Just like that, I was busy at work in my home office in Del Mar, California, a gorgeous beach town known for horse races and former residents Desi Arnaz, Burt Bacharach, Angie Dickinson, and Jimmy Durante.
I glanced over at my vibrating cell phone on the desk.
It was a text from Dee, my administrative assistant and best friend.
Dee: We need to talk ASAP about the Amsterion deal. Video conference?
Ruth: Give me two minutes. I’m in desperate need of more coffee. Got up early today for a spinning class.
Dee: You + spinning class = disaster. I’m surprised you made it out alive.
Ruth: Barely.
Dee knew that I wasn’t a fan of high-intensity workouts. In fact, she knew everything there was to know about me in my personal and professional life.
That’s why she got paid the big bucks.
As a partner in my firm and a corporate takeover investment specialist, I couldn’t afford to have someone who wasn’t on top of things. I needed someone who had my back and was smart enough to think for me when I was too stressed out or operating on four hours of sleep, which was almost always.
Dee was that person.
I prepared another cup of coffee, sat back down at my desk, and then connected to the video conference on my laptop. “Good morning.” I adjusted the compression sleeve on my wrist since it felt a little too tight.
“Good morning.” Dee lost her smile and pointed. “What happened to your wrist?”
“Don’t ask.”
She nodded. “Does this have anything to do with the other thing I’m not supposed to ask about, the spinning class?”
“I thought you had something urgent regarding the Amsterion deal.”
Dee sighed. “Fine, but the conversation about your wrist is not over.”
I laughed. “Believe me, I know. Talk to me.”
“I just found out that Stewart Peters is going to try to make a play for Amsterion.”
I sat up in my chair. “You’re kidding me.”
Dee shook her head. “I wish I were.”
“How reliable is your source?”
“If he or she weren’t reliable, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Stewart Peters was the enemy and my biggest pain in the butt, always trying to steal my clients out from under me. I would be fine with it if he did it fair and square, but the guy was an unethical weasel.
“Okay, looks like I have to move quickly on this. Can you set up a call with Teddy Markston? I need to close the deal today and get him to sign the papers.”
Teddy was the CEO of Amsterion, the man I had been negotiating with.
“That will be difficult since Teddy is at the BioWorld conference in Phoenix,” Dee said.
“Of course. I knew that.”
“I’ll check flights to—”
I shook my head. “No.”
Dee nodded. “You’re right, you’re right. Let’s just forget about it. It’s no big deal that Stewart is at the conference at this very moment, trying to woo Teddy away from you. No big deal at all. You’re just flushing millions of dollars down the drain. Okay, I’ll let you go then.”
I blinked. “Reverse psychology . . . well played.”
Dee smirked and gestured to me. “I learned from the master.”
“How do you know that Stewart Peters is at the conference?”
Dee arched an eyebrow.
“Of course, you know.”
Dee knew just about everything about every deal I was involved in, inside and out. I was certain she could read my mind. And more than anything, like me, she wouldn’t take crap from male colleagues who thought they could do or say whatever they wanted just because they were packing two olives and a cocktail weenie in their shorts.
She was the closest thing to being my clone, which probably explains why we got along so well. She was the only person who seemed to understand me, which would also probably explain why she was my only friend.
Dee held up a finger and leaned in closer to the camera. “I also know that Stewart is having an affair with Markston’s daughter. The only reason he has a chance of stealing Amsterion from us is because he has insider information from the owner’s offspring.”
I nodded my appreciation of the bomb she had just dropped on me. “What does he know?”
“I’m not sure, but it most likely has to do with financials and a way for Amsterion to get more money on the deal. Whatever it is, it can’t be as useful as what you know now.” Dee grinned. “Stewart needs to be put in his place.”
“I don’t want to spend the night in Phoenix.”
“How long have I known you?”
I opened my mouth to answer and—
“It was a rhetorical question.” Dee took a sip of her tea and then typed on her computer. “I can get you on a flight that leaves in three hours, which gives you ninety minutes to leave your house since you won’t be checking baggage. That gets you into Phoenix in time for the welcome reception at the conference this afternoon, where you should find Teddy by the bar with his vodka tonic. You’ll have about four hours to work your magic.”
“I only need two.”
“I know. I gave you that buffer so you can stop by Harumi Sushi on your way back to the airport.”
Have I mentioned how well Dee knows me? She remembered that I raved about Harumi Sushi when I had eaten there six years ago. I was always interested in eating sushi. Unfortunately, there was zero interest on my part in flying to Phoenix at the moment, but I needed this deal. And I wouldn’t mind the sushi at all.
My goal from day one was to become the top dog of the company, managing partner of Stansfeld Investments. I was so close I could almost taste it. I had been at the firm for over ten years and had worked my butt off to get to where I was today. There was no way I would let up now. Plus, Teddy Markston told me he wanted to meet in-person at some point. It was either a one-hour flight to Phoenix or a five-hour flight to Miami to meet Teddy in his office after he got back from the conference. Even if I preferred Miami, I didn’t have the luxury of time being on my side.
I sighed. “I don’t like that Stewart Peters is fishing in my waters again.”
Dee smirked. “He doesn’t know that you’re a shark.” She continued typing on her computer. “You’ve been taking it easy on him.”
“Not anymore.” I nodded, knowing what I had to do. “Book it.”
“I already did. And I just registered you for the conference. Check your email for the confirmation.”
I shook my head at her. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“Your checks don’t bounce.”
I laughed, but then stopped when I thought of something else important. “I’m supposed to meet Nick Morris this afternoon.”
“For a date?”
“No. To give him the key to the house.”
Nick was the landscape designer I had hired for my backyard project that would start tomorrow.
Soon, I would have french doors in my home office that open up to palm trees, a fountain, benches, chimes, cactus, succulents, rocks, as well as flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. He had already lined up someone to come lay the foundation for the fountain and gazebo a few weeks ago. The project also included waist-high planter boxes to grow organic vegetables, plus the gazebo would have comfy chairs for relaxing, reading, working outside, and even taking afternoon naps.