The Ruthless Gentleman(2)

Although Gordon sounded caring and charming, he was delivering the same message as Steven had been, just in a very different way. Our relationship was teetering on the brink.

If Steven and Gordon walked away now, it would send a clear message to the City—Hayden Wolf was a dead man walking. My deal-doing days would be over, and the business I’d built to honor my father would crumble.

I tried to appear calm, as if adrenaline wasn’t threatening to overwhelm me. “I am a deal maker, but I won’t just buy for the sake of it. Cannon are making the headlines at the moment, but they’re overpaying for assets.” If their strategy was to take me down, it was working, but at the cost of their business. They were paying far too much for companies worth far less just to screw me.

Gordon nodded. “I’m not concerned with Cannon’s business practices or bottom line. I’m concerned with yours.”

“Wolf Enterprises is on course,” I said, giving no ground. “And my next acquisition is going to make you forget about the last twelve months.”

The table fell silent as our waitress arrived with drinks for Gordon and Steven, then disappeared again.

“Wiping away the last twelve months would take a deal far larger than anything you’ve ever closed in the past,” Steven pointed out.

“Yes, it would,” I agreed.

“You expect us to believe that after a year that has marked your biggest failures, you’re going to turn it around with a single deal to not only rival, but surpass any you’ve done before?”

“Not just to surpass any one previous success,” I corrected Steven, but made eye contact with Gordon. “But to outdo them all, combined.”

Steven laughed outright, but Gordon went still and silent, considering me with the same stare he’d used the day he’d decided to invest in an unknown kid with no references and nothing to lose.

“Looking to rise from the ashes?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

I held his stare. “Exactly.” Game, set and match to me. With decades of success behind it, Phoenix was the jewel in the City’s financial crown. I’d promised Gordon ten years ago, at that very first meeting, that I’d own it someday. He’d laughed, but I’d meant it and now I was going to fulfil on that promise and buy Phoenix.

“This can’t get out,” Gordon said, his voice just above a whisper. “The minute news goes public that they’re considering a sale it’ll be pandemonium, a bidding war the likes of which we’ve never seen.”

“I agree,” I said, watching as Steven tried to puzzle together just what we were talking about.

“Cannon is targeting Wolf Enterprises, letting you set up the deal, then swooping in at the last minute to outbid you. They’re getting their information from someone,” Gordon said.

I’d been thinking of nothing else since I’d lost the Lombard deal. How had that been stolen out from under me? I’d kept it to such a close-knit group of people. All advisors signed ironclad nondisclosure agreements. I’d been so sure I’d had it in the bag.

“Corporate espionage?” Steven asked.

Probably, though I’d been reluctant to admit it. When I’d lost the first deal, I’d shrugged it off as one of those things. The second one, I changed my financial advisors. The third one and now Lombard? After the third deal had been stolen from under me, I’d ensured that only a trusted team of four, including my assistant, knew about Lombard. Which meant the leak had come from my own office.

The thought made me sick.

I’d handpicked the team. They’d earned my trust, something I didn’t give easily.

If I was going to ensure secrecy, I was going to have to isolate myself further. To make this work, I’d have to trust no one, suspect everyone. My business, my reputation, everything I’d worked so hard to build over the last decade was at stake.

“If I want to get this deal done quickly and quietly, I need to disappear. No one can know I’m working on anything. The next time you hear from me, it’ll be with a request to fund the deal.”

“Disappear?” Gordon asked.

“An extended, working holiday. Preferably abroad. Let the vultures assume I went off to lick my wounds after the last deal fell through.” Cannon needed to think I was down for the count.

“I know how much this deal means to you,” Gordon said as Steven leaned forward. “I want to see you succeed. Do what it takes to make it happen.”

I nodded. “I’m ready.”

“Make this work, Hayden,” Gordon said, rising from the table. “Because if you don’t, it’ll be the end of Wolf Enterprises.”





Two





Avery


I had a hangover the size of a whale. Being chief stewardess on a superyacht meant I was used to dealing with adversity with a smile on my face, so to anyone who was watching, I seemed just fine—my makeup perfect and my long, brown hair up in a glossy ponytail. My churning stomach and throbbing head told a different story.

“I don’t know how you stopped us from trashing this place,” Leslie, one of the crew members, said, coming up behind me as we looked over the main salon of the yacht I’d called home for the last five months. The dark circles under Leslie’s eyes, her rumpled clothes and the way she kept clutching her forehead gave away the extent of her alcohol consumption last night. Yesterday we’d seen the last guest off and started drinking as we’d cleaned the place from top to bottom. Although the bottom was bound to be a little sloppy, given all the wine.