At first, Sven wanted to spoil her with the finest of everything, but a jet-set lifestyle made her uncomfortable. One time he took her to watch the opera. She had been easily transformed into an elegant beauty with a formal gown, and she kept her demeanor straight until he asked whether she enjoyed the performance. Her answer had been, “To be honest it’s boring as hell. I wish they would start throwing pies at each other to make it interesting.”
He laughed so hard, he had to excuse them both from the theater. Since then, he let Annalise choose the venue for their date nights. She took to him to see Yankees games, evening strolls in Central Park, and nightly excursions to hole in-the-wall restaurants that served incredibly delicious food that he otherwise would had never discovered. The more he learned about her, the more he fell for her. Annalise completed what had been missing from his life.
Sven folded the tabloid that Abbott Hill brought to the luncheon. “They’re sure having fun hounding us around.”
“It’s excellent publicity,” said the lawyer. Your marrying Annalise has been good for the company image. Both Dune Industry and Synergy.”
Sven noted the hesitancy in Hill’s voice. “You’re worrying about something?”
“I’ve heard some unsettling news from my sources. It disturbs me.”
“Oh?” Sven became interested.
“Three of the biggest Dune Industry shareholders conducted secret meetings and discussed raising capital. They met representative from Goldman Sachs on a couple occasions. My fear is that someone in Dune is facilitating a hostile takeover.”
Sven furrowed his eyebrows. “Cécile Mason. She’s behind this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“She wants to purge Annalise from Dune Industry.”
Hill studied the napkin in front of him. “Have you anticipated this all along?”
“I’ve predicted it.”
“What’s next?”
Sven tapped his fingers on the table. “I need a good private investigator. Preferably a specialist. Better yet, a security company.”
“What’s wrong with your current PI?”
“I need someone who’s willing to do unsavory work in the utmost secrecy.”
“I understand. I have a contact.”
“Can you set up a meeting?”
“Consider it done. What’s your next move?”
Sven flexed and inflexed his fingers until his bones made cracking sound. “That woman and her cronies won’t know the true meaning of hostile takeover until I’m through with them.”
The next few days seemed like the moments before a battle quiet, near-silent times with deceptive peacefulness. But a seasoned warrior would know in his bones that a bloody storm would soon ravage the arena. It seemed everyone in Dune’s management team knew that Annalise was merely a puppet of his, and some who were pro-Cécile had made their stand. They opposed Annalise; some with subtlety, and some blatantly bullied her. His spies in Dune industry reported that Annalise had started cracking under the pressure. What bothered him the most was that Annalise never told him of any harassment she endured, and acted as if everything was fine.#p#分页标题#e#
Sven wished she would be more open about I,t but he understood her reasons. She didn’t want to make him worry. He would have ordered Annalise to stay home out of harm’s way if he didn’t need to trick Cécile into believing that he remained oblivious to what she was doing. Sven needed to buy time.
Ten days after Hill set up a meeting with the new security company, Sven received the background-check reports of every person who sat on the board of directors as well as all Dune Industry’s investors. The dossiers were obtained through unscrupulous ways, including illegal wire-tapping and hacking. Sven was sure the security firm had broken a dozen laws along the way, but at this point, he was willing to play dirty. Cécile Mason had been getting away with murder for too long. It was time to put her in her corner and keep her there.
Forty-eight hours later, Sven was on the move. Armed with security specialists and his lawyer Abbott Hill, Sven crashed on Jonah Walker’s party. Walker currently had eleven percent of the shares in Dune Industry stock, making him the biggest outsider who owned a piece of the company. Sven planned to initiate a forced buyout from the outside investors. He himself owned twenty percent. Annalise had thirty. When he was able to obtain the investors’ shares, he would drive Cécile out of Dune Industry for good.
He came with the highly trained team in five black Escalades once the scout of the team confirmed that Jonah Walker was at the premises. Through Walker’s dossier, Sven had discovered Walker’s favorite past time—being a patron of an upscale brothel in Manhattan.