The Billionaire Bum by Samantha Blair Page B

this have something to do with Alissa? All I’d done was hang out with her all morning. What could possibly make him this angry?
    “Don’t play dumb with me, Jackson. How could you go behind my back and try to buy the Carver Company yourself? All that bullshit about not trusting Nick, while it was you who was being a deceptive little shit?”
    “Did he tell you that? You believe that I would lie to you for financial gain? Have you lost your fucking mind? Put me down, you gorilla, and we’ll talk about this.” His hands didn’t loosen on my shirt. God, he was really pissed.
    Fucking Nick. I hated that bastard. This had probably been his idea all along, to drive a wedge between brothers so that our company would fail.
    “No, he didn’t tell me that. He gave me a goddamn recording of the conversation. I have your fucking voice on tape, telling him that you want to buy his company without involving our business. That’s fucking evidence, Jackson.”
    Shit. Nick had recorded our conversation and was trying to make it look like I wanted to keep the profits for myself. “Fuck man, I swear to God I can explain, but you’re seriously hurting me. Get a hold of yourself.”
    “Tell me,” he said, pushing me further into the wall. “Tell me how the fuck he got that recording.”
    “Jason, you know I don’t want to buy that company. I have always thought this was a bad deal. I don’t care how many times the reports come back clean, Nick is a lying, deceitful sack of shit, and there is something crooked in that business. I just haven’t found it yet. I went to his office and offered to buy him out personally because I don’t want his company to be a liability to our company.”
    He still had me in a death grip, but I could see that my words were starting to sink in.
    “You and the rest of the board wouldn’t listen to me when I said that this whole thing was a bad idea. You know that my vote alone can’t override a majority decision. So I offered him more money, my personal assets, because I wanted to protect the company that you and I have worked so damn hard to build together. If I owned it personally, and it went bad, I would have simply buried it and taken the financial loss myself. If I was wrong, and the company was a success, I could have merged it into our joint business any time. I would never fucking steal from you, Jason. Never.
    I’m telling you, that man is a crook. He wouldn’t accept my offer, which makes me even more suspicious of him. He should have sold the business to the highest bidder, but he didn’t, which means that he wants Hayes Enterprises specifically to buy him out. He has to have a reason for that, and now, from what you’ve told me, I’m guessing that driving a wedge between us is a big part of that plan.”
    Jason’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. It was like something had finally clicked in his brain, and he was processing the fact that he had his brother pinned against a brick wall in an alley. His hands relaxed.
    “Oh God, Jackson. I’m sorry; are you okay?” He was in some odd emotional state between rage and horror, and if I wasn’t terrified, it might have been funny. I would not ever want to be on Jason’s bad side.
    I nodded that I was. I bent over with my hands on my knees trying to return my breathing to a normal speed. “Fuck man. I thought you were going to kill me.” A nervous laugh escaped my lips. “All that over a business transaction? Remind me never to screw you over. Seriously.” I could see that he was returning to his usual senses.
    “You’re that sure that this is a bad idea?” he asked. “You really would have bought him out just so that you could take the risk on yourself?”
    “Yes, Jason,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t discuss it further with you before I went to him, but you were backing the board’s decision, and I thought you had your mind made up. I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t sell to me anyway, and I didn’t want