1

Whish, swoosh, whish, swoosh, whish, swoosh.

Jack Sutton lost himself in the rhythmic sound of the churning wheels of his bike as he rounded the final bend of an eight mile morning ride. He was with his cousin, Chad, who was more like a brother to him than a cousin, and their best friend, Andrew. The three met once or twice a month to ride through the picturesque neighborhood next to the Long Island Sound where Jack’s home was located.

Jack saw Chad soar past him out of the corner of his eye and sprint the last few yards into Jack’s driveway ahead of him and Andrew. It never ceased to amaze Jack. Chad had a good three inches over Jack’s tall frame and he was built like a military tank, but he was still somehow faster and more agile than both Andrew and Jack. Jack and Andrew exchanged a look, laughing at Chad’s need to beat them every time they rode. Most days, Andrew and Jack would at least give Chad a fight over the winning slot, but beating Chad wasn’t on Jack’s mind today and he had a feeling it wasn’t on Andrew’s either.

The showdown he would have with Chad’s mother, Jack’s Aunt Mabry, later today was what had him tense and uneasy. He thought pushing himself hard on this morning’s ride would help take the edge off his mood, but it hadn’t helped. He shoved aside his mood long enough to grin at Chad while the three men rode slow laps through the circular drive to cool down, each sipping water and talking trash as they rode. He’d be damned if he’d let Chad see anything was wrong. He wouldn’t make Chad choose a side no matter what Aunt Mabry threw at him.

It wasn’t until after his cousin had loaded up his bike and pulled out of the driveway that Jack raised the subject Andrew and he had been avoiding for the last couple of hours.

“Spill it,” Jack said. Andrew had been grinding his jaw the whole ride so Jack knew whatever he’d been avoiding saying in front of Chad wasn’t good.

Andrew was the only one who knew Chad’s mother was finally making good on her threat to try to take over the company Jack’s father had built. She planned to use the terms of Jack’s mother’s will to take control of a large portion of the shares of Sutton Capital and try to vote Jack out of his position as Chief Executive Officer. She wanted Chad to take Jack’s place at the head of the board table. Jack and Andrew had been quietly approaching the shareholders in the privately owned company to be sure Jack had their support if Mabry got her hands on the stock Jack’s mother had once controlled.

Andrew didn’t blink when he looked at Jack and broke the news. “John Barton died of a heart attack last night.”

Jack swallowed a curse and swiped his face with his hand. “He wasn’t very old at all. When did it happen?” Jack asked, the shock evident in his voice.

“Only fifty-eight. Happened late last night. His wife called me this morning. They were supposed to leave for Italy in three days for a month-long vacation. I don’t think the man has taken a vacation in twenty years, but Anne finally talked him into relaxing with her and then this happens.”

The two men were silent for a few minutes before Jack realized what this meant for his battle with Mabry.

“I know this isn’t a great time to bring this up, but—” Jack began before Andrew cut in.

“But nothing. You have to think about the rest of the shareholders, the company, its employees – there’s a lot at stake for a lot of people here, Jack. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but we need to figure out who will have control of Barton’s shares and find out what that does to our chances against your Aunt Mabry.”

This time Jack didn’t bother to swallow his curse. This part of his role as CEO sucked.

“Grab a shower and meet me at the office. We’ll deal with this there,” Jack said. He didn’t wait for an answer. He turned and took the front steps two at a time, hustling to get showered and dressed to deal with the latest catastrophe in his ongoing battle with his aunt.

An hour later, Jack stalked through the lobby of his New Haven office with his jaw clenched. His scowl wasn’t aimed at anyone or anything in particular on his way up to the 26th floor offices of Sutton Capital, but people moved out of his way. Jack stabbed “26” on the elevator control panel and thought about the

unpleasant conversation he and Andrew were about to have. It wouldn’t be fun trying to figure out how a man’s death would affect this vote, but they didn’t have a choice right now. The clock was ticking thanks to the terms of his mother’s will.

Ding. The elevator doors slid open to reveal the reception desk and waiting area of Jack’s company. His nod to the receptionist was curt but polite as he moved past her toward his corner office.

He stopped in front of his secretary’s desk before entering his office and glanced down at the temp. “Jennie, Andrew will be here in a few minutes. Show him right in when he arrives.”

“Yes, Mr. Sutton,” Jennie, said with a nod.

Jack strode to his office and shut the door. He paced and waited for Andrew

to arrive. Andrew wasn’t just his best friend; he was also the Chief Financial Officer of Sutton Capital and Jack’s right hand man at the company. He hoped Andrew would have good news to help him out of the colossal mess he now found himself in. Andrew was one of the few people that knew Jack the man beyond Jack the CEO of Sutton Capital. They went far enough back that neither saw the other the way their adversaries did.

Jack was used to his opponents fearing him and his investors respecting him. Jack never felt weak or anxious when he stepped up to the negotiating table and he normally thrived on stress and pressure. But, on this, possibly the biggest deal of his life, the unique circumstances had him feeling like he had maneuvered and negotiated himself right into a corner.

Jack moved to his mahogany desk and stared down at his reflection in its uncluttered surface. He considered how quickly his plans had fallen apart. He had been so certain that his strategy would work that he’d become overconfident. That wasn’t like him at all. Jack knew it was his late mother’s involvement in his current situation had thrown him off his game. He needed to come up with another plan and execute it quickly if he was going to save his position in the family company.

When Jennie opened the door and ushered Andrew inside, the tight line of his lips told Jack things hadn’t gone as they’d hoped.

Andrew had been in on his plan from the beginning. He was Jack’s closest confidant and supporter but right now it didn’t look like his friend had the news Jack needed.

“Thank you, Jennie. Hold my calls,” Jack directed.

“Yes, sir.” Jennie closed the door behind her, leaving the two men in silence.

 

*

Jennie rushed back to her desk to turn on her intercom. As a temp secretary, she took a lot of liberties she might not take if her job were more secure – and listening in on what promised to be a juicy conversation was one of those liberties.

Early on at Sutton Capital, she discovered the indicator light on the intercom between Jack’s office and her desk didn’t light up when it should. She’d been listening in on conversations ever since.

The one her boss had with his aunt yesterday was the best by far. From what she could gather, when Jack’s mother passed away five years ago, she’d held the largest single chunk of shares in the company, at thiry-five percent. The remaining shares of the privately held company were held in varying amounts by

the six members of the board of directors, including Jack. Jack’s mother cared more about her son’s marital status than the state of the family business. She placed her shares in a trust with Jack holding the proxy voting rights to the shares in the trust.

If Jack wasn’t married by the time he was thirty-five, the trust remained – but the proxy rights reverted to his Aunt Mabry. Yesterday, Aunt Mabry threatened to use the strength of those shares to make a bid for Chad to take Jack’s place as CEO.

For some reason that wasn’t clear in the conversation Jennie overheard, his Aunt Mabry wanted to hurt Jack. She apparently didn’t care that Chad had no interest in being CEO or that Jack was the best man to head the company. As Jennie listened to their conversation, one thing had been clear; for whatever reason, Mabry wanted to hurt Jack.

If Jack wanted to save his position as CEO, he either needed to have enough board members on his side to know he could win a vote…or he needed to get married before he turned thirty-five. Next week.

If Jack were married, the shares his mother left in trust would become Jack’s outright. Mabry wouldn’t be able to touch him.

In the two months Jennie had filled in as secretary for Jack Sutton she’d heard no mention of a fiancé or even a serious girlfriend, so she’d almost fallen out of her chair when she heard Jack tell his aunt he planned to marry his fiancé at the end of the week. If you believed the tabloids, Jack Sutton had a different woman on his arm every week and none of the women had any marriage potential, from the looks of them. They were partying debutantes, at best.

When his aunt pressed for details, or a name, he remained vague and told his aunt that she could drop by the next afternoon to meet her.

As she listened in on Jack’s meeting with Andrew, Jennie had a clearer understanding of why he had told his aunt such a flat-out lie.