Page 3 of Billionaire Romantic
They always get my order first, no matter how long the line is.
Elli hands me my coffee, making a point of placing it in the cardboard three-cup-holder so I can see she’s written her number on the side. “Thanks, Elli.”
She bites her lip, blinking at me again. “Bye, Noah. See you again soon, hopefully.”
We get out to the street and Colton is still laughing. “Jesus, she might as well have had ‘Fuck me’ tattooed across her forehead. You should call her. Getting up close and personal with a chick withthatmany piercings could be interesting.”
“Give it a rest, Colton.”
“Just go with it, bro.” Colton keys us into our private elevator. “You’re too wholesome for your own good.” Not entirely true. There’s a side to me my brothers definitely know nothing about. “Unless the rumors are true,” he smirks.
I don’t bother taking his bait. “You’re in a good mood,” I observe.
“It’s called getting laid, Noah. You should try it sometime.” Ever since he met Lila, Colton has been insufferablyhappy. Cole was always the fun-loving Casanova of the pack of us, but now there’s a new, fervent lightin his eyes which, considering both his past and his usual devil-may-care attitude, is probably the best advertisement for true love I’ve ever seen.
“I’m not taking your place as the family fuck-boy, so you can drop it,” I tell him. Then again, that’s exactly what I just made a decision to start doing.
The elevator dings and the doors slide open. Directly opposite the doors is one of our main boardrooms, which Cash happens to be walking into. “Better than the Maddox Monk,” Colton replies.
Which of course is all the invitation Cash needs to join the conversation. “How’s the vow of celibacy going?”
“Fuck off,” I tell him, handing him his coffee as I walk past him into the boardroom.
“Good morning to you too.” Cash smiles at how easy it is to rile his usually zen brother. He sets his coffee and some folders at the head of the table, pulling out a chair. “The mood hasn’t improved, I see.”
“My mood is none of your—or his—business. Let’s just get on with the meeting you insisted we come to.”
More grinning, but Cash tunes in to the fact that I’m reallynotin the mood for their rainbows and unicorns happiness right now—because they happen to be right. My epic dry spell is gettingwayout of hand.
2
Cash slides a folder toward me,then to Colton, getting straight to the point. “All the info I’ve got so far on Ashton Holdings.”
Colton starts leafing through the paperwork. “Who are they?”
“They’re a smaller investment firm that had a reputation for hitting a series of lucky scores around fifteen or twenty years ago. The founder, Henry Ashton, had an almost prophetic knack for good timing. But he refused to modernize with the times and their profits have suffered for it.”
“Then why do we want to go anywhere near them?” I glance at the file on the table, but leave it closed. I want to hear what Cash has to say before I look at the numbers and dismiss it immediately.
“Because they’re undervalued. The founder died around six months ago of a sudden heart attack.”
Colton looks up from the file he’s leafing through. Fathers dying of sudden heart attacks is something we can relate to. “Who’s running the company now?”
“Ashton’s kid. Who’s completely inexperienced. It isn’t going well for them. Their shares have plummeted.”
I recline back in my chair a little, taking a sip of my coffee. I’m trying to remember if I’ve heard of Ashton Holdings but I’m coming up blank. “Sounds like a disaster.”
“At the moment, it is. Butweknow what we’re doing and with a small amount of effort we could turn it around. It’s a special little company with huge potential.”
It’s a weird thing for Cash to fixate on, considering everything we’ve got on our plates with our own company. “Why are you so interested in it?”
“We could most likely get a good deal. We should act quickly though. A few other companies are starting to smell the blood in the water. Abundance Investments is one of them.”
“Ah.” That explains it. A few months ago when we were investigated for an insider trading incident—which never happened and eventually blew over—the CEO of Abundance, Chad Bentley, poached a few of our clients, convincing them we were untrustworthy. So there’s a reason Cash wants to one-up Abundance. “There has to be more to this than just revenge.”
“There is. There’s a shitload of money to be made here, Noah.Ifwe act fast.” Cash’s competitive streak is fired up. “And it would be satisfying to piss off Chad, admit it.”
“Has Chad made an offer?” Colton continues to leaf through the paperwork.
