Page 32 of Rival to the Billionaire

"Seriously?" my brother shoots at me, sidling up beside me at the bar. "Ry, I've been talking to you for, like, twenty seconds straight."

I sip from my glass, my gaze flickering around the room once more. "Sorry. Didn't hear you."

"I'm sure you didn't with how you can't seem to focus on any one thing." The analytical CFO side of him never misses a beat. The man was born like this, I suppose. I'm convinced his first words weren't 'mamma' or 'dadda,' but 'variance' and 'sensitivity analysis'. "You seem distracted," he keeps talking, sipping from a drink of his own. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you seem downright nervous tonight."

"I am distracted," I admit. "I've been distracted thinking about this investor presentation we're giving here at the conference. When it was just me and the tech guys responsible for presenting a final demo, I was fine. But now, with Derek inviting Jenny to look over my shoulder like a substitute teacher…" I trail off in frustration. "It's making me anxious. Every second that I'm not drinking, or arguing with Jenny, I’m meticulously polishing up my précis and slides."

Alton leans forward and clinks his glass against mine. "Good. You should be well-prepared. You've done a lot of this in the past, right?"

"I'm only as good as what I'm presenting," I shoot back. "And with Jenny around, I think I'm going to look like a complete idiot from the get-go."

My brother stays silent for a moment. "It makes you nervous that someone else is gonna steal your thunder."

I almost laugh at his way of phrasing it as a statement.

"That's not it," I say, taking a long drink from my glass.

"Then what is it? Because something about that girl makes you hotter than a lazy cat on a hot tin roof."

I glance over at my austere, serious-faced brother, trying not to scowl. "God, I forgot how old you can be sometimes."

"Older. Not old. Just because a man enjoys his Law & Order episodes and a nice safe Volvo as opposed to those crotch rockets you seem to be obsessed with doesn't mean he's dried out."

"No, the fact that you're constantly at work and without a date in sight probably explains that most of all." I stop, a realization hitting me like a ton of bricks. "Fuck, Alton, is that why you're here? To spy on me? Derek send over another babysitter for me?"

He raises a chestnut brown eyebrow. "Depends. Do you think you need one?"

"Fucking hell, I can't believe this horseshit," I hiss, feeling the itch at the back of my head, like it's about to explode with fury.

"You can relax. I won't be here long, remember? Just stopping in with Carmina to make sure everything's lined up okay for the presentation. Seriously, though, I'm only saying that you do seem…stressed."

"Well, yeah, I'm sorta busy…y'know, creating an app that will launch our business into the next stratosphere."

"Hmm. An expensive app."

"A profitable one," I refute. "Or it will be once I'm done with it. You're CFO, Al. You know how it is… It takes money to make money."

My older brother sniffs, his large chest expanding as he heaves a sigh beneath his gray three-piece suit. It's funny how he can look flustered without a single perfect hair out of place. His brows furrow slightly in my direction. "Still…you asked me to look over the financials once again. And I have." He exhales. "You're a few million in the red, but we're owed from trading a few contracts recently. It's nothing extra, Ryder. We have more than enough money on the books, you know that."

"Great. It's a good thing I've got you to re-run the numbers, then, babysitter."

"But…"

"Ah, ah, ah. C'mon, man. You know I hate 'buts'. Unless they involve a good-looking woman and a squat rack."

"My God, dude, sometimes, you have the sophistication of a three-year-old." Alton's voice rises slightly. "It's just… Look, Jenny isn't wrong. About the risk of taking on a new project like this in the same year we launch our IPO."

He reaches over for a champagne glass from a passing tray, holding it in his hand. "A new app is pretty risky, especially at this juncture. IT security becomes paramount during an IPO, as hackers love to make their moves when companies go public. They figure everyone's distracted and easy to get to. As Chief Information Officer, it's Jenny's job to prepare our internal systems before that's even a threat." His eyes dart in my direction. "That means an intense period of security checks. Software and hardware inventories. Making sure everything's green-lit."

I nod, nearly crushing my own glass between my fingers. "I'm well aware of the risks, Al. It's why I moved quickly with this project. I knew there would be resistance from Jenny."

"You don't always have to move so quickly, you know?" Alton's already deep voice lowers with meaning. "It's not like we're running out of time."

"Aren't we, though?" With the sound of clinking dinnerware and excited voices around us, I face my brother in a quiet stand-off. "The market's not going to wait for us, Al. We have to strike while the iron's hot. Or not at all. I mean, Mom and Dad thought they had all the time in the world and look at how that turned out for them. And speaking of 'time', how's Shelby these days?"

Alton's eyes narrow dangerously. "I'm not Dad."

"No, you're worse, Al. You're Mom. Constantly second-guessing everyone and everything. Which is why we're all sitting on eggshells right now when it comes to talking about your custody battle for my four-year-old niece who I never get to see." I don't miss the way the tan skin of Alton's neck turns red and his gaze swivels away from mine in fury.

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