by North, Paige
Dirty Ruthless Billionaire (Part One)
Paige North
Favor Ford Publishing
Copyright © 2018 by Favor Ford Publishing
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Want To Be In The Know?
Dirty Ruthless Billionaire (Part One)
1. Adley
2. Adley
3. Dex
4. Adley
5. Dex
Want To Be In The Know?
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Dirty Ruthless Billionaire (Part One)
1
Adley
When I last saw him, it was a late summer day exactly like today.
I should’ve known back then that it couldn’t last.
But I was too much in love with Dex Banner and wouldn’t have seen the end coming even if it had been spelled out for me in big, bright sky written letters.
I might’ve done things differently had I known then what I knew now. I might’ve spent my summer after high school graduation going after someone smaller in scale, less wanted by every girl between East Hampton and Montauk. Less perfect.
Five years later, Dex had become a bigshot in the City, wanted by every woman in New York, in the tabloids for being the city’s most eligible billionaire.
But it didn’t matter anymore because he’d ducked out of my life like a Labor Day sunset—in a green flash—and then…
Poof, he was gone.
So it was hard taking the walk to my father’s company, Carlyle Development Corporation, on this specific day, because I had to pass in front of Dell’s Ice Cream, the same place where we’d sat outside watching tourists catch their last taste of summer. Kids hung around, biking, shrieking, filling their last minutes with memories before leaving Long Island until the following year. A sad glow reflected off the little beach shops all lined up in a row.
Granted, I passed by the ice cream shop every other day on my way to my father’s company, but today, all I could think about was him. And our last days together. The virginity he took from me—or rather I gave him so willingly, because he was perfect.
Two years older than me, interning for my father that year, so damn smart, so damn sexy, and destined to become the rising star in the development business. My world had revolved around Dex Banner in those days, and if I was honest—still did. Even though I hadn’t seen him since the night he left like a ghost, my heart still ached every time I walked by Dell’s Shop and pretty much every inch of this island as well.
I hadn’t been with another guy since then.
Pathetic.
I had to move on with my life.
There were guys I grew up with who would do anything for a chance to take me out, but I just never felt the burning need. No one could compare to Dex. When you start your life with someone like him, you get spoiled. But that was life in East Hampton in a nutshell—start with high standards then try to stay ahead.
Shaking off the memories as best as I could, I stopped briefly to say hello to my friend, Dana, who was just leaving town after spending a week at the beach. Dana was Editor in Chief of a tabloid magazine, which meant she needed this vacation badly.
“Hey! Ready to go back to work?” I asked when I saw her coming out of the bank.
“Not really. You?”
“Hell, no, girl.”
“I hear you, but listen, we didn’t get to see each other enough. If you’re ever in the City, please come see me so we can catch up, okay?”
“Definitely,” I told her, fully knowing I would never do that. It was work, work, work for me all the time. I knew I had to make more of a social life for myself, but it would have to be another day. When I wasn’t fighting to stay alive. “I’ll look you up.”
“HOLLA Magazine.” She splayed out her jazz hands. “Where we just holla!”
I laughed and waved goodbye, then stepped into the cool air conditioning of our historic downtown building, ready for a discussion about the future. Late last night, my father, Niles Carlyle, called me to let me know there was a last-minute board meeting scheduled for today. Normally, I wouldn’t attend such a meeting, but he said it was important and as his eldest daughter and head of sales, he wanted me there.
Of course, I’d be there, I told him.
My father was my world—had been until Dex came into my life—and still was, long after Dex had gone. My one true rock that I could depend on, my larger than life hero. If the Big Man wanted me at his boring board meeting, then I’d be there with bells on. He’d worked so hard all his life, especially lately, putting in seventy, sometimes eighty hours a week, just so my mom and two younger sisters could have a fairy tale life on Long Island. We’d never needed anything, always had it all—private school, vacations, skiing, the nicest clothes, a house on the beach—all thanks to my father.
I would follow him to the ends of the earth.
In today’s case, down the hall to the executive suite where the meeting would be and already, there were about twenty board members present and waiting. From the moment I stepped into the glass-encased room, I sensed something was off. Polite, thin-lipped smiles came from most of the board. They would not meet my gaze the way they usually did. Where was the light banter? The questions about my life and whether or not I had plans for the weekend in the City?
My father walked in at almost the same time from the opposite side of the room and the group quieted even more. He was as handsome as ever, six-foot-five, three hundred pounds, completely gray now, and his belly did bulge a bit, pushing out and crinkling his suit. Still, he’d aged gracefully and I always felt like my mother was a lucky woman who should tell him how nice he looked more often before someone else nabbed him.
So I did it for her.
“Morning, Daddy. You look spiffy today.”
“We’ll see how I look after this is over,” he said. I caught on right away—worry in his deep blue eyes. Put that together with the standoffish way everyone greeted us, and I knew I shouldn’t make plans with any of my girlfriends for the rest of the day, because something was wrong.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d tell you to watch your back.” I laughed, stirring creamer and sugar into his coffee mug and handing it to him.
But he wasn’t laughing like he usually did at board meetings, which used to be just as much social events for my father as they were business dealings. In fact, it took him a moment to realize I was handing him something. He looked down, surprised to see coffee. “Oh. Thanks, Ad.”
I prepared my own then took my seat three chairs down from him. I never liked to sit right next to my father. It seemed too regal to me, too Princess Machiavelli, which elicited jealous stares from some people. I much preferred to sit nearby and watch him at the head of the table like I had all my life. But today, my father seemed…cornered.
I glanced around, waiting for the show to start, wondering what could be the issue. Were sales down this quarter? Had our stock dropped again? Everyone knew the season was to blame. Summers were slow in general.
And then, my heart stopped.
Bam—myocardial infarction—all blood in my veins turned to ice.
Stepping into the room like he owned the place, like he hadn’t taken off five years ago, was the very man my heart had not been able to forget. The one
who’d moved to New York City after that horrible last argument we’d had where everything went wrong and I’d begged him to keep quiet, after the summer that changed my life, the one I’d tried so many times to forget—
Dex Banner.
In the flesh.
Confidently strolling to the front of the room wearing a tailor-made suit that fit him like it’d been etched right onto his body, he made sure to zero in on me with his heat-seeking laser beam stare. Dex Banner, who’d been unbelievably sweet to me all summer during his internship but the moment he came to me with “facts” of a dubious nature about my father, changed for the worse. That day, I’d learned what it meant to have a dual nature—both him and my father. I’d confronted my dad about the allegations, and he’d assured me it was all over. But nothing would ever be the same again.
I had to blink twice to make sure it was really Dex looking like devil wearing Armani.
What in the actual fuck was he doing here? Had he come to wreak more havoc on my soul? Wasn’t once enough?
I looked at my father. He looked at me then quickly glanced away, focusing on the pen sitting perpendicular in front of him on the glossy tabletop.
“Good morning. Thanks for being here on such short notice. Mr. Carlyle, I’m sure you’re surprised to see me here. It’s been a while.”
My father only nodded.
Did he know Dex would be here? Why wouldn’t he warn me first? He knew I had a summer fling with him when I was eighteen. The least he could do was tell me so I wouldn’t die of anaphylactic shock. Under the table, my fingernails dug into my knee. My leg shook like crazy. What was this about?
“Let’s not beat around the bush,” Dex said. His fingertips from one hand formed a steeple with the other. “I’m here because I noticed several months ago that Carlyle Development has not been at the top of their game like they used to be for so long. So, out of curiosity, I met with some board members and investors to get a feel for what was happening.”
Shit.
This did not sound good, and to make it worse, my usually cool, confident father’s hairline had beaded with sweat.
“From what they told me,” Dex continued, “it soon became clear that the company is in trouble.”
Some murmurs rumbled across the table but for the most part, everyone stayed silent, giving Dex Banner the floor. I watched him as he paused for dramatic flair. He seemed to be enjoying this, giving us the bad news that things weren’t as top-game as they used to be. Well, hell what company was all the time? Sure, we’d had a few slow quarters but that didn’t warrant an investigation from someone who no longer had any business here.
Finally, my father spoke. “That’s a lie. Carlyle Development is doing just fine.”
Dex’s chest shuddered with a clipped laugh. “Come on, now, Mr. Carlyle. Your profits have been declining by twenty percent each of the last three years. You’ve borrowed and now you’re overleveraged.”
I looked at my father. Was this true? It wasn’t as bad as Dex was making it out to be. I wanted to interrupt him, stop him from trying to make a fool out of my father as he had five years ago. There was bad blood between them, this much I knew, but it was reprehensible for him to come in here and call him out like this.
But Dex did not allow for comment with his full command of the room and continued.
“I see that some of you are shocked, which doesn’t surprise me,” he said, passing a quick glance over me.
What did that mean? That I couldn’t see truth when it was right in front of me?
Because I could.
Just because I’d chosen to side with my father five years ago, chosen to believe him when he explained his side of the story, didn’t mean that I was naïve to the truth. I would never feel bad about taking Dad’s side or asking Dex to stay quiet about “the incident.” Maybe he never understood the true meaning of loyalty, judging from the way he ghosted me and left town forever, but I sure as hell did.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said coolly, “this company is on a precipice about to go over the edge, and because I see value in the company…after all, you gave me my start in the development business, I’ve decided to remedy things.”
“We don’t need your help,” I finally spoke up, infuriated. A slight tremor stood out in my voice. Damn it, I’d always resented my body’s way of betraying me when I needed it the most.
Dex looked at me and smirked.
Years ago, he’d been my whole world. Older than me by two years, the star athlete at Morris Lerner Academy, head of the debate team, he was a senior when I was a sophomore, and he was every girl’s dream. Once he graduated, he left for NYU to study business but two years later when I was graduating from Lerner, he came back one summer and got an internship with my dad right away.
Of course, he had.
My dad had always wanted a boy and Dex was the prodigal son he never had. And because Dex’s relationship with his own parents sucked, he looked up to my dad. It was a relationship made in heaven, and it resulted in us being together a lot that summer. Suddenly, he was all over me. I couldn’t understand why he’d taken an interest in Adley Carlyle, the skinny, plain girl who only blipped on the radar because of her father.
Dex glanced away from me. “Joe, why don’t you help me explain to the Carlyles that they do, in fact, need my help?”
Our head of the board, Joseph Perlman, sighed and stood. “Mr. Carlyle, Miss Carlyle, Mr. Banner has come to an agreement with the other shareholders, who as you know, have come to own sixty percent of the company over time. They, uh…sold their shares to Mr. Banner, so now he is officially the majority shareholder.”
What?
It couldn’t be. That was impossible.
“Dad?” I looked at my father, as half the room broke into discussion. My father wouldn’t return my stare. He’d gone white. In fact, he looked like he would pass out, a defeated man who knew this had been coming, he just hadn’t wanted to face the music.
But had he known? Was this just another thing he’d been keeping from me?
“Dad?”
Finally, my father’s eyes met mine. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“How come I didn’t know it was getting this bad?” I said.
My father just sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t want to worry you.”
What did that mean? I needed to know about this before it got to this irreparable point. I might’ve been able to do something about it. As usual, he had not trusted me enough to include me in the goings-on. And once again, I had to find out the truth through Dex Fucking Banner.
My vision went red. It was suddenly warm in the meeting room. I gripped the edge of the table to keep from swooning forward and not in a good way.
Dex’s shadowy smile disappeared. “And my first act at Carlyle Development Corporation is to install myself as President and CEO. Mr. Carlyle,” he said with what I could’ve sworn was a vengeful sneer, “you are terminated immediately.”
2
Adley
President and CEO of Carlyle Development Corporation.
Dex Banner.
A man who hasn’t been here in five years, who was last seen around this compound as an intern, is now in charge of the empire my father built?
“I’m sorry, did I wake up this morning and step into an alternate reality?” I asked. I may have been quiet until now, but the real Adley would not take this from Dex. “Is this some other dimension where bullshit comes true, because how is that possible?”
“It’s possible,” Dex said, calling someone behind me with the crook of his finger. I looked behind me to see two security guards stepping into the room. “Because your father lost control of his business. Be glad I’m going to fix it, not destroy it, Adley.”
“First of all, it’s Miss Carlyle to you. And second, with you at the helm, I don’t feel very confident.”
His chest shook with silent laughter. Those cheekbones, that rugged jawline, and dark, brooding eyes. He still had the most
handsome face, damn him. If anything, he’d gotten even sexier in the last five years. We weren’t exactly kids anymore. He had to be twenty-five now, and to think he was a master of a development empire in NYC.
“Well, I don’t expect you to trust me right away, Miss Carlyle. But I do expect you to do as I say. Guards, please escort Niles Carlyle off the premises,” he said, “and do not allow him to collect anything from his office.”
“What? You can’t do that,” I retorted.
“I can and I will. Since your father no longer works here, he no longer has access to that office. It’s just the way it is, I’m afraid.”
“Is that how billionaires speak in New York City? I’m afraid it’s just he way it is. Well, guess what? I’m afraid I just quit.” I crossed my arms.
“You can’t quit.”
“No? Watch me.”
I turned and headed for the door, as twenty board members, including Joe watched helplessly. I knew I looked pathetic and grasping at straws here, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t go down without a fight. He could take our company from under our noses, but he couldn’t tell me what to do—ever.
“Miss Carlyle, just so we’re clear, I reviewed your contract. I’m sure you already know that there’s a pretty stiff non-compete clause in there. If you leave now, you won’t be working anywhere in the industry within the next five years. And I will enforce the contract to the letter, because I can’t have Adley Carlyle of Carlyle Development building a new brand anywhere near mine.”
“Fire me, too, then,” I said flat-out. “You fired my dad, you don’t need me either.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not the one who neglected this company. He did. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an office to move into.”