Billion Dollar Beast - Olivia Hayle Page 0,29

brother puts an arm around her waist.

“Are you ready, ladies?” He’d prepped us on the game plan before—which individuals he most needed a word alone with.

I paste a charming smile on my face. If there’s one thing I’m confident in, it’s my ability to conquer a party. “I’m always ready to mingle.”

“If only it were an Olympic sport,” Cole teases. “You’d be a gold medalist.”

“I’m sure you could make that a thing. Perhaps for my birthday?”

And then it’s showtime as the first guests walk up the steps. I shake hands and pad egos and welcome people inside, doing my best to turn on the dazzle.

I’d really indulged in the preparations for tonight. My wrap dress is deep green, accentuating my curves, and I’d made sure my hair was blow-dried bouncy and smooth. In my head, I’d been doing all of this for my brother—for his party, his investors, to better play my part.

But the face I’d seen in my mind’s eye had been Nick’s. His angry words still ring in my head, but with a day to think it over, I’m not humiliated by them anymore.

I’m angry, too.

He’d be at this party, that much I’m certain of, but I can’t seem to spot him. I find someone else instead.

Or more accurately perhaps, someone else finds me. “Blair Porter,” a young man says warmly, leaning in for a practiced kiss on my cheek. It’s a forward greeting, but I find myself smiling back at him instinctually. “I’m Bryce Adams. It’s lovely to finally meet you—Maddie mentions you nonstop.”

Then the realization pierces through. Bryce Adams, of B.C. Adams. He’s here, and so is Nick. Why on earth would Cole have invited him?

My smile doesn’t falter, though my eyes dart up behind him to scan the room. “Likewise—I’ve heard good things. I met your father, I believe, a month back?”

“Yes, he told me. He was quite impressed, you know.” His brown hair falls playfully over his brow and he reaches up to push it back.

“How have you been?”

“Well, you know how things are.” He gives me a pained smile. “I’m finding myself at a loss for what to do, now that my future calling is no longer in the picture.”

There’s a stab of unexpected guilt in my stomach. Coming face-to-face with the man whose family legacy I’m helping to dismantle…

I reach out and put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. I can’t begin to understand how that must feel.”

“Thank you,” he says, putting a hand over mine on his arm, stopping me from pulling back. “The worst is hearing how our employees are faring. All the shutdowns and firings. The people we’ve let down by selling.”

It twists right at the heart of my own concerns. Despite that, I can’t let him disparage Nick quite like that.

“You did what you had to do,” I say. “Just as the new owners are doing.”

Bryce opens his mouth to reply but there’s no sound. His blue gaze catches on something behind me instead, growing steely with resolve. Oh no.

He brushes past me with a quiet excuse me and strides toward the one person I’ve been looking for all night and haven’t been able to find.

Nick turns just in time. In the dim light and against his dark suit, his eyes look pitch-black. There’s no hint of surprise or fear on his face as he takes in Bryce, stopping before him.

Bryce’s voice vibrates with rage. “You looked my grandfather in the eye and told him you’d take care of his employees. That’s the only reason he agreed to sell to you. And now you’ve laid off more than two hundred of them. How do you get up in the morning?”

“I usually set an alarm,” Nick replies, his voice arctic.

“That’s what you have to say for yourself?”

“Your grandfather knew who he sold his company to,” Nick says. “And if he cared so much about his employees, he wouldn’t have driven the business to within an inch of its life.” If Bryce is angry, Nick is fury itself, cold and controlled and carefully leashed.

I’m dimly aware of people watching the interaction. Of conversations hushed and eyes following. Bryce’s right arm twitches. He’s an inch from blows, I realize, my eyes flitting to Nick’s.

But Nick has already made the same realization. He widens his stance, growing impossibly taller. “I made your family a good offer. You’ll be wealthy for the rest of your life, despite your abject business failure. Consider yourself lucky.”

His words drip with dismissal. Bryce glances about, his