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The city stretched for infinity before him. Scores of gleaming skyscrapers towered high into the darkening sky. Prescott Global headquarters towered over most of them. The mad rush of people and yellow taxicabs in the streets down below caught Dane’s eye. Everyone outside was trying to get away from the gathering storm.
Fifteen minutes ago, the fate of this building, and the fate of all those people was in his hands. Now that was over. He had failed.
“We can always hold another vote.”
His wife’s voice made him turn away from the floor-to-ceiling window of his office. Was this office even still his? He didn’t know.
Allyson was at his desk. If she was distraught, she was hiding it well. Her shoulders were thrown back, her long legs crossed. She looked like she belonged in this office. Belonged at that desk. He tried not to think of all the things he wanted to do here at Prescott. Tried not to think that his family had built this company from the ground up. That he’d helped make it a billion-dollar enterprise. Tried not to think of the plans he and Allyson had made. The things they wanted to do with the company to take it even further.
How in the hell had it come to this?
Without them even knowing?
It seemed impossible. Surreal. Bullshit.
Dane shoved his hands into his pockets. “If they let us hold another vote it’ll only be as a courtesy. My parents and I are still board members, but we don’t own Prescott Global anymore. Our votes are worthless.”
The air was thick with tension. A dark gloom settled over him, even heavier than the clouds outside.
Had it only been earlier this morning his mother had told them the news? Nicholas Handel had stepped down as CEO, surprising everyone. Nobody had seen it coming other than his sister Katherine Handel who, with the board’s approval, was now Prescott Global’s new CEO. The sudden move after a series of scandals and misfortunes had made the company stock plummet. That meant shares were cheap enough for someone with money to buy. Nicholas had taken advantage of a loophole in the merger deal, which meant he had the power to buy the shares in the unlikely event of the board permanently voting Dane out.
Which the board had done fifteen minutes ago.
It had all been meticulously planned.
And yet none of the Prescotts had seen it coming.
After his mother had called, he and Allyson had rushed to Prescott Global headquarters to try to either stop the surprise vote, or influence the board enough to grab back control from the Handels. It hadn’t worked.
If Dane wasn’t so disgusted with the whole thing he would have marveled at it. The Handels had orchestrated it perfectly. It must have taken months of careful planning. And through it all, Katherine had convinced the board that Dane had health problems just like his sick father. Heart, and mental issues apparently. Allyson’s cardiologist sister, Monica, had been the key to convincing them of that.
With the shares in Nicholas Handel’s possession, and with Katherine as CEO, the Handel siblings now owned Prescott Global. The Prescotts had been chased out of their own company. All on the back of a merger deal they had all thought would bring them glory. A deal that was in their favor.
“It’s not your fault,” Allyson said softly.
“Isn’t it?” His voice was as hard as granite. “Whose fault is it if it isn’t mine?”
“I’m the one who told you not to fire Katherine.” Regret flickered in her green eyes. “If I had listened to you, none of this would have happened. Katherine Handel wouldn’t be CEO right now.”
“I stepped down from the CEO position in the first place,” he said. “That gave the Handels the opportunity to plan all this.”
She frowned. “That’s hardly your fault. You stepped down to take care of your sick father.”
Disappointment made his stomach tighten. He hadn’t been able to stop the board from taking the company away from him. Before today, Dane had never failed. No matter how tough things got, he always won. Always got what he wanted. It didn’t matter how many people he had to cajole, how hard he had to negotiate, in the end deals were struck and the money rolled in.
But the money was gone now. The Prescott fortune was in the hands of the Handels. The Handel siblings had treated Prescott Global’s assets like the spoils of war. Even his parents’ shares had been bought out, the Handels divvying up that part of the wealth among the company’s nervous investors.
“My father created this company,” he said grimly. “He created it and then I expanded it. Now it’s gone.”
“We can get it back,” his wife insisted.
He shook his head. “What matters now is that we get the money back.”
Allyson surged to her feet and walked towards him. “You love Prescott Global. This company means everything to you.”
“I have to focus on the money first,” he said, more forcefully than he intended. “Before Prescott Global, we had money. Nothing matters until we sort the financials out.”
He thought of his parents. The truth was, they were getting on in years. His father had passed retirement age, and in the aftermath of a heart attack he needed care. On top of that, his mother came from an upper-class Massachusetts family. She was accustomed to a certain lifestyle. There was no way she could survive without wealth.
“I always thought power was most important to your family,” Allyson said. “All that influence your family has does a lot of good for the community. People in this city look to you for leadership and guidance. So many corporations have improved their practices because of how you run this company.”
He studied his wife, noticing what she was wearing. Right now, she wore a delicate gold chain around her slender neck, the pink diamond bracelet on her wrist, a brand new designer dress that hugged her sensuous curves, and strappy designer heels. Not to mention the diamond engagement ring she wore on one hand, and the emerald wedding ring she wore on the other. Allyson was quite literally wearing no less than a million dollars. She probably had no idea either.
He didn’t regret spending one dime of that money on her. His heart—as raw as it was—beat for his wife. All he had ever wanted to do was spend his fortune on her. Spoil her. Give her things beyond her wildest dreams. A woman like Allyson came into a man’s life once in a lifetime. He had been lucky enough to marry her. As he took her in, Dane vowed to get the family fortune back even if it killed him.
“You’re my family now,” he reminded her. “Does power really mean more to you than money?”
“This isn’t about me.” She paused. “It isn’t money that would’ve stopped a woman like Katherine from stealing Prescott Global from us. It’s power. Power changes everything.”
“It was money that got us the power in the first place,” he countered.
Surprise flashed in her eyes and she stared at him, taken aback.
He didn’t want to be so blunt with her, but he had to make Allyson understand. The money he had just lost wasn’t his. Not really. His great-great-grandfather had first amassed the Prescott wealth. Then, as it had been handed down to each generation, each Prescott had guarded it. Added to it. Nobody had ever lost so much of it. Not even during the Great Depression.
It was his job to protect the family fortune and he had lost it.
Stomach clenching, he turned away from his wife. He could just imagine the society gossip. Once word about his marriage to Allyson trickled out, the blue bloods would relish the thought of his family misfortune. They might even blame her. Or think it was karma for him stepping out of line and marrying a middle-class woman. “I’ll have the car come around to take you home,” he muttered.
“What?” He heard her gasp and take a step towards him, the sound of her expensive heels on the floor muffled by the plush carpet.
Keeping his eyes on the cityscape, he approached the office window again. It would do them no good to have some deep conversation about what had just happened. He had failed his family. Failed his wife. Talking about it now wasn’t going to solve anything. “Don’t argue, Allyson. Just get your things and I’ll escort you downstairs to go home. I’ll stay behind to talk to some investors. Come up with a plan.”
“You’re shutting me out?” There was a hint of sadness in her voice. Disappointment.
He winced. She still didn’t understand. He wasn’t shutting her out. He was protecting her from the fallout of his failure. The further away she got from this, the easier things would be for her. This was his mess to fix. Nobody could blame her for his screw-ups if she got far away from Prescott Global. “I’m getting you as far away from this craziness as possible,” he finally replied. “Besides, some people might blame your sister for this. Which means they’d end up blaming you.”
“That’s why I should be here with you,” she said firmly. “This is my problem, too.”
“It’s not,” he said. “You never wanted my money anyway.”
“You think I’m happy about this?” Allyson demanded.
“I think your priorities are different from mine,” he said. “If you had a choice, what would you rather have? Me being rich, or me running Prescott Global?”
“I’d rather you run the company that you love,” she replied. “This company makes you happier than money ever has. You don’t appreciate the money the way you do the company.”
He crossed his arms but kept his back to her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you own all these properties you never stay at. It means you’ve never personally chosen a gift for anyone other than me. It means you agonize over running Prescott Global in a way you’ve never agonized over money.”
“That money isn’t mine to throw away,” he said icily. “My parents deserve better than this. You deserve better than this, even though you can’t seem to see how important this is.”
Suddenly, he felt her arms wrap around his torso. Felt her warm, tempting body against his. He knew how good it would be to give in. To lose himself in her. To let the passion overtake him until he was beyond reason. Because Allyson wrenched all sense from him. Made him crave her happiness like it was a drug. That was why he hadn’t dealt with the Handels. His love for his wife had made him so blind. So vulnerable to the people who wanted to destroy them.
None of that was Allyson’s fault, of course. His momentary weakness was his fault and his fault alone.
“I know I’m naïve when it comes to money,” she breathed out. “But I’m not naïve when it comes to this company. We fell in love here. We found each other because of this company.”
He swallowed hard, determined to tell her the truth. Even if it hurt them both. “Without money, I’m nothing.”
She sucked in a breath. “How can you say that?”
“It’s the truth.” Wealth wasn’t just something he had. It was who he was. His parents were wealthy. And their parents had been wealthy. Wealth had been his destiny. He had gone to private schools. Graduated from an Ivy League university. Taken the helm of a multi-billion-dollar company. All before he was thirty. If he wasn’t rich, he was nobody.
Thunder rolled in the distance. The angry clouds had darkened, and the sky was almost pitch-black now. Raindrops suddenly pelted the window. Sheets of rain fell from the sky, and on the sidewalks below people either opened their umbrellas or scrambled to get out of the downpour.
Her grip on him tightened, as if she was about to refuse to go home. As if she was going to defy him and not accept his words. The fact that she was still so defiant stirred his blood. Made him long to lose himself in her arms. Even now, after one of the worst days of his life, his body still responded to hers. He was hard, aching for her touch.
It would be so easy to give in to temptation and chase away the agony. All he had to do was keep her by his side. Forget the past few hours, bend her over his desk, and let their bodies take over.
“So, am I nobody?” she asked darkly. “I’m not rich. What does that make me, Dane? Nothing?”
“You have three-hundred-million dollars,” he reminded her. “Right now, you’re richer than I am.”
