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“So where does that leave you?”
I sigh. “That’s what I want to discuss with Arthur.”
“Okay. I’ll get him.”
I head into my office, drop my coat then turn around and head back to Rachel’s desk. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be dismissive just then. I know you’re trying to be nice. I’m just tired.”
She smiles. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t get all those numbers anyway.”
I don’t sit behind my desk. Looking at my email, letting the business know I’m around, might just finish me off today. Instead, I pour myself a glass of sparkling water from my fridge and sit onto the leather sofa, looking out at Tower Bridge.
“The bank and PE are both out,” I say, watching Arthur’s reflection in the window as he moves into the room and takes up a seat in a chair next to the sofa.
“I can’t blame them, Dayna. With the sanctions news and prices continuing to fall faster than anyone thought, this isn’t a risk SP should be taking.”
“Arthur, you’re the one person I can rely on, the one person who understands how much I need this.” I turn to face him. “He was your best friend.”
He crosses his legs and rubs a hand across his chin. “He was. And if anything ever happened to me, he would have looked after Teddy, guided him, in business and in life. I owe your father that too. I need to do the best by you, Dayna. Pull out of the bid. This is not the right way to get back at Kahn. When it was a straight bid that was one thing. I didn’t like it, but I was willing to support you. I won’t, can’t, watch you do a deal with Bahrain. You’re not trying to outbid Kahn anymore, you’re provoking him. If your plan worked, when he found out…” He doesn’t finish, he simply shakes his head. The look in his eyes chills me to the core.
“He knows.”
Arthur drags a breath through his teeth. “How do you know?”
I move to the window. “He broke into my hotel room and threatened me at knifepoint.”
“Jesus Christ, Dayna. That man is dangerous. How can I protect you from that?”
I turn sharply. “I’m not asking for your protection, Arthur. What is it with everyone trying to fucking protect me?”
Arthur all but jumps to his feet. “I owe it to your father. Pull out of this tender.” His face is burning red. His black eyes make my body tense reflexively. This is just about as angry as I’ve ever seen him.
“What if there were another option? I get the well and stay away from Hassan?”
“You’ve already pissed off Kahn. He’ll be gunning for you no matter how you win this well.”
“Could you at least hear me out?” I’m shouting back at him, my frustration boiling over into anger.
He paces the room, hands on his hips.
I fight against the part of me that doesn’t want to tell him because that would make the offer a real prospect and no longer something I have to consider alone. “Layton Oil.”
His eyes widen further and his features set. “What about Layton Oil?” he growls. I’ve never felt it before around him, but I’m apprehensive. Arthur has never behaved like this. I wonder if I’m catching a glimpse of the businessman he used to be, my father’s right-hand man.
“Clark has put an offer on the table. He and I would go in together, Layton Oil and SP. He’d add capital so we could increase our bid.”
“And he’d get SP’s blending know-how?”
“Right. There’d be a limit to how much we could increase the bid, but we should still be able to turn a profit if we—”
“No! Absolutely not. I forbid you to work with a Layton!” His words are almost a roar.
I front up to him physically for the first time ever. “Excuse me?”
“You will not work with a Layton.”
“Who the hell are you to decide that?”
“If your father were here he’d say the same thing.”
