Page 9 of Breaking All The Rules

“Yeah, me too,” he sighed. I could hear the stress in his voice, the worry about what to do. “As you can imagine, this drastically changes my position with purchasing Watson Investments. On top of that, there’s already a buzz about other potential takeovers.”

“I’ll start working on this and see what I can find out before we make a move. I’ll get in touch as soon as I can with a plan.”

My mind was racing with what the next steps should be as we hung up. I’d spent the morning in my office with the door closed, making calls and doing research. It turned out that Cody was more competent than I’d thought and had created an escape plan to prevent an unwanted takeover. The poison pill that he set up to allow existing shareholders to purchase additional shares at a lower price to devalue the company and make it less desirable to potential takeovers. There were several layers of ownership, and it was going to take some time to get through them all. I had to find the right person that I could talk some sense into and make this deal go the way we needed.

By noon, I had talked with a handful of people. My head was throbbing, but I had figured out a way to temporarily freeze any movement. My plan, while it would take more time than I had, was to use a white knight defense. I had spoken to the two shareholders who held the largest percentages of the company and explained what was going to happen if the company Cody had been working with took over, or worse—if another company was willing to attempt a hostile takeover. Just because Cody’s Poison Pill defense had diluted the value of the shares didn’t mean that the company was safe. There were plenty of greedy people in Manhattan who could care less how much money they spent to get a company that they wanted.

The white knight defense was our best option at this point, which meant that I needed to sit down and discuss with Brent what he needed to do. I sent Brent a quick text with the update and told him to stop by my office when he had a chance. I turned my attention to my email and started responding to the new ones that had come in late yesterday and were marked as urgent. I was so focused on what I was doing that I didn’t see Eva walk into my office until she was standing right in front of me.

I was surprised to see that her hair was down, with long, soft waves framing her face. Her black hair made her eyes look even darker. Red lipstick was the only pop of color, and it pulled my eyes directly to her lips. I found myself staring a little longer than I should have when she cleared her throat to get my attention.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. I leaned back and ran a hand down the side of my jaw, giving her my full attention. “What can I do for you?”

“Regina suggested that I come over to see if there’s anything I can help you with.”

I opened my mouth to speak, to thank her for the offer before explaining that there was no way that I could stop what I was doing to delegate anything to her at this point. My Tuesday was acting like the worst Monday, and I simply didn’t have the time or effort to give anything else my attention, including her. She held up her hand and stopped me.

“She said that you would have an excuse about how you’re too busy to stop and let anyone help you and asked that I remind you that I was hired to work under you to assist with your workload.”

She pulled her fire-red lips into a thin line and waited as she shifted her weight. Her arms were folded across her chest, which, of course, only drew my attention to her breasts.

“Well, Regina is right— I don’t have time to stop. I’m glad she’s well aware of it. I’m also fully aware that you were hired to work under me. I plan to implement that as soon as I’m able to.”

The words rushed out of my lips faster than common sense could happen. I swallowed hard as I watched her reaction. The sudden lick of her lips before her eyes causally traveled down my body. There was no way that she hadn’t heard the not-so-subtle meaning laced in my words. She blew out a slow breath and pulled her shoulders back before cocking her head to the side to look at me.

“I understand that you’re busy and that you feel like the task of training me would be far too tedious for you right now. However, I have worked in corporate law for over ten years and can guarantee you that I am fully capable of handling anything you give me. Rest assured, if I have a question, I will ask you before I proceed.”

I felt the frustration and tension start to drain from my body. She was right, and I knew it. I had been so focused on staying on track to make sure nothing fell in between the cracks that I hadn’t even given her the chance to show me what she could or couldn’t do. I wasn’t treating her fairly, and I felt like a dick about it.

“Fine,” I said and shrugged my shoulders. “I’m working on a case for a client and need to have documentation outlining white knight defense. That’s where—”

“A company that is being threatened with a hostile takeover seeks a friendlier firm to purchase a controlling interest before the hostile bidder can move in. The white knight tends to pay a premium above the acquirer’s offer and may decide to restructure the company after the acquisition is complete in a goodwill manner to support the target company’s management.” She gave me a smug smile after finishing my sentence for me.

“Impressive,” I replied as I nodded appreciatively.

“Brent Wallace will be by sometime today to discuss a possible takeover, and I would like to talk to him about the white knight approach. He’s a brilliant businessman; however, he will want to take the information with him and run the numbers on his own. I would appreciate it if you could work on gathering the information that he will need before he gets here.”

“I’m on it.” Her smile briefly crossed her lips before it disappeared as she walked out of my office and closed the door.

The day sped by at an annoyingly fast pace. I remembered Kate coming in to bring me the lunch I had requested and mentioning something about someone not feeling well, but I hadn’t been able to pull my attention away from the files that I had been working on to truly listen. My neck was stiff and achy as I rolled it around on my shoulders, hoping to alleviate some of the pain.

When I looked out the window behind me, the sun had already gone down, the glowing lights of skyscrapers illuminating the Manhattan skyline. I pushed away from my desk and stood up, allowing the blood to flow through my body after having been sedentary for so long this afternoon.

The clock on the wall showed it was after seven. I was surprised that I hadn’t seen Brent after he had responded to my text and confirmed he would swing by to get the papers I was having Eva put together for him. I looked through the narrow window next to the door and saw that her office light was still on. It was only her second or third day—who could keep them straight at this point—so I couldn’t imagine that she had work that was keeping her here late. Had she been waiting around for me?

I opened my office door and walked across the hallway, knocking lightly on hers, even though it was open. Kate was already gone for the day, which meant that Eva and I were likely the only ones still here.

“Late night?” I asked curiously when she looked up at me and smiled. She pushed a stack of files to the side and folded her hands in front of her on the desk.

“I was helping Kate with a project and didn’t want to leave until I was finished.”

“Is she already gone?” I pointed in the direction of Kate’s desk with my finger. It was possible that she was still here if Eva was working on something for her, which also led to some increased irritation that she was assigning tasks to Eva without consulting me. Kate was Eva’s assistant. Not the other way around.

“She left a few hours ago,” she said casually before turning to the side and picking up the stack of files from her desk. “I told her that I would help her get these finished before the end of the day.”

“Are those the minutes from the board meeting?” I nodded to the printed pages sitting on top of her pile that had been stapled in the top left corner.

“I believe so.” She raised her head, extending her neck to get a look at the papers I was referring to.

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