CHAPTER TWO
DREW
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With my ankles crossedunder the boardroom table, my arms spread wide around my laptop as I listen to the presentation going on in front of me, but my mind is elsewhere.
It’s been three days since I hung up on Gemma Ford.Predictably, she hasn’t shown, and it's now goddamn Wednesday.
So, unless you want to be in breach of the terms of our fucking contract, I will see your ass in my office on Monday morning.
The tiny, sexy brunette is pushing her luck.
She’s lucky I even bought her fucking company.The books are a mess, and while the company owns some valuable prime real estate, my team and I need to move a lot faster than we are to ensure Open Leaf doesn’t drain more money than it has.
On my dime.
I don’t understand why she’s angry with me—well, I do—she had good lawyers, and my reputation is no secret.
I buy companies.
I fix them.
Or I do what’s required to profit from my investment.
It’s called doing b u s i n e s s.
I’m not a fucking non-profit organization curing cancer.
Jesus Christ.If her lawyers didn’t explain this to her, then that’s on them and her.
Listen, I’m not a fucking asshole, but I can’t hand hold every failing business owner that I buy out of their mess.I get my team to crunch the numbers, do due diligence, and then we slide a figure across the table.There’s either a deal or there isn’t.
It’s not personal.
In this instance, because of the number of stores around the country—forty—and Gemma’s relationship with the employees, I offered her a three-month contract to keep the business ticking over.
