by Alina Jacobs
"I'm holding you to it," Robert said. "And so are the shareholders."
Wes was happy with the stock price at the closing that afternoon. On the way back to upstate Connecticut, he listened to the news coverage on his company's IPO.
"I'm a legit CEO!" he crowed to Kal, his American Akita, when he returned home to his narrow brick town house.
The large fluffy dog jumped up, barking. He rested his large paws on Wes's shoulders, and Wes swung the dog around the living room.
"Come on, boy," he said as he changed into his exercise clothes. "I'm taking you to the park to celebrate."
As he and Kal jogged along the waterfront park, Wes let his thoughts wander to Liz. Now that the stress of the IPO was behind him, he really wanted to go out with her.
Fuck her, you mean, his brain supplied.
"No, I'm just going to apologize for my behavior," he said. "And rub the IPO in her face a little bit. But then I'll take her out for dinner." A woman jogging past him gave him an odd look. He gave her a strained smile. "This is why you haven't been laid in years," he muttered to himself. He spent too much time in the lab, tinkering with his robots or dealing with whatever corporate crisis happened to spring up and suck up all his time.
Maybe being with Liz would be nice. They could go on exotic vacations, and she would give him advice about the business. The horrible display in the conference room could just be a funny story they would tell at their wedding reception.
Wes grinned and increased his pace. Kal barked and ran ahead of him.
Yeah, he was definitely going to call Liz.
3
Liz
In the week leading up to the Walsh Systech IPO, Liz worked with Grant to try to screw over Wes.
"We'll see who's too pretty to make an impact," she muttered to herself as she typed at her computer.
"Making progress?" Grant asked her when he walked into the office. His wife and executive assistant, Kate, followed behind him with a bag of takeout from a Thai place a few blocks away.
Liz had set up shop in the empty secretary's office next to Grant's office. What they were planning had to be supersecret. Only she and Grant knew what was in the works.
"I've brought dinner, Liz. Grant's working you too hard," Kate said.
"It's all for a good cause," Grant said as he flipped through Liz's notes.
"Don't mess those up," she warned. "I don't want them out of order."
"It's all so cryptic," Grant said.
"How did you have time to set this all up?" Kate asked, peering over Liz's shoulder.
Liz looked around. Her plan hinged on no one knowing what she was up to. Satisfied that the door was firmly closed, she lowered her voice. "I already had shell companies set up, just in case we needed them," Liz said as Grant sat down next to his wife. "All I had to do was deploy them."
"I can't believe you already had this ready to go," Grant marveled, opening up one of the containers of food.
Glancing over the takeout they had brought, Liz explained, "In my MBA program, I remember reading about hostile takeovers. Usually, it was by big hedge funds. People knew they were trying to buy, but companies didn't have the cash on hand to prevent it. I knew with all the recent changes in the corporate tax code that companies were hoarding cash, both to keep this type of hostile takeover from happening as well as to buy back their own stock. It took me the better part of last year to set everything up."
"You're so smart," Kate said.
"Just trying to be proactive," Liz replied and reached for a spring roll.
Liz didn't want to admit that the only reason she set up all those shell companies was to look busy so that she wouldn't be sent back to Allie and Carter's department. She was just so jealous. Especially since she had dreamed that she would marry Carter Holbrook. Structuring the hundred or so companies had given her something to take her mind off Carter. She hadn't even had the desire to scrapbook, which was normally her go-to activity to forget about her problems.
"You probably don't need as many shell companies as I have, but now there's no way it's going to draw attention," Liz said.
"What about a poison pill to make the company lose value if anyone tried a hostile takeover?" Kate asked.
Liz nodded. "I've been pouring over the SEC filings, and whoever set up Walsh Systech's stock structure didn't do that watertight of a job, so we will be guaranteed to have a board vote. They probably were planning on amending it later on, so that's why we're moving fast."
"Good," Grant said. "I can't wait to see the look on Wes's face when he realizes we took over his company."
"Seems like you're making this personal," Liz said as she scooped the spring roll into the sweet dipping sauce. She was supposed to be eating healthy, but she was having a stressful week.
"He really rubs me the wrong way. I don't like the way he talked to you."
Kate squeezed her husband's bicep and smiled up at him. "You're such a gentleman."
"You should have heard him!" Grant complained.
Liz tried to tune them out as she poured over her spreadsheets of the shell companies she'd set up and their stock purchases.
"I've heard you talk about it enough that I feel like I was there," Kate said and kissed him lightly on the mouth.
Liz felt the sourness of envy well up inside her, but she forced it down. She wished she had a relationship like Grant' and Kate's.
"Are the feds going to have problems with whatever this is you're doing? It sounds sketchy," Kate remarked.
"Maybe, but we'll deal with the feds later," Grant said.
"Living on the edge there, buddy," Kate told him.
Liz smiled. "It's not technically illegal. The shell companies are set up like various private-equity firms. These types of firms normally handle large amounts of money, especially if they are managing a pension fund, so it wouldn't be unusual for them to make large purchases. There are also private firms that are looking to cash out now that the IPO has happened, so right now is probably the only time this scheme would work. Do note that transferring all the shares to Holbrook so that we actually own them is going to trigger the SEC. But until the SEC allows us to conclude the transfer, we can represent the shell companies as a proxy. For all intents and purposes, Holbrook will be controlling the majority of the company."
"Now what?" Grant asked as he chewed a bite of red curry duck.
"Now we wait."
Over the next few weeks, they waited for the stock sales to trickle through. It was three percent here, a half a percent there. The fact that all the shell companies Liz had set up were buying stock meant that the price was steadily climbing.
"I hope that Wes is too greedy to figure out why the stock prices are climbing," she said nervously as she monitored the macro she had written to automatically update as the stock purchases came through.
"What are we at now?" Grant asked her.
"Forty-seven percent," she replied. "Just waiting for a few more orders to go through."
That evening, she checked the spreadsheet on the laptop next to her bed. They were at 50.6 percent. The last order had just gone through and would clear when the NASDAQ opened. Liz could barely sleep that night. She tried to pass the time by looking up pictures of Wes online. One GQ ad, in particular, made her shiver. Wes was wearing a perfectly tailored suit with a skinny tie. He looked right at the camera, his dark hair falling over his forehead. Liz longed to run her fingers through it.
"That will never happen, especially not when he figures out you stole his company from him," Liz scolded herself. She couldn't believe it had actually worked.
"Guess that MBA is good for something," she muttered to Wes's pictures.
After a fitful sleep, she headed into the office early.
"Oh my goodness, Wes is going to kill us," she said nervously as they watched the stock ticker on one of the large screens in her office.
The business world exploded when the news came out that Walsh Systech had been secretly bought by Hol
brook Enterprises. Not just the business networks were covering it. All the major networks were reporting on the upset.
"We have a press conference scheduled for eleven a.m.," Kate said to Grant. He and Liz were glued to the screens.
"Let's go show them why Holbrook is king of the mountain," Grant said. He looked impeccable in his suit, and Kate ran her fingers through his hair so that it fell over his forehead.
"You and Wes really look similar," Liz said, then immediately regretted expressing the thought.
Grant raised an eyebrow. "I hope you aren't comparing me to my archnemesis, Liz." Then he winked to let her know he was kidding.
Liz peeked around a fern as she watched Grant make a statement about the takeover.
Grant stood in the lobby, a big smile on his face as he fielded questions from reporters. Liz had to admit her boss was a natural.
"As I'm sure you all have noticed," Grant said, "Holbrook has bought up the majority shares of Walsh Systech. We tried to acquire the company before the IPO. We could not work it out for a variety of reasons, however, we were confident then, as we are now, that Walsh Systech and Holbrook Enterprises will make each other stronger and more profitable companies."
Liz checked the stock ticker. The news had caused Holbrook Enterprises stock to spike and Walsh Systech stock to crash. Liz couldn't watch the rest of the conference, however, because she had to field calls from the lawyers about complaints from the SEC.
"So," Grant said as he stepped into her office, "are we all going to jail for insider trading?"
"Doesn't sound like it. Holbrook Enterprises didn't technically buy more than the allowed ten percent, since I had the shell companies make the majority of the purchases. Transferring the stock will trigger the SEC, but I'm sure we can work around that. The IPO just happened, and there's a lot of churn in the market. It's a gray area. We'll probably have to pay a fine, but," Liz did a quick calculation in her head, "even with a huge fine, we would pay less than we would have if we had gone through with the original deal." That earned her a thumbs-up from Grant.
"Kate, darling, would you mind scheduling a meeting with our latest acquisition?" he asked his wife. "I feel the need to assert my dominance."
"With pleasure," Kate replied.
4
Wes
Wes watched the news with horror. Then he picked up the phone and screamed at the lawyers, "You all need to be at my office right now!"
"How did this happen?" he asked when they were all assembled in the conference room. The lawyers looked at each other. Then the bravest of the bunch spoke up.
"It was very devious, and only Holbrook Enterprises could have pulled it off. Even so, they must have been planning this for a year. What they did, setting up all these shells and making them legal, was very impressive. Someone over there must hate you."
His phone dinged, and he read the terse email. "The SEC isn't stepping in."
"What?" Robert asked. His hand wavered. Wes knew Robert wanted to see the email. He slapped the phone into Robert's hand. "So, no help from that agency. Holbrook is the very definition of 'ask forgiveness.'"
"They should go to jail," Robert said.
"It's legal, just unprecedented," the lawyer said. "Holbrook Enterprises will have to file for permission for all the shell companies to sell their stock to Holbrook."
"They'll have to pay taxes too," Robert said.
"Our stock crashed, so they get to write off the loss," Wes snapped.
"They will also act as a proxy for all their shell companies, meaning they will be able to control Walsh Systech," the lawyer said.
Wes scowled. Then he picked up a chair and threw it at the lawyers.
Robert stood up. "You still have two board seats. We'll fix this," he said. "Thank you!" Robert called after the lawyers as they hurried out of the room.
Wes slumped on the floor.
"You need to control your temper," Robert hissed to Wes.
"My company is gone," Wes groaned.
Robert grabbed Wes by his collar. "It's my company too."
Wes gripped Robert's wrist tightly until Robert let go with an apologetic smile.
"Don't ever touch me," Wes said in a low voice.
Rubbing his wrist, Robert said, "We will fix this. Rhonda is already working on a plan."
"A plan?" Wes asked. "We can't do anything. They're going to hack Walsh Systech up and sell it for parts."
Robert looked him in the eye. "We aren't going to let them." Robert hauled him to his feet and guided him out of the building.
Wes didn't even care where they were going. He just followed Robert out to a waiting car and climbed in. "It's all gone," he said as the car pulled away. "Everything I've worked for."
"We're here," Robert said. They were outside a low-slung house.
Inside, a lithe woman with a bob sat at the kitchen table, inspecting her nails and monitoring code on her computer.
"Nice to see you again, Rhonda," Wes said.
She stood up and sauntered over to him. "How's my billionaire?" She kissed Wes on the cheek. He suppressed a shudder when her nails drifted across his neck.
"Could be better."
"Let's talk strategy," Robert said as he set bottles of water on the table.
"I hate the Holbrooks. We have to make them pay for this." Wes nodded and listened half-heartedly as Rhonda and Robert ran through various ideas. "Nothing's going to work," he said after a while and stood up. "They already won."
"Maybe you'll have a stroke of inspiration tonight," Robert told him.
"If you see Dana, tell her I said hi," Rhonda called after him.
Wes wasn't struck by any brilliant ideas on his way back to his town house. He took Kal on a walk, then lay down on the floor. "I can't go to the office tomorrow," he whispered.
But he had to.
The next few days in the office were somber. The celebrations that had taken place the weeks after the IPO were no more.
"It's like someone died," Robert said in a hushed tone.
"I bet they're celebrating over at Holbrook Enterprises," Wes said.
"Speaking of Holbrook…" Robert said and pulled up a calendar invite on his tablet.
Wes closed his eyes. "The upcoming board meeting." The Holbrooks would be there. He didn't think he could face them.
At least Dana had promised she would come see him, though the possibility of seeing her didn't do anything to assuage the general feeling of dread that haunted his waking hours.
The night before the board meeting, he heard a knock on the door, and his Akita barked. It was Kal's happy bark, and Wes felt his spirits lift somewhat when he saw who it was. "Dana!" he exclaimed, hugging his twin sister tightly.
"My poor baby brother," she said, smoothing his hair.
"I'm only younger than you by seven minutes."
"But don't they count for a lot!" she said. "I brought you Thai food."
"I'm not hungry," Wes said.
"You need to eat," Dana chastised as she laid out the food for him.
She spooned up the curry duck and made little circular motions to tempt Wes to open his mouth. "Oops," she said as the piece of duck fell off and Kal snapped it up in his powerful jaws before it hit the floor.
Wes took a bite of the curry. "Thanks," he mumbled around the food.
"Use a plate," Dana said. "So," she stated after letting Wes eat in peace for a few minutes. "You lost your company."
The food turned to rocks in his stomach. "It was a hostile takeover."
"Still," Dana said, "I've read the reports. It seems there were steps you could have taken to prevent it."
Wes was hurt. "Why are you being so mean?"
"Because you're being such a little boy. They took over your company, stole it, what have you. Now you have two choices. Fight or learn to work with them."
"I thought you came over here to cheer me up!" Wes said, suddenly angry.
"You're the CEO of a major corporation. You answer to shareholders now
. I went to business school," Dana continued, "I may not have an MBA, but I know how this goes. Companies like Holbrook Enterprises? They aren't family businesses, though they may present it that way. You and Walsh Systech are part of their world now. Since all the Holbrook stuff shook out, people have become more bullish on your stock than ever before. Prices are climbing. Svensson released a report on your stock, forecasting a twenty percent increase from their last projections."
"So, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying it could be a lot worse. You are still the CEO, and you have votes. With the climbing stock price, you also have leverage to keep your job."
Wes didn't like what she was suggesting.
"Play nice, and they won't boot you from your company," his sister said.
"Shit."
"They're ruthless. That's why they're so wealthy. But if you play ball, you could do very well for yourself. The Holbrooks aren't the end of the world."
"Robert seems to think so."
"Robert is a weird little man. Don't take advice from him," Dana said.
Wes rubbed his temples. He felt a headache coming on.
"All I'm saying is that you can always fight later. But maybe see what they want first, okay? You may be able to come to a mutually beneficial solution."
"I don't see how."
"You're a billionaire now," Dana told him. "You run in their circle."
Wes scowled. "How's your billionaire?" he asked her, wanting to change the subject.
"He's not my billionaire. He's my coworker. We're in business together. Nothing more."
"I see the way he looks at you."
Dana smiled and tossed her dark hair over her shoulder. "You shouldn't crap where you eat. You shouldn't be worrying about my love life. You need to think about your plans and goals. You have money now, and with the Holbrook takeover, your future is secure."
"Mine is, but what about my company? My employees?"
