“I’ll be there in ten. Austin is making me participate in present wrapping and we’re almost done.”
David laughed. He actually enjoyed wrapping presents, but they’d gone to a present wrapping station at the mall and paid to have most of their gifts wrapped.
“Can you see if you can find Jax Fischer for me too? I need to talk to him about a side project.”
“Pretty sure he’s down supervising the snowplow, but we’ll get him up here.”
In Elijah’s office, he woke up the desktop and logged in to his company cloud account and launched a video conference with Lydia so she could catch Patrick up to speed.
When his friend and partner stepped through the door a few minutes later with a sappy grin on his face, he knew him and his wife and been up to a lot more than just wrapping presents.
“What’s going on?” he asked when David motioned for him to sit in the chair he’d pulled around the desk.
“It looks like Ian Warner and Mina Rodriguez have been comparing notes and Ian doesn’t like that we’re offering Rodriguez a larger stake at first.”
Patrick frowned. “It’s proportional to what they bring to the table. I thought they understood that.”
“Apparently Mr. Warner has changed his tune. I don’t fully understand, but we need to get them both on a call together instead of the separate game we’ve been playing. It can probably wait until after the holiday but the sooner the better. I think they are under the impression they can pit us against each other. But if we don’t fix this before the new year we’re on the verge of losing this deal.”
Patrick gave him a thumbs up and said, “Let’s get it done now. I’m in the mood for a good fight.”
David grinned. He understood that all too well. He got a thrill out of a tough negotiation, especially when he knew he had the upper hand. Today was no different.
Two hours later, they were wrapping up and enjoying a glass of scotch when Elijah opened the door.
“Evening gentlemen. I wasn’t expecting to find anyone here.”
David stood. “Sorry. I’ll get out of your chair. I was just working on a business deal that needed some attention.”
Elijah chuckle. “Ian Warner?”
David lifted an eyebrow. “Yep. How’d you know?”
“Holly is trying to work out a deal with him. He’s being a pain in the ass. I figured with Patrick being here it was your deal with him and Mina Rodriguez. If you need any extra leverage let me know. I can get you Holly’s files.”
Patrick stood. “I’m officially done with work until after Christmas or my wife will kill me. Did you still need Jax?”
David shrugged. “I just need to figure out what to do about Tamara’s little problem.”
“Is she the friend you were talking about on the phone last week?” Elijah asked.
David nodded. “Yeah. I’m trying to respect her privacy, but she needs someone to handle it now.”
“Someone wanna catch me up here?” Patrick asked.
David filled him in about Martin Terry.
“I’ve heard of that asshole. Pretty sure he did some stuff at the Sutton Foundation. Want me to do some digging?”
“Yes, please. I’ve got people on him back at home but the faster I can put a lid on this the better. I brought Tamara with us, hoping it would be handled by the time we got home.”
“You got it, brother. We’ll take care of her.”
Patrick headed for the door with another thumbs up. “I’ll see you at the party.”
Elijah clapped his brother-in-law on the shoulder as he left. Turning to David, he said, “Shouldn’t you be done with work too? How’s Emily?”
David smiled. “You’re right. This just couldn’t wait. She’s taking a nap now, but things are a lot better between us and we’re going to make coming here a bigger priority in the new year.”
