Page 11 of My Cruel Billionaire

And yet, I found him less annoying than most people. Okay, maybe not less annoying. Less troublesome, though, for sure. That’s a good way to put it. Evan Jones was less troublesome to deal with than most people.

Evan sat across from me in his office, one leg draped over the other, knee bouncing with energy. He gave me most of his attention, but from time to time he would glance at his phone. I couldn’t fault him for that. Who knew what crises were coming up that he had to deal with? I decided not to take it personally.

Looking at Evan Jones, I figured it probably wasn’t his fault he kind of annoyed me. Most people did. I had found very few people who had evernotbeen at least a little bit grating on my nerves. I guessed that said a lot about me and my character.

“So,” I said, tapping my finger on a stack of printouts on my desk. “It looks like we’re in agreement for most of the details, then.”

“Most of them, yes,” Evan said. “I still don’t know why you think we need to keep the overseas office in Montenegro. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just have the one home office and run everything from there?”

I opened up the stack of papers and shuffled through them until I found the one I needed.

“Yes, that’s normally true. But there’s a reason why I want NonPoint Athletic Equipment to keep the Montenegro office.”

I slid the paper across the table toward him. He cocked an eyebrow and took it from me.

“Let me see here…” he peered at the page, his eyes narrowing. “Oh, I see. They have a key distribution nexus for worldwide shipping.”

“Exactly,” I replied.

He stood up and handed me the page back. While he did so, his phone tilted in his hand and I got a look at his screen. I saw a picture of him and his wife and kid.Thatwas what he’d been distracted by? Not business, but something as insipid as family?

“Well, I think it’s time to pull the trigger on this,” I said, ignoring the pictures on his phone. “We’ve been discussing it for some time now.”

“Yes, we have,” Evan said, cocking his eyebrow at me. “In secret, so as not to cause any kind of consternation or sudden sell-offs, yes?”

“That’s right. But you and I both know that for the next step we’re going to have to involve more people.”

Evan nodded sagely.

“Indeed. We’ll need to put together a whole team of people we can trust.”

I nodded back.

“Trust is crucial. We don’t want any leaks whatsoever on this matter. That means we need to be very, very, VERY careful about who we involve in this merger.”

We were not, in fact, merging our entire business empires. Just one holding of mine, and one of his. NonPoint Athletic Equipment was mine, while he owned Leisure Unlimited. We had both settled on calling the resulting company NonPoint, because leisure and sports are not synonymous in most people’s heads any longer.

He looked up at me and frowned.

“Have you given any thought as to who you want to lead this project on your end?”

I snickered.

“That’s easy. I have a candidate in mind. He’s kind of surly, and stinks up the place with his cigars, but he’s also damn good at his job and the only man I can rely on.”

Evan laughed and sat back in his chair.

“So, I take it that you want to handle the leadership duties on your end yourself, then?”

“You take it correctly.” My face crossed with a puzzled frown. “I’m surprised you’re not leading the team on your end as well”

“Ah, but that’s the difference between me and you, Michael,” he said with a snicker. “I know how to delegate.”

I shrugged.

“I know how to delegate.”

“Hmm. That might be true, but I am the one between us who iswillingto delegate. Doing it all on your own leaves you stressed out and with no time left to smell the roses and enjoy life.”

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