The Billionaire Bum (6 page)

The smile that lit up her face warmed my heart, and it took every ounce of willpower that I had to not pull her into my arms. “I’d like that,” she said quietly. The beautiful blush was back on her cheeks.

I wanted to leave her my number, but I didn’t have my phone. At least I knew where she lived, and worked, for that matter, so it wouldn’t be hard to find her again. I started for the door.

“Wait! Let me pay you for your work this morning.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly,” the standard refusal fell from my lips before I even thought about it. I needed the money, but I really didn’t want to take it from her. I also didn’t want her to see me as an employee.

“I insist,” she said. She ducked into a closet for a moment and returned with a $20 bill in her hand. “It’s the least I can do.”

I mumbled a thank you, and reluctantly took the bill from her. She walked me to the backdoor.

“Have a wonderful day, my beautiful Alissa.” I lifted her hand and placed a kiss just above her knuckles, hoping to dispel any further thoughts of me as the hired help, and then I walked into the alley and away from the most amazing creature I’d ever met.

Jason

Why did Jackson have to be such a morning person? I was at the office a full hour earlier than I had ever been before. When we made this stupid bet, I had not planned on doing Jackson’s job in addition to my own, but as soon as Shelby found out, everything changed. She personally saw to it that this week would be a living hell for me.

I wouldn’t have told her about the bet at all, but she overheard the second half of my phone call with Ben on the night that we made the bet, and she freaked out on me as soon as I hung up.

“Where exactly is Jackson?” she asked.

“Uh, well...” I scrambled for an excuse.

“You sent him out into the city alone with no keys and no money at midnight so that he could pretend to be homeless? Are you insane? Exactly how fucking drunk were you?” She’d gone on like that for a full fifteen minutes, not allowing me to interrupt. When she finally ceased her ranting, she schooled me on how this week was going to go in lieu of Jackson’s disappearing act. She made it clear that I would handle all of Jackson’s responsibilities at work. If I failed in any way, I would not be sleeping in the same bed as my own wife... for a month.

Fucking cock-blocking brother. How had I let him get me into this?

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Oh no! I was picking up Jackson’s mannerisms now, too. No wonder that boy is always so stressed out; no one should work this many hours or start this early in the morning. I should still be at home in bed with my smokin’ hot wife.

Jackson and I worked together in the “family business.” Jackson filled the CEO position and managed the major acquisitions. For all intents and purposes, he ran the company. I was also on the board, which meant that I assisted in the major decisions, but my main day-to-day duty was serving as the primary Hayes representative to the press. My whole job was to be “likeable,” and I was damn good at it. Jackson intimidated people. I made sure that we still had a favorable image in the community.

I’d spent most of the day yesterday listening to reports from Jackson’s various employees regarding the productivity of companies we had recently purchased, current status of companies we were purchasing, and feasibility for companies that we might purchase in the future. I thought that my head was going to explode. I hadn’t made one real decision all day, and I was already exhausted.

It seemed that Jackson was making a better homeless person than I was making a CEO.

His brain must be going a million different directions all the time. No wonder he’d never managed to fit a woman into his life. His mental capacity had to be maxed out.

I jumped when my phone rang unexpectedly. Ben was supposed to call me every afternoon with an update, so just one glance at the caller ID was enough to scare the shit out of me. He was calling at 7:00 in the morning. That meant that something had happened to Jackson.

“Ben, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“Calm down, Jason. He’s okay.”

“Then why are you calling and giving me a heart attack?”

“Jackson got in a little fight last night in the shelter. He’s fine. He’s just got a split lip, and the guy managed to take off with his jacket. I punched the guy pretty hard in the head, but everyone lived to tell the tale. I don’t think Jackson’s onto me. Sean’s got him now.” Oh God. He was in a fight. I had to put a stop to this. It could have been so much worse.

It wasn’t worth the risk. What were we thinking?

“Ben, I want you to tell him to call it off.”

“Sean? I can’t tell Sean to leave him. We might lose him.”

“No. I mean I want to tell Jackson to stop it. This is too damn dangerous. Where is he?

I’m going to talk to him.”

“He’s fine. Don’t overreact. He’s tougher than I thought. He took that punch like a man.” I did not want to hear about my brother taking punches like a man. Whoever hit him had better pray that I never found out who they were or the smack to the head that he’d gotten from Ben would seem like child’s play.

“I want to know where he is, Ben,” I practically growled at him.

“I don’t know man. I left him with Sean. They were on the subway. They could be anywhere.

“Shit. Well, you can get a hold of Sean right? I am going into the office. I have to cover this stupid ass meeting, and then I am going to pick Jackson up. I’ll call you as soon as I am done, and I’ll expect you to know where he is.”

“Jason, really, he’s fine, but if that’s the way you want it, I’ll tell you where he is when you call back.”

“Thank you.” I closed the phone.

If it was any other meeting I would blow it off, but this was for the Nick Carver buyout that Jackson had been so freaked out over. Nick had called late yesterday and demanded an early meeting. I’d had very little prep time. If Jackson had known about it, he probably would have dropped the whole homeless charade and handled it himself. I didn’t know what Nick wanted, but I had a feeling that Jackson’s leaving and his sudden desire to talk to me were not mutually exclusive events. He wanted to capitalize on Jackson’s absence.

I didn’t have time to get Jackson and bring him to the meeting, and truthfully I didn’t trust the board to make the right decisions without us. Nick was a manipulative bastard, and I couldn’t leave him alone with my staff. There were just too many ways that he could cause trouble. His company might be a good investment, but Jackson was right to be leery of him.

When I arrived at the office, I was surprised to find the conference room empty. Had they moved the meeting and not told me? I couldn’t even complete the thought before Nick walked through the door.

“Mr. Hayes.” His voice was cold and businesslike as usual.

“Mr. Carver, you’ll have to forgive me. I am not sure where the rest of the board is at the present time...” He cut me off.

“I told them that this meeting was canceled,” he said. “I was hoping to speak to you alone.”

“You could have simply requested a private meeting, Mr. Carver, although I have nothing to say to you that I would not say in front of the board.”

“I received word that your brother was vacationing in Hawaii. Unfortunate timing, don’t you think? I am concerned that perhaps he isn’t as dedicated to your company as you may believe.”

I drew myself up to my full intimidating height. What exactly was he implying?

“Jackson’s dedication is not in question here. He is very loyal to this company, and I do not appreciate your suggestion to the contrary.”

“Really, Mr. Hayes? Are you aware that Jackson has tried, on multiple occasions, to convince your board not to buy my company?”

“Yes, I am.”
He doesn’t like you, because you’re a sneaky rat bastard.

“Are you aware that he made me a second offer for my company?” I was not aware of that. Why would he do that? “Jackson came to me personally, at my office, and attempted to buy me out with his own personal assets. He wanted to beat you to the punch and keep the financial gain for himself.”

“Jackson would never do that.” This asshole was really starting to piss me off.

“Oh, I assure you he did—smart man really. Why should he settle for less than thirty percent when he can afford to buy me out himself and keep all of it?” The jerk had the nerve to smirk at me. “Makes me wonder what else he has stolen from this company right under your nose, Mr. Hayes.”

“My brother is an honest man,” I said, “and if that’s all that you came here for, you can leave now. We’re finished.”

“Surely, Mr. Hayes, you don’t believe that I would make these kinds of accusations without proof.” He produced a manila envelope. “I believe you’ll want to make some adjustments after you’ve reviewed this. I’ll be expecting your call.” With that, he turned and walked out of my conference room, leaving me alone with his mysterious envelope. I simply stared at it for a while, unsure of what to do. Part of me was curious, of course, but most of me knew it was bullshit. Jackson would never go behind my back on something like this. I was not dumb enough to take Nick Carver’s word for it. I was sure that the envelope contained forged documents. He probably got a hold of Jackson’s signature and thought that a couple of signed, photocopied documents would be enough to set me against my own brother.

I opened the envelope and dumped the contents onto the table. It did in fact contain documents, like I had expected. I was about the throw the whole thing in the trash when I noticed a silver disc in the pile. An audio CD? Really?

My own morbid curiosity got the better of me. I carried it to my office and pushed the disc into my computer. Jackson’s voice filled my ears. Oh God. He taped the conversation. I was listening to Jackson’s sales pitch as he tried to buy the company behind my back. “Personal assets… without involving Hayes Industries…”

I couldn’t listen any more. How could this be true? My own brother.

I flipped open my phone.

“Ben, where the hell is he?”

Jackson

I felt like my head was in a fog that I just couldn’t shake. I really wanted to focus on getting my social security card, but my every thought involved Alissa. I just couldn’t get that woman out of my mind: the way she smelled, the way she smiled, the way she wouldn’t take any shit from her employees. God, I was pathetic. I felt like I could just float around this city all day and be happy. She was incredible.

Out of nowhere, strong arms grabbed me by the front of my shirt. My back was slammed up against a brick wall. The air rushed from my lungs. My head snapped up to face my attacker.

“Jason! What the fuck?!” I screamed, my heart rate lowering when I saw it was just my brother. “You scared the shit out of me.”

Where was the playful smile that I was expecting? He wasn’t letting go of my shirt.

“What’s wrong?”

“How could you?” he growled at me.

“How could I what?” I asked. My mind was reeling. Did this have something to do with Alissa? All I’d done was hang out with her all morning. What could possibly make him this angry?

“Don’t play dumb with me, Jackson. How could you go behind my back and try to buy the Carver Company yourself? All that bullshit about not trusting Nick, while it was you who was being a deceptive little shit?”

“Did he tell you that? You believe that I would lie to you for financial gain? Have you lost your fucking mind? Put me down, you gorilla, and we’ll talk about this.” His hands didn’t loosen on my shirt. God, he was really pissed.

Fucking Nick. I hated that bastard. This had probably been his idea all along, to drive a wedge between brothers so that our company would fail.

“No, he didn’t tell me that. He gave me a goddamn recording of the conversation. I have your fucking voice on tape, telling him that you want to buy his company without involving our business. That’s fucking evidence, Jackson.”

Shit. Nick had recorded our conversation and was trying to make it look like I wanted to keep the profits for myself. “Fuck man, I swear to God I can explain, but you’re seriously hurting me. Get a hold of yourself.”

“Tell me,” he said, pushing me further into the wall. “Tell me how the fuck he got that recording.”

“Jason, you know I don’t want to buy that company. I have always thought this was a bad deal. I don’t care how many times the reports come back clean, Nick is a lying, deceitful sack of shit, and there is something crooked in that business. I just haven’t found it yet. I went to his office and offered to buy him out personally because I don’t want his company to be a liability to our company.”

He still had me in a death grip, but I could see that my words were starting to sink in.

“You and the rest of the board wouldn’t listen to me when I said that this whole thing was a bad idea. You know that my vote alone can’t override a majority decision. So I offered him more money, my personal assets, because I wanted to protect the company that you and I have worked so damn hard to build together. If I owned it personally, and it went bad, I would have simply buried it and taken the financial loss myself. If I was wrong, and the company was a success, I could have merged it into our joint business any time. I would never fucking steal from you, Jason. Never.

I’m telling you, that man is a crook. He wouldn’t accept my offer, which makes me even more suspicious of him. He should have sold the business to the highest bidder, but he didn’t, which means that he wants Hayes Enterprises
specifically
to buy him out. He has to have a reason for that, and now, from what you’ve told me, I’m guessing that driving a wedge between us is a big part of that plan.”

Jason’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. It was like something had finally clicked in his brain, and he was processing the fact that he had his brother pinned against a brick wall in an alley. His hands relaxed.

“Oh God, Jackson. I’m sorry; are you okay?” He was in some odd emotional state between rage and horror, and if I wasn’t terrified, it might have been funny. I would not ever want to be on Jason’s bad side.