The Wolf in the Woods by Dan Brotzel

Author:Dan Brotzel [Brotzel, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books

25 NO HUGS, NO REGRETS

As Sonja’s snazzy white car scrunched over the gravel and turned sharply out onto the road with a final toot of the horn, some muffled shouts from the kids and a last wave from the driver’s window, Colleen – watching quietly from her bedroom – felt suddenly overpowered by sadness.

Her phone dinged. Gerry had texted again, and she had two missed calls from another client, Baz.

Baz was a senior partner with a private equity fund. He was a Master of his Universe, a man who commanded great respect and fear in his industry. If Baz decided to back your business, Colleen understood, your business would smash it – so long as you were prepared to do exactly what Baz told you. What this meant in practice was that you would probably have to sack half your team, including all the people you got the business off the ground with, no matter that you owed it all to them and they were your best mates (or even your spouse, in one case that Baz always liked to crow about).

‘This is business,’ he liked to say, with a stab of his vaping stick thing. ‘No hugs, no regrets.’

The funny thing about Baz, though, was that beneath this harsh abrasive exterior, and unknown to even his closest friends and family, he had – over the last two or three years – become an anxious, terrified wreck.

This man who had grown a global firm and made keynote speeches at high-profile conferences attended by world leaders was now filled with acute sociophobic dread ahead of even the most modest meet-up in a pub or restaurant. He lay awake every night, sweating with panic. His anxiety floated free over his world, making him phobic about everything from tunnels to wasps to gas canisters and aerosols, which he was convinced were always about to explode.

Baz. Jesus. She would have to call him. It was the very last thing she wanted to do after the morning she’d had, but she would have to call him.

She stabbed at his name with her index finger, then heaved a big out-breath when she saw the call go straight to message. Reprieved. For the moment at least.

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