Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 53725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
“At twenty-two?’
It's a legitimate question. Twenty-two seems young, but he’d never believe the things my father asked me to do at a much younger age. “I was always ambitious,” I say, leaving the dirty laundry out of my answer, “and looking for a better way and that always conflicted with his way.”
“I see. So that leads us to, what are you going to do now?”
“Strike the final fucking fatal blow.”
Caleb’s phone buzzes and he snakes it from his pocket and glances at the screen and then me. “You’re all over the internet.”
“What are you talking about?”
He hands me my phone with a story pulled up. It’s pictures of me with Alana, and me entering her building, and not leaving until this morning. I grimace. “This would be my father. He called the press.”
“Why would he do that? What does he gain?”
“If I pay off Alana’s loan now, I’ll look like I can’t separate business from personal at a time when I need the board to trust me to make solid decisions. This is him trying to teach me a lesson. It’s a warning not to cross him or he’ll come for me.”
“Is that true? It doesn’t seem that big a deal to me. Will the board really doubt you if you pay the loan off?”
“Not when I explain to the right members the role she’s playing in the merger that will make them all a shit ton of money.”
“Then you need to do that and do it now, man. She’s exposed, and he’s really petty. I checked and the TV show, which means her role and salary, are under the company’s name. He could go to the board and decide she’s the next hostile takeover and fuck her and take everything. Now that you got me thinking about it from your point of view, he could challenge you in front of them to put personal aside.”
“It’s not enough money to be worth a hostile takeover.”
“He’ll find a way to spin it if it serves his purpose. I’ll do what I can to keep your father in check, but you need to move and move now.”
A few minutes later, Caleb is gone, and I try to call Alana over this press leak, but she doesn’t answer. Three times I call and text with no reply. Damn it. She knew we were photographed, but then she had no idea she was exposed for sleeping with me, who she sees as her boss, in the public eye. I’m just not sure why she would shut me out over it. She could be filming, but I think it’s more than that.
And I can’t go to the set right now.
My father must have wind of my takeover. I can’t be sure I know what he’s up to which means I have to contact the stockholders in my pocket and keep them there. And then I need to go see the old crusty bastard in person and convince him I’m rattled.
It’s also past time I set him up and deal the final blow to dethrone him, once and for all. That won’t be today, but after dinner tonight and Mary Morrison, it could be tomorrow.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Alana
My phone is ringing as I hurry into my trailer on set and claim the chair set up in front of a mirror to be styled. Whoever it is will have to wait. “I’m here,” I say. “Obviously. You can see I’m here.” I eye myself in the mirror, and a night of sex and very little sleep shows. “I’m going to need some extra everything, I think.”
“Woo, Lala,” Cheryl, my usually quiet stylist murmurs, grinning ear to ear as she studies me.
I frown. Is she joking about how bad I look? “What’s woo, Lala?”
“You and Damion West. He’s only the hottest thing since Texas and the most eligible bachelor on planet Earth.”
My fingers curve around the arms of my chair. “What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t been on the internet yet today? You and Damion are all over the place. He went home with you and left in the morning.” She pats her heart. “And the way he sheltered you from the reporters. Be still my heart.”
She has just said more in three minutes than she has ever said to me. The trailer door opens, and my mother appears. “We need a minute.”
“She has to film in fifteen minutes.” Cheryl argues. “I have to—”
“I said, we need a minute,” my mother snaps, showing some balls for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, I know why. She found out about Damion, which I should have known was coming when I agreed to the fake engagement anyway. Which is fake, but I can’t tell her that. She is too much of a loose cannon these days to keep a secret.
Cheryl eyes me and I wave her off. “It’s okay.”