Chapter 8
ALEX
At this point, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was called to my dad’s house on a bright, frosty Saturday morning. For a change, the skies were blue and ice glittered on the ground like glass, the air practically frozen, but I would take that over an active storm any day.
As I drove out to Dad’s house, I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, torn between worrying what he’d summoned me out here for and being glad to finally have been summoned. Dad’s recent silence had really been getting on my nerves.
Plus, he’d been in such a weird mood since Zach had first brought up the Thayers that I’d known it was only a matter of time until he told me what he’d been pondering. On the other hand, I really wished he wouldn’t pull me all the way out here just for one meeting.
It was nearing the end of January and I wanted the Thayer deals sealed by the end of Q1, which meant I should’ve been in the office this morning, making it happen.
Zach had been taking the lead, working his magic to get cozy with the board members we were targeting, but Nate and I were working hard in the background, getting our due diligence done and ironing out the finer details.
I pulled up to Dad’s, a little surprised to find the driveway empty. On the other hand, now that Charlotte had moved out, it often was. I was just still getting used to it.
Parking right in front of the stairs, I turned off my ignition and took the steps into the house two at a time, already freezing my balls off when the heavy front door slid shut behind me.
I rubbed my hands together to warm them, looking around the foyer—also empty—and then sighed as I headed to Dad’s study.
Somewhere in the depths of the house, I could hear the faint voices of staff quietly talking among themselves, but that was it. No other sounds. No other people.
It was almost a relief to find Dad waiting for me when I pushed open the door to his study, a stack of papers ready on his desk. Flames flickered happily in the fireplace, the drapes open to let in some natural sunlight for a change.
Dad wore a navy blue knit sweater with no tie, a serene smile on his lips. It took me no more than a fraction of a second to drink it all in, and suspicion instantly tightened my gut. I stepped inside and shut the door behind me, bracing myself for the worst.
“Take a seat, Alex,” Dad said, waving a friendly hand toward the overstuffed chair on the other side of the desk. “Thanks for coming over, son.”
My stomach sank like a stone. What the fuck is he so happy about?
“No, thank you,” I said politely, declining because I had a feeling I’d rather stand for this. “I’ve got plans today. I’m being fitted for a new tux for the gala next weekend and I probably need to stop by the office. Check on Zach and see how he’s doing.”
I definitely also need to take care of myself a bit. Maybe even go out and socialize tonight.
Nowadays, I was very much a one-night stand, no strings attached kind of guy, which meant having to go out and find someone when the urge struck. Years ago, I’d been in a handful of what had felt like serious relationships, but then I’d gotten over it.
What’s the point if my marriage was always going to be arranged anyway, right?
My heart only beat faster for business these days. I never even brought women home anymore. It was a rule I’d made for myself. Hotels only—or their place, not mine.
My condo at the St. Regis was a sacred place to me, a sanctuary I rarely even allowed my brothers into. It was the only place I had that was truly mine and I guarded it jealously, like the bulldog the press liked to compare my personality to.
Usually, that was enough for me, going to work all weekend, coming home, having a drink, and then sleeping like the dead while I could, but it’d been a while since I’d felt a touch other than a firm handshake.
It was time for a little something more than that. A lot more, actually. Honestly, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Jane and it was getting to the point that it was becoming hard to sleep at night.
I’d had enough of mediocre orgasms, alone in my bedroom at night while fantasizing about a girl I couldn’t have. Fuck, it was like I’d gone back to being fifteen—not a particularly proud period of time in any guy’s life.
What I needed was to knock the memory of her scent from my mind and to forget what it’d felt like to have her skin against mine. Fuck, she’d only shaken my hand and I was acting like she’d given me a lap dance. Fully naked. For hours.
Yeah, it’s time to get over it. Frankly, I didn’t know of a better way to do that than by getting roaring drunk and going back to some random woman’s studio apartment on the west side.
So, that’s my plan and it’s pretty fucking important at this point.
“Well, you might want to sit for this,” Dad said mildly, but leaned back in his chair and didn’t push the issue.
My Spidey senses tingled again, that suspicion rolling like an avalanche through my gut. “I might want to sit down for what?”
“I spoke to Nora Thayer last night.” Dad thumbed the top sheet of the stack of paperwork. “Lovely woman. Excellent breeding. If she’d never married Court, she still would’ve been Chicago royalty.”
“Uh, okay.” I cocked my head at him, taking a step forward to grip the back of the chair he’d offered me. “If this is your way of telling me you’re ready to start dating again, you’re off the hook, Dad. It’s been almost fifteen years since Mom died. No one would blame you for—”
“Good god, no.” Dad’s eyes widened like he was utterly stricken I’d even think that. “This isn’t about my personal life, Alex.”
“Oh.” Great? “So I’m assuming she’s aware then that we’re vying for two seats on the Thayer board?”
“I think she’s hoping you’ll be successful on that front,” Dad said, propping his elbows on his desk and steepling his fingers.
“She told me she was rather desperate for her daughter to take over the company after Court’s conviction, but the board went against the family’s wishes and voted in her brother-in-law.
She didn’t have the votes to overrule them. ”
I frowned. “So she doesn’t support Andrew Thayer’s appointment?”
Dad snorted and I was so surprised, my eyes nearly bulged out of my head. He never made noises like that.
“No, Alex. Of course, she doesn’t support him. Have you met the man? He spent most of his first, and hopefully last, year as CEO burning what little cash reserves they had on trips to his estate in the Caribbean.”
I nodded. “With her support, this is basically a done deal.” See, now that gets my heart pumping faster and harder than any woman I’ve met in years. “So this is it, huh? It’s over?”
Dad met my gaze, and instantly, I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. “No, it’s not.”
“It’s not?”
He shook his head. “She’s a placeholder, a ceremonial sacrifice to keep a Thayer on the board of directors after her husband’s downfall. That’s it, but there’s something else. Something the feds weren’t able to take from them.”
He handed me one of the papers, the one from the top of the stack that he’d kept brushing his thumb against earlier. I took it, finally sinking into the chair as I scanned through the text.
Dad launched into an explanation while I was reading. “The old money families are notoriously smart when it comes to keeping our wealth and influence intact. The Thayers are part of that group, and what it all comes down to is protected estates. Nora’s board seats are one example.”
“And Jane’s trust fund is the other,” I concluded, glancing up at him after skimming the first half of the paper. “It was already transferred to her name before all their assets were seized?”
“Precisely, but keep reading,” Dad said, motioning at the paper again. “Once she’s married, Jane’s future husband would be entitled to two votes in the seven-vote quorum. It’s rare, but legally valid. If a divorce was to happen, those votes would revert to Jane, giving her a seat at the table.”
My eyes slammed shut and suddenly I was furious. “Jane has a PhD in management. She isn’t just going to roll over and be someone’s wife.”
“It doesn’t matter who she is or what she’s like, Alex. At the time this was written into the estate, Court Thayer himself was likely a newborn. This?” Dad pointed at the paper. “This is how families like theirs, and ours, stay afloat in times of crisis.”
“Yeah, maybe, but it’s still bullshit.”
“No, Alex. It’s protection, written in stone, and it’s the only reason Nora has retained her board seats.
It’s also the one way you’re going to get a seat at that table and enough votes to hold the majority.
Those board members you and your brothers have chosen to go after won’t fold, regardless of how skilled Zach is in the art of persuasion. ”
As he spoke, it felt like Thor had thrown his hammer right at my larynx. My throat felt so tight, I could barely breathe, but Dad kept calm, rising and pacing around his desk.
“Court is a bastard, I’ll agree to that. The position he put his wife and children in is inexcusable, and my guess is that Jane—”
“Dr. Jane Thayer,” I corrected under my breath. “She’s that highly educated and they’ve reduced her to—”
“Dr. Thayer, then,” Dad amended with a sly, knowing kind of smile I chose to ignore. I didn’t give a fuck what he thought he knew right now.
My heart was still pounding, but it wasn’t from the thrill of knowing the chase was almost at an end. It was now hammering like a writhing thing against my ribs because what had been done to Jane was an archaic form of patriarchal torture.
After just having fought this very system for my sister, I was about as sick of this bullshit as anyone.
At least it’d had a happy ending for Charlotte, but Jane was earning a pittance while her beach bum uncle squandered every last chance she might’ve had of pulling her family business up by its bootstraps.
I didn’t think it could get any worse, but then dad continued. “It’s likely she’s been holding her family up on what remains of her trust fund, which, by all accounts, couldn’t have been that much to begin with.”
My entire body stilled and yet he just kept going like the bad news fairy, intent on beating me over the head with a stick.
“All her siblings are younger and their trust funds are still tangled up in the estate at large, seized with the rest of their wealth. She was the only one past the age of twenty-five when all of this happened, which means her fund was in her name by then.”
“What did Nora say about all this?” I asked.
Dad gave me a look that said I wouldn’t like the answer. “She told me that Jane has been single handedly funding her brothers’ college tuition as well as managing all the family expenses. Currently, she has three brothers in school and the youngest has his heart set on Yale.”
I thought of the Ubers, the cab rides, and the cheap wine, and it all suddenly made a sickening kind of sense to me. Dad slid the rest of the stack of paperwork across the desk in my direction. I didn’t even have to look to know what it was. I’d had a feeling that was where he was going with this.
“She’ll never agree to it,” I said, my jaw flexed. “Trust me, she’s not the type.”
“She doesn’t have much of a choice.” He sat back in his chair, hooking his ankle across his knee as his gaze caught mine and held it.
“Other companies are noticing Thayer Steelworks’ fall.
It’s an empire, normally a well-oiled machine, but as it stands, the entire company is at risk of collapse. You have the opportunity to take it.”
“I’d be getting those votes through marriage and putting my own wife in as CEO.”
“It’s perfectly legal.”
“It’s social suicide.”
“For who? Jane? Her family?” Dad shook his head, that familiar glint in his eyes that told me he absolutely intended on standing firm in this decision. “Her father dug their graves five years ago. If it’s our family you’re worried about, don’t. We’ve been through worse.”
I ground my teeth, but he wasn’t wrong. “Does Jane know this is on the table yet?”
“It’s likely. Nora and I agreed last night that it was the best course of action.
An arranged marriage between our families would save hers and allow you to swoop in and put their company safely under our wing.
With Nora’s two votes and the two you’d get, you’ll have majority over the board and you’ll effectively be saving Thayer Steelworks from ruin. ”
It was a perfect plan, flawless and so simple I could shout, but right now, I felt like my chest was made of lead. Out of everything he’d told me today, one phrase in particular kept playing on a loop in my head.
She doesn’t have much of a choice.
“The courthouse opens on Monday,” Dad said as if it was a completely done deal. “I’ve taken the liberty of having everything written out and drafted. This is the prenup and her cut of the family estate. All that’s left on your end is deciding what you’re willing to give her.”
I snatched the papers off the desk. “She won’t go for it.”
“Have you asked?” Dad arched a brow at me.
“You’d be surprised by what lengths people will go to when they’ve lost everything, Alex.
Pray you’ll never be in her situation. Never know what true desperation feels like.
It’s awful, but this means you get a wife and she keeps her chin above water.
You’re saving her, son. She won’t turn you down.
Trust me, but go talk to her. I made the deal, but it’s time for you to go seal it. ”