“Lovely indeed.” He continued past her desk to his office with his breakfast in hand and let the door slam behind him. Allergic, his ass. She swore yesterday that her choking fit had nothing to do with the flowers and he believed her. This was about her being stubborn. Never in his life had he run across a woman so resistant to him. It didn’t make any damn sense.
Jonah settled into his chair, set down his food and fired up his computer with a stiff punch of his finger. It almost made him wonder if he’d romanced her before. Or one of her friends. She had the attitude of a woman who’d been loved and left by him or someone like him in the past.
But that couldn’t be the case. Despite the lengthy list, Jonah had a great memory for names and faces. He’d never laid eyes on Emma Dempsey before yesterday. If she was bitter about men like him, it wasn’t his doing.
But it would be his job to change her outlook. The deal with Game Town was riding on it. Even if he could get his hands on Noah and wring three million dollars from his neck, the transaction would be in the records.
His phone rang, an unknown number lighting up the display. Pam had put the call through, so he figured he wasn’t about to be assaulted by a telemarketer.
“Jonah Flynn,” he said into the receiver.
“Hey, it’s your favorite brother.”
Speak of the devil. Jonah took a deep breath before he said anything, choosing each word carefully. “I’ve told you before that Elijah is my favorite brother, but Noah, you’re just the man I was looking for.”
His brother chuckled on the line. They both knew the operations of FlynnSoft had nothing to do with Noah. He occupied an office. Drew a paycheck. On a rare occasion when he was bored with his other mysterious pursuits, he helped with charity golf tournaments and presented large, cardboard checks.
“What’s so important that it couldn’t wait until I came back from this trip? This call is costing me a fortune.”
“What?” Jonah asked. “About three million dollars?”
The silence on the end of the line told him everything he needed to know. Noah had taken the money but didn’t think anyone would notice it so quickly. Maybe any other time they might not have noticed it before he replaced it. But his timing sucked and Emma would find it, Jonah had no question.
“Listen, I don’t care whether you blew it on hookers and fruity drinks or built schools for poor children. It doesn’t matter. But I want it back right now.”
“Yeah, that’s a little iffy at the moment. I don’t exactly have it right now. But hopefully I will by the time I come home.”
“And when will that be?”
“Two weeks at the most.”
“Okay, fine. But if it isn’t back in my hands—in full—within fifteen minutes of you arriving in the US, I’m going to take every penny out of you with my fist.”
“Jonah, I—”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses. You come up with three million bucks or I will make you so miserable you’ll wish you’d stayed in Thailand. Am I clear?”
This time, Noah didn’t try to argue. “Crystal. Have you told Mother?”
Now it was Jonah’s turn to laugh. “No. And I have no intention of doing it unless I have to. You and I both know her heart can’t take the stress, although it doesn’t stop you from pushing the boundaries.”
“I would never deliberately hurt Mother,” Noah argued.
Jonah shook his head in dismay. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s deliberate or not, you still do it. You never think of anyone but yourself.”
“And you don’t think of anyone but your employees and your company,” Noah countered. “You practically ignore the whole family. When was the last time you went to the estate to visit her? Or came to my apartment? Or Elijah’s place? You accuse me of blowing money on Thai hookers and you spend every bit of time and money you’ve got on vapid supermodels.”
Jonah’s jaw grew tighter with every word out of his youngest brother’s mouth. If he had the time, he’d fly to Thailand right that instant just so he could punch Noah in the face. His brother seemed to think that this company had appeared out of thin air. That Jonah hadn’t had to pour his heart and soul, in addition to all his free time, into building it and making it a success. When he did get to play, he played hard. Yeah, he didn’t spend much time with his family, but they all had their own lives, too. None of them had knocked on his door recently, either.
“The company is important to me, yes. It supports a lot of people, including you in case you’ve forgotten. I have pride in what I’ve built and I’m not about to lose it because you’re a thoughtless little prick. You do know the auditor from the Game Town deal is here, right? That your little stunt may have cost the company a huge, lucrati
ve contract?”
“Oh hell,” Noah swore. “I completely forgot about that. I didn’t think—”
“No, you didn’t think, Noah. You never do.”
There was an awkward silence on the line for a few moments while Jonah took another deep breath.