Page 60 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

“Hey, have you ever seen a TV like this?” I took up too much of her and Max’s time showing off the TV before we settled in and watched an animated movie.

27

DYLAN

Ihated having to leave Jessica at home. I should have been able to stay and care for her. Instead, I had to deal with cranky investors who needed me to hold their hand through a rather uncomfortable process.

From my perspective, the fact that they had dragged their heels and had too many questions over the presented numbers turned out to be a benefit. No signatures on anything meant Ryan had nothing to use against me.

I wasn’t as concerned that he wanted to sue me as I was how he manipulated Jessica and had held that threat over her for years. It was going to cost me a lot more than a two-thousand bottle of Château Lafite to get rid of him. At this point, I considered any cost to be rid of this guy to be worth it.

“You look rough,” Sarah said as soon as I walked into the office.

“It was a long night,” I admitted.

“Ethan told me how well his little idea worked. That kid is some kind of hidden genius, I swear. Now if he’d only apply himself in school.” She sounded exasperated.

“He’s still young. He’ll get it figured out. I mean, he figured out how to track down one person in a sea of hotels by narrowing in on his greed. He knows how people think. He should go into law or marketing,” I suggested.

“He has to get out of high school first,” she said.

“Is that a concern?”

Sarah shook her head. “Not at all. But his grades are average. He’s a C-B student at best. No drive to do anything other than video games and his skateboard.”

“He’ll outgrow it, I’m sure of it. Last night’s trick was entirely too clever. And it actually helped me to make some hard decisions. Oh, before I forget.” I set down my messenger bag and pulled out the small box I had gotten for Sarah the day before. It seemed like so much longer. I held the box out to her. “I still owe you a proper bonus, but this is a little thank you for handling the investors.”

She took the box and opened it. She glanced down at the bracelet and then back up at me. “Oh, Dylan, this isn’t a small thank you. This is… thank you, it’s lovely. Flowers are a small thank you.”

“No, thankyou. You really keep this office together, especially with all the time I’ve had to take off since Max came into my life.”

She pressed her fingers against my arm in a soft tap. “Stop it. You’re going to make me emotional. You have phone calls to make. I’ve prioritized who you should call first.”

“Yeah, well first, I think I need to give the legal team a call. I want confirmation before I go into these calls,” I said.

“That bad?” she asked.

“You tell me if I’m making the right decision here,” I started. “Hypothetically, you find out that a potential business partnership you are looking to engage in, one that would make you millions and take five or seven years to see through to completion.”

“So, something very profitable that would require working with said person or persons over the course of time,” she confirmed.

I nodded. “Exactly. Now, hypothetically, the deal is really good, but for whatever reasons, it hasn’t been finalized. Nobody has signed anything.”

“No verbal agreements, no hand shakes?” she asked.

“Right, there might have been a hypothetical comment about wanting to make this deal go through and that signatures are just a detail at this point. So, hypothetically?—”

“You don’t have to keep saying hypothetical, Dylan,” she said with a light chuckle.

“Plausible deniability. There is no way someone can get you into a deposition and you can claim you knew exactly what we are talking about here, since I am only presenting potential situations, legally.”

“Okay, but I understand going forward that this is all ‘what-if’ and speculation. So your backside is legally covered.” She was a smart woman. “Okay, so nothing official has been agreed upon. What’s the problem?”

“What do you do when you find out the man who brought the deal to you was your…” I trailed off. What did I call Jessica? I was in love with her, but she hadn’t been my girlfriend for verylong. It was a strange thing to say out loud to other people. “Your girlfriend’s ex.”

Sarah tilted her head to the side. “Girlfriend?”

“Hypothetically,” I said, reminding her.

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