Page 90 of Cakes for the Grump

“Don’t lie to me,” I beg him. “Whatever you say, I’m going to have you swear it. So don’t lie. I want—need the truth. How much could the fighting cost you?”

“Two billion.” I feel the color in my face drain. When I try to turn away, he captures my arm. “Wait. Listen to me, Rita. I’m not going to let that happen.”

“But the security footage of you fighting—” I say.

“I’ll get to that. But first, you might be wondering why Sistine was at the party tonight.”

“I don’t want to judge.”

He laughs, big and from the gut. “You should, that place was full of terrible people. And the reason she goes is that when powerful people get drunk, their secrets come out. It’s her way of gathering information to use against the very kind of assholes we grew up with.”

“That’s—”

“Dangerous, yeah. But my sister doesn’t have a self-preservation gene. That’s why I’m bloody glad she takes Adam. He looks after her.”

“You…don’t go to them? The parties?”

His thumb rubs the underside of my wrist. I wonder if I should tell him to stop. I don’t.

“My methods are different,” admits Luke. “I don’t bother with pawns.”

“How do you mean?”

“The merger. If it goes through at the conference, it will be two billion dollars split up.”

“So, that’s what you’re afraid of losing?”

“I won’t. Mr. Duncan calls them the white whale, but the world knows them as Intel. If Intel and Abbot Industries merge, my board will have no choice but to aggressively restructure itself. The pieces are in place. And Rita?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t lose.”

Something stirs in my memory. “Isn’t Intel well-known? And…good? Haven’t they publicly stood against everything your company stands for?”

“They are internationally lauded for pursuing a socially conscious portfolio. Everything my father loathes.”

“And he won’t try to fight it?” I ask. “Your father?”

He takes a long time to answer. So long I think he won’t but then he does. “He has dementia. He’s got little fight left in him.”

I press a hand to the side of his face. “I’m so sorry, Luke.”

“Don’t be. He’s a rotten bastard, and I wish he had his wits about him so I could see his face when I take it all away from him. That it’s his very own blood inviting Intel’s lawyers onboard the ship.”

“Won’t your board put up a fight?”

“By the time they find out, it will be too late to stop it.”

“Why is the conference so important in all this?” I ask, inching closer to him, wanting to understand. Wanting to help in any way. It’s the least I can do.

“When you make big business deals like this, you gamble on the person across the table. They need to make sure I’m solid.” His eyes glint in the darkness around us. “They need to make sure that I don’t do business like my father, stabbing people in the back.”

“Mr. Duncan wants me there.” I shake my head because I can’t believe it.

“To humanize me,” says Luke. “They need to look me in the eye, and believe I’ll sign the paperwork. Because who would let their own company tear itself apart when it’s already a cash cow. Why go through all this work, when I don’t have to? When I can exist as a king on top my black throne.”

I want to know too. “Whyare you doing this? Was your dad…that bad?”