CHAPTER 20 DANNY
I don’t exactly like the idea, but this is what my wife wanted.
And happy wife, happy life, right?
Or something along those lines.
I sit in the same chair I was sitting in not so long ago, this time casually with my ankle perched on the opposite knee. Alexis is in the chair beside me, facing off against her father.
She wanted me to take the helm on this conversation, but I’m sort of enjoying watching him squirm under her glare.
She’s a force to be reckoned with, that’s for damn sure.
“I know, Daddy,” she begins.
Damn. I thought all that Daddy business was reserved for me.
Speaking of which…it’s been far too long since I’ve fucked my wife. Maybe tonight. This goddamn wrist issue makes everything a little more difficult, but it’s really only my cock I need for the main event. And her pussy. And tits. Maybe her ass.
“You know what?” he asks a little dumbly.
Come on, Raymond. You run a multi-million dollar business. Or, you did, anyway. Surely you can catch what she’s throwing out there.
“I told her everything,” I say pointedly. “She knows you needed the merger to save both her financial assets and your company. But we’ve discussed a solution.”
“You’ve discussed a what now?” he asks.
“A solution,” she says, enunciating the word carefully.
“You…you want to help me?” he asks.
“I do,” she says, and she glances at me. “We do. Your success directly affects mine just as your prosperity does, and I want Bodega Talent Agency to rise from whatever this downfall is. I don’t really understand everything that happened, but we’re going to get you your company back and expose Brooks at the same time.”
He shakes his head. “It’s not that simple. We’re out of cash. The only way to save us is a windfall, and nobody apart from D-Three is going to want to merge with a broken company.”
“A merger is not the only way to save us,” Alexis says quietly, and for someone who told me to lead the conversation before we came in here, she’s sure as hell holding her own right now.
“What, a loan? No bank is going to invest in a failure,” he says.
“The bank of Brewer will,” I say flatly.
His eyes dart to mine as his brows shoot up in surprise. “What?” he breathes.
“You heard me.”
“Why would you possibly help me after the way I’ve acted toward you?” he asks.
I fold my arms over my chest. “Because like it or not, for better or worse…you’re my father-in-law now. My wife has a big stake in your success, and that means I do, too. And I will do anything for her.”
His jaw slackens a little as if he can’t actually believe I just said that, and then his gaze shifts to his daughter. “And you, my darling girl. Same question. Why are you helping me?”
She draws in a deep breath for strength, and I grab her hand and squeeze it. Her eyes meet mine, and she turns back toward her dad. “You probably don’t remember this, but right before Mom died, back when she knew the end was coming, she told me to take care of you. I promised I would. And if I walked away from you now, if I let you suffer through this alone…well, I’d be breaking that promise.”
He closes his eyes for a beat and draws in a deep breath, and then he leans back in his chair. He shakes his head a little. “She made me promise the same for you, and I’m afraid I broke my promise. I haven’t taken care of you the way I should have. But you met someone who does, and for that…I’m pretty damn grateful.” His eyes shift back to me. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you. I couldn’t see beyond my own anger or beyond the hole I dug for myself. And you came in here ready to roll up your sleeves and help anyway, and even though it’s shameful to even be in this situation, I can’t tell you what that means to me.”
“So you’ll accept our help?” I ask.
He closes his eyes again as if it physically pains him to even consider it. “I don’t think I have any other choice if I want to save the company.”
I press my lips together. He’s probably right.
“It might get uncomfortable,” I say. “We’ll need to take a look at your financials and sensitive information in order to get a business plan together. I have some people in mind I work with, and I called them earlier and explained what’s going on. They’re on board to help, but I need to gather some data to send over to get started right away.”
“You called someone?” Raymond asks.
“I’ve got people.” I lift a modest shoulder, but the truth is, I’m lucky to have a pretty wide network of friends. Only a select few know me well, like Cooper and Rush, and now Alexis, but I try not to do people dirty, and apart from a few women who got pissed I didn’t want more than one night plus Alexis’s dad, I don’t make it a habit to get on people’s bad sides.
He chuckles. “You’re full of surprises.”
“That’s one of the things your daughter loves about me most.”
She shrugs. “He’s not wrong.”
I’m about to joke about how she also likes the cock, but I realize it’s definitely the wrong audience.
We’ll just focus on taking one step at a time here.
“I don’t want Brooks to know I’m not going through with the merger,” he says quietly.
“Neither do we,” I say.
“Oh,” Alexis says. “And we’ll need some quick cash, so I’ll need you to focus on endorsements or gigs that work with my filming schedule so we can start to get above water. Danny’s loan will help fund your other clients so nobody has to feel any sort of hit. We need you to just continue like it’s business as usual.”
“What’s the catch?” he asks, suddenly a little tentative.
To be honest, that wasn’t something Alexis and I discussed going into this conversation.
I know nothing about the music industry, but Alexis can teach me. She’s a fucking expert if there ever was one.
I know a little about business. In fact, my undergraduate degree is in business. Even so, I do have my own career I’ll need to attend to…but with a broken wrist, I have a little longer off-season than I was planning to have. I can help out with Bodega Talent and then rejoin my teammates once the medical staff clears me. And when my playing days are over, I’ll have a career to fall back on if it’s what I want. And if it isn’t, then it’s just a damn good investment. If I have people on top of Raymond and I have the right checks and balances in place, we’ll be fine. He’s already got the names and the clout on his roster. He got greedy, but he’s lucky he has a daughter who cares an awful lot about him to get him back in the black.
“Fifty-one percent,” I say.
“Fifty-one percent?” he scoffs. “No way.”
I rise to my feet and shrug as if I don’t care one way or the other, as if I’m going to walk out of the room now because the conversation is over. “Okay. Good luck with everything, then.”
Alexis’s jaw drops, and her voice is low when she speaks. “Danny, we didn’t talk about that.”
“You told me he planned to pass the company down to you someday.” I lift a shoulder. “This is just expediting the process. And if you own the company, you own everything in it.” I say the words meaningfully. I’ve thought this through. She wanted to ensure the safety of her masters, and this is just one way to do that. This gives her the control she never had but always deserved.
“You want Alexis to have fifty-one percent?” Raymond demands.
“I want us to have fifty-one percent,” I clarify. “It’ll be among the first of our marital assets. You can take it or leave it, Mr. Bodega, but if you leave it, your company is as good as dead.”
He’s quiet as his eyes study me, and eventually he says, “Let me think about it.”
“Think as much as you want, but we need an answer by morning.” My voice comes out harsher than I intend for it to, but we decided we’re heading back to Vegas in the morning.
We have a house to close on there, another house to pack up and move out of, and I need to meet with the team doctor about my wrist. We’ll need to be back here soon anyway for Alexis to resume filming, and I’ve been poking around looking at some places in Los Angeles that’ll fit my budget plus have all the things Alexis wants while still saving enough to help invest in the agency.
“Okay,” Raymond says.
“Okay…you’ll let us know? Or okay…you agree to the terms?” Alexis clarifies.
He lets out a heavy sigh. “I agree to the terms.” His voice is quiet and withdrawn, but a verbal agreement still counts.
A sense of relief filters through my chest. “I’ll have my lawyer send over the paperwork.”
And then I take my wife upstairs.