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He rubbed the back of his neck. Their personal lawyer had obtained information on Leanne. She held a Master’s degree in Business Management and taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “She might not have any appreciable business experience, Mother, but she’s not stupid.”
He picked up the investigator’s report from their lawyer. “She’s not just a teacher, she’s a professor. Well-respected.”
“But not tenured.”
“She’s young for that.”
“Mark, the girl is no competition.”
“I agree. I just don’t want to see her embarrassed. She is family.” And that, he told himself, was the only reason he cared.
“Oh, please.”
“Even with the agreements, it’ll be difficult to keep this fiasco out of the papers. Too many people know already. The court case didn’t help. If I have to wipe the floor with my young auntie, I will. I’d just rather not endure a public farce while doing it.”
“She’s hardly worth your concern.”
“I’m concerned with keeping the business. I’m going to run it, as we’ve always planned.”
“Maybe you should charm the girl, keep her off balance. Just don’t let this little Miss-Nothing-from-Nowhere bring down the business with a scandal. No one needs to hear about her harlot mother becoming the Lion’s mistress or raising his illicit offspring all on her own.”
Mark swung around to berate his mother, but stopped. Leanne stood in the doorway, ashen and wide-eyed. He took a step toward her.
Leanne backed away. Her gaze held his, and it seemed she checked her tears by sheer force of will.
“So you’re here,” Gloria said. “I suppose it’s time for you two to get your first assignment.”
Leanne nodded slowly, then straightened her shoulders. “Yes, I do believe it’s time to begin.”
Mark followed her out the door to the next room, unsure what to say. He could strangle his mother for her hateful words. He wished he’d had the chance to defend Leanne. He felt awful. The poor woman had stepped into a vicious world of cutthroat dealings. She’d be out of her element. No one was exempt from cruelty here. No matter how stunning her green eyes, how shapely her legs.
He pulled his thoughts back into line. This woman, for all her claim to be related to his adopted father, was a stranger. A stranger who would try to take his birthright from him.
Well, no, he checked himself. Actually, it was her birthright. His by right of adoption and years of damned hard work. He was the non-blood Collins, the outsider. They were related only on paper.
Does that mean we could…?
With an irritated grunt, he stepped into the room behind her. Introductions had taken place while he’d been standing in the hall like an idiot.
“Mr. Mulvany.” Mark reached across and shook the man’s hand. He greeted each of the six board members and Todd Benton. He watched Leanne slide into a chair, then took the one next to her. They sat facing the board across the table. He shook his head. Just like on the TV show.
Harrison Mulvany III reached inside his coat pocket and slid a white envelope across the table to Leanne. “I’ve been entrusted with this, my dear. I don’t know the contents myself. I’m just passing along a favor.”
He reached into his pocket, then slid a cream envelope toward Mark. Mark watched out of the corner of his eye as Leanne slit hers open. Her mouth tightened; her eyes narrowed.
He slit open his own envelope. The Lion had left him a brief note: “I’m counting on you to prove I haven’t wasted all these years. Prove you’re a Collins.”
Mark very carefully folded the note, then fitted it back into the envelope. He put it in his inside breast pocket, against his heart.
When would he fit in? What the hell did he have to do to finally belong to this family?
The Lion had just answered those questions. He’d fit in when he won. Only then would he prove he was a Collins.
“No,” Leanne said.
He looked at her, forgetting she’d just received a note from the dead, also.
“I’m not interested.”
Mulvany nodded, then slid her a cream-colored envelope. “From your father.”
Mark started. This one came from the Lion? “May I ask who the first note was from?”
She turned her head and looked right through him. “I’m sure you know.” Then she turned her attention to the sheet of stationery. After a moment, she put it in her purse.
Benton cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?”
Mulvany nodded.
“You’ve met the board members,” Benton said. “They wanted an opportunity to look you over. Now all but Mr. Mulvany, Mr. Garland and Mrs. Metcalf will leave.”
The other four filed out. The door closed, and silence descended. Mark’s throat tightened. He knew he would win. Leanne had no experience while he’d had twenty years working right here at Collins Company. Still, the tension of being measured against the Lion’s expectations bored into his head.
Benton opened a folder in front of him. “This is how we proceed. I have given the first challenge to Mr. Mulvany, who will oversee the competition. The three board members present will reconvene after each challenge’s time limit to review your effort. They will determine who wins each phase. The last challenge carries the most weight in their determination of the winner for the position of CEO and control of the Lion’s stock shares. Questions?”
Leanne shook her head.
Mark asked, “Is there any recourse other than this competition?”
“I’m sorry, but no,” Benton said. “Should either of you choose not to compete, you will be disqualified. The CEO position and stocks will be awarded to the other person.”
Mark looked at the board members. “As acting head—” It grated on him to phrase it that way. He should be in charge. “—of Collins, I want a written promise from each of you to ensure total confidentiality. This would hurt the company should it turn up in the papers.”
He withdrew affidavits for each member and slid them across the table. “The Collins lawyers drew these up. You may have your lawyers look at them, but know that I will not continue with any discussion of this farce until these are signed.”
Taking the last paper out of the folder, he set it in front of Leanne.
She looked at it, then him. With raised eyebrows, she asked, “Where’s yours?”
“My what?”
“I want a guarantee of your silence, as well.”
“Trust me, I don’t want this to get out.”
“Nor do I. However, in the interest of fair play—” Her cold glare indicated that she considered him incapable of being fair. His neck warmed, but he held her gaze when it clashed with his.
“I want to make sure,” she continued, “that when the challenges are awarded in my favor, and should I be granted succession of the line—”
Her cat-like smirk reminded him of his “heir apparent” remark in the mausoleum. Heat crept from his neck to his cheeks, and he only hoped it didn’t show on his face. He allowed a smile to flirt with his lips, acknowledging her jab, but not bowing before it.
Her smile flashed, then disappeared. “I want to be assured you won’t run to the papers to cry foul or try to destroy CoCo once you no longer head it.”
“CoCo?”
Her cheeks appeared a shade pinker. “Our pet name for the Collins Company.”
“‘Our pet name?’ Yours and your mother’s?”
At the mention of her mother, Leanne’s face hardened. A sore spot. Good to know, although he doubted he’d use it against her in business. However, the knowledge might come in handy for their private jousts.
Leanne turned back to the table. “Mr. Benton, do you see anything in this document that would make you advise a client against signing?”
“No, it looks standard. However, I would advise you to seek your own counsel—”
“Very well,” Leanne cut in. “Thank you. Now, if we could make a copy of this please? I wouldn’t want Mr. Collins to be without his own copy to sign.”
She sat back and crossed her arms.
Mark nodded to Benton, who rose and called in the Lion’s secretary, Mrs. Pickett. While Benton handed her the paper and gave her instructions in a low voice, Leanne sat up and spoke to the board.
“I notice you obey the directives of Mr. Collins. He has merely to nod, and his wishes are fulfilled. I would hope that as we are competing for the same prize and I might be appointed the head of this company, you will award me the same honor.”
The board members shifted in their seats.
“What are you saying, Ms. Fairbanks?” Mark asked.
“If this is to be a fair game, so to speak, I will need the aid of the staff as well. I know you’ve worked for the loyalty you command. I don’t expect any. I’m sure I’m considered an interloper. Little Miss Nobody from Nowhere.”
Her arrow hit its target. Mark couldn’t let that pass without comment. “I’m sorry you overheard that, Leanne,” he said quietly. “My mother is very upset.”
She threw him a look that expressed her disinterest in his mother’s feelings.
“Please understand that her opinions are not necessarily mine,” he said.
“But then, to you, I’m just the ‘auntie’ you’re going to wipe the floor with.”
He turned away. He wouldn’t apologize for his determination to win control of the Collins Company or to prove himself worthy.
“Ms. Fairbanks,” Mr. Mulvany said, “I will oversee this farce, as Mark calls it. Rest assured you’ll be given every cooperation. I’ve been informed you’re the Lion’s natural child. Lionel Collins held my respect as a businessman and a friend. May I say welcome to you, and good luck.”
She tipped her head in acknowledgment. With queenly presence, Mark thought.
“Thank you,” she said. “Under those conditions and with your conscientious administration of the contest, I will agree to compete.”
Mulvany beamed.
Mark swore under his breath. With one show of vulnerability, Leanne had made Mulvany her champion. From the smiles on the faces of the other two board members, Mark knew favor had shifted to her. Now he was the big baddie, trying to trick this sweet young innocent out of her inheritance.
He set his shoulders. Fine. She’d won this round by getting them on her side. Mulvany would look out for her welfare. It wouldn’t be easy for him to overcome her personal victory, but he would. Just because they liked her didn’t make her a good businesswoman.
Mrs. Pickett returned with the papers, which he and Leanne both signed. Benton took possession of all the documents. “I’ll have copies made for your attorney.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I have no qualms about proceeding.”
“Then, here it is,” Mr. Mulvany said. “The first challenge is for each of you to make a proposal of something Collins Company—CoCo, if I may?” He smiled at Leanne, who nodded.
Mark simmered.
“Something CoCo needs,” he continued. “Whether this be a new product, a new client to sign, a company to take over, or something else will be up to you. I’m sorry to say this, Ms. Fairbanks, as it seems unfair to rush you, but the time limit is two weeks. We are to reconvene in this room to hear your proposals.”
Mark gritted his teeth. The man favored her, but did he have to fawn like that?
“At that time,” Mulvany continued, “we three will decide which of you developed the better proposal. We will then move on to phase two of the challenge.”
“I’m eager to begin,” Leanne said, her gaze fixed on Mark.
He admired her boldness and her courage. The challenge in her eyes had blood rushing to his groin. “I can hardly wait.”
Chapter Three
Leanne swallowed a sigh as she inspected the Collins financial reports. CoCo basically owned every kind of small firm imaginable. Everything one needed, CoCo had taken over a company that made it. They specialized in buying small-to medium-sized companies, revamping them with either an administrative clean sweep or a production overhaul, then selling the company again for a profit.
She would lose this challenge to Mark, and her lack of knowledge irked her. She didn’t know of any business in trouble. She couldn’t find any product CoCo needed to make at the companies it currently owned. Leanne tossed the report on her desk to rub her temples. Mark had found her a middle-management-sized office. She’d had no inclination, nor time, to decorate it, so it sat bare and uninspiring with its beige walls and carpet. It felt unused, unmoved-into, just a transitory space.
Leanne sighed. Pretty soon, she wouldn’t even have a temporary spot at Collins. She’d be back at school in her real office. Fortunately, she’d been scheduled to teach one night class on Monday and two day classes which met Tuesdays and Thursdays. She’d shown up at CoCo Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the last two weeks, sometimes in a catatonic state, but trying nevertheless. For all the good it would do her.
Mark, however, didn’t share that problem. He knew which companies CoCo had been looking at for takeover. He’d come up with ideas for products to manufacture. Glancing at her desk made her groan; she owned several Collins desk accessories, although, since they sported the brand name, Mark of Excellence, she hadn’t known that. All the Mark of Excellence products had begun as Mark Collins’s ideas. His little improvements on everyday items had made CoCo a fortune.
An idea for a new product line stumped her. She’d looked into their client list and drawn a blank there, too. She hated to admit defeat, but the challenge ended tomorrow.
“Something I can help you with?”
Leanne stiffened at the sound of Mark’s voice at her doorway. She gave him a small, tight smile. “No, I’m fine.”
They’d run into each other as she’d inspected different departments in the company. He exuded confidence and control. Mark ran the operations as acting head until the competition decided their futures. Never had she seen him so much as ruffle his hair in frustration over the double stresses of keeping CoCo going and vying for the right to do so.
“Have you had lunch?”
She eyed him. Every time she saw him, he wore a dark business suit. This one, a navy blue, showed off his wide shoulders, narrow waist and long legs. Mark always appeared professionally turned out. His hair lay in tidy near-black neatness. His tie always coordinated.
She felt underdressed. Her brown pantsuit had worked at the university but didn’t fit here. No doubt she looked harassed and wrinkled compared to his cool assurance. She’d never be able to think of an answer to the challenge. She had so much to learn—
“Leanne?”
Pulled from her panic over the project, Leanne couldn’t remember his question. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“Have you had lunch?”
