Page 69 of Broken Brothers

“I think I heard you, but say it one more time,” Morgan said, as if I had just changed his life with my words. “You want to take over Hunt Industries in a hostile takeover. For real. Seriously?”

“Why not?” I said, trying to speak faster than my mind could consider the insanity of what I had just proposed. “As much as we dislike the business relationship with your father, he does have an enormous collection of assets and this company is extraordinarily valuable. If we take it over, we get to keep the Hunt name so it makes sense. And maybe your father will hate your guts, but we’ll be nice enough to give him the dignity of a gracious exit while we do it as a hostile move in private.”

Morgan just laughed in between sips of his whiskey.

“He would never forgive that,” Morgan said.

“Yeah, but in a way, he would respect it,” I said, even though I knew both of us were right. “He would realize we had just pulled off the greatest deal ever without him ever realizing it. He may hate us, but he’ll respect the move.”

“Begrudgingly and hatefully,” Morgan said, though he did not disagree.

My phone buzzed on my counter again, but I ignored it. I had no intentions of speaking to either Layla or Claire tonight. I had to deal with Morgan for right now and our future, especially since our future seemed to be getting bolder and more aggressive by the minute.

“Let’s do it like this,” I said. “Let’s focus on those middling companies that can become hot shots like Virtual Realty. The decision is still a ways off. I still speak to Andrew and he has not said a word yet about choosing anyone else. Has he to you?”

“Not yet.”

“So we’re still good there. This is going to have to simmer a bit, so we can’t act now, but when we get Virtual Realty—”

I had not said if on purpose. It was not by accident that I said when.

“We will have direct oversight and help it grow and grow. When it’s big enough, we sell off enough to make a hostile takeover of Hunt Industries.”

“We’ll need to do it swiftly and in one action,” Morgan said.

I liked that he was already thinking in terms not of whether to make the move, but how to make the move. Granted, I’m sure this wasn’t the end of his deciding whether or not to do it—undoubtedly, we would have many more conversations like this in which I would have to convince him of the need to do this takeover.

But that on the first night, it had already happened…

“If we wait at all or if we go slowly, then Edwin will see it and he’ll just buy all the stock himself,” Morgan said. “He’ll laugh at us and then make a mockery of us to the board, even if we do have seats on it.”

“Unfortunately, very true,” I said.

It was striking that Morgan could see so clearly on his father how this would go. I wondered just how much he wasn’t saying in terms of how he felt. Something that had not yet come up but was slowly entering my mind was how Mrs. Hunt would react to all of this.

I loved Mrs. Hunt, I really did. I never had any feelings of any kind toward Edwin, but I would have done anything for Mrs. Hunt. I knew if this happened, she would feel like she was caught in the middle of a vortex, pulled apart at the seams as she tried desperately to hold a family together that, she had subtly suggested to me a few years ago, never should have existed in the first place. And it wasn’t fair to her in the slightest.

It almost made emotional to think about it, but it had to be done. I had to do it for all of the things Edwin Hunt had done to my life.

“Chance, you are one crazy motherfucker,” Morgan said. “Like, those words undersell it. You’re a fucking deranged motherfucker for thinking you can do a hostile takeover of my father’s firm. Which is precisely why I’m so intrigued by this idea.”

He stood up, brushed off his suit, and did something he should have done when he walked in.

He grabbed a slice of pizza.

Finally, Morgan showed some of that same glimmer I’d come to associate with him.

“We won’t be acting on it anytime soon,” I reminded him. “My guess would be the soonest we can do this would be in five years.”

“I know,” Morgan said. “But this gives us something to shoot for. It’s an idea. It’s…”

It was indescribable. But it was audacious, daring, and more than a little bit of proof that we weren’t dependent upon Edwin Hunt for all our success. We could topple the tyrant instead of just inheriting the throne the easy way.

“It’s necessary,” I said with a smile.

30

Morgan and I had more than a few drinks that evening to celebrate the idea that had come to mind and its potential effects.