Showdown: Tech Billionaires

by Ainsley St Claire

Wait. What was that noise?

  I push the quilt aside, and the cold air hits me. It’s too early.

  I pull out an oversized, thick washed-wool sweater and put it on. It’s in terrible shape, with snags and holes in the elbows, but it’s warm, and it doesn’t matter since no one will see me in it. I head to the kitchen and start a pot of coffee.

  Justin really upsets me. I never said I wouldn’t move to Austin.

  Okay, I never offered to either. But he didn’t even ask.

  Why is being successful such a bad thing if you’re a woman? It’s not as if any of my friends don’t or wouldn’t shower their man with love and affection. Why does having a big bank account mean you can’t have a good relationship and be taken care of in other ways?

  I sigh.

  A little while later, I’ve showered and changed, but I don’t have to be at my board meeting for another two hours. If I hadn’t already told Peter I’d meet him at eight-thirty, I’d have him drive to my office before the board meeting.

  I need a distraction. I want a date for this weekend. There must be a few nice guys left here in San Francisco. I open Tumble. It’s the app many of my staff are always talking about.

  Yikes. This guy’s profile is a picture of his dick. Eww. Put that thing away! I’m tempted to comment that it isn’t anything to be proud of, but I refrain. Tumble is what I thought it was—an app for sex. What happened to meeting someone in a bar and seeing where things take you?

  I open eTogether. There must be an hour of questions to answer. Wow. This is some serious stuff. And then you can’t talk to each other until you communicate via email and messaging for a few days. And the cost. Ick. No thanks.

  I look at Distinguished, and the photographs all seem like stock images. Hmmm... The cost is a thousand dollars a week, and if you look closely—which I did—they make zero promises.

  Dating apps suck.

  I start to think about the math it would take to find someone. Everything is math. Look at nature—it’s everywhere. There needs to be a happy medium between Tumble and eTogether, and if people are willing to pay for Distinguished, I can create something better. Maybe with my friends’ help, we can make something fun, something flirty.

  That’s it. Flirt.

  I start writing some basic code, and before I know it, my doorbell rings. It’s already eight thirty. I grab my bag and walk out the door.

  “Here you go.” Peter hands me a cup of coffee from my favorite local coffee shop close to the Clear Security office.

  “Thank you. I hope you didn’t detour for me.”

  He shakes his head. “No, I needed to pick up Jim and Gage this morning. They’re in the car for the board meeting.”

  “You look nervous,” I say with the best smile I can muster.

  “I won’t be nervous unless you’re nervous.” He steps in front of me to open the car door.

  “Well, they can’t really fire me since I’m the largest individual stockholder, but they can make my life miserable.”

  “You have several people rooting for you today.”

  I get in the car, and Jim and Gage look like they might have been in deep conversation until the opened door interrupted them. Whatever they were saying came to an abrupt stop. “What’s up, guys?”

  Jim looks at Gage in a silent signal.

  “We did find a data breach on your system,” Gage says.

  My stomach tightens, and a massive sigh escapes me. “That’s not surprising. I trusted Viv and never questioned anything she did, so my computer was on when she was around. She knew me well enough that she might have guessed my password. It’s Chinese, but she knows it’s the nickname my mother calls me. She was good. She blended in, and this was truly a long con.”

  Jim looks at me, seeming surprised. “You’re taking this well.”

  I shrug. “I’ll follow what the board thinks is best—except I won’t be giving up my stock and my position as the largest stockholder.”

  “Mason wanted me to tell you, he will be there and will follow your lead,” Jim says. “Together you make up almost seventy percent of the company.” He stares at me intently.

  I know he and Mason really want me to fight this, but I’m not sure what I want to do. I could easily buy a place in another city and meet new people who know nothing about me.

  It won’t be Austin.

  I smile. “He’s pretty wonderful about that. But I’ll listen to what the board has to say. I do expect you to be honest with them if they ask if we’ve had a breach.”

  Jim nods.

  Peter pulls up at the Ritz Carlton valet. Jim and Gage walk in with me to the conference room where my board meeting is taking place. We don’t ever meet in my offices since the information is sensitive—particularly today.

  Despite being more than fifteen minutes early, everyone else is here. I can see the used coffee cups and empty plates. They met early without me.

  I paint a smile on my face, take a deep breath, and sit at the head of the long table. “Hello,” I begin. “So good to see everyone.”

  Several of my board members won’t make eye contact with me. This is going to be a shit-fest. Fan-fucking-tastic.

  Mason takes the seat to my right, and I look out at the group.

  “Where would you like to start?” I ask.

  “We’re concerned about your relationship with Viviana Prentis,” Alex Tuberville says.

  Alex has always been challenging to work with. He’s done well with his shares of my company—certainly better than he did with the company he founded. But he’s well known on Wall Street, which is why he was added to our board. His connections make him an asset. But he’s a pain in the ass and always has an agenda, which typically comes with lots of mansplaining.

  I nod. “Me too. I was completely blindsided by this news. I trusted her, just like I used to trust all of you.” A few people’s eyes grow big. What, did they think meeting early wouldn’t erode my trust?

  There’s some grumbling, and while I may not like what today will bring, I have to believe I can still trust them to help me to navigate this mess with our stockholders.

  “Viviana, to my knowledge, was a successful entrepreneur. She started a mechanical engineering company that built robots for assembly lines dedicated to small and delicate things that couldn’t be assembled with human hands. I was stunned to learn that she was working with the Russian government and to capture secrets and technology. But what really breaks my heart is her role in Cecelia Lancaster’s death. She’s not reached out to me since her arrest, and if she were to do so, I wouldn’t talk to her.”

  “We understand that, but we’re concerned for the overall health of Diamond Analytics,” Trace Benedict, another board member, says.

  “Good, because that’s what I’m here to sort out. What should we do?” I ask.

  “We think you need to step down as CEO,” Trace says.

  They’re coming out strong, but it’s time to do a gentle nudge back. They can’t take my options and ownership away, and they’re advisors. “Okay, but as the largest shareholder, I own fifty-eight percent of the company. Currently, we don’t have anyone who can step into my shoes as CEO.”

  Victor Mao, my chief financial officer, snorts.

  It soon becomes evident that Trace and others are backing Victor to take over. That would be a bad idea. He’s frequently tried to suffocate the company by limiting expenses, and he doesn’t have a real grasp of our complicated P&L statement.

  Mason levels a look at Victor. “You may have gone to Stanford for business school, but that doesn’t mean you’re ready to step into the role of CEO. Your last quarter and year-end financial statements were each corrected four different times by our outside accounting firm. If you can’t get those correct, how can you be trusted to run the company?”

  Victor turns a lovely shade of pink.

  “I believe,” Mason continues, “that we need to be careful of our next step. Wall Street is watching. If we knee jerk and ask Mia to ste
p down, we could lose our government contracts. According to the CFO at my investment firm, a drastic decision will send the message that our data has been compromised and will result in the stock crashing.”

  Dillon Healy is the CFO at SHN, and he’s extremely well regarded. The board takes this information as gospel. There’s a collective murmur.

  Two hours later, the board has gone round and round, but they’re no closer to determining what they want me to do.

  I finally stand. “Ladies and gentlemen, I still don’t know how my best friend fooled me. But you all know me well, and I’ve always been aware of our relationship with the government. Despite being the largest individual stockholder, I will throw my voting rights for this decision to one of you.”

  “Mason will automatically defer to you,” Alex Tuberville snarks.

  “Okay, fine.” I tear a piece of paper from my notebook. Quickly, I make ten slips and write Yes on one of them. I clear out the fruit in the bowl next to the coffee maker. Handing the bowl to Peter, I say, “Peter, if you don’t mind, can you please have each person take a slip of paper from the bowl? Make sure they can’t see what they’re picking.”

  Peter walks around the table, and I can see people getting restless. Once everyone has a paper, I ask, “Who got the yes?”

  Alex raises his hand. I suppress an eye roll. He’s the person most likely behind the coup this morning. “Alex, looks like you get to vote my shares in this one instance. You can’t terminate my relationship with the company, but you can determine our next steps.”

  Alex smiles. “I vote that Mia Couture is put on a six-month temporary leave as CEO while she works through the issues caused by her close relationship with Viviana Prentis and the impact it has on the company. Anyone disagree?”

  Mason stands. “I disagree with Alex. I think that decision would leave us vulnerable to a hostile takeover.”

  Alex smiles. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. He has enough shares to negotiate for a large payout. It’s not his life’s work.

  Sandra Collins looks around the room. “Is anyone else concerned that we’re policing Mia’s friends? Doesn’t that sound overreaching and intrusive?”

  Jennifer Wisk nods. “I agree. What are we going to police next?”

  In the end, Alex squeaks through my temporary leave under the guise that I’ll be distracted. He says he and Victor Mao will work with Jim and Clear Security to clear the investigation with the FBI and the three government audits we’re facing. And it’s a paid leave, which should keep our stockholders happy.

  I stand. “I want to thank all of you for being here. I know this decision was not an easy one. I’m devastated by the betrayal of one of my closest friends, and I appreciate your understanding while we get this under control.”

  I turn and walk out, leaving Jim and Gage behind to clean up the mess with the board. Peter walks out with me and calls the elevator.

  “Where to?” he asks as we walk to the car.

  “Home,” I tell him. “I started a project that I’d like to finish.”

  Pre-order Champagne Bruch Here

  Also by Ainsley St Claire

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  Fascination (Venture Capitalist Book 9) Available on Amazon

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  House of Cards (Tech Billionaires Book 1) Available on Amazon

  (Maggie and Jonnie) Would you agree to a marriage to avoid going to jail? Maggie is the heiress to the Reinhardt Department Store fortune. Her father died and the board of the company expect Alex to run the company but they’ve never had a nonfamily member run the company. The board has a simple solution—she needs to put the family first and marry Alex. Forget the fact that she isn’t his type and she loves someone else.

  Royally Flushed (Tech Billionaires Book 2) Available on Amazon

  (Corrine and Jackson) Staying with him will be dangerous…They call him Billionaire, Environmentalist, and Playboy. I call him Boss. I try to keep it professional, I want to resist him, but the pull is too strong. A bomb threat, a ransacked apartment, mysterious warnings, all telling me to leave him alone. Yes, staying will be dangerous, but leaving him will destroy me.

  Sleight of Hand (Tech Billionaires Book 3) Available on Amazon

  (Tinsley and Landon) The night was magical, the morning after wasn't. I was celebrating selling my company when I noticed him enter the bar. Landon knew just what to say and one thing led to another. It was supposed to be a onetime thing, but reality slapped me in the face the next morning. He arrived to sign the purchase papers, and now I was committed to work for him for an entire decade. When I can’t make my code work, his patience runs thin. Someone is sabotaging us, and if we can’t figure it out, I’ll have no company, no money, and no future.

  Running Hot (Tech Billionaires Book 4) Available on Amazon

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must marry. Marcella’s the only one he wants but can’t have. Can he convince her in time? Becoming Governor is the next step toward his destiny. But, his history will be a problem. The voters always favor a family man. He’s done Marcella favors for years and now it’s time to collect. She'll make the perfect Governor's wife. Danger lurks around every corner, and Walker may be the only one who can protect her.

  Showdown (Tech Billionaires Book 5) Available on Amazon

  (Lilly and Nate) She’s like nothing he ever imagined, but might just be what he needs. Nate’s wife was murdered and to cope he works. He never thought he’d find love again, but it’s right there under his roof. Lilly is beautiful and sweet, but she’s completely off-limits. I didn’t stop at a kiss and now I can’t stay away. There are so many things that could go wrong. Now, I’m screwed.

  Coming Soon

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  When a French Playboy meets his Southern Delight the Holidays become Merry & Bright.

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