The Risks we take

Three

Reed

6 weeks. I'd been watching from sidelines. Using the contact, I had that worked over at Rise and apparently, she was succeeding. Staff morale was higher, people were putting out better work, she had increased revenue without any input from her father. Though I'm positive he had have had some input in this. There's no way meek little Sloane was doing this. She had to be a pretty figure head for the whole thing.

She had the pretty side down.

Fucking stunning. She'd turned from a shy girl into whatever the hell was stood in her office last month. And she didn't even know me. I haven't changed that much in 5 years. The stubble is new. But that doesn't change you completely. I was a total stranger to the girl who cried in my car when I told her she had to get out. She begged. Told me she loved me and we'd make it work long distance. And then I drove away to fuck some other girl I couldn't care less about if I tried.

I'd done it dozens of times. It didn't have the effect on me it used to. Destroying an unsuspecting girl because it was easier than having her stalking me when I was done. Always when they got too attached and wanted something more than casual. I don't do relationships. I warn them every time and every time they think they can change it.

They always remember me though. I'll run into them in the street and they go quiet before running off or they dump their coffee over me or flash their perfect engagement ring as unsubtly as possible.

Not Sloane.

No, she didn't have a clue who I was. Called me the wrong name. I hadn't affected her half as much as I thought it would have done. She was younger than I usually went for back then too. An easy catch when I bumped into her at a coffee shop. A little flirting and I was pulling her into a cab heading back to my apartment.

"Reed." My dad muttered again on the phone. "Are you paying attention?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

"God boy. Always lost in your head." I didn't need to see him to know he was shaking his head at me like I was a disappointment. "How's it going in getting Rise Weekly?"

"Dead end I think. She's a Windsor." Silence on the other end of the line was always unnerving. Dad tended to stay in Washington, manning the office there whilst I handled Head Office here. Luckily, I only had to catch up with him when it was important or once a month. But due to a little vacation he'd taken with who would apparently become the newest in his long lives of wives barely older than me, we hadn't spoken since the morning I visited Sloane. He'd had word of an acquisition and was pissed Eren hadn't offered it to us first. He'd shown interest in buying Rise for years. He wanted me to find out who it had been sold to and jump the wagon to get it on side.

"A Windsor. She- You mean Sloane Windsor or Emily?"

"Sloane." I sunk back in my chair, rubbing a hand over my forehead. She was giving me a headache. A migraine maybe. Pissing me off either way. "She's determined. Morale has shot up, so has their-"

"I know their quality has increased Reed. I read it. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No. That's not what I said." He grunted at me. "She doesn't want to sell."

"Well find a way to make her. You know your way around girls like this Reed. Find a way. Charm her, promise her the world. Put a fucking ring on her finger I don't care. I want that magazine and I am not having a Windsor breaking into this circuit. Do you know how dangerous that could be? Her parents own the media in the UK Reed. If they're using this to test the US market, it could put us out of business in months. Not years. Months. Do you understand?" I sighed.

The impression Sloane gave me when I saw her was the same as that when I met her parents a few years ago at The Critic Print Awards. Unwavering and headstrong. Things she hadn't been years ago.

Since the drop that she now owned Rise, her face had been in the gossip magazines almost every day. People were fascinated by her little conquest and every single picture she had this look on her face that conveyed power. That she was unbothered.

Dad was wrong in me knowing how to get these girls onside. The girls I spent time with had weaknesses. I was yet to spot one on Sloane. Other than her not remembering me. Something told me that would be the only way I'd be able to weasel my way in and get my father's wish. He was right in us needing to keep the Windsor's out of the already saturated market. We couldn't risk the increase in competition.

"Yeah dad. I'll- I'll work something out."

"Good. Now. I won't be making it for the Palmer Savage Gala. So, you will be representing us alone. Do not let me down Reed. If she knows what is good for her, she will be there and likely won't know what is expected at these kind of events which puts you at a charming advantage. Guide her through it with a gentle smile and she'll be putty in your hands before the end of the night. The quicker you get her to agree to talks Reed, the bigger your share of the company. She's got her father's millions to fall back on son. It's just business. Got it?"

"Mhm." I tapped my pen on the desk, forming my rock solid plan. "I've got some things I need to sort before tomorrow night. Nothing else to update you on office wise."

"Nothing on this side either. I will speak to you Monday morning for an update." The line went dead without so much of a goodbye which wasn't a shock