Page 90 of Open To Negotiation

I was fading out as he crawled into bed beside me, pulling me into his chest. The last thing I felt was the soft kiss he pressed on my forehead as I fell into a blissful sleep, happier than I’d ever been.

25

Theo

Iwas in a piss poor mood. Everything that could go wrong today, had. There were issues with the land sale for our club, and we had to scramble to ensure the deal was secured. Then we found evidence that one of our acquired companies had an executive that was trying to embezzle from us and we had to fix that.

And then I answered my fucking phone.

It was after five and I was anticipating my normal call from Quinn asking what time I would be home. I loved those calls and even though I was going to have to tell her I needed to stay at the office late, I wanted to talk to her. The sound of her voice calmed me and I needed that today.

But I should have looked at the damn caller ID.

“Theodore,” my father said through the phone as I answered. I clenched my jaw and sat back in my chair.

Was it too late to hang up?

“Warren,” I replied in the same cold tone.

I couldn’t remember the last time I called him by anything other than his name. He’d lost the right to be called anything other than an inconvenience when he dropped me and my mom like we were nothing, when he didn’t show up for either of us as she died.

“I’m in town.” My eyes narrowed. He’d never once come here before. Not in all the years I lived here as a child and not since moving back. I knew his company had interests here but he certainly didn’t.

“Hope you enjoy. Now if there is nothing else, I’m busy.”

His laugh had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. “Come to the Fairmont Suites, I’m staying there.” I hated the entitled demand in his voice. “I have things we need to discuss.”

“I have to decline.”

“That’s too bad, I wanted to discuss your redheaded girlfriend,” I froze at his words, “but if you don’t have time, you don’t have time.”

“I’ll be there in ten,” I ground out as I stood up, swiping my keys off my desk and heading out the door.

He made a mistake mentioning anything about Quinn, because now I was ready for a fight.

A couple of calls on the way to the hotel got me the information I needed.

He’d checked in this morning and was set to check out tomorrow with his name on a flight manifest leaving first thing in the morning. I confirmed that he had no meetings here on the books so whatever this was, it was about me.

I wasn’t sure Warren realized how closely I kept tabs on him. You had to know your enemy, understand their weaknesses in case you ever needed to take them down. Most of the time, I didn’t waste my energy on him, but I stayed ready, just in case.

Walking into the hotel bar, I found him easily tucked in a booth at the back on his own. He had a drink in his hand and a file on the table in front of him.

I slid into the booth and leaned back, one hand resting on the back of the bench the other on the table in front of me.

“Good to see you, Theodore,” he said as I stared at him, not replying. “As communicative as always.”

“What do you want? I have other places to be.” I kept my voice bored as I tried to ignore the file on the table.

Warren sat forward. “I heard you’re thinking of opening an office in New York.”

I lifted an eyebrow at him, waiting for more. His information wasn’t wrong, we were thinking about it as our next expansion location. Noah had made inquiries in a few places but we hadn’t decided anything yet.

Part of the reason for that was that Warren lived and worked in New York. Although I didn’t care about him, I knew he cared about me. He despised that I’d become more successful than him, without his name or his help.

“I don’t want you in my city.”

I barely held back my eye roll. “It’s a big city, Warren.” He ran an investment company, which was only one small part of mine, we wouldn’t even be in competition for business. Although he wouldn’t see that, he thought we played in the same league.