bad mood to ruin their lunch, and she didn’t want Jennie to feel sorry for her.
“I have juicy gossip today! You won’t believe what I overheard,” Jennie started off but slowed when she saw the look on Kelly’s face. “What’s wrong?” Jennie frowned at her friend.
Kelly shook her head and widened her smile. “I’m fine. What juicy gossip?”
Jennie wasn’t buying it. She tilted her head and raised her brows in challenge.
“I got my acceptance letter to Yale. I got in,” Kelly said.
“What? That’s fantastic!”
“I didn’t get enough scholarship money to cover even half the tuition there. I thought I had a shot at more grants, but they’re getting really tight nowadays. And if I take out that much money in loans, I’ll be paying for the rest of my life.”
Jennie leaned in and hugged Kelly across the table. “Oh, I’m so sorry. It must feel good to know you got in, though, huh? Ugh. That’s sounds so ‘hey it’s an honor just to be nominated,’ doesn’t it? I’m sorry, Kel.”
“I know.” She shrugged and tried to smile, but she knew it probably came off somewhat sad.
“How much money do you need?�
�� Jennie asked hesitantly.
“Well, it costs $52,000 per year for three years. I got a few grants and scholarships but only about $18,000 total so when I say I’m short, I mean I’m really short. Even if I defer for a year and work the whole time I’m in school, there’s no way I’ll have enough.”
Jennie frowned. “I’m so sorry. I know you had your heart set on Yale, but maybe you can apply to other places? Maybe the state law school?”
Kelly raised her chin. “I will. I’ll work for a year while I apply at University of Connecticut for next year and save my money until then. UConn is a really good law school, too. Top fifty.”
It was really stupid of her to only apply to one school. She’d told herself some fru fru BS about letting the universe know she was all in so she’d get what she needed. What had she been thinking?
She pasted another bright smile on her face for Jennie. “So distract me. What have your secret spy skills found today?”
In hushed tones, so no one around could hear, Jennie launched into the story of the infamous Jack Sutton’s desperate need for a wife.
It was almost ridiculous to think the billionaire couldn’t find someone to marry him. He must have women lined up around the block who’d be willing to take a ring to the finger for that man. He was sexy as hell and easily New Haven’s most eligible bachelor. In fact, she was pretty sure the local papers had called him that more than once.
From what Kelly knew, he was some genius in the board room, turning companies that were struggling into Fortune 500 companies or something like that. Maybe it was water into gold he was doing. Whatever it was, it was a trick no one else seemed to be able to match to that level.
