Page 20 of Threaded Lies

She meets my eyes and compassion oozes out of her. “If you tell anyone about this and how I’m losing my mind I’m going to deny it and blame it on the wine.”

Her smile is lightning quick. “Deal. Besides, you have more than enough blackmail material on me, so it’s a nonstarter.”

My smile is quickly replaced with a groan as I rest my head back in frustration. “No doubt good ol’ Henry would blur some lines if my name were Rhett.”

She lifts her eyebrows and contemplates my comment. “You’re serious about that, aren’t you? You really think he’d risk his law license for your brother?”

“I’m only hoping he’d risk it for Chad at this point because that means it would benefit me.” I huff. “I don’t put anything past anyone with the last name Rothschild, Williams, or Knight these days.”

“Even the Williams you’ve agreed to marry?”

If looks could kill, she’d be dead … but she has a point. “I’m reserving judgment, but so far he’s the only man in my life encouraging me and telling me what I want is worth fighting for.”

“I like Chad. He’s always been a decent guy, but do you really believe he’s only doing this to gain back some of the power Holden has?” she asks wryly. “Because I’m not buying it.”

“I’m not that naive, no. I’ve made him more than aware that this is a business arrangement that will be annulled in six months.”

“Six months doesn’t mean shit if you can’t find a way to work around the two-year addendum.”

“I’m well aware, but it’s all I have. Marry Chad, get his voting shares, try and convince Henry to ignore the two-year time frame, use the money I inherit to influence board members to vote how I need them to vote or to buy them out. Either way, I improve my standing in TinSpirits and become the second largest shareholder behind Holden.”

“That’s a lot of what-ifs,” she muses.

“Well, what-ifs are all I have right now and it’s better than having no choice, so I’m clinging to them even if that makes me a selfish person who only cares about herself. Because in only caring about myself, then that means every person at TinSpirits will still have a job. It means I try and keep my promise to Gran. So yes, it feels awful to use Chad this way, but he’s walking into it knowing the outcome. It’s not my fault if he thinks he’s going to wear me down and win me over so I fall in love with him. That’s on him because I’ve told him otherwise.”

“Wow. Okay. The woman has a plan.” She nods but bites back what I can only assume are the dozens of other things she wants to say. No doubt things I’ve already thought of time and again as it is. “Just do me a favor, if—when—you try and bend whatever rules you try to bend, we never had this conversation.”

“I know.”

“I’m racking my brain here to figure out how you can do this without breaking the law. Or rather, Henry breaking the law, because I don’t see him risking everything for you. No offense.”

“None taken. This is Westmore where men reign and women are supposed to be demure and compliant. I’m under no impression that Uncle Henry is going to bend at all. I’m not a man.”

“No shit.” She rolls her eyes, a victim at times of the misogyny in this town when it comes to her law practice. “Is it possible for you to ask Henry to see the signed addendum? Her inheritance letter to you implies it was a recent add. Maybe I can look at it and see if anything there is fishy. It’s a long shot, but…” She shrugs.

“But it’s something.”

“It is.” She rises and tops off both our glasses of wine before moving about the room. For as long as I’ve known Sloane, it’s easier for her to think when her feet are moving. “But, if you are able to get around the two years and get ahold of the funds, then we need to start thinking about Gran’s dirt on board members she left us.”

“There’s a lot of it,” I murmur.

“There is. We just need to figure out the best way to play your cards.”

Her words settle in and no matter how many times I might have actually thought of everything we’re discussing, it feels so odd plotting and planning and being everything I normally am not.

“Yes. Sure. I just … Can you explain that if this is a done deal—if the company is officially sold—why doesn’t anyone know? Why hasn’t Holden announced it? That makes me worry there is more to what’s going on that I don’t know.”

Sloane shrugs and purses her lips in contemplation. “Oftentimes an NDA is put into effect for various reasons during a deal like this. The acting parties want the terms of the deal to stay confidential, or it might be as simple as not wanting to scare employees. Often a new owner or the majority ownership will run the company in secret for a set amount of time so that when the employees eventually find out the deal is done, the owners can say, ‘See? We’ve been doing this for three months and nothing has changed. There’s no need to be concerned about your job,’ etcetera.”

“Huh.” Never thought about it that way.

“Change spooks the hell out of a lot of people, uncertainty more so.”

Her words hit home in a way I didn’t expect. The pressure in my chest mounts. “Oh my God. What have I done?” My chuckle is part shock, part disbelief as I lean back in the desk chair and stare at the ornate tiles on the ceiling.

“Doubts so soon?”

“Doubts every second of every day,” I groan. “This is how I honor Gran’s memory? By trying to find a work-around to her final wishes. Like, this isn’t me, Sloane. I don’t do stuff like this.”