Page 3 of Sunset Tides
“No.” Fiona let out a sigh. “He’s not threatening me.”
“I’m here with an opportunity,” he said.
Lucy crossed her arms. He was pretty big, but she thought she might be able to take him. At the very least, the two of them could take him, if Fiona stopped acting so defeated.
Unless he had some sort of weapon hidden in that custom-stitched suit. Then it would be tough. Maybe Lucy could get the biting farm donkey on her side. He was a surprisingly formidable foe, that donkey. He’d bitten her on her first day. That had been the low point of working here, actually…
“Rob is here because the farm’s in trouble. I thought we could pull it together, but it’s been three years and…”
“What kind of trouble?” asked Lucy.
“Oh,” she let out a long-winded laugh. “Just a little over a million dollars’ worth of trouble.”
Lucy raised her eyebrows. “Dang.”
“So now is really the perfect time for you to find a new job,” she added.
Rob shot Lucy an unconvincingly sympathetic smile.
She turned from him and took a seat. “I’m not going anywhere. How did this happen?”
Chapter Three
Rob needed alone time with Fiona, but this intrusion by Lucy was nothing he couldn’t handle. A small bump in the road.
He reached for his briefcase. “I’d be happy to treat you to dinner tonight, Fiona, if that would be better?”
“No, no.” Lucy said, sitting back in her seat. “Let’s talk now.”
Fiona shrugged her shoulders.
The woman had given up. That was fine. It’d be easier to get her to buy into his plan that way.
He took a seat. “I have a packet of figures here, but I don’t want to bore you with too many numbers. Basically, if Carriageway Holdings goes forward with bankruptcy – ”
“Who is Carriageway Holdings?” Lucy asked.
“It’s a long story – it’s the company that bought the farm three years ago,” Fiona said.
Rob continued. “If they do declare bankruptcy, we have what we call a nightmare scenario.”
Lucy snatched a packet out of his hand. “A nightmare for you, or for us?”
He smiled. She was surprisingly passionate about the farm going bankrupt, considering she’d quite obviously just tried to quit. “I’d hate to see it. Carriageway would likely auction off the farm’s assets one by one – the buildings, the equipment, even the animals.”
And the land. Especially the land. What a waste to let all of these prime acres be auctioned off.
Fiona let out a groan. “That is my nightmare.”
“But,” he swooped in, leaning forward and leading Fiona to page three of the packet, “if you allow my company to come in and reorganize the deal, that won’t happen. We can restructure, rebuild, and make the farm even better than before.”
Rob paused. He’d learned long ago to always present the worst option first, then follow with a much better sounding option. Who wouldn’t like a little rebuilding and restructuring? It sounded harmless.
Of course, his company wasn’t harmless. No one made money saving farms, and Grindstone Farm wasn’t special. That wasn’t something they needed to know, though.
“Yeah,” Fiona said, flipping through the pages. “This sounds great, but how am I supposed to convince them to sell to you?”
Lucy interrupted. “Hang on. I thought you were in charge, Fiona?”
