The Billionaire's New Year Gift. Emma Darcy

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      “Then maybe he is serious,” Alex said, frowning.

      “We’re in the middle of a buy-out.” Gray shrugged into his jacket. “There’s no way he’d consider selling the company until it’s finished and that might be months away. He’s bluffing.”

      “How can you be sure?” Alex asked. “What if you’re wrong? Do you want to take that chance? Lose everything you’ve worked for over the past eighteen years? I know I sure as hell don’t want to see the Hunt Foundation shut down…or run by someone else.” For years now, Alex had headed the foundation, the philanthropic arm of HuntCom. For Alex, it was more than a job. It was his passion, his raison d’être. As far as he was concerned, the best thing about being a Hunt was the ability and means to do some good in the world.

      The brothers continued to discuss Harry’s ultimatum, but since they weren’t getting anywhere, they finally decided to call it a night.

      “I’ll see you at the office tomorrow,” Gray said to

      J.T. as they all moved toward the door. “We need to go over the figures for that possible plant in Singapore.”

      Alex walked with his brothers down the hallway and out of the house to the parking deck, which was halfway up the hillside overlooking Lake Washington. Every time he came here, he marveled at the beauty of the place. Across the lake, the lights of the Seattle skyline shimmered.

      Not that Alex wanted to live in a place like this one. Who the hell needed a mansion, anyway? Even when all four of them had lived with Harry, they’d rattled around in the place. And now that their father was alone except for the servants, it seemed ludicrous to have a place this large. But Harry seemed to need the trappings of wealth.

      Alex continued to think about his father’s edict as he drove his silver Navigator back to the city where he kept an apartment downtown near the Hunt Foundation offices.

      By the time he’d gotten home, fixed himself a drink and a salad and warmed up some leftover chicken piccata that he’d made two days earlier, he was completely convinced that he and his brothers had done the right thing in turning down their father’s deal. It was simply too manipulative. Too cold and calculating. Besides, he was now beginning to think, like Gray, that Harry was bluffing.

      Sure, he was stubborn, but Alex had a feeling Harry was counting on the fact his sons knew how stubborn he could be to convince them that he meant what he had said. But Alex also knew his father had worked far too long and too hard to build his empire to ever give it up.

      No.

      He’d never sell everything. All they had to do was wait him out, and he’d back down.

      So when Alex and his brothers were conferenced into a call from Justin the following evening and Justin said he thought they should take the deal, Alex was shocked, even though Justin explained why he thought so.

      “I went to see Cornelia,” he said. “And she feels there’s a strong possibility Harry’s threat to sell the company is real. She said she’s been growing increasingly worried about him since his heart attack. She confided that Harry seems uncharacteristically introspective and that on several occasions he’s told her all he wants is for us to be married and to have children. Cornelia says she’s afraid Harry feels a need to right his wrongs and is getting his fiscal and emotional affairs in order in preparation for dying.”

      “So you’re willing to let him choose your wife?” Alex said to Justin in disbelief.

      “No,” Justin said. “I’m willing to convince him that’s what’s happening, but I’ll do the choosing. I spend half my time in Idaho, not Seattle. I’ll marry someone acceptable to him and set her up in a home in the city and then I’ll go back to Idaho.”

      “You think that’ll work?” The question came from J.T.

      “Oh, yeah,” Justin drawled, cynicism lacing his tone. “The second she realizes she’s married to a Hunt and has a generous allowance, she’ll gladly live in Seattle while I live wherever the hell I want. I’ll write off the cost of keeping her and the kid as a business expense.”

      “Damn, Justin,” Alex said. “That’s cold.” Not to mention dishonest. ButAlex didn’t say that. He knew his brothers all thought he was too idealistic, that he simply didn’t understand the cold realities of the world.

      “Not cold. Practical,” Justin said.

      “You know this won’t work unless all of us are in,” Gray said.

      “I know,” Justin said. “And it won’t work for any of us unless we come up with a contract that ties Harry’s hands in the future. We’d have to make sure he can never blackmail us like this again.”

      “Absolutely,” J.T. put in. “If he thinks he can manipulate us with threats, he’ll do it again in a heartbeat.”

      “So if we do this, we are going to need an ironclad contract that controls the situation,” Alex said, thinking out loud.

      “If all Harry had threatened us with was loss of income,” Justin said, “I’d tell him to go to hell and walk. But I’m not willing to lose the ranch. What about the rest of you?”

      Alex finally broke the silence that followed his question. “If it was just money, I’d tell him to go to hell, too. But it’s not, is it?”

      “It’s about the things and places he knows matter most to us.” J.T. sounded grim.

      “Part of Harry’s demand was that the brides not know our identities until after we’re married. How are you going to find a marriageable woman in Seattle who doesn’t know you’re rich, Justin?” Gray asked.

      “I’ve been out of state for most of the last eighteen months, plus I’ve never been as high-profile as the rest of you,” Justin said.

      “Yeah, right,” J.T. scoffed. “There isn’t a single one of us who hasn’t had our picture in the paper or a magazine.”

      “But not as often as Harry,” Gray said. “He’s the public face of HuntCom. I’ve got to give the old man credit, he deflected as much publicity from us as he could.”

      “True,” Justin agreed. “So how about it, Gray? Are you in?”

      Alex knew Gray could be as stubborn as Harry. “Face it, Gray. Harry holds all the cards.”

      “He always has.” Gray sighed audibly. “This totally sucks, but if we can come up with a way to tie Harry’s hands in the future, then I guess I’m in.”

      By the time they finished their call, Alex was already thinking of ways he could fulfill his part of their strange bargain and begin his own hunt for Cinderella.

       Chapter One

      Six weeks later…

      Alex looked around his new apartment with satisfaction. This place, with its nondescript decor and discount-house furniture, was a far cry from his pad in the city, СКАЧАТЬ