Page 28 of Heal Me
Chapter Eight
Ric sat going over expense spreadsheets at a small conference table in Tyler’s office at their Denver headquarters the next afternoon. He had his ankle propped up on a chair on the opposite side of the table. Tyler stormed into his office and slammed the door shut, causing Ric to jump and bang his cast on the bottom of the table.
“Jesus H. Christ, Ty!” he shouted as his ankle throbbed. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“I’m going to kill him. I swear I will.”
The fury in Tyler’s stormy gray eyes alarmed Ric. “Who are you talking about and what did they do?”
“Chase sent the McKnight’s the marketing material for their debenture offer without sign off and I’ve just had a very pissed off Doug McKnight on the phone.”
Ric sighed. Chase was never one to play by the rules and often forgot to get the material signed off by all three of them before approaching the clients with his often out of the box ideas. It took Ty and Ric to reign in Chase’s creativity. Often Ric was needed to position whatever madcap idea Chase came up with.
“How pissed was McKnight? Enough for us to lose this deal?” Raising over five hundred million in one deal would be a very nice fat commission for the firm but if they lost the deal after so much fanfare their reputations would be in tatters.
“We have to fly out and see McKnight in Seattle and ensure we do damage control.” Tyler shook his head and sobered. “I feel like a major shit. I called and bitched him out in a voicemail.”
Ric groaned. “Ty, why do you always jump the gun like that? You should’ve waited for me. You know I handle Chase better than you. I love his creative side and we just need him to understand that we are here to temper his off the wall ideas when it’s needed.”
Tyler dropped heavily into a chair. “One of our biggest investors, Ric. If we lost McKnight, the market would soon know why, and the word would spread. We still don’t know the full fallout from this. We have to do damage control. And the fact remains that he didn’t consult us. We always decide this stuff together. He knows that.”
Ric, the most reasonable of the partners, went into mediator mode. “I know, but let’s just see what happens before we panic. We’ll talk to Chase about ensuring this doesn’t happen again without our knowledge, and we can fly and visit McKnight. That should show how serious we are and pacify his ego.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Tyler smiled. “I have to admit I may have overreacted.”
Ric laughed. “We raise more money for our clients because of Chase’s creativity, let’s not forget that.”
“True,” Tyler said as his phone rang again. “It’s Chase.”
He put it on speaker and they were treated to a ten-minute tirade from Chase about Tyler’s voicemail, during which Tyler managed to remain calm. Ric alternated between being amused at some of the inventive names Chase called Tyler and concerned by Chase’s erratic speech pattern.
When he’d finally run out of steam, Tyler asked, “Are you done?”
“Yeah, I guess, you fuckerbitch.”
Ric’s jaw tensed as he fought down a laugh.
Tyler smiled. “Well, there’s a new one.”
“Nah. The kids are saying it now.”
“Look, Chase, I’m sorry. It’s just that this deal will cement our place as one of the bigger investment firms. Any chance of it going wrong and our reputation and profit goes down the drain,” Tyler said.
“So you said in your bitch-mail,” Chase retorted. “I’m sure Ric the Fixer can get McKnight to stay. Besides, if McKnight would pull his head out of his ass for one minute he’d see it’s a winner campaign.”
Ric was impressed. “I must say having gone over it while you boys ranted at each other I think you’re right.”
“No worries.”
Tyler said, “Chase, please don’t do something like this again without our sign off? I know you don’t like rules but they are there for a reason.”
“I was going to, but I told my P.A. the wrong send out date. It wasn’t supposed to go to McKnight untilnextThursday after you guys had seen it. My bad.”
Tyler put a hand over his mouth and walked away from the table.
“Uh, Chase, that’s a pretty big mistake. What’s up? Is everything all right?” Ric asked.
“Just some family troubles. Can’t you cut me some slack? I realize that I ain’t perfect like you and Tyler.” They heard Chase sigh. “Never mind. I got work to do.”
