Page 5 of Handsome Devil

Before the door swung closed behind her, Sebastian pushed it open, as if he’d been waiting just outside. He closed the door and looked at Dante.

“What was that about?”

Dante sat down and rubbed his jaw. “Annabelle came by to make me an offer.”

“What could she possibly have to offer?”

Sebastian was more than his employee. They had been friends for years.

“She wants to get married again, so I can help her get her father’s company, and in exchange, she gets me an audience with Nolson Hilderbrandt.”

Sebastian’s eyes widened. “Did you saymarryher?”

“That’s right.” Dante quickly outlined Annabelle’s idea.

“You’re not seriously considering this plan, are you? There must be another way to land the Hilderbrandt building.”

Sebastian knew about his strong desire to own the landmark.

Dante leaned forward. “They’re having money problems, which means Nolson might be close to selling, and I can’t let the plaza slip through my fingers.”

Sebastian raked his fingers through his blond hair. “But marriage, toher? What did you tell her you would do?”

Dante propped his feet atop the desk, his leather chair squeaking as he leaned back. “I told her no.”

“Did you mean it?”

Dante’s gaze met his friend’s. “I haven’t decided yet, but this potential opportunity with Anna reminds me of something my mother used to say, and the lesson she tried to teach me.”

“What did she used to say?” Sebastian asked.

Dante smiled. “A patient man will always eat ripe fruit.”

3

Annabelle walked to the elevator and kept her eyes straight ahead while bitter thoughts swirled in her head.

She hated that she had to come to Dante for help, but bottom-line, she needed him and was counting on him needing her. If he accepted her offer, perhaps they could refrain from killing each other long enough to actually help each other.

She had hoped for a positive answer to her proposal today but in reality had known such optimistic expectations were wishful thinking. Dante probably hated her more than she disliked him. After all, she had been the one to walk away from their marriage without so much as a note of warning.

Yes, he definitely hated her.

All the way down in the elevator, she held tight to her self-control, cognizant of the camera in the back left corner of the cabin. She didn’t want word getting back to Dante that she had fallen apart after leaving his office.

By the time she exited the building and marched through the covered parking lot to her car, she was barely holding on by a thread. Quickly, she opened the car door and settled into the leather seat of her Mercedes coupe. Safely ensconced in the interior, she released a tremulous breath.

There was a lot at stake. She could not let that liar, Albert Strong, take control of the company. Her father thought he was making the right decision by having the two companies merge, but Albert had let slip to her that when the companies did merge, he planned to lay off a large percentage of the long-term employees and hire new ones at reduced salaries. She couldn’t let him destroy those employees’ lives. When she told her father, the bastard denied his plans and said she must have misunderstood. And her father believedhimover her.

She knew a lot of the staff. Not only from working there, but from when she was a kid coming by her father’s company over the years.

Like Lawrence, who worked his way up from a property manager to managing his own portfolio of properties. She used to always stop by his office and pluck candy from the jar on his desk. What would his wife and kids do if he was forced out of the company where he’d worked for more than two decades?

Then there was Julie, a ten-year employee whose contacts at the zoning office got their permits quickly pushed through during time-critical moments in their property development phases. Her elderly parents had a number of age-associated ailments and depended on her for financial support. How would all their lives be impacted if Julie was forced to leave and take a lower-paying job?

“Over my dead body,” Annabelle muttered to herself.

Marriage to Dante was the only way she envisioned holding on to the company. Her father didn’t believe she was capable of taking the helm, which left a sour taste in her mouth, but she couldn’t completely blame him for his thoughts.

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