Page 5 of Hostile Takeover

“Is he a professional baseball player?” she asks. “Pitcher for the Oakland A’s?”

“No,” I say as I rub my temples. “Try typing in The Hammerhead Group. Or evil corporate overlord sent to ruin our lives.”

“Oh, here. Got him. Wow! I mean… Wow!”

“Why are you wow’ing? Does he look evil? Does he wear a monocle and a top hat? Does he smoke a cigarette on one of those long cigarette holders and scowl at little children?”

“Look for yourself,” she says as she spins the laptop around.

I swallow hard when I see a screen full of photos of Brandon Raven’s ravishing face. He’s definitely not cartoonishly evil-looking, but that’s how the real villains get you. They lure you in with their gorgeous brown eyes, their dark wavy hair, and their dazzling smile, and then when you let your guard down, they snatch your beloved company that you spent a decade busting your ass to make, and they crush it in their evil corrupt fingers. I’m not going to fall forthat.

“Get it away from me,” I say, pushing her laptop back around. “I can’t even look at him.”

“He’s hot,” Aisha says, having no problem staring at the screen. “I volunteer to let him share my desk. I’m even willing to sit on his lap if there aren’t any extra chairs lying around.”

I slowly push her laptop closed while glaring at her. She’s already been corrupted by the enemy. This is going to be harder than I thought.

She tries to open her laptop again, but I give her a stern look. “That laptop is company property,” I tell her. “I forbid you to open it.”

“Fine,” she says with a chuckle as she pulls her phone out of her pocket. “I got this from my mom for Christmas, so you can shove your orders up your ass.”

She pulls up a photo of Brandon Raven at some charity ball. He’s standing on a red carpet in a black tuxedo. “You’re seriously telling me that he’s not hot?”

“Maybe in a corporate robot kind of way,” I say, scrunching my nose up in disgust.

Aisha laughs as she shakes her head and stares at the screen. “You’re crazy. This man is a ten. And look… No girl on his arm.”

“Probably because he’s insufferable.”

She chuckles as she starts reading out his bio. “He’s twenty-nine and already runs a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.”

Okay, that’s a little impressive, I’ll give him that.

“He took over the company when his father died.”

I roll my eyes. I take that back. It’s not impressive at all. Just another case of rich guy nepotism.

“Mr. Raven,” Aisha reads, “has doubled the company’s growth by aggressively acquiring companies in the beauty industry.”

He’s like a virus, invading my wonderful industry, and Aunt Linda just opened the door and let him in. She let down all of her defenses and is allowing this guy to devour us whole.

I have to stop this.

The idea pops into my mind out of the blue, but once it’s in there, I know I won’t be able to get it out. I have to put a stop to this sale.

Aunt Linda is tired. She’s worn out. She’ll take a much-needed vacation, but after relaxing on the beach for two weeks, she’ll be horrified when she realizes what she did. She’ll be desperate to get her company back,ourcompany back, but by then, Brandon Raven will have ripped it to shreds in a cruel attempt to increase profitability, and then we’ll all be screwed.

She doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s not in her right mind.

I know what’s best for her. I know what she really needs.

And what she needs is to keep her company.

What she needs is for me to stop the deal.

“Uh oh,” Aisha says as she looks at me funny. “Why do you have that creepy smile on your face?”

“We’re going to stop the sale from happening.”

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