The Price of Power (Cold Blood Empire #2)
Chapter 1
Chapter One
OLIVIA
A ny other time, any other situation, and I would have died to stay in a hotel room like this one.
Stylish and sophisticated, the Ritz was the definition of elegance with its pristine white bedding and floor-to-ceiling draperies. A dozen stories up, looking out over the lush, green oasis of Central Park in the middle of Manhattan, a night in a place like this should have been a dream come true.
Instead, it was turning out to be a nightmare.
I had no idea how much the room cost per night, but even being the most modest the hotel offered, I still knew I couldn’t afford it. Even worse, now I knew my family—the ones who had promised to pay the bill if I’d agree to fly out to New York and save their butts this one last time—couldn’t afford it either.
I might not be rich, but after spending the entire flight pouring over their ledgers, I was aware of just how badly off they were. Not just broke but so deep in debt that it was hard to see a clear path out.
No wonder they needed my help.
And maybe if they had asked me for it a year ago, I could have done something. But now…
Well, now all I could do was stare out the window and sigh in frustration as I tried to figure out how the hell I was going to pull a miracle out of my hat.
I wasn’t likely to get any help. That much was clear.
My mother stopped picking up the phone the minute she sent me the financial files to download this morning. My brother, too. Everyone in the family had.
No surprise there.
My family’s reaction to bad news had always been to bury their heads in the sand, so chances were good that everyone from my parents to my cousins had their phones turned off. Still, I couldn’t help trying.
Grabbing my phone off the window sill, I dialed my brother.
He was the one my parents had chosen to take over the family business, after all. You would think he’d be the most responsible of all of us. Sadly, that wasn’t the case, and my call went directly to voicemail without a single ring.
This is Theo Collins. You know what to do.
Not exactly the most professional message for the man who now ran the liquor distribution company that our great-grandfather had founded right after prohibition ended. The business might’ve been small compared to the major conglomerates that ran the industry, but my family had managed to keep it alive for four generations.
Of course, all that changed once the company landed in Theo’s hands.
I wish I could say I was surprised, but the truth was I’d seen this coming a mile away.
Theo managed to take our family’s aversion to responsibility to new heights. Always looking for the easy way out, no matter what he did, he only put in enough effort to coast to the finish line.
Anyone else would have been a better choice to take over the reins of the company…like maybe the daughter who had graduated at the top of her class with a degree in economics.
But in the end, Theo had the only two qualifications my parents cared about: first, he was a man, and second, he was my parents’ favorite.
While I’d had three years to process the disappointment of being passed over, apparently I was still holding on to a good chunk of resentment—especially when they still expected me to drop everything to swoop in and clean up their messes.
When the beep sounded, I had a hard time holding back my true feelings.
“Theo, it’s Olivia.”
Olivia, not Liv.
Only the people I liked got to call me Liv. My full name, on the other hand, was for professional purposes and people who pissed me off. Right now, my brother checked both of those boxes.
“I know everyone is worried that I’m calling with bad news.” Because I was. “But I need you—or anyone—to call me back.”
Honestly, I didn’t even know if they were listening to my voicemails at all. If past behavior was any indication, they weren’t. And even if they were, what I was about to say next would only make them pull the covers even higher over their heads.
“I looked over the financials on the flight, Theo, and it’s not good.”
Not that he needed me to tell him.
“What were you thinking taking out a loan that big?” Even if he was talking to me, I doubted that he’d be able to give me a satisfactory answer. “There are giant red flags all over the books.”
Which no doubt explained why Theo hadn’t gone to a bank to apply for that massive loan. One look at the company ledgers, and they would have laughed him out of the office.
So, instead, he’d turned to private sources.
Friends, no doubt. Probably, some connection Theo had made during his fraternity days. Chances were good that at least a couple of those rich assholes were embedded in the New York financial world right now.
But if Theo thought his old college friends would simply forgive him for defaulting on a seven-figure loan, then he was delusional.
“I know everyone is avoiding my calls because they don’t want to hear bad news, but you’re the one who wanted to sit at the head of the table, so it’s your job to deal with this.” I’d never been this direct with him before. But then again, he’d never been in this much trouble. “After looking at the numbers, the best case scenario is that the company will have to file for bankruptcy.”
And I did mean the best-case scenario.
The news only got worse from there.
“Of course, that will only protect the company from some of our creditors,” I continued. “Theo, if the person you took this loan out with decides to pursue fraud charges against you, they will have a very strong case. And I’m not just talking civil damages, Theo. I’m talking about felony charges. The kind that carries real prison time.”
This was a big deal.
The kind of thing you’d think a person would want to pick up the damn phone over.
No wonder our mother had called me in tears, begging me to take time off work and fly to New York to negotiate with the creditor. I’d thought she was being her usual overly dramatic self when she’d described it as a “life or death situation,” but as it turned out, she wasn’t far off this time.
“Now I promise I’ll do what I can to calm things down with the creditor tomorrow,” I said. “I can’t promise anything. I’m not a miracle worker. Still, it’s probably a good sign that they’re willing to meet with us.”
On the other hand, it might not be. There was a very real possibility that they’d only wanted someone to serve a court summons to. There was no way to know until tomorrow.
“Of course, it would help if I knew who I was meeting with,” I said. “I tried looking up the Angel Enterprises you took the loan out with but couldn’t find anything.”
Well, nothing besides a string of offshore shell companies that led to a dead end.
Seriously, Theo had really outdone himself this time. Leave it to my brother to sell our family legacy to the shadiest businessmen on the planet. At his point it would have been better if he’d lost our family’s legacy in a backroom poker game. At least then I wouldn’t have to hear my mother crying about having to visit her “baby boy” in Joliet prison.
“Please, I really need you to call me back either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning so I don’t go into this meeting blind.”
Please?
I caught myself and shook my head. Why was I the one begging for his help? I was doing him a favor, after all. I hadn’t been a part of the family business in years. Not since it became apparent that my blood relations only cared about me when I was useful to them.
The first chance I got, I left them behind in Chicago, moving just over the border to Milwaukee, where I landed an accounting job with a startup company. The pay was…okay. Not enough to afford the Ritz, but enough to start a modest life of my own, far away from the constant drama of my family.
Right now, I would have done anything to get back to that life.
And since I was relatively sure no one was listening, I had no problem telling my brother exactly that.
“But whatever happens tomorrow, I want you and everyone else to know that this is the last time I’m helping you. Not even if Mom falls on her knees and begs me. I’m not falling for it ever again. Do you hear me? Not again.”
Never again .
That was a promise to myself.
A promise I’d made a thousand times before if I was being honest. One I kept making and breaking.
But his time, I meant it.
And just to prove it to myself, I allowed a little more of my anger to slip out.
“Oh, and a little free advice—the next time you find yourself on the brink of bankruptcy and fraud charges, don’t book a room at the Ritz of all places. I’m pretty sure this kind of stuff doesn’t sit well with juries.”
Then, without saying goodbye, I ended the call.
I was angry enough to toss the phone across the room, but even though it would have been temporarily cathartic to watch it shatter into pieces against the wall, I held back.
Unlike my idiot brother, I wasn’t totally ruled by impulse.
Instead, I went over to the dresser and tucked the phone into my purse. Then, slinging the bag over my forearm, I headed for the door, ready to deal with all my frustration and anger like a real adult.
With a goddamn gin and tonic.