Virgin Bride(25)

Griffin





Sitting across the table from me is the devil himself.

Okay, not really, but this guy is such an asshole. I don’t know why I ever greed to get into business with Rick Fisher. I thought this would be an easy deal and we’d both profit from it, but apparently nothing is easy.

“I want to stay on with the company,” Rick is saying, which just pisses me off.

“That’s not what we agreed on,” I say.

He shrugs a little bit. “I changed my mind. I don’t like the direction of these negotiations and I’m beginning to think you can’t handle my company.”

I stare at him, totally taken aback. The room is full of people, representatives from both sides, including lawyers, upper-level management, and a few other people that I don’t recognize. And this fucking guy has the gall to insult me right to my face.

I stare at him hard, trying to figure out what to say next.

“Maybe we should take a break,” James suggests, looking nervous.

He probably knows I want to fucking murder this cocksucker. “No,” I say. “Listen, Rick. I want this deal to happen. You stand to make a lot of money from it.” I lean toward him. “But I’m tired of your fucking bullshit.”

The awkward silence turns into a shocked one. You’re not supposed to talk like that at a meeting like this, but I’m so sick of playing nice.

Rick just smiles at me, clearly enjoying this moment. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Griffin,” he says.

“You didn’t upset me. You’re wasting my time, and that’s unacceptable.”

“What’s unacceptable is the way you’re attempting to strong-arm these proceedings,” he says, looking around. “This room full of people just witnessed you speaking to me in a very disrespectful manner.”

I clench my jaw. “If anyone was offended by what I said, please leave right now.” I pause and look around, but nobody moves.

“Who’s going to respond to that?” Rick asks, laughing slightly.

“Actually, everyone, get out.”

Rick narrows his eyes. “You don’t get to order my people around.”

“Maybe.” I look at my side of the table. “I said, out.”

Slowly, my people stand and start to filter out. I put my hand up and James pauses then sits back down while everyone else leaves. Finally, all the lawyers are gone, the fucking managers, the annoying assholes that get in the way. It’s just me and James staring down Rick and his army.

“Talk to me man to man,” I say to him.

He sighs. “This is not impressing me,” he says. “You want this deal to happen? Grow up.”

“Okay then. Clearly you’re afraid to be in a room alone with me. Here’s the truth: you’ve been stalling these negotiations since the start. I don’t know why.” I lean back in my chair and cross my arms. “Everyone knows you’ve been making more and more unreasonable demands. You’ve nitpicked every single line of our agreement. And now you’re trying to change the fundamental terms at the last second. Rick, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were up to something.”

He watches me for a second after I finish speaking. I can tell his people are really uncomfortable. One of his lawyers whispers something in his ear and he just shakes his head.

“You want the truth?” He smirks at me. “This is my business. My life’s blood. If I’m going to sell it to you, I want to make sure it’s going to be taken care of. And so far, I haven’t been impressed by anything.”

I have to take a deep breath to calm myself. He’s such a condescending prick, but we’re so fucking close. We’ve locked down a price, one that’s extremely fair if I’m being honest with myself, though on the high side. Rick stands to make millions off this deal, enough money so that he can do whatever he wants for the rest of his life and be totally set financially.

And yet he’s stalling and pushing and acting. I don’t know what his angle is. Maybe he wants more. But I don’t know that I have any more left to give to this merger.

I stand up. “We’re done here,” I say

Rick looks surprised. “You’re giving up?”

“No,” I say. “I’m walking out. When you’re ready to have a real negotiation, let me know, but right now you’re just wasting everyone’s time.”

I stalk out of the room, followed by James.

“Are you sure that was the right move?” he asks.

I shrug. “Who knows, but that guy pisses me off either way. I can’t keep looking at his smug face.”

“Listen, Griffin. You know how important this is.” He grabs my arm and stops me in the hall. “Don’t fuck this up.”