Page 52 of Trapped with the Billionaire

“Embezzlement is a pretty heavy charge,” he said as he steepled his hands. The balance of power in the room had certainly shifted if he knew that. “Are you two headed off to Brazil now?”

If he thought attacking my family was the right way to go, he was in for a surprise

“She didn’t do it.”

He nodded. “And how easy is it going to be to prove that if you leave?”

This man was a better negotiator than I could’ve guessed. He’d just added a major argument in his favor that I hadn’t seen coming.

“I’m not sure I’m leaving.” It wasn’t a commitment to stay, but it was true.

“That right there’s the difference between Stanford and USC.”

“How so?” I asked, not sure where this was going.

He stood. “You Stanford people are all about theory, never dealing with the real world, and as a result, not ever making up your mind. At USC they taught us that indecision was by far the worst decision.”

“And at USC they give you classes inrationalizingcompanies,” I spit out the word with all the disdain I felt for treating people as mere statistics.

“It’s not like that, and you know it.”

“Isn’t it?”

He took a deep breath. “Are you going to stay and have an impact? Keep me from making bad choices?”

That there was the crux of it. As much as I hated the idea of working with Mr. Rationalizer, I might be able to make some of his decisions less bad for our people.

“It’s just…” I began.

He raised a hand to stop me. “Justis one of those weasel words. I didn’t engineer this purchase, and you know that. I’m stuck here the same as you. You can either stay here and help, or leave and bitch about it. Me, I plan on making this work for everybody.”

I opened my mouth, but his finger pointed right at me stopped me from speaking.

“And exactly what have I done to make you doubt me?” he asked with an accusing glare.

“I just haven’t read the retention agreement,” I answered, tapping the papers in front of me.

“There’s that weasel word again. You Stanford grads are all alike.” He walked to the door and opened it before turning back to me. “Remember Sioux City? My actions should tell you all you need to know about me. In five minutes I expect you in my office ready to get to work.” He checked his watch. “If you’re not, your actions will tell me everything I need to know about you.” The door closed behind him, and I was alone with nothing but a dilemma staring me in the face.

I shivered in my chair. The man had laid down a challenge with all the subtlety of a rhinoceros.

If I didn’t stay, not only was I abandoning the people here, he’d insinuated I wouldn’t be doing all I could to clear Lara. Those were fighting words.

His question about what he’d done to make me doubt him answered itself. There was nothing except my anger at the situation. He could have left me in Sioux City; instead he’d gone out of his way to bring me home so I could rescue Lara from county lockup. He’d kept me safe Sunday night after my house had been broken into. He’d kept me from freaking out during the plane emergency. What was not to trust—except that the man worked for a company that wanted to dismantle mine.

* * *

Josh

I closedthe door to Nicole’s office behind me. Hard.

I moved down the hallway, only to discover that Rosa had taken up residence in my office again.

“Mr. Benson—sorry, Josh, I mean. We have another problem.”

Somehow that didn’t surprise me. This place was nonstop problems. “What now?”

What had Dad been drinking when he’d agreed to buy this place?

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