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He looked at her.
She looked at him.
Something between them shifted—suddenly, with a lurch. Theair had grown heavy, like after a storm. She was extra aware of her own body in space, of where it stopped and the charged air began.
He leaned a little closer.
Oh mygod, was he going to kiss her again? Her entire body started tingling. She wished she hadn’t had that coffee downstairs. Her breath was going to be—
“Noar has approached Lucille Müller about selling her shares to him, too.”
“Whoa!” He’d wanted to tell her a secret, notkissher. God. She was anidiot.
“Whoa indeed,” Matteo said mildly.
He was going to assume her shock was the result of his news, not their imaginary almost kiss, and she was going to let him. “How’d you find this out?”
“I, ah, accessed his calendar remotely.”
“Youhackedhim?”
“I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” He smirked. “I called on some connections for information.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Noar had a meeting with Lucille, and I spoke to her executive assistant afterward.”
“Her executive assistant in thegovernment?” In addition to being a member of parliament, Lucille Müller was the leader of the official opposition party. She was a big deal.
“Yes, and that’s how I found out they talked about the shares. Lucille apparently turned Noar down when he asked if she would sell to him.”
Wow. Matteo had done this all in a day. It was remarkable.“Lucille does seem very committed to Morneau. And very morally upstanding.”
“Yes, I believe Noar was, as you might say in America, barking up the wrong tree. The larger question is what does it mean that he was seeking to buy shares from more than one shareholder? If we take Daniel Hauser at his word, if the sale truly was a matter of him wanting to retire, that’s one thing. But doesn’t it seem rather odd that Noar would then seek out further shares?”
“I wouldn’t say odd so much as I would say alarming.”
“Is this hostile takeover territory?”
“A hostile takeover of a private company isn’t really possible—well, there are some arcane, long-game strategies involving setting up a bunch of shell companies who each buy in, seemingly independently, but that seems a stretch in this case. I think it’s more likely that Noar is simply trying to amass a bigger stake. The question is, why? And why so secretly?”
It was strange, and oddly intimate, to be conversing with Matteo while they were both lying in bed. She was still sort of tingly from the kiss that wasn’t.
“I’m starting to fear you might have been right, that it’s possible the company isn’t doing wellbecauseof him,” he said. “Are you still operating with that theory?”
“Well, I haven’t discarded it. If he can convince others that the company is on a downward spiral and to sell him their shares at a low price, then when things ‘turn around,’ the value of his shares increases.”
Matteo tilted his head and emitted a skeptical sounding “Hmm.”
“You think I’m being paranoid.”
“No. I just wouldn’t have thought Noar Graf smart enough, or cunning enough, to conjure and execute such a scheme. Or capable enough to suddenly start doing a good job to such an extent that it changes the trajectory of the company.”
“Maybe it’s not that, or not only that. Maybe he believes that the recommendations my firm makes will in fact turn things around.”
“But how can he know that, when he doesn’t know what recommendations you’re going to make? Not to mention the fact that he doesn’t seem eager to cooperate with you.”
“I don’t know.” What a tangled web. “I’m just thinking out loud here, but what if Noar is a proxy for someone else? Is he married?”
