“The potential for success is not for the faint of heart. Tell me, Mr. Sherman, you haven’t grown faint, have you?”
“You’re asking,” I clarified, “for Sherman and Madison to invest in GreenSphere.”
“Depending upon your investment, you could acquire a seat on the board.”
“And you want GreenSphere to take over my twenty-six percent of Wade’s shares.”
“Not twenty-six. No, for access to the board, GreenSphere will take over sixty-five percent of Wade’s stock.”
“Sixty-five.” That would include the percentage due to Julia upon our wedding. “If I say no?”
“You will be left with pennies on the dollar.”
“Sixty-five is a majority holding.”
“Mr. Sherman, this deal will expire a week from today.”
Fuck.
Somehow, GreenSphere knew the date of our wedding and the transfer of stocks.
“Sir,” she said, “please get back to us at your earliest convenience.”
As I hung up the phone, I had to wonder what Logan Butler’s role was in GreenSphere. If MMT financed Phillip’s trip to Chicago and MMT was invested in GreenSphere, how much was it invested?
Were Logan and Marlin working together or was Logan trying to outsmart his brother?
Connie’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Mr. Sherman, your ten o’clock is waiting in the conference room.”
I hit the button on the intercom. “Thank you, Connie. I’ll be right there.”
Van
Eleven years ago
Istared in disbelief as too many thoughts circled through my mind.
“Hi, Van.”
Her voice was the one I heard in that space between wakefulness and sleep. It came to me when I least expected it. After a successful deal alone with my bourbon, it would remind me that I had no one with whom to share it. Hell, sometimes when I was intimate, I’d see her eyes staring back at me.
A fucking ghost, she haunted my thoughts.
As if it were All Hallows’ Eve in the middle of the summer, the ghost became real.
Without my attending a séance and in the flesh, long blond hair, soft curves, smelling sweet, appearing innocent, and staring at me through wide open eyes, here she was.
I held tight to the doorjamb and edge of the front door, not opening the door any wider. My knuckles blanched as I tried to articulate my words. “Why are you here, Madison?”
Strands of her light hair fluttered around her face. Her emerald gaze peered out from below her lowered lashes. It had been five years since her wedding, five years since I’d visited her bridal suite. Five years since I’d been this close to her. Seeing her here, on my doorstep was fucking ecstasy and agony. It was the literal definition of the hell our Sunday school teachers talked about when we were kids.
I’d waited to hear that my visit spoiled their big day. Watching for anything from Olivia or even Phillip to acknowledge what I’d done, what we’d done. I’d even wondered if I’d hear from my parents. The news never came.
That didn’t stop my own success.
Over the last five years my wealth had multiplied exponentially. I’d made a name where one never before existed. Hell, I’d been named most eligible bachelor by some stupid magazine. My face shone from magazine covers in newsstands and supermarket lines all over the fucking country. And every time Sherman and Madison’s PR informed me of an impending publication, my first thought was the woman staring at me now.
Will she see it?