Page 20 of Tiebreaker

Everett mutters into my ear,

“Don't think swooning girl act changes anything. The other two have done nothing for this company and I've built it from the ground up. You're going to do as I say, or I'm going to make your life hell if I even let youlive.”

His words are ice cold and I shiver in his arms as he carries me to the boardroom. I want to go home to Toby where it's safe. I should never have answered the door. Looks like mayhem and destruction came knocking again. Every time I venture out, the monsters are waiting.

“What the hell happened?” Lansing asks as we walk in, and he sees me cradled in Everett's arms. Kai gets to his feet, a frown on his face.

“Put me down,” I say weakly. I need to be on my feet so I can get out of here.

“Do I need to call an ambulance?” Lansing asks.

“No, I'm fine. I just think I'm in the wrong place,” I say as Everett sets me down. He steps away and I'm grateful for the space. I don't want him anywhere near me. “You must have the wrong person,” I say to Lansing. He looks confused for a moment and then shakes his head.

“No, we definitely have the right person… oh good, King, you're here. Finally.” The door clicks behind me and I turn. Thereheis again. This time with a glass of water in his hand. He offers it to me silently, putting it down on the table next to me, and then goes and takes a seat, leaning back. The other three men are dressed up, but he's in jeans and a t-shirt and unzipped hoodie loose around his shoulders. He looks like he doesn't even give a shit which is probably part of the persona he plays as a pimp. Do they even know he's a pimp? I feel ill.

“This is so much for me to take in all at once and I feel overwhelmed. My family never invested in any companies,” I say with assurance, focusing on the problem at hand. I look back at Lansing, determined to talk my way out of this.

I’m not who they think I am. And these three men, Iknowthey’re monsters… even… I glance at Kai. He’s looking at me. My breath stutters in my chest and I rip my gaze away. No. Even if he didn’t know that I’d been set up the night we were together… he’s still not someone I ever want to see again.

It has to all be a mistake. My mother was dirt poor when she died. We struggled a lot after her second husband passed away, and I never knew my real father. But she said he was a drifter. Some good for nothing guy who just rolled through town, got her pregnant and left. I barely even knew my stepfather. He was gone by the time I was four years old. It was just mom and me for the longest time, until then, one day, it was just me.

“Our record keeping is accurate,” Lansing says patiently, “to be fair, you should have been paid a monthly stipend. So we’ll have to rectify that immediately…” He sighs and shakes his head. “I’ll need to talk to accounting…” He taps his finger on the screen and a number flashes across it.

That’s not… he’s not talking aboutmystipend. Even if I am the Olivia Copper they’re looking for. That can’t possibly be the amount of money I’m owed.

It makes my gut swoop and I have to grab onto the edge of the table, feeling faint again.

That's a lot of zeros. I feel sick. And a few steps away, Everett makes a noise.

“Well, it's not retroactive,” he says, “so that's just too fucking bad. It's not our fault that her father never made arrangements properly.”

So… I should have been paid… how much? It's a gross amount of money. I feel pretty ill about it.

Vince snorts, glancing over at me with an easy smirk. He can see the shock on my face… since he thinks I’m a whore, he’s probably amused at me feeling like I’ve gone rags to riches.

God. That’s two men in this room that think I’m a prostitute. I feel so dirty, like mud is caked under my nails and to my skin.

“That's ayear,” he says. My stomach dips and I sit, hard, my spine rattling from the force of it.

Seriously, if that's what I should have been paid on a yearly basis… that number flashing on the screen. No way. It’s not possible.

My mind races, and I’m trying to breathe through it.

I never would have had to work at the coffee shop. I never would have had to deal with Mariah. I never would have had that run-in with Kai that led to our… ‘night’ together. I glance over at him. He's not looking at me for once, instead staring at Everett, a malicious smile on his face. I wonder what he's thinking.

“So this is the arrangement,” Lansing says, interrupting my thoughts. “You control 1% of the company. The rest of these three degenerates control the remaining 99%, split three ways.”

Vincent sighs like he's bored at the back of the room. And I wonder why he's even here. How he came to be here. In fact, the three of them are so unlike each other. I don't understand it. They can't possibly be brothers. They’re definitely not related.

“So my father, you're saying my father invested in this company, and owned a part of Arion?” It sounds too unreal to be true. Lansing smiles at me gently, like I’m slow and he has to explain this again which is exhausting for him.

I’m too… whatever, to be mad.

“I believe he knew that you were safe and that you had a new father-figure in your life and didn't want to interrupt that. So he set up the trust for your percentage to be held. And your entire stipend.” He shoots a look at Everett that says,Don't try me, son.“However, there are strings attached. The former owners of the company knew that there was always a possibility their three sons would not get along. It was for that reason your father bought in at 1% a much lower investment, and guaranteed, since he already had a daughter, that she would be the 1% owner able to perform a tiebreak by aligning herself with one or the other brothers.”

Owners. I inhale. Suddenly it all makes sense. The three of them hate each other. I can see it in their expressions. Vincent doesn't want to be here. Kai looks like he wants to throw something at Everett's head. And Everett is carrying himself like there's nobody else in the room but him. He's the only person that matters. The only person that counts. The rest of us are just wallpaper, invisible.

I'm the tiebreaker. I'm the paperclip that holds this together. And I don't even know what this company does. I'm assuming something to do with real estate since it owns the building.

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