Page 12 of The Irresistible One
“Fuck!” My head fell back; the chair did as well, and I resumed the rocking. “Walker can’t re-create an entire menu for Horned. That’s an impossible task at the moment.”
My brother had been going through some personal shit for a while. He was finally on the other side of it, feeling back to his old self. Still, there was no way I could tell him he had forty-eight hours to redesign an entire menu as well as replace the Horned items that appeared on Charred’s menu.
“Then it sounds like a payout is the better route,” Jenner said.
I gradually looked at him. “Twenty fucking million?”
“We’ll get that number down,” Troy said.
I knew my demeanor was the reason I was in attendance and my siblings weren’t, but when something pissed me off, I didn’t hold back. “When I walked into this meeting, I was positive the two of you were going to put out this goddamn fire. Now, you’re letting my family and me fucking burn.”
“You’re not going to burn—” Troy attempted.
“Changing a menu for a thriving restaurant—a restaurant with four locations and more in the works—is an incredibly poor business decision. It’s probably a fatal one. Besides, do you know how much creation that would take? How much testing? It’s not as simple as wiping the slate clean and starting fresh.There are months and months of research that go into something like this—rolling out items one at a time, tweaking, testing again.” I released the loudest breath. “And to take on an entire menu at once …” My voice trailed off as I thought of Walker’s reaction when I told him this. “It can’t happen. It won’t happen.”Fuck me. “Which means I’m staring at a twenty-million-dollar payout. That’s destruction—not one that’s fatal—but painful as hell.”
Jenner nodded. “I get it, buddy. I assure you, we’re going to do everything in our power to lower that amount.”
“You should have done everything in your power to make this disaster go away—that’s what you should have done.” I stood. “I’ll talk to my family, and I’ll let you know what we decide. In the meantime, you can think of a way to return the smile to my face because I’m pissed.”
Jenner’s expression softened. “I know, buddy.”
“We’ll somehow make this right,” Troy offered. As I walked to the door, Troy added, “Colson, we need to stay within the forty-eight-hour time frame Sophie set.”
I looked at him from over my shoulder. “What happens if we don’t?”
“Let’s not find out.”
I laughed at his warning and headed down the hallway, stepping toward the elevator as it was closing. I stuck my hand in the opening to stop it, and once it slid back, I went inside. Sophie was in the far-right corner, a look of satisfaction dripping from her gorgeous face.
“Jesus Christ, I can’t escape you.” I went to the left corner, and as I glared at her, I let my gaze slowly fall. A body I knew so well, but everything else—like her name, title, and her impressive performance today—was a goddamn surprise.
Whatever I had felt in that room at Lush and the days thathad followed was gone. She was a fucking vulture, just like the Gordons.
“Colson … Colson.” She smiled. “I’d want to escape me, too, considering the situation you’re in. Going against me in court would hurt even more than the options I just stabbed you with.” Her blue gaze gleamed.
My chin lifted. “Did you know?”
She licked the inside of her bottom lip. “You mean, when I asked you to join us for a threesome, did I know who you were?” She folded her arms in front of her. “No.”
“Did you know before you walked in today?”
She shook her head.
The doors shut, and the elevator began to move.
“You’re honestly going to tell me you never typedWestoninto Google?”
“The past few days, you’ve probably been my top searched term. And during my research, I came across photos of Walker and Beck. Not you. It seems you’re not the face of the company like they are.”
I pressed my back against the wall. “Tell me, if you had seen a photo of me online, would that have changed anything today?”
I saw the answer before she said, “My job is to represent my clients and get them the compensation they deserve.” She glanced away. “What happened between us was insignificant.”
“You call seven orgasms insignificant?”
She slowly swung her neck toward me. “Yes.”
I let out a half breath. “You really have some nerve.”
