Never Forgotten: Second Chances

by Hart, Alana

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The next morning Megan saw life quite differently. The morning light was brighter, yet kinder. The air was fresher. She had gotten up in the hours before dawn to dress and go home to shower and change. Neither of them wanted to break the spell the night together had woven around them, but the world summoned them, and they were not people who could resist that any more than she'd be able (or wanted to) resist Riley's charms.

  The immediate problems weren't resolved by any means, but she was satisfied, emotionally and sexually for the first time in a long time. The relationship with Riley promised to be good on several levels. She liked and respected him, and it didn't hurt that he was the best lover she had... well, since Sal. She began to realize that the only two men who had actually made her feel wonderful and satisfied both moved with confidence, exuding the powerful allure of an alpha male. She was strong and needed a strong man. Riley seemed to appreciate her strength, which was so different from the way it made many men feel threatened. So, like Sal, Riley's confidence, his own strength made him fearless in their relationship. And she loved it.

  Again she struggled with the idea that her new lover was someone she was doing business with. She'd tried to avoid any sort of personal involvement with people she worked with—it could be tricky and even treacherous. She'd broken her rule with Thom, of course, but that relationship an exercise in studied casualness that she hardly considered it a serious relationship. They were convenient and reasonably compatible sexual partners, and their only overlapping business interests had been Diamond.

  She would be working closely with Riley, at least for a time, and she had to remain aware that his goals could conflict with the best outcome for the company. He was honest enough that he'd never pretend otherwise, but it was up to her to be alert to those situations. It was on her to make sure that all her business dealings with him were based on doing what was right. Whatever that meant.

  So far the relationship was honest and straightforward. Riley had said he wanted her, not that he loved her. He wanted to get to know her, and she wanted to know him better. If that led to something serious well, by then, she hoped she wouldn't be doing business with him. For now, she doubted Riley loved her. She didn't think she loved him. She wanted him and might easily become addicted to him, however. She had few friends and knew loneliness could be a powerful motivator. Anything that might develop between them beyond their lust for each other, their company and bodies, remained to be seen. It would have to be allowed to develop at its own pace.

  For now she'd happily accept the fact that having Riley as a lover made her feel better than she'd felt in a long time. For some reason, having sex with such a powerful man, a dominating man, gave her more strength in business, more determination as if Riley wanting to possess her gave her the reassurance that being a boss, being strong, didn't diminish her femininity. Whatever it was, that part was fantastic.

  Forcing her mind back to the business at hand she couldn't be certain what Riley might contribute to the search for funding. He couldn't create opportunities where there were none, but having him working for her added to her general feeling of optimism. He knew how to beat those particular bushes and how to spot the signs of a likely investor.

  * * * *

  Craig smiled as he slid into the chair, letting his long legs stretch out, then stretching out his arms, interlocking his fingers and putting them behind his head. "Big night, last night? I called you, but your phone was off."

  "I had a meeting with an investor last night. I got the message this morning."

  His eyes brightened. "Any good news?"

  "He was almost interested."

  Craig snorted. "What the hell does it mean to be almost interested?"

  "It means he would've been if he hadn't heard that you were trying to sell your shares."

  Craig dropped his hands and sat up. "That I'm doing what?"

  "The story on the street is that you've put out the word that you are interested in selling out your share of the company. Entirely. You are shopping your shares. So, of course, the investor wonders why you'd be selling if the product is so fucking good. And the truth is that it left me kind of wondering too. Would you like to share?"

  "I haven't tried to sell anything. I wouldn't even know who to go see. And why would I when I stand to make a bundle?"

  "That was the question the investor asked me just before he walked out. He wasn't making this up, Craig. If you haven't tried to sell them, then apparently someone has made inquiries on your behalf. You have to know who it was, because it would have to be someone believable."

  He let out a strong puff of breath. "It was that fucking Crystal. I'll bet my wife decided to see what the market for them would be. I told her the shares wouldn't be worth much. I was trying to get her to forget the idea, but I'll bet anything that she decided to prove me wrong. Probably started asking all her yuppie friends if they wanted to buy them."

  "Whatever her reason for doing this, if she is the one who put that word out, that word made our first prospect walk away without looking back. He isn't a techie and couldn't evaluate us alone, but he was willing to look at the company seriously until he heard that. It rattled him that you had so little faith in your own program that you wanted to sell. So he came to dinner, chatted nicely, and told us that he had a policy of not investing in companies while the founders were bailing out."

  "But we aren't."

  "Unfortunately, my word doesn't carry as much weight as rumors from other investors. It's all about perception, and now it looks like your wife fucked that up royally. You might mention to her that going about it that way also bombs the price she could hope to get if you did sell. From the look I got from him, I can tell you that we'd have to offer them at bargain basement prices to sell them at all. Any savvy investor who knows Thom is selling and then hears you might be too will come sniffing around for mine, hoping to play us off each other. They'd circle us like jackals around a wounded zebra."

  "So we're fucked? We can't get an investor?"

  "No, but it's a big setback. I might've settled things last night and who knows how many more will be frightened off. Riley Carson, the broker I'm working with, says that rumors like that bounce around all the time. It will fade, but it's costing us time. Fortunately, not everyone pays attention to the rumors, and he thinks we'll have other chances from people who can see through the crap."

  "That stupid bitch, Crystal."

  "Since you raised the topic of stupid bitches, I had Lenora come in my office the other day demanding that we give her stock in the company."

  "Demanding?"

  "My word, not hers. She merely came in to tell me that she expects us to make it worth her while to stay. If we can't see our way clear to do that, she's considering leaving. She let me hear the implied threat all on my own. She feels we're cutting her out of the potential windfall, and it's making her cranky."

  Craig shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, I suppose I can see why she'd think that way. She's working as hard as anyone around here and can't even be certain she'll have a job when the dust clears. Assuming it does."

  His response confirmed Megan's guess that the two of them had talked it over. She wondered if talking was all they'd done. She'd suspected for a time that Lenora was playing up to Craig, that she sensed things weren't right on the home front and saw an opportunity to take advantage. Megan didn't care if the woman was fucking him to try and get what she wanted, but if she had a long game that involved him, things could get sticky. "Maybe she's right. Maybe we aren't doing right by her, but her timing sucks and doing what she's asking for, giving her stock, adds yet another complication to the situation."

  "Why?"

  "Because we put together a package that shows our business structure that is circulating to investors. Any offer is based on things staying that way. If we suddenly say that she should have stock, it looks like we are pulling a fast one because it screws up all the
numbers. You and I own eighty percent of the outstanding stock, and Thom has twenty. The investor is facing buying Thom out and then acquiring treasury stock. He'll be looking at getting a strong position in the company, and we can't suddenly say that Lenora owns some other percentage. And even if we did, the only way we could do it now is for you and I to gift her shares of ours. We aren't in a situation that we can give her treasury stock. So you have to consider how you'd explain to Crystal that the 4000 shares she's trying to flog are actually something less than that because you decided to give some to Lenora." She took a breath. "I should mention that Lenora seems to have gotten some pretty expert financial advice. Probably from Thom."

  "Why would he help her?"

  "I'm guessing his advice came in the form of pillow talk."

  Craig's face tightened. "Why is this business shit so hard?"

  Megan chuckled. "Why is writing a good software program so hard? It isn't that it's hard but that it's complex and that there are good times and bad times to do things. Maybe it was wrong not to structure things better for Lenora, but this isn't a good time to change things. No matter how we give her an interest, it is going to delay getting the financing and make it look like we don't know what we are doing, which could mean we don't get any."

  Craig had his hands face up in his lap, and he looked down at them. "So what do we do? We don't want her to quit."

  Megan waited a bit before answering, wanting her words to sound measured and careful. "I think you'll have to deal with both Crystal and Lenora one way or another. They are both interfering, and we can't have that. Neither of them likes me. I can understand that Crystal doesn't like you and I being together all day. It has to make her nervous."

  "I've told her that our relationship is completely based on business."

  "And she believes you? She has to be unsure, at the very least. Maybe its Lenora that concerns her." A twitch in his forehead told her she struck a nerve, but that wasn't a line she wanted to pursue. "We were married, Craig. If nothing else that gives us a shared history that makes her feel like an outsider. I'm sure that's one reason she's eager to have you cash in and go somewhere else. You married her, but she has to share you with your ex-wife." And maybe whoever else is causing even more of a problem.

  Craig's look of disbelief was hard not to laugh at. He also seemed relieved that she'd let the subject of Lenora slip to the side. "That's stupid."

  "It's human nature, Craig. You don't get it, but then you don't get people in general."

  "Yet I'm the one that has to convince these crazy women not to screw things up."

  "I'm afraid so. It's a matter of trust. Crystal thinks I have designs of some sort on you though I'm not sure why or what those designs are. Lenora sees me as an enemy as well, and, under those circumstances, I couldn't say anything to either of them that didn't sound self-serving. If you explain the situation, that putting the word out that you want to sell and changing the deal each makes survival that much hard, they'll probably believe you."

  He stood up. "I'll do what I can."

  He turned and seeing him in profile gave her a start. She'd caught a fleeting glimpse of the man she'd married. He was good-looking, and there was no malice in him at all. But outside of coding, there was no real lust for life in him either. It seemed odd that a nice man couldn't keep her fascinated. She needed someone stronger and a little greedier for things. "I hope you manage it for both our sakes. At this point, I'm afraid that stilling those waters is as important as what I'm doing. If we can't keep our house in order, we aren't going to get a decent deal."

  Craig wanted to say something else, she was sure of it, but he finally just let out a small sigh and left. Once again, Megan felt more alone than lonely. Craig wanted the company saved, but his ideas of what he wanted weren't the same as hers. They were hardly a team, and it dawned on her that they really never had been. In retrospect, she'd only ever thought she loved Craig because having him around masked her sense that it was her against the world. She'd wanted someone on her side. She'd imagined him to be something he never was and then despised him for not being that. His only real flaw was being weaker than she was, and that was hardly a reason to be angry with him. He'd never led her on. She'd done that all by herself. She couldn't even be angry because Crystal had undermined their position with investors. The woman had her own agenda and even if it was brainless and counterproductive, she was trying to protect what she saw as her position.

  * * * *

  The phone rang and she picked it up to hear the voice of a man who said he was happy to talk to her. "Under the circumstances, you should be happy to talk to me too."

  "I should?" The idea amazed her. It was Bill Striker

  "Yes, you should. See I heard old Thom Gooden let you down, left you with your shiny new boat high and dry on the beach, as it were, just when you need a little extra cash to grease the launch pad. Course that might be just rumor. A person hears shit like that all the time, as you well know. People love to tell you things about your competitors, trying to make you think they're your friends. For some reason, they are even more eager when it's total bullshit, and, of course, you can do business based on bullshit. So I called up old Thom. He's something of a loyalist, at least as far as you are concerned, but he admitted it. I wanted to make him an offer right then."

  "And did you?"

  "He wouldn't listen to one. Told me I needed to call Riley Carson. Riley's all right, and I'm not surprised you went to him."

  She breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever Lenora's game was, Thom was sticking to what he said for now. "And what did Riley say?"

  "I didn't call him. I don't like talking to middlemen, Megan. When I have to work with them, I can feel the price going up. I can feel them shoving right up my ass after their commissions. They don't have any incentive to make a real deal. And anyway, since it looks like we might become new best friends I wanted to call you direct."

  Bill calling hadn't been a shock. You didn't keep something like this quiet, especially if you wanted to find the right investor. So she'd expected it. When he hadn't called immediately, she's decided that he'd probably bide his time. Bill was a bottom feeder, and a man who looked for real deals. It was his style to put a company in a hard place then sweep in with a last-minute offer to save the farm from the bank paying pennies on the dollar. That was what most scavengers did. This time he was playing it different. He smelled that Diamond Software was vulnerable. "That's the way it's supposed to work, Bill, but you have your own way of doing business. The situation isn't as desperate as you make out. Thom couldn't see his way clear to provide additional funding. He wasn't keen on having us borrow money or dilute his holdings, so he decided to step aside and help us find someone with enough industry savvy to appreciate what we are doing. Thom's being as helpful as always; he just won't open his wallet for us again."

  Striker gave a hearty laugh. "He gives you any help except the only kind you need. I figured that would happen sooner or later. Thom's only vision is of a lavish cash flow that streams toward him like lava from a volcano."

  "You seem awfully poetic today. Did you just finish reading a self-help book on the virtue of metaphors?"

  "Books! You know Thom was never a good fit for investing in software. I think he only did it because he was hot for you. He's never seen the business as a vibrant creature that needs to be fed and coaxed and teased, and ultimately gambled on."

  "But you have that vision?"

  "You know I do, little girl. I lavish money and attention where it matters. I have that clear sight and cash, both."

  "So you decided to call me up and gloat that we have a small crunch while being a patronizing ass about it?"

  He laughed again. "No. I guess I sound obnoxious. But no, Megan, I called to invite you out for a drink and to discuss a business offer. The drinks aren't optional, but the discussion part is. You don't have to talk, just listen. And have drinks. Then you can take what I've said for whateve
r it's worth to you and leave, or you can stay and chat about it. The chat part is totally optional. If what I say stinks, you can walk away and it it's ideal, we can shake on it. Most deals are in between, so I figure you'll want to ask questions then go away and think on it, talk with Thom and Riley. I know Craig does what you say. You pick the place and time. Seeing as money is tight over there I'll get the check."

  "So you seriously think you and I have anything to talk about?"

  "Yes. I know we do. I'm positive you want to hear it too. Even if it's just curiosity." He laughed. "I know you don't like me, especially after we reverse engineered your best products and stole a nice chunk of the market with a research and development budget that won't reach five figures, but I'm a fan of yours. I think you owe it to yourself, your ex, and anyone else who gives a damn whether Diamond lives or dies to listen to anything being offered right now. You need to strike while the iron is hot. Sorry for the additional gratuitous metaphor, but you can't really afford to wait around for the right deal, can you? Every day you wait, the more the value of what you have either goes down or just becomes more nebulous."