Before Jeff could answer, Reed interrupted. “Gentlemen, you see the offer before you. I suggest we take a vote and approve it before we adjourn.”
“Over my dead body,” Allen said. “You’re not selling my fucking company.”
“It’s not your company anymore, Allen.” Reed looked him dead in the eye and spread open his hands. “You have one vote. I assume it is a nay.”
“You’re goddamn right it’s a nay,” Allen said. “For the love of God, Reed, if we sell off the manufacturing, what’s left?”
“The patents, old boy,” Reed said as he eased back down into his seat with a satisfied look on his face. “Benson Digital will keep the computer chip patents, which we will license to every manufacturer in the industry. We will make hundreds of millions of dollars before the patents expire.”
“The patents…” Allen Benson blinked for a moment, like a man waking up from a long nap. “This was about the patents all along. You never gave a damn about the manufacturing operation or all those people who work there. You just wanted the patents.”
“Yes, Allen, that’s right,” Reed said. “It was all about the patents. That’s your most valuable asset, not the fucking manufacturing operation.”
“Why buy my entire company?” Allen asked, shaking his head. “Why not ask me to sell you the patents?”
“Allen, would you have sold us just the patents if we had made you an offer?” I asked.
He didn’t bother to say anything because we both knew the answer.
“Very well, then,” Reed said, leaning in to look down the table at the other board members. “Now, gentlemen, we all have things to do, so let’s get this done. All those in favor of selling the manufacturing arm of Benson Digital, Inc. to Amalgamated Industries please say aye.”
Everyone said “aye” except Allen Benson.
He didn’t say a word.
He just got out of his chair and calmly walked around the table.
And broke Reed’s nose with a single punch.
Chapter 27: Katie
I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles as I waited in my office for Uncle Allen to call with an update. By now, the papers should have been signed and he was a wealthy man, certainly the wealthiest man I ever knew to come out of South Boston.
I glanced at my watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. It was nearly two o’clock, and I had not heard a word. I was starting to get nervous. I had a sinking feeling in my chest that I couldn’t explain. Perhaps Reed Helstrom had broken out a bottle of champagne to toast the deal and they were all getting snockered. I was sure Uncle Allen would call soon.
Then, like a ghost in the night, Uncle Allen appeared at my office door with a sick look on his face. I knew immediately that something had gone terribly wrong.
“Oh my god,” I said, rushing around the desk to greet him. His face was red and sweaty. His tie was askew, and the front of his shirt was stained with blood. He was holding his right hand in his left. The knuckles of his right hand were scraped and bloody. “Uncle Allen, what happened? Are you hurt?”
“They stole my company,” he said, shaking his head.
“What? Who? What are you talking about?”
“That fucking Reed Helstrom and Conner McGee. They stole my fucking company.”
* * *
Thankfully, it turned out that none of the blood on his shirt was Uncle Allen’s. It all belonged to Reed Helstrom. It came from his nose when Allen slammed his fist into it.
I had Monique get Uncle Allen an ice pack for his hand and a glass of scotch for his head. He sat in the chair in front of my desk with gritted teeth, telling us both the story of how they had stolen his beloved company.
At first, I refused to believe it. There was no way Conner—my Conner— could be a party to such a devious plan. Who would buy a man’s life’s work only to sell it out from under him? But deep down, I knew he was part of the plan. This was Conner’s deal. He was the mastermind behind it. He knew all along how it was going to turn out because he was the one orchestrating it. And he had played me for a total fool.
I knew now that nothing between us was real.
Monique was right all along.
Why would he be attracted