Page 127 of Devil in a Tux

“Trust me. I know what I’m talking about. They’ll be lining up for a dance with you.”

“Why? I don’t know anyone outside of you and Evan.”

“They’ll want to get you to get them an audience with the great white shark. We’ll keep it to six.”

I stopped him. “No thanks.”

“Evan wants you to fit in. I told him I’d show the ropes. Don’t you want to please Evan?”

“Okay. What do I do?”

We reached the first of two long tables of expensive-looking items. “First, you pick out something you’d like in the auction here, and I’ll put down Evan’s name with an absurdly high bid.”

When I gave him a questioning scowl, his response was “Trust me.”

I nodded. “I’m still looking. And these dances? I really have to do that?”

“They each get one dance to talk to you. Ask them two or three hard questions and see which one’s answers match up most with Evan. It’s only six dances.”

I moved past the crystal goblet sets and gold-plated utensils. “That’s it?”

“That’s all.”

By the end of the first table, I hadn’t found anything. “I think he needs a new toaster, one with a lot fewer buttons.”

Noah’s laugh boomed through the room.

CHAPTER39

Evan

It took a while,but I found Dad. “You wanted to see me?”

He nodded and sipped what I surmised was a Macallan by the looks of it. It was the only whiskey he drank without complaint. “Yes.” He held his whiskey glass toward the corner with fewer guests. “Perhaps over here would be better.”

When reached the corner his eyes swept the nearby tables and space before he spoke. “What’s the problem with the Northern Aerospace deal? Why would it be falling apart at this stage?”

That wasn’t anywhere on the list of things I guessed he might want to talk about. “You told me to stay out of acquisitions, and I have.”

“George says a source on their board told him the deal is likely to die.”

This was a surprise. “Did he get a feel for how likely?”

“Cold day in hellwas the phrase mentioned. They plan on running out the clock on our option to buy and then pull out.”

“What does Martin say?” I asked, wondering why Martins’s dad was talking to my dad to talk to me instead of asking his son directly.

Dad lowered his voice. “He said he went along with all of your suggestions and doesn’t know why there would be a problem unless you read the situation wrong.”

Now it made sense. Martin was in trouble with the deal and was setting up a scenario where I was the problem, and maybe by extension Dad. He had me in an impossible position.

If I tried to defend myself to baseless accusations without having been in the meetings with Northern that Martin had attended I’d only create division between Dad and Martin’s father right when Dad needed all the board support he could get on account of my fountainincident. The damned fountain splash was still fucking up my life.

If I even mentioned that Martin had felt the deal had gone squirrelly weeks ago, Dad would question Martin about it and the same fight would occur between our two fathers.

I sighed. “I don’t know. My best guess would be that they have another outside offer and want to take that one instead of ours.”

Dad sipped his whiskey silently. “Could be.”

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