Chapter 6 Theo
Theo
Ilet out a sigh as I walked into the boardroom at the new Knight Enterprise offices. We’d just bought the space three months ago and I was happy with how it was coming together. We bought two floors in this older building and ripped it down to the studs.
The style was industrial, we’d taken out a part of the floor so you could see the second floor from the first and added ceiling height.
There were windows on both sides of the building meaning we had a ton of natural light.
Exposed pipes and beams in the ceiling were contrasted with black light fixtures and concrete flooring.
The first floor held our lounge space with white couches, tables and desks scattered in front of the windows with a coffee bar ready for staff use.
In the back part of the first floor there were a number of small boardrooms that people could book for collaborative work along with desks that people could use.
On the second floor were the six executive offices and a large boardroom. It wasn’t as busy as downstairs, meaning that we had more privacy. Our assistants had desks up here too.
“You’re late,” William Armstrong said looking at his watch and then back to me. He was anal about the time for all meetings. He thought if you weren’t ten minutes early you were late.
Noah and Oli had walked in just behind me.
Asher, Noah, and I had been close since we were young.
I started living with Noah and his parents when I was thirteen and Asher moved in not long after.
I don’t think we would have gotten through our teen years without his family.
His parents didn’t bat an eye at having two extra mouths to feed and they helped shape the men we were today.
Then we went away to uni together and we met Oli, Will and Jaxson early on.
Asher and I had met Oli in a business class and Noah had met Will and Jaxson at a party.
We had been a closed off, tight-knit group since.
I couldn’t remember the last time I went more than twenty-four hours without seeing at least one of them.
“Fuck off, it’s been five minutes, and the others aren’t even here yet,” Oli said as he slipped into one of the black leather chairs surrounding the table. He was a numbers wiz, always had been. That was why he was our CFO and handled anything financial.
“How was daddy’s latest kiss ass?” Jaxson Hayes asked, coming in from the other side.
“Yeah, Knight? How did we feel about our lunch companion yesterday?” Noah asked with a shit eating grin. I shot him a glare.
Nothing much bothered the guy, he could charm even the coldest person. He was probably the only reason Asher and I had any friends. His charm came in handy with how much negotiations he did and how many contractors he had to convince to get shit done for us.
“Shut it,” I grumbled as I pulled my phone out to see the many emails I’d missed with my focus on Quinn at coffee.
Had I not answered that call from my father, I wouldn’t have met her, and she wouldn’t be consuming my thoughts. I didn’t know if I regretted it, but it was a twist I didn’t see coming.
Another reason to be mad at my father.
“Knight was trying to give Ash a run for his money yesterday.” I glared at Oli as the man himself walked into the room pushing his watch around on his wrist.
“I resent that,” Asher Lawson said in his usual monotone voice. It was a good day when you got more than a few words and a grunt from him.
I’d made my first million the summer after my first year of uni.
I’d created an app that allowed travelers to input all their bookings including flights, hotels and excursions in one place.
It tracked everything for you and would give you a full schedule with notifications if there were any time concerns or offer alternative suggestions based on what other people had booked or said online.
I’d never been particularly passionate about travel, but business was a different story. I saw a gap in the market and acted on it. Before I even had the chance to publish the app in the store, a major travel company had already bought it.
Asher was the first to join me when I decided to grow the business and then Noah joined us a month later.
I’d tried to change the name, but I’d already gone to all the effort of incorporating, setting up the accounts and the sale had been published under Knight Enterprises, they’d both told me not to bother.
They didn’t care that it was my last name.
We invested the money from the sale of the app into a few other start-ups, selling those when we started seeing returns and our portfolio kept growing. The rest of the guys joined us within six months to help build the empire we had today.
Our business now has three main pillars. First we have the investment division, we find companies to invest in or acquire that will turn us a profit. Asher spends the majority of his time there.
Second is the property division that Noah heads up. We buy and sell commercial and apartment buildings and manage construction projects as well.
Third is our security division. We provide highly sought after services for both physical security, including bodyguard services, security system equipment and step up, and technology security products for large enterprises. Jaxon runs that division.
Will is our head lawyer spanning all three pillars just like Oli is responsible for all the financials. Any deals, contracts or acquisitions in all three divisions required both of their review.
Despite their initial protests, I’d made them all c-level executives, and they were the only other members of our board. The six of us were the ones who made all the decisions on the business and we trusted each other implicitly.
Now at thirty-five we all had more money than we knew what to do with.
“To be fair,” Noah piped up, “I would say he was more serious than grumpy, some moments he was downright chatty, very out of character.”
I ignored them as they discussed my behaviour.
They weren’t wrong, Asher and I didn’t do the good cop bad cop thing, we were both bad cop.
No one would ever describe us as approachable.
In a company this size we needed people’s respect.
Plus, a little fear meant people delivered.
They had the others for pleasantries. Based on our growth and revenue, it worked.
“What pissed off boss man today?” Will asked as we all finally settled in.
“Not what, a who.” Noah wiggled his eyebrows as he looked at the men gathered around the table, enjoying the attention on him. “And it was yesterday and I have been dying to talk about it.”
We have all been in business together for almost ten years now and at this point we were all brothers, a family we chose. And they were the only people I would fight for. Being in business together was incredibly simple and enjoyable.
Most days.
“Can we get this meeting started?” I asked uselessly, no one was paying me any attention.
“Wait.” Jaxson held up his hand to me which had me letting out a sigh. “What is Noah talking about?”
“Our business lunch with one of daddy’s minions was not with a stuffy old man but a smokin’ hot—”
“Watch it.” I glared at Noah who had a sly smile on his face. A possessive feeling had surged in my chest, not something I was used to. She was stunning, he wasn’t lying. But it didn’t mean that I wanted Noah to talk about her that way.
Fucker knew exactly what he was doing.
“They passed us off to some low-level employee, she didn’t even know who we were,” Oli added. “We took her to Pedro’s—”
“What the hell?” Will threw his hands up in the air just as Noah predicted he would.
He had found the restaurant and charmed Valeria when we first went there, so he felt a sense of ownership and always made a big deal about us going there without him.
“You assholes went there without me?” I looked at Ash who just shook his head, unimpressed with all of us.
“Can we focus on the hot girl?”
“Jaxson.” I turned my glare on him, I could tell they were enjoying this too much.
“I haven’t even told you all the best part yet.” Noah turned the conversation back to him.
“Does no one care that we need to discuss the acquisition of Locke Holdings?” None of them looked at me, even Asher seemed interested in the conversation and he normally ignored all the nonsense.
“He asked to see her last night… and she said no.” A few laughs sounded around the table, and I glared at them all. Most men would cower with that one look but these men didn’t bat an eye. “He then asked for her number and she said no again!”
All the men absent for my rejection turned to look at me in shock, and I just raised an eyebrow daring them to say something. I didn’t bother mentioning that I was rejected again today, twice.
“And you just accepted that?” Will asked. They knew me well, when I wanted something I went after it. I wasn’t used to being turned down, in any area of my life.
“For now.” I rested my arm on the table and drummed my fingers along the top. Asher raised his eyebrows at me.
“Want me to track her down?” Jaxson asked with a gleam in his eyes.
He was like a dog with a bone when he wanted information, he did all the background checks on employees and looked into the owners of companies we worked with.
His skills had saved us from getting into business with questionable people a number of times. “Just need her name.”
I could have let Jaxson track her down, but I didn’t want him digging into her life. I wanted to find out about her myself.
I shook my head at him. “We need someone focused on marketing, especially with the opening of our North American business.”
“So you’re going to hire her?” Asher asked, his eyes hardening.
I never mixed business and pleasure. I never really went after women at all.
One-night stands and no strings attached were my preference.
I wasn’t changing my mind, I just hadn’t decided if I wanted business or pleasure from Quinn, that is, if she even gave me the time of day.
“I doubt she’ll take it,” Oli said thoughtfully.
“Her boss sounds like an asshat, we would be a way better company,” Noah added.
“Still think he needs a backup plan,” Will said like this was a big deal. “She’s already turned him down.”
Twice. Well… maybe four times, if you counted each question individually.
“I’ve got it covered. Can we focus now?” I didn’t give them a chance to continue on about Quinn and pulled up the figures on Locke. We’d done this so many times that we all fell into our roles quickly.
It took us about an hour to review the acquisition paperwork, to get Will’s input on proposed changes to the contract and for Oli to lay out the cost. Asher was spearheading this one and was planning on flying back to London tonight in the company jet to deliver the paperwork in person.
I could have done it when I was there, but that would have meant staying longer. And what’s the point of a private plane if not to use it?
When we all decided to move here, we knew that there would be some travel back and forth but it was worth it for all of us to stay together. The option of operating out of different cities wasn’t on the table.
After a quick vote on the deal, we all signed off, wrapped up the meeting and shuffled out to head back to our own offices. We all had offices on the top floor, all the same size, all with one wall of floor to ceiling windows.
I shrugged my jacket off and slid into my leather chair, letting out a breath trying to decide what of the thirty things needing my attention was the most pressing when Asher walked into my office and sat himself down in one of the chairs across from me.
He crossed his arms over his chest with a serious look on his face, not that he had many other looks.
“What are you doing, Knight?” He had a slight scowl. I let out another sigh and pushed my hands through my hair.
“Trying to work, what are you doing?”
“Don’t be a smartass.”
“I’m always a smartass.” I copied his posture and crossed my arms over my chest.
“You’re going to hire a woman because you liked that she called her boss a dick? This isn’t like you. Your personal life never touches our business.” I rubbed a hand on my temple as Asher glared.
“I’m not… I’m just… Fuck, man.” I leaned forward, putting my elbows on my desk.
“She’s just stuck in my head.” Since he was my most trusted friend, I gave him the highlights of coffee today, leaving out the sleepless night and the jerking off in the shower to a vision of her face. He didn’t need that much information.
“So you’re trying to prove a point that you can win?” He clearly didn’t understand. Which was fair, I was acting strange.
“I have nothing to prove, I swear, this isn’t about that.
She’s beautiful but I liked to hear her talk and laugh.
She joked around so easily with Noah and Oli, she was kind to the waitresses and her smile radiated warmth.
I liked that she didn’t seem to care about my expensive watch and didn’t agree to a date with me.
She… piqued my interest.” We both sat in silence for a moment, almost like we were both surprised by my admission.
“Don’t let it touch the business,” Asher huffed.
It was my turn to glare. “Don’t lecture me on the business, Ash. I would never risk this, not that anyone could tear this down.”
“It has more to do with being used for your money.”
“I trust my gut all the time, that isn’t changing now.” He looked at me for a few moments before he gave me a single nod. “You’ll be back Friday?”
He grunted. “I’m just getting the papers signed and then turning back around.” He stood from his chair and buttoned his jacket. “Thank fuck we purchased the jet.”
“Fly safe,” I said looking back at my computer as he walked out.
Once he was gone, I pulled my phone out and dialed Shelly. “Mr. Knight,” she answered after one ring.
“I need you to book me a meeting with Richard Walters at Elevate for Friday.”