Fake It For Christmas by Layla Valentine

Author:Layla Valentine [Valentine, Layla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Sawyer

I’ve worked out of villas in central Europe, office blocks in Japan, and condos in Brazil. None of them were such a towering, ostentatious phallus of a building as the Bentley Media skyscraper, planted there like a challenge to anyone who dares to compete with my father. Just walking into the building makes me feel weighed down, draining my creativity. Real estate is agile, ever-changing, and this place is as agile as a dead fucking whale.

Chase snaps his fingers, interrupting my thoughts as I stare out of the bank of windows in his office. “You agree to consult for us, overseeing the procurement, permitting, and early construction phases of eight pilot resorts in to-be-determined locales.”

“Nice ten-second summary of what we just spent the last four hours pointlessly circling around.”

He completely ignores my snark, poring over the aluminum computer monitor on his desk. “That completes your contract, then.”

“Great. Can we get out of here? I make deals while walking, not growing roots from my ass into a desk chair.” When he doesn’t answer, I turn away from the bleak view and realize he’s staring at me with a look that concerns me. “What?”

“You’re not just entering a contract with me, Sawyer. You’ll be working for the whole company. For Dad.”

“But he’s never here. So what?”

He leans back, putting his hands behind his head with a sigh and staring at an abstract sculpture in the corner of the room, as if it has all the answers. “We don’t do business the same way you’re used to.”

“Which is?”

“…energetically.”

I throw myself down in a leather armchair. “Nice euphemism. Say what you mean, brother.”

“I’m trying.”

This week has pissed me off, so I lean on him even harder. “You know how much Dad respects that word. ‘If you’re just trying you might as well hand your dick to the competition and go home.’”

His eyes darken a little. “Fine. You’re a liability, Sawyer. You’re a loose cannon who only sticks around when he feels like it. Dad didn’t ask you to be here. I did. He’d choke on his dentures if he knew I was making this deal.”

“So why are you making it?”

“Because I never thought it was right to cut you out in the first place. I don’t know how to fix this succession thing, but I’m trying, damn it.”

“You’re buttering me up so you can ask me a favor. Go ahead.”

“I thought, in order to help Dad take all this better, you might be willing to add a few clauses to the contract.”

Warning bells go off in my head. Fire, fire. Get out before everything burns to the ground. “I don’t like where this is going.” I shift uneasily, realizing that Chase is avoiding my gaze.

He spreads his hands placatingly. “It’s nothing like that. Just…have you given any more thought to the management course?”

“Fuck. You.” I stand up and pull my coat off the back of the chair.

This “management course” requires six months of putting all your profitable work aside to go through Dad’s

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.