and his buddy looked like they’d just rolled out of bed. How could she take this shit-stain seriously? “He and I are Mr. and Mrs. Jones.”
“Very well, Mr. Jones.” I looked at his annoyed expression. “That is what you’d like to be called, correct?”
“Actually, Brad is just whipped,” the other bed-head spoke. “We’re fine with you calling us Mark and Brad. Remember who bankrolls your stuff, Julia.” He’d said her name as if he resented the fuck out of her. I guess I had more in common with these doofuses than I thought.
I pinched my lips together and closed my eyes at the mismatched pair, and I wished with all my heart that we could be recording this shit for Collin and Jacob to see with their own eyes. Alex walked in just in time. “All right. Five minutes early. Let’s get this meeting going. Brad, Mark,” Alex acknowledged them as he sat to my right. “Julia,” he finished in a dry voice.
“Getting directly to the point,” I said before Julia could respond to my Vice President and best friend. “Your company desires to withdraw from Mitchell and Associates’ investment. At first, I thought this was a joke, but here we are.”
“We’ve changed our minds about that,” both gamers said in unison.
“What? Don’t listen to them. They’re children.” Julia clamped her mouth as soon as she admitted what she thought of her husband.
The shock on Julia’s face was priceless. These goofy little sons of bitches had ambushed her. I officially wished we had this exchange on tape now. Judging from the look on their faces, I had a feeling this was going to be fantastic.
“Children?” Alex said, clasping his hands and stretching them out on the desk. “That is quite a bold statement, considering your marriage and their wealth.”
“If you’ve changed your mind, may I ask why we’re in the presence of your lawyers?” I asked.
“Yeah, Jules. Maybe we can use them so Brad can get that divorce from your gold-digging ass.” Mark cut off Brad by glaring at him with a look that was mixed with fear and confusion.
What a bunch of dip shits.
“I’m not trying to be rude,” I started, “but can we not bring personal matters into the business at hand?” As much as I loved what was happening to humiliate Julia, I wasn’t one to fuck around when it came to business. This unprofessionalism was wildly inappropriate, and it was ultimately affecting my business. And that, I would not tolerate. “Now, Mitchell and Associates are willing to grant your exit from our company. We are sad—”
“Dude. Come on, Mr. Mitchell,” Brad said, elbowing Julia as she tried to stop him. “We can’t lose you guys. If we lose your company, we lose the largest sponsors out there.”
“I understand that. It is why I was genuinely confused about why you were leaving. We were covering all of your public relations and your marketing, as well as all advertising for you. We were also pitching you to even more investors and pushing you out further to more of the online gaming community. Due to our efforts, the gaming community has now taken more of an interest in your product as well.”
“We believed when we reached this agreement,” Alex said as I watched Julia squirm next to her man-child, “that it would help not only gain you money, but you would also be able to work on development with our hired staff, the building we just acquired for you to work wi—”
“We don’t want out, goddammit.” Mark slammed his fists on the table and stared at Julia. “Tell us what we need do to make this right.”
“Our offer was pulled after your letter of rejection. So we must draw up a new one,” I said, eying Julia. “Mitchell will offer half a million as an advance now, to start. We will also keep the same agreements with investors, et cetera. After the advance, we expect seventy percent in earnings for Knights Aware. Will this work?”
Alex looked at me with some fear. This was a bullshit offer—an insult, really—to these two. An advance? No one took advances, and Mitchell and associates never gave them. It was a goddamn joke, and I couldn’t give a shit. They insulted my company and had the nerve to cross me.
“We’ll take it,” Brad said.
“Damn it, Brad,” Julia snapped. “Can I speak for a moment?”
“No. You’re the one who told us to back out,” Mark said.
“Well, who the hell told you it was a great