Twist of Fate Read Free

highly marketable software products but it’s a mess financially. Your brother is only twenty-nine years old, Hannah. He may be brilliant at software design but knows nothing about management. Accelerated Design is a sitting duck for me.”
    â€œPrecisely my point.” Hannah’s leg protested angrily as she shifted position in the chair. Her fingers tightened around the glass in her hand. Pain control this afternoon might require more than one margarita.
    â€œPardon me, but I think I may have missed your, uh, point.”
    â€œA sitting duck. What do you need with another sitting duck target, Mr. Cage? Surely you’re more of a sportsman than that? Where’s the challenge in launching an assault on a small, badly managed software house such as Accelerated Design? You’re a creature of habit. That’s your problem.”
    Cage paused thoughtfully and then said very gently, “Habit?”
    â€œUmmm. You’ve been on a roll for the past nine years. Ever since you demolished that company in California. What was the name? I remember reading about it in the Wall Street Journal recently when they did a profile on you.”
    â€œBallantine Manufacturing.”
    Hannah marveled at the perfectly neutral tone of his words. Whatever had happened with Ballantine Manufacturing could not have been a neutral event for him. It had set him on the course he had followed unerringly for the past nine years. “You were only about thirty or thirty-one at the time, weren’t you? After that, there was, apparently, no stopping you.”
    â€œI’ve been reasonably successful.”
    â€œYou’ve been a steamroller. There’s a difference, I think.”
    â€œNo, Miss Jessett, there isn’t. Being successful in my line of work means being a steamroller.”
    â€œAs a professional guidance counselor, allow me to disagree. You’re just in the habit of launching victorious assaults on companies such as my brother’s. Habit, Mr. Cage. You’re not moving in on him out of necessity. You don’t need his firm. You just saw it sitting there looking vulnerable and decided to grab it. I’d think you’d want more challenge, but that’s your problem. I’m not here to alter your entire way of doing business.”
    â€œLucky me.”
    Hannah gritted her teeth against the pain in her leg and kept her smile intact. “I’m here only to persuade you to lay off my brother’s firm. As you, yourself, said, he’s young. He needs time to bring the management situation at Accelerated Design back under control. If you take over the firm, he’ll be out in the cold. You’ll have obtained a company with some interesting products, it’s true, but you hardly need one more of those. You’ve got lots of them already.”
    â€œI’m supposed to walk away from such easy pickings just because you’ve flown down here to plead your brother’s case?”
    â€œOh, no, Mr. Cage. I wouldn’t dream of appealing to your compassion or sympathy. You’ve already confirmed that you’re short on both commodities, remember?”
    A curious smile edged his mouth. “I remember. So what are you offering that will tempt me to forget about Accelerated Design?”
    Hannah gathered her courage. “A simple game of chance.”
    â€œA game of chance.” He took a slow swallow of the margarita, his gaze on the pool. “That wasn’t quite what I expected, Hannah.”
    â€œYes, I know. As I said, you’ve become a creature of habit. The habit of victory, whether in business or here in Vegas. I’m taking an educated guess that after nine years of hollow victories, you’ve become rather jaded, Mr. Cage. Everything’s too easy for you now. Moving in on my brother’s firm will provide no new sport, only the same temporary shot of adrenaline. You need a bit of real excitement in your life and I’m