Page 56 of My Cruel Billionaire

“No? No proof at all? Not one shred of evidence to present to the court to support your accusations against my team?”

He straightened up his posture and tried to act like he was still in control.

“Obviously, if I had proof, the guilty party would be in handcuffs and this merger would be a settled matter.”

“Oh, obviously. In other words, no, you don’t have any evidence.’’

“I know that it’s not anyone on my team,” Michael said stiffly.

“Yeah,” Blake chimed in, his face split in a wide grin. “We know it’s none of us. The boss even made us take lie detector tests.”

“Yeah,” Trent said, "and we told Chad that if he put a clothespin on the seam of his balls, he’d be guaranteed to pass.”

Chad’s face turned red, though whether it was from embarrassment or anger I couldn’t tell.

“It’s not funny, you assholes. I had to go to the doctor and everything after that stupid clothespin… I mean, I never did anything stupid like that, you guys are dumb, haha.”

“I do have some evidence it’s no one on my side of the merger,” Michael said.

I stared him right in the eye, my nostrils flaring, and tried to keep my tone calm and civil when I spoke. I was about fifty percent successful.

“Okay, let’s hear about this ‘evidence’ of yours, Michael. Tell me why it’s such a goddamn certainty that the mole comes from my side of the merger.”

“It’s really quite simple, cut, and dried.” Michael shrugged as if it were no big deal. Or more likely, his shrug was meant to signify that it didn’t matter what his opinion on it was, it was just a fact. “If, and I do meanif, one of my employees were desperate enough, crazy enough, or stupid enough to try and double cross me, they would never cut their own throat in the process.”

I waited for him to explain that one but of course, he did not. When I got tired of his enigmatic bullshit silence and sighed and prompted him.

“Well? What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, that they would never hurt the value of their own stock. Would they sabotage the Leisure Unlimited brand? Absolutely. Would they sabotage their own brand, the one they own stock in? Of course not.”

I wanted to wipe the smug look right off of his face. Here he was, going right back to type. Michael Wallace, the alpha male jack hole out to dominate everything who always had to be right. Always.

“You’re underestimating how much it might be worth to some parties to disrupt this merger,” I said.

“Don’t talk to Mr. Wallace like that,” Chad snapped.

Polnaraff stood up so fast his butt knocked over his chair

“And you don’t talk to her like that.”

“Hey, let’s all settle down,” Joestar said, holding his hands out, palms facing outward. “Let’s not turn on each other.”

“Why not?” Trent said with a sneer. “We all know the mole comes from your side. We might as well treat you all like an enemy. Then we’re guaranteed to be right at least about one of you.”

“And wrong about the other three,” Becky pointed out.

Trent shrugged.

“It’s not like your side contributed much to the efforts and proceedings anyway.”

“I know, right,” said Chad with a snicker “That lousy document report. Who put that together, Hellen Keller? With Daredevil’s help?”

“Don’t forget Stevie Wonder,” Trent said and high-fived Chad.

“If you don’t both shut up,” Michael snapped. "I’m going to fire you.”

They fell silent but I wasn’t about to hold my tongue.

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