Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,72
by the windows. Stenson was doing a good job of keeping his cool, but Hawke could smell the sour tang of nerves on the mustachioed man with pale white skin.
It wasn’t every day that a small computronics company fielded two buyout offers: one from an ex-Councilor turned de facto ruler of a large chunk of Europe, the other from the biggest changeling pack in the country.
Hawke, his back to the window, stood to the right of the desk. Sitting next to Ming in the spare guest chair on the other side of the desk wasn’t an option. Judd stood outside the office door, but Hawke could sense him, knew the other man was protecting his mind from psychic threats. Whatever tricks Ming had, he’d have to mobilize into full battle mode to use them against an ex-Arrow and an alpha wolf.
“SnowDancer isn’t known for its interest in cutting-edge computronics.”
Hawke shrugged at Ming’s frigid comment. “Those who survive are those who adapt.”
“I’ll increase my offer by ten percent.”
Stenson glanced at Hawke.
“We’ll beat that,” Hawke responded. “By one percent.”
Ming made another counteroffer; Hawke countered it by another one percent. They went on like that until Ming got the point: SnowDancer was determined to buy this company and gain control of its innovative ideas.
That Ming hadn’t already stolen the company’s secrets was thanks to some very clever structuring. Stenson was in charge of the company’s finances and did the deals, but he knew nothing of its technological breakthroughs beyond what he needed to facilitate the financial side of things. The company had also succeeded in keeping secret the identities of its developers.
No Psy could pluck out secrets from a mind if he or she didn’t know which mind to target.
“It appears the company is yours.” Ming left without further words.
Hawke bared his teeth.
When Stenson flinched, he realized the gesture had been more lupine aggressiveness than human smile. Ah well, the man would have to get used to dealing with wolves sooner or later.
Since Yuki and the rest of SnowDancer’s legal eagles had already checked the details, Hawke finalized the deal with his signature, then held out his hand to Stenson. “Happy to be working with you.”
The bewildered man shook his hand. “You won’t be restructuring?”
“Expect a SnowDancer team to drop by, go over things with you. But at this stage, we plan to leave you to go about your business.” Hawke had bought the company primarily to frustrate Ming and ensure the ex-Councilor couldn’t get a foothold in this part of the world, but it actually was a good investment. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have another deal to complete.”
Five minutes after that, he’d cut Ming off from acquiring the majority share in a financial entity based out of Liechtenstein, and an hour after that, while Judd drove them back up to the den, he made it clear to a corporation that they would lose their biggest client—SnowDancer—should they agree to work with Ming LeBon.
This was war and people had to choose sides.
When he hung up, Judd raised an eyebrow. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a ruthless CEO.”
“I am a ruthless CEO.” It was his official description on all the businesses that ran under the SnowDancer banner. “You’re the one who recommended we watch for Ming trying to infiltrate SnowDancer territory through business interests.” It was why Hawke had known what Ming was up to—he’d had SnowDancer’s Cooper and DarkRiver’s Bastien arrange a network of eyes and ears in the region’s business circles.
“I never expected you to take to business combat like a fish to water.”
“It’s not my preferred way to fight”—a slight understatement—“but it’s nice to know I just cost Ming millions of dollars.” Cutting off a little more of the evil bastard’s power base.
“How far will you go?”
“All the way.” As long as he played a strategic game, SnowDancer had the strength and the financial reach to not only keep Ming out of this territory, but to break the ex-Councilor’s grip on Europe. “I should’ve figured it out earlier, but I was so set on tearing off his head that I didn’t think about other options.” Now that he had, Hawke was starting to enjoy the hunt. “I’m going to bring him down so low that he has no allies and is running for his life on the streets. Then I’ll tear off his head.”
Judd’s eyes glinted. “Losing power would be worse than death for Ming.”
Hawke showed his teeth again. “Then the bastard’s going to be