Page 64 of Ruin Me

“You do start more mellow in the first couple hours.” I took his offered hand, allowing him to lead me back to bed.

“If my staff only knew, they’d also petition you to stop skimping me on my necessities.”

“I’m a necessity now?”

He swung around and glared at me. “If you question that, I’m not doing something right.”

I arched my feet until I stood on my toes, then I kissed his cheek. “Consider me corrected. You do more than enough.” As I sank to the floor, I raised his hand and kissed his knuckles. “Let’s go to bed.”

I managed another ninety minutes of sleep wrapped in Kent’s arms. This time he added his legs to the embrace, entangling our limbs as if to add an anti-Madison escape detection system to our sleeping arrangement. The alarm clockblared at six and I was surprisingly refreshed, although my sleep was choppy.

CHAPTER 27

Kent

“Omar, call Mal and tell him to bring his laptop. Then join us in the office when he arrives.”

“Will do.”

I disconnected my call with Omar and stared at my blank screen. I’d allowed a situation to sit for too long, but now had to make a move.

“What’s going on?” Mal entered my office with Omar trailing behind him.

I nodded toward the chairs in front of my desk. “I need a list of all our shareholders.”

Mal and Omar shared a glance.

“Is this about Hal?” Mal asked.

“Indirectly.” I rocked my chair back and forth. “The excuse he had for going after my relationship with Madison was someone on the board is scheming behind my back.”

Mal frowned. “This is news to me.”

“Which is very concerning. When I asked Hal, he played off my question, claiming he didn’t know who was behind the move.”

His deflection from the day I tore into him still fueled my rage. Although he was never close enough for me to consider him a friend, he’d worked with the company for decades with a compensation package that rivaled bigger corporations. I would never understand a man willing to throw so much of his life’s work away. What did he aim to get from his betrayal? As if I didn’t have enough on my hands with running and growing Luxe Locations while handling a ruinous public relations nightmare?

Thank God for Madison. Her tactics had gained traction. Then her attack happened. I wished I could embrace the pivot from the media and police, but Madison almost died to clear my name, and I didn’t take the risk of losing her lightly. However, with the heat off me, I could focus on the snake in my midst.

“How’s that possible?” Omar crossed his leg over his knee and frowned. “Isn’t there a master list of shareholders?”

“There are, but not all the names on the list belong to individuals.” Mal opened his laptop and rested it on my desk. “We have about two thousand shareholders with varying ownership levels.” He clicked some keys before falling into silence.

“How many of them are trusts or LLCs? We need to focus on them to find the culprit.” I tapped my forefinger on my armrest.

“I sent you and Omar our updated list from last quarter’s board of directors’ meeting. It will take some time to go through everyone to differentiate the anonymous LLCs from the others.”

Omar opened his laptop on his lap. “Why does it matter if the LLC is anonymous?”

“As the name implies, the person behind doesn’t have to identify themselves. They can use an agent to represent them and their interests, making it difficult for me to find whoeverwants to oust me from Luxe Locations.” I accessed my email to find the list Mal sent.

“Am I correct in assuming your request isn’t just for the list? You want an investigation?”

I allowed the tense silence to grow before nodding. “A very discreet investigation. With two thousand shareholders, I have to assume we begin with the largest entities, then figure out what combination of holdings could give someone the idea they could sway others into siding against me.”

“But don’t you own the majority shares in the company? Can anyone truly pose a threat to you?” Omar hadn’t looked up from his screen since accessing Mal’s email. His intense scrutiny was one reason I’ve stuck with Omar since taking the chance on a kid with a past that could have ended his life early if not for his determination to improve his circumstances.

“My shares, combined with the shares Ife inherited when her mother passed does make me untouchable.”

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