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I let that sink in while Michael stared hard at me. His eyes could probably stop a charging bull. But maybe I’d built up some resistance to his ice-cold glares while we were dating, if you want to call it that. I guess it was more of an affair. That was neither here nor there, however.

I stared right back at him without backing down an inch, on a metaphorical level. Our gazes locked and we waged a psychic battle of willpower. I kept waiting for Michael to say something, to try and demean or belittle me further, but he seemed to be waiting for my next move, too.

“Michael,” I said, using his first name to emphasize that in this room, we were equals. "Would you like to call up Evan right now and ask him the same question you just put to the room? You can ask him why he sent a ‘glorified secretary’ to represent him on a deal potentially worth billions of dollars. I wonder how he will take that? Your utter lack of confidence in what he’s invested himself in?”

The tension grew so thick you could cut it with a knife. And not fun sexual tension, either, though there was a little bit of that. On my end, at least.

We continued to stare at each other, and I wondered which of us would be the first to break. I planned to do everything in my power to make sure it was not me who broke.

The immovable object was running right into the irresistible force. And billions of dollars were at stake.

The door to the boardroom opened up. Michael glared at the smartly dressed woman who entered.

“Melinda,” he said in a low growl. “I expressly said that there were to be no interruptions for this meeting. I hope you have a very good reason for disobeying a direct order from me.”

She bowed her head submissively and then walked into the room.

“My apologies, sir. But I really don’t think this matter can wait. It needs your immediate attention.”

He grunted and gestured loosely at her.

“Very well. What’s going on?”

“It would probably be better if I just showed you,” she said. Melinda synced up her phone with the projection screen via Bluetooth. After a moment, the loading circle disappeared and an image of one of those twenty-four-hour cable news stations appeared in its stead. The anchor was typical. Graying hair, boring face, and utterly deadpan delivery as he spoke.

“…News that has the potential to shake the financial world. Sporting goods juggernauts NonPoint and Leisure Unlimited are rumored to have begun talks about a possible merger. Between the two companies they hold over a third of the market share of world wide sporting goods sales, though Leisure Unlimited has a bigger chunk of that. Up next, our financial analyst Cynthia Rothrock will clue us in as to what this merger could mean for investors, as well as the world at large…”

We all felt an intangible pall fall over us at the news. The merger hinged at the fact that we were keeping it ‘dark’ and out of the press.

Now our ‘secret’ merger had been exposed to the world. Who could have leaked the information to the press?

And what was their motivation?

Chapter Seven

Jenna

A jagged bolt of lightning lit up the sky bright as day, a line of pure white against the gathering darkness. It seemed an appropriate thing to happen right about then, after the monumental news about the merger had just aired on the big screen.

A lot of worried looks passed among us. Michael was furious. He gave few outward signs of it. His color darkened a bit, and his eyes glittered like they were ice crystals. I knew him fairly well, though. You might say intimately, and I knew that he was far angrier now than he was when actively yelling at people.

“This is intolerable.” He shook his head as if in denial of what we had just seen. “Intolerable. This meeting is adjourned until we figure out how this travesty happened.”

“Wait,” I said as he walked toward the door on legs stiffened by anger. “You can’t just adjourn the meeting. We have a lot of work to do on this merger.”

“If the merger is still on,” he growled as he pushed open the door. I turned to my team and sighed.

“I guess we’re done for now, but stay close just in case.”

They nodded back at me and I fled from the room as well. I didn’t bother to check and see how Trent, Chad, and Blake were taking the news. I had no time for them.

I followed Michael as he power-walked down the exquisitely carpeted hallway toward the express elevator.

“Hey,” I said. “Will you slow down? We need to discuss this.”

He stepped into the elevator car about ten paces ahead of me. When I saw Michael jamming his finger on the buttons, I started walking faster.

“Hey,” I snapped. “Don’t you dare take off without me.”