Page 128 of The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée

“Yup,” I grumble. “And the timing is probably just right to affect the review. Even though we’re better than Wydover over time.”

Tabitha hovers uncertainly around. “Maybe if I hadn’t distracted you.”

“Not your fault.”

“If you hadn’t been chasing down my weird theories—”

“Stop it. Wydover had a bombshell nobody imagined. And he manipulated the timing of it expertly,” I say, pulling up the Asia charts. “Actually, I played defense more than I would’ve if you hadn’t heard what you heard. We’d be worse off if you hadn’t heard that. But I’m a competitive motherfucker, and that’s on me.”

“Will Gail pull the account just on this?”

“She probably won’t have a choice.”

My tone is calm, but my head is spinning. Having Gail’s account was about so much more than money.

And now my worst enemy will have everything I worked so hard for.

I emergefrom the cabin five hours later to face the music. What Gail lost by having a fraction of her funds with us isn’t going to bankrupt her, but it hurts.

Gail and Marvin are at a table under an umbrella, sharing a plate of mussels. Gail looks unhappy.

“How are you?” Marvin asks from behind Gail. His tone is concerned, but his expression is barely contained glee. My stomach curdles. He’s so shady. Gail has to know it.

Small consolation. Like I said to Tabitha, Marvin is her people.

“Rex,” Gail says, motioning at the third chair. I sit, and she gets right to it. “I like you, Rex. I always have,” she says.

Her tone confirms what I suspected, that her hands are tied. I’ve lost the account to Wydover. The devastation of it is so huge, I almost can’t process it.

“We need you to see around corners for us,” Marvin says. “This drop is unacceptable.”

I cross my legs. “Anybody can pick a horse,” I say. “Not everybody can manage the cliffs and valleys over time.” I turn to Gail. “You know how it works. You know how I work. I’m the one who brings you back from this kind of thing.”

“I know,” she says—regretfully.

Marvin sighs. “It’s a different market than when you came up, Rex. You can’t use brute instincts.”

I grit my teeth. That’s my reputation, even though my quant trading game is more robust than anyone’s. Is this what Wydover has Marvin telling her?

Gail says, “If it were just me, that’s one thing, but my board…we set parameters…”

Parameters designed to set me up for failure. Probably having to do with the time frame.

Marvin smirks. Acid churns in my gut. I ball my hand, itching for the exhilaration of my fist making contact with the bones of his face.

“I understand,” I say.

“People’s livelihoods rest on this decision,” Marvin says. “We have to protect our people.”

I swallow and address Gail. “I know that you have a lot of livelihoods riding on this.”

And that’s the real kicker. I’d do better for them than Wydover. I play by the rules out there, and he doesn’t. Without cheating and exploiting connections, he’s just nowhere near as good as I am. And it’s not just about returns; stunts like this could cost a man his license, and that hurts clients like Gail.

Gail and the Driscoll image would really be hurt by being associated with a shady asset manager—far more than owning stock in a company that goes down.

If only I could prove that Wydover worked with Marvin. I’m thinking of my conversation with Tabitha. Real life doesn’t make sense. Sometimes the bad guys win.

Maybe someday I’ll find a way to prove what happened, but that’s not my priority now. I have people to protect, too.

---