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He nodded and ran his hand over the back of his head and over his hair.
“You should be proud of what you’ve created,” Daniel said.
Blake turned, glanced around the enormous Manhattan corner office on the top floor with its mahogany desk, and snorted.
“Blake, I inherited Dufort Holdings. I’d have to have fucked up big time to bring this global hotel chain to its knees. I’m not saying I won’t. But it’s unlikely. You created InkWell from scratch.”
“Take it as a compliment. He rarely gives them.” Fletcher winked at him.
“Readers will drive this. Imagine every visitor in our hotels getting a free InkWell subscription for three months. Then they’ll be hooked.”
Blake shook his head. “Fuck. Like Netflix did.”
“The boy is smart,” Hunter stated.
But at what cost?
“How much ownership am I handing over?” Blake asked.
“Seventy-five percent,” Daniel said without hesitation.
Jesus fucking Christ.
“Think before you decline. Twenty-five percent of a billion dollars is a lot bigger than one hundred percent of nothing,” Hunter pointed out.
Good point.
“Damn.” Blake rubbed his growing five o’clock shadow, then turned to face Daniel. “I want to remain the CEO.”
Daniel slid his hands into his pocket and gazed back at him for a long moment.
His heart pounded, knowing it would be too much for him to let go of that much control.
“On one condition. We have weekly meetings for the first six months. Then monthly. I’ll coach you. There will be key targets you need to meet and if they aren’t, we will reassess.”
“You don’t think I’m up to the job?” he forced out, humiliation creeping up his face.
Jesus, this was uncomfortable.
“I think I was you at twenty-five. You’re taking on one of the biggest companies in America. Hell, in the world. We will be putting a shit ton of cash into InkWell and associating the Dufort brand. I want you to succeed. We all do,” Daniel said firmly. “I’m not putting you in the driver’s seat and letting you fail. That’s not how the Dufort’s work.”
Wow.
The humiliation fell away, and he felt himself being pulled into the family fold, enveloped in a brotherly, hell even fatherly, support he’d never known.
“We had the luxury of learning this business since we could walk and talk,” Fletcher said. “Jonathan Dufort might be a ruthless motherfucker, but he molded us into smart, business-minded men.”
“So much so, we booted him out of his own company.” Hunter shrugged.
Fletcher let out a small laugh, but Blake knew it was unlikely to be that lighthearted a story.
Daniel’s phone beeped. “Story for another day. The legal team is here.”
Bella.
His mind fled back to his fiancé, and he wondered what she was deciding right at this moment.
Wait for me, baby.
