The Screwup: A Billionaire Fake Fiancée Romance (The Holbrook Cousins Saga Book 2)

by Alina Jacobs

  "I've heard you talk about it enough 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's 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 to transfer all the shares to Holbrook so that we have a vote is going to trigger the SEC. But we can represent the shell companies as a proxy, so for all intents and purposes Holbrook will be controlling the majority of the company."

  "Now what," Grant said 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 continuously updated the macro she had written update as the stock purchases came through.

  "What are we at now?" Grant asked her.

  "47 percent," she replied. "Just waiting for a few more orders to go through."

  That night, 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 comes out that Walsh Systech had been secretly bought by Holbrook 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 11am," 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 blurted out.

  Grant raised an eyebrow. "I hope you aren't comparing me to my arch nemesis, Liz," he told her. The he winked to let her know he was kidding.

  Liz peeked around a fern as she watched Grant made 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 10 percent, since I had the shell companies do it. 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 grey area. We'll probably have to pay a fine but," Liz said, doing 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 said to 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 said 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. Very impressive. Someone over there must hate you."

  His phone dinged and he read the terse email message.

  "The SEC isn't stepping in."

  "What?" Robert asked. His hand wavered. Wes knew he wanted to see the email. He slapped the phone in Roberts'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 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," he said. "We'll fix this."

  "Thank you!" Robert called after the lawyers as they hurried out of the room.

  "You need to control your temper," he hissed to Wes. Wes slumped down on the floor.

  "My company is gone," he groaned.

  Robert grabbed Wes by his collar. "It's my company too."

  Wes gripped Roberts wrist tightly until he 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 said. "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 of 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 sat bottles of water on the t
able.

  "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 townhouse. He took Kal on a walk, then lay awake on the floor.

  "I can't go to the office tomorrow," he whispered to himself.

  But he had to.

  The next few days in the office were somber. The celebrations of 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 moments.

  The night before the board meeting, he heard a knock in the door and the Akita barked. It was his 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 in the air with the spoon to tempt Wes to open his mouth.

  "Oops," she said as the piece of duck fell off and Kal snapped it 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 that may present that way. You're a billionaire now. After all the Holbrook stuff shook out, people are more bullish on your stock than ever before. Prices are climbing. Svensson released a report on your stock forecasting a 20% 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 circles." Wes scowled.

  "How's your billionaire?" Wes 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. Besides, I think you have enough troubles in your life without worrying about my love life. You have money now and with the Holbrook takeover, your future is secure."

  "Mine is, but what about my company? My employees?"

  "Again, this is why you should play nice so they don't ruin the company out of spite. I met Grant at a Holbrook Foundation fundraiser once. He's intense. He reminds me a bit of you, now that I think about it," she said thoughtfully. Wes stirred the food around on his plate dejectedly.

  "This was fun, but I must be off," Dana said, gathering her bag. "We're starting shooting for a brand new web channel."

  "Reality Romance? That is such a dumb name."

  Dana pinched his ear. "Everyone wants to find love." Wes's thoughts took a hard right turn and crashed into Liz.

  "I'll see you around baby brother," Dana said as she kissed Wes on the top of the head then kissed Kal on his snout.

  After she left Wes tried to collect his thoughts and prepare for the board meeting. He knew he would have to deal with the smug satisfaction on Grant's face. And Liz's.

  He pulled up a new tab on his computer. After a brief hesitation, he typed in Liz's name. Pictures of her at a recent Holbrook foundation party came up. She looked so elegant in that form fitting dress. The back was open and it accentuated her curves.

  "She's not wearing a bra," Wes whispered to himself. He shook his head then and barked out a laugh. Had he really thought he could ask her out? She was his enemy now.

  He thought about Dana's words. Work with them.

  Wes slammed the laptop closed. He knew what he had to do. Screw playing nice. He wanted revenge.

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  About the Author

  If you like steamy romance novels with a side of family drama and fast-paced action, then I'm your girl!

  I love matcha green tea, chocolate, and books! So many books…

  While I am currently working on the Holbrook Cousins Saga, a Billionaire Romance series, I also write the Black Tower Series, a slow-burn Fantasy Romance that includes all the above plus dragons!

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