Page 168 of Twisted Knight

You emptied your family’s trust to buy that land and sustain the loan. You siphoned money out of this company to play the shell game, put the money into the trust so no one in your family noticed it was missing. You’re banking on this deal to save your ass, to prevent the loan from going into default, before anybody other than a trusted few figure it out.

But you’re so goddamn greedy, so focused on the end game, that you’re refusing to see the forest for the trees.

Why would a guy like me, the man who shows up out of the blue offering to buy a company that’s not for sale, do anything other than be your hero? Why would I try to screw you over when you are banking on me saving you?

The devil was once an angel too, Rhett.

Be careful who you put your faith in—especially when your back’s against the wall and you reek of desperation.

“You sure you don’t want to take a moment to read things over again?” I offer. “The last thing I’d want you to do is to sign the deal without being one hundred percent informed.”

Rhett’s attention switches to me. His hands fidget. His eyes flicker about. He’s so goddamn high on the prospect of finally getting his ass saved that he can’t see anything else but the dollar signs. He’s jonesing for this final fix.

Exactly what I was planning on.

“No. I’m fine.” He grabs a pen from the center of the table. “We’ve waited too fucking long to get to this point as it is.”

“So where’s the other ninety million?” he asks.

“In the escrow account like we agreed upon.”

“So get it out. Get it transferred,” he demands with a frantic look to his business partner. His land deal partner who has emptied the family coffers as well.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?” His voice breaks.

“Just what it sounds like. I can’t. That’s the point of the escrow account,” I say. “Ten percent up front to be dispersed among all the shareholders commensurate with the number of shares they own. The other ninety percent is to remain in an escrow account for a year so long as a set profit margin is retained. After that year fifty percent will be dispersed. Then after the second year the remainder will be. What exactly is the confusion over?”

Rhett swallows and stares at me with confusion etched in the lines of his face. “That wasn’t the deal.”

My smile is a slow crawl. “But it was. Your lawyer tried to review the terms with you. You told him no.”

“Bullshit.” But the flicker of fear in his eyes says he’s questioning himself.

“Not from where I sit.” I roll my chair back and pull the signed contract out of my top drawer. I drop the stack of papers on the desk with a thud before thumbing through it as both Chad and Rhett move closer. “Right here.” I point. “Section four. Clause five. It’s the payment terms. They’re all laid out. Right there. And your signature is a few pages after, agreeing to them.”

When I look up, it takes everything I have not to gloat.

“What in the flying fuck. That wasn’t in the original terms. That—”

“By the number of hours my lawyer is charging me, I’m more than certain she went back and forth with your lawyer numerous times. It’s called negotiating. It’s called settling. There’s nothing shady in this deal. I assure you.”

“But … why?”

Why are you a greedy fuck who didn’t understand the terms of his own deal?

Why do you need a better lawyer?

Why are you so desperate for money that you refused to read the fine print?

“Why?” I chuckle. “It’s a standard practice in large deals. It adds a guarantee that you won’t try to sabotage your own company. That you can’t try and deplete its capital, its staff, its whatever if you suddenly regret making the deal. And it’s a guarantee on my end that I can’t sabotage it from the inside—unless of course I don’t give a ‘flying fuck.’ That was your term, wasn’t it?”

Chad yanks the paper out of my hands. He reads it, his eyes growing wider as each second passes. So much for being an awesome COO, huh, Chad?

“You motherfucker,” he mutters.

I smile. I dare him to look closer than he’s ever looked before. But then again, he never stopped to look into my brother’s eyes, he never stopped to help or even acknowledge he killed him even when he was found out, so how would he know?