by Mia Ford
“What the fuck is this?” Allen asked, scowling at the paper. “You can’t be fucking serious.”
Reed ignored him and addressed the board. “Members of the board, we have received an offer to purchase the manufacturing operations of Benson Digital at an immediate return of fifteen-percent.”
“This is bullshit, Reed,” Allen said, wadding up the paper and tossing it in Reed’s face. He looked at me and gritted his teeth. “You cannot do this.”
“Actually, they can,” Vincent said calmly. “There is nothing in the agreement that prevents the board from selling off assets as it sees fit. So long as a majority of the board approves the sale, it’s perfectly binding and legal.”
Allen realized at that moment that he had been blindsided. He turned to look at the three existing board members that he had brought into the game. Old pals who now sat with their heads down and their hands clasped tightly together on the table. He turned to glare at his oldest friend and lawyer, Jeff Chase.
“Did you know about this?” Reed asked, teeth gritted. “Goddammit, Jeff, did you know?”
Before Jeff could answer, Reed interrupted. “Gentlemen, you see the offer before you. I suggest we take a vote and approve it before we adjourn.”
“Over my dead body,” Allen said. “You’re not selling my fucking company.”
“It’s not your company anymore, Allen.” Reed looked him dead in the eye and spread open his hands. “You have one vote. I assume it is a nay.”
“You’re goddamn right it’s a nay,” Allen said. “For the love of God, Reed, if we sell off the manufacturing, what’s left?”
“The patents, old boy,” Reed said as he eased back down into his seat with a satisfied look on his face. “Benson Digital will keep the computer chip patents, which we will license to every manufacturer in the industry. We will make hundreds of millions of dollars before the patents expire.”
“The patents…” Allen Benson blinked for a moment, like a man waking up from a long nap. “This was about the patents all along. You never gave a damn about the manufacturing operation or all those people who work there. You just wanted the patents.”
“Yes, Allen, that’s right,” Reed said. “It was all about the patents. That’s your most valuable asset, not the fucking manufacturing operation.”
“Why buy my entire company?” Allen asked, shaking his head. “Why not ask me to sell you the patents?”
“Allen, would you have sold us just the patents if we had made you an offer?” I asked.
He didn’t bother to say anything because we both knew the answer.
“Very well, then,” Reed said, leaning in to look down the table at the other board members. “Now, gentlemen, we all have things to do, so let’s get this done. All those in favor of selling the manufacturing arm of Benson Digital, Inc. to Amalgamated Industries please say aye.”
Everyone said “aye” except Allen Benson.
He didn’t say a word.
He just got out of his chair and calmly walked around the table.
And broke Reed’s nose with a single punch.
Chapter 27: Katie
I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles as I waited in my office for Uncle Allen to call with an update. By now, the papers should have been signed and he was a wealthy man, certainly the wealthiest man I ever knew to come out of South Boston.
I glanced at my watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. It was nearly two o’clock, and I had not heard a word. I was starting to get nervous. I had a sinking feeling in my chest that I couldn’t explain. Perhaps Reed Helstrom had broken out a bottle of champagne to toast the deal and they were all getting snockered. I was sure Uncle Allen would call soon.
Then, like a ghost in the night, Uncle Allen appeared at my office door with a sick look on his face. I knew immediately that something had gone terribly wrong.
“Oh my god,” I said, rushing around the desk to greet him. His face was red and sweaty. His tie was askew, and the front of his shirt was stained with blood. He was holding his right hand in his left. The knuckles of his right hand were scraped and bloody. “Uncle Allen, what happened? Are you hurt?”
“They stole my company,” he said, shaking his head.
“What? Who? What are you talking about?”
“That fucking Reed Helstrom and Conner McGee. They stole my fucking company.”
* * *
Thankfully, it turned out that none of the blood on his shirt was Uncle Allen’s. It all belonged to Reed Helstrom. It came from his nose when Allen slammed his fist into it.
I had Monique get Uncle Allen an ice pack for his hand and a glass of scotch for his head. He sat in the chair in front of my desk with gritted teeth, telling us both the story of how they had stolen his beloved company.
At first, I refused to believe it. There was no way Conner—my Conner— could be a party to such a devious plan. Who would buy a man’s life’s work only to sell it out from under him? But deep down, I knew he was part of the plan. This was Conner’s deal. He was the mastermind behind it. He knew all along how it was going to turn out because he was the one orchestrating it. And he had played me for a total fool.
I knew now that nothing between us was real.
Monique was right all along.
Why would he be attracted to a Plain Jane like me when he could have a woman like Cassandra Leone in his bed?
Conner wasn’t falling for me.
Christ, he probably didn’t even like me.
He was just fucking me so I wouldn’t find out about him fucking over my uncle.
He kept me busy all week to make sure that I wouldn’t uncover his plan.
He had seduced me and I had made it so easy for him.
I had gone along willingly.
Like a lovesick little girl.
Oh my god.
What a fucking fool I was.
“I’ll talk to Ed Ridgely, our senior partner, and see what we can do,” I said hopefully. “He’ll know what to do. Maybe we can halt the deal somehow. Get an injunction. Or charge them with fraud.”
“It’s no use, Katie,” Uncle Allen said quietly. He finished the scotch and held out his glass for more. Monique poured another glass and glanced my way.
“I’m going to let the two of you talk,” she said, heading toward the door. The hard look on her face told me exactly what she thought. I had to tell Uncle Allen about my relationship with Conner. I had no other choice.
“Don’t bother calling anyone,” Uncle Allen said, shaking his head at me. “It was all perfectly legal. All on the up and up. They didn’t do anything against the law.”
“Maybe not legally, but—”
“There’s no but to it, Katie,” he said, blowing out a long breath. “I was a fool. I let them do it. It never occurred to me that all they cared about was the patents. I was blinded by the money. And this damn cancer… Christ, how could I have been so incredibly stupid?”
My phone was lying on my desk. It buzzed with an incoming call. I didn’t have to look at the screen. I knew who it was. Conner calling to explain or gloat, as if there was a difference at this point. I had no desire to talk to him. I silenced the phone and set it back on the desk.
“I feel responsible,” I said quietly. “You asked me to look over the agreement. I should have dug deeper. I should have gotten a full list of all assets. I should have—”
“This wasn’t you’re doing, Katie girl,” he said, mustering a sad smile for my benefit. “You had no idea what these bastards had planned. Christ, asking you to meet with Conner McGee was like asking a lamb to enter the lion’s den. I’m sorry I ever got you involved. Can you ever forgive me?”
My phone buzzed again. This time, I turned it off and shoved into a desk drawer. I watched Allen drink the scotch for a moment, me feeling guiltier with each swallow. I finally couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to tell him what I had done.
“Uncle Allen, I have to tell you something. And I just hope that you can someday
find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Chapter 28: Conner
After that Friday, Katie refused to take my calls, answer my texts, or come to the door when I showed up multiple times at her apartment. I knew that Allen Benson would run to tell her his version of what had happened, how Reed and I backstabbed him, and “stole” his company away.
Fuck that.
We didn’t steal anything.
He made tens of millions of dollars off the deal, and retained a ten-percent stake in the company that owned the patents. He would have made a hundred times more if he had just closed his mouth and gone along with our plans.
Reed and I just did what made the most sense for our company, and his. We did what he should have done all along. It wasn’t our fault that he was shortsighted and dedicated to a bunch of employees that sucked him dry.
Allen Benson was a decent guy, but his priorities as a business man were fucked. We had made him wealthy. Rather than breaking Reed’s nose, the guy should have been kissing his feet.
I dropped by Katie’s office a few times over the next couple of weeks, but never got past the receptionist, who looked at me like I was the Devil himself. Obviously, the news travelled fast at Yates Hamilton & Booz. Do not let the wolf back into the hen house…
I knew that things would be rocky between us after we pulled the rug out from under Allen, but I didn’t think Katie would just kick me out of her life. I figured that she would show up at my office or my penthouse to cuss me out in person. I would let her rant and rave for a bit, then I could turn on the charm and give her my side of the story. An hour later, we would be in bed and all would be forgiven. Katie was smart. She would understand why we did what we did. I desperately wanted to explain things to her, to make her see that I did not use her, at least not on purpose. She wouldn’t even give me the chance.
After Allen Benson came around the table to break Reed’s nose, he stormed out of the conference room with his attorney in tow, whom he promptly fired in a very loud confrontation on the elevator as they rode down.
Before the day was done, we’d been contacted by Ed Ridgely, the senior partner at Yates Hamilton & Booz, who just happened to be Katie’s boss. He and Reed were old golfing buddies, but unlike Reed, Ed was incorruptible.
He informed Reed that his firm had been formally retained by Allen Benson, and he had filed an injunction with a judge to freeze the deal to sell Benson Digital’s manufacturing operation to Amalgamated Industries, at least until both sides could present arguments to the judge.
It was just a tactic to buy time until they could come up with a better plan. Fine, I wasn’t too worried about it. Our contract with Benson was iron clad, and Price Bean & Whitlock owned a good chunk of Amalgamated, so they wouldn’t pull out of the deal. It would just delay things a bit. The judge would see that we had done nothing wrong. It might take a few weeks to sort it out, but in the end, the deal would go through as planned.
One week went by with no contact from Katie, then two. I was surprised at how much I found myself thinking about her at all hours of the day, and especially late at night, lying in bed alone.
It was crazy because we had spent a sum total of four nights together. It wasn’t like we were long time lovers or an old married couple. Still, the thought of her kept gnawing at my brain. And I felt like a total dick because I knew that my actions had hurt her, and embarrassed her in the eyes of her beloved uncle.
“Penny for your thoughts, young man,” Reed said, staring at me from across the lunch table at the Roxie. I was picking at a steak and potato. He was devouring a plate of crab cakes like they were going out of style and working on his third scotch.
“I would bet that you haven’t had a penny in your pocket in decades,” I said, forcing a smile. “Even if you did, you wouldn’t get your money’s worth paying for what’s going on in my head.”
Reed grinned as he chewed, despite having a Band-Aid going across the bridge of his nose and two black eyes. Funny, I thought Reed would stay in his office until his wounds healed. To the contrary, he wore the fact that Allen Benson had broken his nose like a badge of honor. He could hardly wait for people to ask him what the hell happened, so he could tell the tale of the big deal that led to his nose getting mashed to his face.
“Okay, then, tell me for free.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Let me guess, you’re still thinking about that girl.”
“That girl has a name,” I said with a sigh. I set my silverware on the plate and pushed it away, then signaled for the waiter to bring me another martini. “It’s Katie. Katie O’Hara.”
“Right. Katie O’Hara. I take it you haven’t spoken to Miss O’Hara since the Friday free-for-all.”
“The Friday free-for-all?” I smiled as I took a sip from my drink. “I have not spoken to her, but it’s not for a lack of trying. She won’t take my calls, answer my texts, or come to the door. And apparently I am persona non-grata at her office.”
He shrugged as he sliced a bite from my steak and shoved it into his mouth. “So? What’s the problem? Come on, Conner. It was a fling. It was fun while it lasted. It’s not like she was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with.”
I nodded slowly for a moment, then said, “Who knows. Maybe she was.”
Reed stopped chewing and frowned at me. He winced as his swollen nose pulled against the Band-Aid. “Excuse me? Maybe she was the one? Seriously?”
I picked up the fancy napkin and wiped my mouth with it, then tossed it aside. “What if she was the one, Reed? What if I totally fucked up the one relationship in my entire life that wasn’t based on bullshit.”
“You cannot be serious right now,” he said. He picked up his scotch and scoffed over it. “She’s just some girl, Con. For the love of God, you have Cassandra Leone on speed dial. Why the fuck are you acting like a lovesick puppy over this Plain Jane lawyer?”
“You can be a real dick sometimes,” I said, mainly because that was all I could think of to say. I couldn’t explain to him the feelings I was experiencing at that moment. The fact that I felt like I had a hole in my chest he could shove his fist through would be a foreign concept to him. The only time a woman ever made Reed Helstrom cry was when she had a divorce lawyer sitting beside her.
He was right about one thing; I had Cassandra on the string, along with dozens of other gorgeous girls who would jump at the chance to spend time with me. Why, then, was I pining away over Katie O’Hara?
Why?
Because I was in love with her, that was why.
Shit. I had fallen in love. And now she wouldn’t give me the time of day. And I really couldn’t blame her. I was as big of an asshole as Reed was. He was just much prouder of it.
“Why don’t you just show up outside her apartment or her work if you’re that hell bent on seeing her?”
“I’ve tried that,” I said, head shaking. “She refuses to come out when I’m there. She has the doorman threaten to call the cops. And then there’s this fucking injunction that Ed Ridgely filed. That’s just fuel to the fire.”
“We’ll beat that,” Reed said confidently. “I’ve talked to Ed. He knows it’s a losing battle. He’s just buying time to give Allen Benson a chance to cool down.”
“Yeah, I know. But that is the nail in the coffin as far as Katie is concerned.” I leaned back and blew out a long breath. “Goddammit, why did things have to end up this way?”
“Because that’s how business works, my boy,” Reed said, hands spread over his empty plate. “Somebody wins, somebody loses. That’s the way it works.”
I began to nod slowly as a small light flickered inside my brain. “What if it doesn’t have to work that way?” I asked. “What if we actually did a deal that was win/win for everyone involved?”
“That would be a first,” he said. “What do you have in mind?”
Chapter 29: Conner
I called my old college pal, Andy Whitlock, to ask him the name of the beautiful black girl he had been with on
New Year’s Eve. She was Mollie the paralegal’s —Katie’s— best friend. Katie had mentioned her name a time or two, but I was not the best at paying attention to small talk. I found it hard to focus when Katie was in the room. I would watch her lips move, then my brain would just shut down as the blood drained to more pertinent parts of my body.
Monica, was her name, I thought.
Or Monique or…
Anyway, Andy would know her name. She was an old flame, or so he said, and probably the most beautiful girl he had ever been with. Maybe she could help me get a message to Katie. If my plan worked, Katie would be thrilled to hear from me and give me the chance to make things right. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
“Her name is Monique Griggs,” Andy said with a hint of irritation in his voice. I had caught him leaving his office and he was talking to me while trying to find his car in the parking garage. “Why do you want to know? You run out of other girls to charm, old pal? Now you’re trying to horn in on my ladies?”
“Nothing like that,” I said. “I’m actually trying to get in touch with the girl I went home with that night. She said her name was Mollie. Anyway, it’s a long story, but I need Monique to help me track her down.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re not telling me everything?” Andy asked. “Come on, old buddy, give it up. What’s going on? Did she leave you with a raging case of crabs?”
