Page 4 of Bargaining

Dad’s eyes lit up. “That’s very astute, Cole. No, the team were originally giving the stones too good a finish—”

“Why don’t you tell me about it downstairs? I want to take notes.” Cole threw me a casual look. “OK to pick it up another time?”

My heart still pounded in my throat. For one breathless moment, I thought he was going to close the gap between us. Was he? Had I imagined it? Was that it? My one and only chance blown by my father’s impeccably bad timing.

I forced a breezy smile despite my thundering heart. “Yes, get out of here. No history talk. You both know I’m allergic to the Middle Ages.”

Chapter 2

Cole

Present day, Cole’s thirtieth birthday

A smartly dressed woman was waiting for me in reception. “Welcome back, Mr. Thorner. Your brother has requested your company in the conference room.”

“Which brother?”

The woman jogged to keep up with me, her clicking heels echoing around the gleaming foyer. “Lucas.”

Bloody Lucas.It was always the same thing, and I had no time for morose shit about how I was a terrible uncle who didn’t visit enough.

“I’m busy.”

“Mr. Thorner ... the other Mr. Thorner ... told me you’d say that. He told me not to accept no for an answer.”

I cut a sharp glance at the woman. Honey-blonde waves framed a pleasant face. A smart suit wrapped around her slim frame. Lucas had to be fucking her if he’d convinced her to bug me like this before I’d even got back to my office. How did he find the time? I hadn’t taken a woman out for ages.

“You work here?”

She flashed an aggressively cheerful smile. “I’m Olive. One of your PA’s assistants. We spoke on the phone an hour ago.”

I’d never seen this woman before in my life. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure, Mr. Thorner. You asked me to set up a meeting with Gabe Rivers.”

“And have you done it yet?”

She dropped her gaze. “No. It’s ... He declined. He said no to a meeting.”

“What reason?”

She cleared her throat. “His exact words were, ‘I have no interest in ever doing business with Cole Thorner.’”

My jaw ticked.What the fuck?I’d had a handful of interactions with Gabe Rivers at corporate functions, and they’d always been unremarkable. I stormed up the stairs.

“Mr. Thorner, wait. Please. Lucas said I needed to bring you to the conference room the minute you got back to the office.”

I turned on the stairs and gave her an unflinching glare. The kind my father was famous for. He always teamed it with a tilt of the head and a downward tip of the chin. Despicable as he was, I’d always admired his ability to say “Go fuck yourself” with no actual words. It was an art form I’d been perfecting over the years.

The woman shrank under my gaze. Pink spots dotted her cheeks. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. The one thing she should have been doing was leaving me alone. Instead, she took a couple of steps up toward me.

“Please, Mr. Thorner. It’s important.”

I let out a sigh. Obviously, mygo fuck yourselfglare still needed work. I glanced at my watch. Just after 6p.m. It would have been nice to get out of here before midnight, but if I had to do another night in this office, then so be it. I needed to find out what the fuck kind of problem Gabe Rivers had with me.

I headed back down the stairs. The woman who claimed to work here slumped with visible relief. I marched past her through gleaming open-plan offices. She paused outside the dark conference room. No Lucas. No lights on.

She shot me an anxious glance. “I’m sorry. Please don’t blame me for this. I lost the coin toss.”