Page 14 of Priceless

I didn’t know much about Frank as a person, but if he was as insufferable in his personal life as he was in business, I wanted Ocean as far away from him as possible. Already, my protective instincts were going crazy after I’d almost had to pull that creep off her.

Still up on the balcony, I’d seen her face, and I’d moved before I was fully thinking. The others backed me without question. We were a team and always would be.

“Well, get your asses down here and use the back way to my office,” I said. “Let’s get this done.”

“Give me fifteen minutes to put something together,” Everett said. “Glad I couldn’t sleep and was already working on it.”

“Done.”

Oren put my coffee down on my desk and raised an eyebrow. “Satisfied, my liege?” The sarcasm dripped through.

“You’re lucky you’re good at your job.”

“And you’re lucky you pay me so well.” He flaunted his walk all the way back to his desk, earning a laugh from me. Oren was the best assistant I’d ever had. Plus, he was a character. I’d have him out on his ass if he didn’t do good work, but half the time he knew what I needed before I needed it.

Everett and Micah walked in together, and the former looked at me. “Ready?” He held a couple of paper folders in his hands.

I grinned and grabbed my coffee. “Born ready.”

Frank sat at the large conference table with his phone in his hand and a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Given what his financials looked like, he should be nervous. I still didn’t understand what had happened, but for the next few minutes, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he could give us what we wanted.

Micah was the first one through the door. “I thought you said next week, Frank. I didn’t think you meant this morning.”

He laughed nervously. “Right. Sorry to intrude.”

It was Thursday. Whatever he had in mind could have waited until Monday. Ours, however, couldn’t.

“You’re here now.” Everett unbuttoned his suit jacket with one hand and sat down. “Why don’t you tell us what brought you this kind of urgency?”

Frank cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee. “Some poor decisions.” Then he sighed and his shoulders wilted. I glanced over at the others to see what kind of read they were getting, but they gave nothing away. “It’s always been my intent to expand beyond textiles. I hoped that in doing some strategic investing I might have the capital to move past that sector.

“But the firm I hired to make the investments didn’t manage the funds well. And with things in the market being how they are…” he shrugged. “I’m?—”

“In the red in every possible way you can be?” Everett finished the sentence. “We’re aware.”

Shock rolled across the man’s face. He was an Alpha, but he’d never felt that way to me. Not that I put all the stock in someone’s designation. “How?”

“We have our ways. But you know, never kiss and tell.” Everett mimicked his words from last night. “What I really want to know is how you let it get this bad?”

He had a point. Everett was the business mind among us. There was a ruthlessness in him that served us well in these deals. And Frank should have pulled these investments long before now.

“I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know?” Micah sounded incredulous. “How?”

“They assured me things would bounce back. I didn’t realize how deeply the market had shifted.”

I frowned. Our own investments were doing just fine. So what had caused this? For the moment, it didn’t matter, but it needed to be looked into.

“And what are you hoping we’ll do about it?” Everett asked.

Frank winced and pulled his hands off the table. They were shaking. He was nervous, and he should be. Still, I gave the man credit for asking for help instead of blindly driving the company into the ground out of pride.

“I was hoping for a partnership. I’m aware the Firefly deal is private. But if you’re willing to purchase a company like them, perhaps you’d be willing to work with us.” Leaning down, he retrieved a small folder from the briefcase beside his chair. “I brought this.”

I caught it when it slid across the table and glanced through it. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. All this did was give him money and gave us essentially nothing. I passed it to the others and Everett snorted a laugh. “This is your offer?”

Frank said nothing.

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