Chapter 40
ALEX
I’d already sliced my lawyers on the editor. Not the publication, but him. Personally. The man who’d thought it was a good idea to run a grainy photo with a headline that implied I was screwing a woman I’d explicitly warned to stay the hell away from my wife.
Our team was promising me that they’d get a retraction within twenty-four hours and a clarification sooner than that, but I didn’t actually care. They could print whatever they wanted about me. I just needed to know how Jane was taking it.
“We’re positioning it as a misleading image taken out of context,” the Westwood PR lead was saying in my ear. “No comment on the record. Just a firm denial, emphasize your marriage—”
“I don’t give a shit about my reputation,” I cut in, my voice sounding like it was coming from someone else’s body. “Do damage control on behalf of the company. That’s your fucking job. Just get it done. Right now, I need to talk to my wife.”
There was a pause. “Alex—”
“I said, I need to talk to my wife. You do know how to do your job without me, right?” I barked and ended the call.
My office felt too small all of a sudden. Chicago was spread out beyond my floor-to-ceiling windows, gray and indifferent, and I had the overwhelming urge to put my fist through the glass just to make the fucking space feel big enough to breathe in.
Jane wasn’t answering her phone. I’d called her twice, or maybe it had been three times, but it’d rung straight through to her voicemail every time.
Don’t panic. Jane is busy. Jane is at work. Jane doesn’t live with her phone glued to her hand the way I do.
Those lies I tried selling myself lasted approximately six seconds before I grabbed my coat. I was already moving toward the door when it swung open and Nate walked in without knocking.
“We have a problem,” he said.
My stomach churned. “If this is about the article—”
“It’s not,” he said, which only made it worse. “Or maybe it is. Adjacent. I don’t know yet.”
Before I could ask what the hell that meant, my phone buzzed in my hand, the beginning of an email on the screen when I glanced at it.
Board of Directors – Thayer Steelworks
Subject: Emergency Meeting – 7:00 PM Tonight
Agenda: Proposed Sale of Thayer Steelworks
For a second, I couldn’t read it. The words were there, but my brain refused to assemble them into any logical order. This can’t be happening.
“What the fuck is this?” I demanded, shoving the phone at Nate.
He barely even looked at the device before he sighed and brought his gaze back up to mine. “That’s actually why I came up here.”
I stared at him. “You knew?”
“I knew there were rumors,” he said carefully. “I didn’t think they’d move this fast even if the rumors were true, though. I was coming to ask if you’d heard anything.”
I hadn’t. Not a word. Not from Zach, or the board, or Jane, but even as I shook my head, I realized I had heard something.
Mallory’s voice slid into my head, uninvited and oily. A little birdy told me—
“Fuck.” My pulse kicked hard against my throat. “Holy fucking shit.”
The corners of Nate’s eyes tightened. “You know something, don’t you? What is it, Alex?”
“I had a run-in with Mallory Foundry at the club last Sunday,” I said. “She’s the woman Court Thayer had the infamous affair with.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “I think I remember the name and some of the history, but what does she have to do with this?”
“Everything.” I breathed out a harsh, humorless laugh. “She told me her new husband was sniffing around Thayer. Apparently, he’s a man of means. Her words, not mine, and he’s in manufacturing overseas.”
Nate let out a long, low breath. “Shit.”
“Yeah, I know.” I turned away from him to face the windows with adrenaline flooding my system. “This isn’t a coincidence, Nate. It’s a move and she’s the one behind it.”
“Do you know what she wants?”
“Outside of whatever is left of Thayer?” I scoffed. “Not a clue, man. I’m starting to think she’s stalking that family or something. She just can’t seem to leave them alone.”
“Even if this is about some kind of vendetta, it won’t matter unless her husband can put his money where her mouth is.”
“I looked him up,” I admitted as I stared at the skyline I’d always loved so much, wondering where the hell my wife was and if she knew about any of this yet. “Although I can’t be sure, it looks like he can afford it, Nate.”
“Okay, but the board can’t just sell without—”
“They can if they’re planning to convene an emergency meeting,” I snapped. “They’ve wanted this from the beginning, a buyout that means walking away with cash in their hands.”
“Nora holds the sway here, doesn’t she?” Nate asked quietly. “Is this the part where we start worrying about what Harlan said about her?”
I didn’t answer him, pulling out my phone to call her instead, because he was right. With the voting rights on the board stacked the way they were at present, she would be casting the deciding vote. I pressed on her name, bringing the phone to my ear and praying that she answered, but she didn’t.
Without hesitating for so much as a second, I called Jane again, but her phone went straight to voicemail, the silence from the Thayer end of things suddenly becoming deafening.
“She’s probably with her family,” Nate said, trying to talk me down. “Or in a meeting. Don’t spiral yet.”
“I’m already spiraling,” I ground out. “I warned her. I warned Mallory to stay away from my wife.”
I dropped into my chair, raking a hand through my hair as my thoughts collided at full speed. If the board was pushing a sale, Jane was about to be blindsided. If Nora was in on it—
No. I can’t go there yet.
I stood abruptly. “Get Zach on the phone.”
Nate didn’t hesitate. “I’m on it.”
I paced while it rang, my feet probably close to burning holes in the floor.
Nate switched the phone to speaker, and when Zach answered, I didn’t bother with pleasantries.
“Find out what the hell Thayer is planning. Now. I don’t care who you have to piss off, call in favors with, or yank out of emergency fucking surgery. Just get it done.”
“Yeah, I just saw the email myself,” he said grimly. “I’m already digging, but it doesn’t look good, Alex. None of those board members I’ve been working on are taking my calls and even the assistants are icing me out.”
“Keep working,” I said. “Call me the second you know anything.”
He hung up and I turned back to Nate. “I want your team to draw up a total buyout package for Thayer Steelworks.”
Nate blinked hard. Then his eyes widened to the point of pain. “Alex—”
“Let’s go for a full acquisition,” I said. “End to end.”
“That’s just not feasible,” he said, incredulous as he shook his head. “Certainly not in the state they’re in right now. Plus, we don’t even know what we’re matching yet.”
“I’ll throw my own money at it if I have to,” I said. “I don’t care what it costs and I don’t give a shit what we’re matching. Just do it.”
Nate stared at me like he was wondering if I’d finally, fully lost my mind. “You can’t fix everything by writing a check.”
“I can fix this like that, though,” I shot back. “If checks are what these people want, it’s what we’re going to give them.”
He stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “You didn’t break this, Alex. It’s not really yours to fix. These wheels have been in motion a lot longer than you’ve been married to Jane. I know how much you’ve done to—”
I ignored him. “They are not selling that company out from under her. Not while I’m still breathing and definitely not to that woman’s husband. It would kill Jane, Nate. It would kill my wife and she’d die of a broken goddamn heart. Do you really think I’m going to let that happen on my watch?”
“You haven’t talked to her about this yet, have you?” he said slowly. “What does Jane actually want here, Alex?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Because she won’t answer her phone.”
That scared me more than the board, the sale, the article, and all of it combined. I grabbed my coat again, once again heading for the door.
“Where are you going?” Nate asked.
“To find my wife,” I said. “Before this gets any worse.”
Our life as we were just starting to know it was unraveling. I could feel it in my bones. And if I didn’t get to Jane first, I might just end up losing the only thing I actually cared about in all this bullshit, and there was just no way I was letting that happen.
My next call was to Trent. The phone rang twice before someone answered with a lazy, sing-song. “If you’re calling to tell him lunch is ready, he’s out in the fields and forgot his phone again.”
I closed my eyes. “Charlotte.”
“In the flesh,” my sister said cheerfully. “What’s up, corporate doom and gloom? You sound like you’re about to eat a junior executive.”
“I need you to talk to Trent,” I said. “Immediately.”
She hummed. “That tone usually means you’re either about to propose a hostile takeover of the whole damn world, or someone is sleeping with someone they shouldn’t be. Which is it?”
“Tell Trent he’s investing twenty-five million dollars into Thayer Steelworks,” I said. “As long as Westwood and Sons acquires it.”
There was a beat of silence. Then I heard liquid spray, followed by violent coughing.
“Oh my God,” Charlotte gasped. “I just choked on my coffee. Alex, what the fuck?”
“Just give him the message,” I said tightly. “Please?”
“Have you lost your mind?” she demanded. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s money you’re casually lighting on fire.”
“Maybe, but I’m doing it anyway.”
“Okay,” she said slowly after a few beats of silence. “Let’s try again, but this time, start from the beginning and pretend I’m not watching my husband’s net worth evaporate in real time.”
“Stop trying to be cute, Char. That’s a drop in the bucket and you know it. It’s up to him to invest more. It’ll be worth it.”
“Even so,” she said. “Pretend I’m completely out of the loop and tell me what the hell is going on over there.”
“Thayer Steelworks is about to be sold out from under my wife,” I said. “Tonight. There’s an emergency board meeting and a surprise player has entered the game. He’s late, but not too late. We might be if we don’t move on this, though.”
“Alright, but why does Trent need to be involved?”
“Because if the board is going to force a sale, I want it controlled,” I said. “We’ll be in the room, so we’ll know what the offer is when they do, but I want to have a counter ready within the next couple days.”
She went quiet for a moment and I could picture her sitting on the kitchen island, her feet swinging and her brain firing on all cylinders.
“This is about Jane,” she said finally.
“Yes.”
“You love her,” Charlotte said, not asking.
I swallowed. “She’s my wife.”
“Mm. That’s not what I said.”
I exhaled through my nose. “I’m about to go scorched earth, Char. I don’t care who I piss off. I don’t care how ugly it gets. She worked her ass off for that company. They don’t get to take it from her because they’re greedy, and scared, and think she’ll fold just because she’s a woman.”
“Look, I get it,” Charlotte said quietly. “I just think you’re making a lot of moves very fast.”
“I don’t have the luxury of slow,” I snapped, then forced myself to rein it in. “Sorry. I just—”
“You’re scared,” she finished. “Welcome to marriage.” Charlotte sighed. “Okay. I’ve got my practical hat on. Trent will want details. Structure. Risk mitigation.”
“Tell him Zach is digging,” I said. “Nate’s team is drafting a buyout contingency and I’m ready to get moving the second the board votes.”
“Is it a done deal?” Charlotte asked.
I hesitated. “My only saving grace is Jane’s mother, Nora. She’ll vote in our favor. She won’t let the sale go through, but I’m not putting all my eggs in that one basket.”
Charlotte made a thoughtful noise. “You’re not sure about her?”
“Harlan made some points I can’t ignore.”
“And if she doesn’t vote in your favor, it becomes a knife fight,” Charlotte said carefully.
“Yep.”
“Okay,” she said briskly. “Trent isn’t going to like the rush on this, but I’ll talk to him.”
“He’ll listen,” I said. “Troy will want into Thayer and Trent knows opportunities like this don’t come around every day.”
She hummed. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing.”
That mattered more than I wanted to admit. “Thanks.”
“Oh, but Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“If this all blows up and you end up living in a cabin with no Wi-Fi, I call dibs on the guest room.”
Despite everything else going on, I smiled. “Noted.”
As we hung up, I felt marginally better.
At least the plan was starting to come together.
Nora would vote with us, but if the board thought they could blindside my wife, they were about to learn exactly how far I was willing to go—and that I would never, ever, just roll over and give up when it was my family they were coming after.