One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(86)
“An offer? From whom? We weren’t looking for an offer.”
“Hey, bro.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “It’s chaos around here. People are going nuts, choosing sides and talking shit about you and Healy when they think no one can hear them.”
What the hell happened? Knox thought everything was in the bag, though the paperwork for the transfer of Ty’s company shares to Knox had yet to go through while all the lawyers vetted the deal. “The offer, Shayla.”
“Right. Sorry. It came in about an hour ago. Not that any of the partners told me, but they’ve been locked up in the conference room and I’m a hella good eavesdropper. My money’s on the theory that Healy went behind everyone’s back to tip off Lux Universal that the business was up for grabs. He was pretty vocal against your plan.”
Knox ground to a stop. “The offer’s from Lux Universal? Please tell me you’re kidding.”
Lux Universal consistently ranked in the top ten property management companies in the world in net worth. They specialized in beachfront luxury condos and timeshares. Briscoe Equity Group had sold them a property a few years back, a high-rise hotel perched on a sliver of beachfront in the Florida Keys that Lux was going to repurpose as timeshares. Doing business with them had been a cakewalk because once Lux decided they wanted a property badly enough, they were willing to throw buckets of money at the buyers, making their offers nearly impossible to refuse.
“I wish.”
A niggle of fear started in Knox’s chest. “What could they possibly want with Briscoe Ranch? It doesn’t fit their profile at all.”
“That was my thought, too. And none of the investment partners have contacted you yet?” Shayla said.
“No.” Could it be that his own equity firm was trying to box him out of ownership of his family’s business by going around his back to accept a better offer? Like Shayla, he wouldn’t put it past Healy to pull something like that. Hell, for all he knew, Healy and the rest of the partners were trying to box him out of Briscoe Equity Group, the company he’d founded. It happened in the business world often enough. Carl Karcher, Steve Jobs, and Jerry Yang of Yahoo were three examples that sprang to mind.
Knox held his phone out to check the time. Still early in the day. “You said Healy and Sandomir are on their way to Dulcet?”
“Yes. They’re taking Sandomir’s private jet. They wanted to talk to you in person.”
Knox let his gaze roam over the resort grounds. If Healy and Sandomir wanted a fight, then he’d give it to them. The resort was worth it. It was time to look his colleagues in the eye and make the case once more for giving him a shot at restoring the resort to a profitable business. “Thanks, Shayla. I’ll be waiting.”
“You’ve got this, bro. Call me afterwards, okay? And good luck.”
Three hours later, right on schedule with the ETA Shayla had texted him, Knox met Healy and Sandomir in front of Briscoe Ranch Resort’s lobby. “Gentlemen, I wish I could say I’m surprised.”
Healy offered him a smile that wasn’t at all friendly. “Good. Shayla called. We wanted you to be ready.”
Did they? “You sure have a funny way of showing it.” He tipped his head toward the building. “Let’s head straight to my office. I’m eager to hear about this deal.”
Healy sneered at the Spanish-style fountain in the lobby, then stopped to pick at a chipped tile. “This place is a money pit.”
He wasn’t far off, but neither profit nor revenge was Knox’s bottom line any longer. “Be that as it may, this is my family, which makes it about more than money to me.”
Sandomir harrumphed. “That’s a change of tune from our last meeting about Briscoe Ranch, when you convinced us to hold tight until we sold for a profit.”
Knox ushered them around behind the front desk and through the glass door leading to the offices. Haylie was at her desk, reading a magazine that she tried valiantly to hide when she noticed Knox’s approach.
“Morning, Haylie. Hold my calls and see that we’re not disturbed by anyone. You remember Roger Healy and Boris Sandomir from my Dallas office?”
She wiggled her fingers at them, which Knox supposed was as deferential and business-like as Haylie had it in her to be at the moment.
“Right this way,” Knox said, leading the way into his office, then closing the door firmly behind Healy.
Healy headed to the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the golf course and lake, while Sandomir sank into one of the chairs opposite Knox’s desk. “As I was saying,” Sandomir said. “You changed your tune, Knox.”
Knox assumed a seat at his desk. “You’re right. I did. I never expected this business venture to become so personal.” Which was a total lie, if he really thought about it. Investing in the resort had been personal long before he’d ever brought his team of equity partners on board. It was only the nature of Knox’s personal bias that had changed. The vendetta that had once consumed his thoughts of the future had been replaced by hope. As corny as it would sound if he said it aloud, he’d been changed by love.
Healy turned from the window. “The problem is, to the rest of us, this is still just business as usual. It doesn’t bring us pleasure to go against your wishes or evict your family from their homes and place of business, but this is the nature of the beast with private equity firm investments. You know that. If we got heartsick for every employee we laid off or underperforming company we shut down, we’d be in the wrong business.”