His Instant Heir

What he wanted from Cari had nothing to do with business. He’d do his job and he intended to get to know her, as well. The two things were separate in his mind.

“I don’t know. I mean of course I understand that profit has to be a driving force, but I always think about the people behind it. They need to feel safe to work at their best.”

“It will be interesting working with you. I have the feeling I don’t know you at all, Cari,” he said.

“I’m sure you don’t,” she said. “Most men only see what they want to when it comes to women.”

“Interesting thought,” he said. “Whereas you see me as I really am?”

She flushed. “Sorry. I just hate the thought of you looking at a piece of paper and saying we need to cut head count when I know that head count means a person. A person who has a life that they are trying their best to balance.”

“I’m not going to randomly reduce staff. We need to see where you are losing money, Cari. You have to know that your company isn’t as profitable as it could be.”

“Yes, I do. As you said, we’ll have to work together to make it profitable again,” she said. She reached for the door again and he had the feeling that she wanted to get away from him. Who could blame her? He’d given her two things to think about this morning.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. Because he hadn’t meant to reenter her life this way. Well, to be honest, he hadn’t really meant to reenter it at all. She wasn’t the kind of woman with whom he could have an affair. Even if there wasn’t a decades-long feud between their families.

It wasn’t just that she was the heart of the gaming company, she also was caring and compassionate and, he knew, worlds too soft for Beau and Helene Montrose’s adopted son. The boy they’d fought over and eventually, when his mother had lost the argument, handed over to Thomas Montrose to be honed into a weapon to be used in this war against the Chandlers.

“This was never going to be easy,” she said.

“How do you mean?”

“You left me without a backward glance, and probably thought our paths wouldn’t cross again. Definitely like this. Now we have to work together and I’m going to try to save as much of my company as I can and you’re going to—”

“Do what I do best.”

“What’s that?”

“Make this a profitable move for Playtone Games and somehow convince you that despite all of that I’m not really a Tin Man.”

Cari entered her office and picked up the phone to call Emma. Then immediately put it down. The time to go running to her big sister had passed. She was a mom now, a decision maker. At work she didn’t need Emma’s advice and she’d made the difficult decision to stand on her own in her personal life, as well. She knew better than to backpedal now.

She couldn’t help it, though. She felt scared and panicked at the thought of Dec just down the hall from her. And little DJ downstairs in the nursery. Two males who had the most influence in her life. One by her design, the other…by fate?

She shook her head. She wasn’t going to figure this out right now and didn’t want to try. She instant messaged her assistant.

Ally knocked on the door and popped her head around. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes. I need you to draft a memo to the staff from me and my sisters letting them know that Playtone Games has taken over our company and we will be using the next six weeks to merge.”

“Okay. Anything else?” Ally asked without hesitation or concern. Her assistant was thirty-two and had gotten married last summer, and Cari knew she’d just signed a mortgage on a new house. She had to be worried.

“Let them know that Dec Montrose is going to be observing them for the next few weeks. Everyone who works to their full potential need not worry.”

“Okay. I’ll draft an email and send it to you for approval,” Ally said.

“Thank you. Do you think we could get a temp in here to serve as my assistant?”

“Why?”

“Ally, I’m thinking of transferring you to finance. You have the skills to be in accounts receivable and that way you won’t be attached to me,” Cari said.

She wasn’t sure how much any of the staff knew of the bad blood between her family and Dec’s, but she didn’t want to take any chances of Ally being a casualty of that old feud.

“That’s not necessary.”

“Being part of this office might be a liability,” she warned.

“Like you said, if I do my job I’m fine. Besides, I’m not abandoning you,” Ally said with a smile.

“Thanks. In that case, Dec and I will be sharing you as an assistant. Think of it as a dual-reporting relationship.”

“Okay,” Ally said.

As her assistant left, Cari leaned back in her chair and swiveled around to face the plate-glass windows that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. She took a deep breath, warned herself that if she didn’t get her head together Dec was going to walk all over her. And she couldn’t let that happen.

Her door opened loudly and she pivoted around to see Jessi standing there. She had thick black hair that she wore shoulder length with a thick fringe of bangs on her forehead. For shock value, she had a deep purple streak on the left side. On anyone else it might have looked frivolous but on Jessi it just added to her commanding presence.

“So, how’s it look?” she asked, putting a Starbucks cup down in front of Cari before dropping down into one of her Louis XIV wing chairs. She wore a pair of skinny black trousers with a rhinestone top and an Armani tuxedo jacket. Cari loved her sister’s bold style.

“Thanks for the skinny latte,” she said, taking a sip.

“Figured you’d need it this morning, and with my cute little nephew you don’t exactly have time to get one for yourself. So what’d he say?”

She didn’t need to ask who she meant. She sighed. “Dec’s here for blood. He pretty much said he’s cutting the dead weight and going to find out where we are profitable.”

Jessi propped one booted foot on her knee and leaned back, taking a sip of her own drink, which Cari knew was a mocha. Her sister was a rabid chocoholic. “Figured as much. Can you influence him at all? What do you think is the best approach?”

“Um…” That was a loaded question. Now that Dec was here and his family had the upper hand in business, Cari realized her sisters would be at a disadvantage once DJ’s parentage became public knowledge.

“What? Did he threaten you?” Jessi said, jumping to her feet. “I’ve dealt with the Montrose clan before.”

“You have?”

“Unfortunately. Allan McKinney was the best man at John and Patti McCoy’s wedding.”

Cari remembered Jessi being the maid of honor at her best friend Patti’s wedding two years ago in Las Vegas. She recalled hearing nothing about Allan, however. “I didn’t realize that,” she said.

“Well, since we’re feuding with his family I didn’t think I should talk about it. Besides Allan was a total jerk douche about a few things. I can see why there is bad blood between our families. Anyway, I spent the longest weekend of my life in Vegas thanks to him. If I need to go in there—”

“No. You don’t need to do anything for me, Jess. Dec was fine,” she said. Then she realized she needed to start laying the groundwork for Dec to be introduced as DJ’s father. “In fact, we’re having dinner tonight.”

“You are? He must be nothing like Allan, who is an annoying jerk.”

Cari laughed, and for the first time this morning she felt maybe it wasn’t the end of the world. No matter what happened at Infinity Games, they’d be okay. They might be a bit worse for the wear, but her sisters and she would be fine.

Three