My spirits sank as I noticed several green folders on some shelving. Fuck. Now what?
The room was extremely bland and looked unused. There was an old coffee mug sitting on the main desk, and the bin hadn’t been emptied; it was the only sign of life. I felt a flare of disappointment, as maybe the folder we wanted wasn’t there. It could be in Jasper’s car or at his apartment. It wasn’t at the Summers' house, as Nix had already searched there. I still had every intention of breaking into his apartment if necessary.
“Hurry the fuck up,” Nix whispered, shouting from his crouched position by the window. I had demoted him to the lookout after he kept knocking stuff over, the clumsy bastard. Harper had been told to flash the headlights if we had company at any point.
I continued opening and closing drawers, the gloves I was wearing hindering my efforts. I flipped through some files, but they may as well have been in another language, as they made no sense to me. Frowning down at the paperwork, I then spied the corner of a folder wedged under the closed laptop.
Sliding it out, I dropped my attention to the cover and written in pen at the top, it stated SUMMERS. Bingo. As I spread the papers out on the desk, Nix joined me at my shoulder.
“You found something?”
“Maybe,” I puffed. My nerves were racing.
A cold sensation began to spread through my chest as Phoenix and I scanned the documents. The top paper was an Excel spreadsheet showing a Capitalization Table. There were shareholder names, and I instantly saw Storm's name sitting under her father’s. I had no idea she had shares in Dominic’s consultancy company.
I followed the line with my finger and read the headings, Class of Stock, Shares Owned, and Percentage of Ownership, but it all meant very little to me.
The other names listed under Storm’s and Dominic’s were a cousin of hers, Adam Summers, but his name had been crossed out, and an arrow led to Theodore Remmington’s name. There were also some numbers written in the margin. At the bottom of the table were employee shares, which totalled six percent.
That sense of foreboding was quickly replaced by the hunch that I may have found something. Reading the handwritten notes, it stated that Adam Summers had transferred his shares to Theodore Remmington several weeks ago. Why would Dominic Summer’s nephew sell his shares to his uncle's business partner?
Against the thirty-two shares next to Storm’s name was a question mark. I then flipped through the other documents. On the back of the folder, there was an extract from a Pre-nuptial agreement. It stated that on her marriage, Miss Storm Alexandra Summers’ shares in Remmington Summers Consultancy would be gifted to her husband. WTF? I glanced down at the copy of Storm’s signature and the date. Fuck that was years ago. Did she even know what she was signing at that age? I did the math; she would have been sixteen. I remember when Storm blurted out the truth that she was engaged. She’d explained that it happened around her sixteenth birthday. I swallowed down the lump that memory created, which was the first time she’d broken my heart.
I read through a couple more papers, and eventually, it clicked. I twisted the file to Nix.
“That’s why the prick wants to marry her. It isn’t just about joining alliances. It’s about taking the fuck over. Jasper gets Storm’s shares in your father’s business, and if that happens, that would give him… just a sec.” I totted up some numbers in my head. “So, with his father’s shares, Storm’s cousin, Andrew, and Storm’s shares, that would give Jasper sixty-three percent in your dad’s business. Do you get it?”
“Not really,” Nix said with a confused sigh.
“That means he would have control of the company. The one Dominic and Theodore set up together.”
“So, you're talking about a takeover maneuver? For what purpose? My father and Theo go way back. It all sounds a bit over the top?”
“You don’t say. Just like an arranged fucking marriage?”
Scanning the papers, I pulled out a Post-it. There were details of a wire transfer that was set to take place on the day of Storm’s wedding. But for what? Bribes to get other members of the board in their pockets? Who knew? My brain was working overtime.
“It’s all about money and power. Fucking typical. Look.” I showed him the notes in the margin.
“You really think he’s trying to take my father's firm from him?”
“It looks that way. Look for a Xerox machine or something,” I suggested with a wave of one hand.
“Why?”
“So, we can copy this shit. We’re going to need some evidence.” My heart was pounding in my chest. “Look, if I’m wrong, I’m wrong. We are doing this in Storm’s best interests. Surely Dominic will see that?”
“Or he could see it as an old flame of his daughter trying to fuck with her life?”
“I’m prepared to take that chance.”
I forced myself to take slow, measured breaths as anger started to bleed into my bloodstream.
As we found a copier, I began to copy the paperwork, realizing that it still didn’t answer what hold Jasper had over Storm. If she married him, she lost shit; she didn’t gain anything by their union. What had he promised her? Or what was hethreateningher with? I wondered if Storm had even read the contract she’d signed.
I decided at that moment to ask Mia to read the papers. With her law background, they would make more sense to her. I wondered fleetingly if the PI she’d appointed had come up with anything on Jasper yet.
Nix was standing by the window again as I copied another page.
