“But not this time?” Lucy asked.
“No. Warner is still opposed to the merger for sentimental reasons. Colfax Inc. is his creation. He built it from the ground up. But he no longer takes an active interest in it. His passion now is this winery. I’m afraid that without him at the top it’s only a matter of time before Colfax Inc. loses its edge. It was Warner’s intuition for investments that made the firm so successful. Unfortunately, there’s no one in the family who can replace him. No one has his gut instincts for the market. Everyone involved realizes that.”
“What about you?” Mason said.
“I’m good,” Cecil said. He raised one shoulder in a confident, self-effacing shrug. “I’m very good. That’s why Warner put me in charge. But when it comes to surfing the markets long-term, Colfax is a genius. The problem is he’s just not that interested anymore, and that’s the sad reality. Without him at the helm on a day-to-day basis, the wheels will eventually come off. He’s a stubborn man, but he’s a realist. In the end, I know he’ll do what’s best for the family.”
“Which is to accept the offer?” Lucy asked.
“Right. The merger will allow Warner to get out on top of his career. His legend will remain untarnished. And everyone in the family—and you as well, Lucy—will walk away with a very nice profit. We’re talking multimillion-dollar payouts for each stockholder. But I’m breaking my own rule here, talking business at a party. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to sit down with you sometime at your convenience and walk you through the spreadsheets. That way you’ll have all the facts before you make up your mind.”
“All right,” Lucy said.
Cecil took out his phone and tapped it a couple of times. “Would ten tomorrow morning work for you?”
Lucy did not bother to take out her own phone. “No, I’m afraid I’m very busy at the moment.” She smiled. “The body in the fireplace has complicated things.”
Cecil winced. “I understand. Maybe later this week? I don’t keep an office here in Summer River. I’m staying in one of the guesthouses on the estate. But that doesn’t matter. All I need is my computer. Ashley mentioned that you are at the Harvest Gold Inn. We can meet there, if that’s convenient.”
“No,” Mason said before Lucy could respond. He looked at Lucy. “You won’t have any privacy there, not unless you use your room.”
He let that hang in midair. There was no need to fill in the blanks, Lucy thought. She did not need a reminder that it would not be a good idea to meet with Cecil alone in her room. She doubted that Cecil needed a lecture on the subject, either.
He cleared his throat. “I was thinking we could have coffee together in the square.”
She stifled her irritation and gave Cecil a bright smile. “That sounds fine. I’ll get in touch when I’ve got some free time to sit down with you and look at the numbers.”
Mason looked even less pleased. Cecil, on the other hand, was clearly satisfied.
“That will be ideal,” he said. He dropped his phone into his pocket. “A pleasure to meet you, Lucy.” He nodded, ever so slightly, to Mason. “And you, Fletcher.”
He turned and waded into the crowd with casual ease, pausing to chat here and there before disappearing into the tasting room.
“Don’t,” Lucy said firmly, “ever do that again.”
“What?” Mason asked. He was watching the doors through which Cecil Dillon had just vanished.
“Do not step in while I’m making a business appointment.”
“He intended that business appointment to take place in your bedroom,” Mason said.
“I doubt that very much. You leaped to a dumbass conclusion, admit it.”
“Dumbass?”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake. He’s the CEO of Colfax Inc. You heard him, there are millions of dollars on the line. He wants to talk me into voting for the merger. That’s all he has on his mind.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because of the money, of course. Trust me, when there’s that much cash involved, money is usually all anyone is thinking about.”
“Usually?”
“What?”
“You said when there’s a lot of cash on the line, money is usually all anyone is thinking about. Are there exceptions to the rule?”
She hesitated and shrugged. “Sometimes people will let emotions overrule their own greed. Doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Not in this case, though.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Dillon is not a member of the family. The only thing he has at stake here is money. I’m sure the merger offer includes a very fat bonus for him.”
“So all he cares about is seeing that merger go through?” Mason asked.
“Yes. But I suspect he cares a lot about that.”
“So he’ll lean in hard to convince you to either sell the shares back to Quinn or vote in favor of the merger.”
“I can handle myself. I’ve been in high-pressure situations before. I have testified in court as an expert witness, and I have been confronted with irate heirs who didn’t think they got their fair share of an estate. Trust me, no one gets angrier than an heir who feels he’s been stiffed. I’m not sixteen years old anymore.”
Mason winced. “Sorry.”
“I know, you just can’t help yourself.” She patted his arm. “I realize you mean well.”
He looked down at her fingers on his arm. When he raised his head, his eyes were charged with a dark warning. “In exchange for not setting up the venues for your business appointments, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t pat me like a dog.”
She yanked her fingers off his arm. “Right. Sorry. Does it strike you that we are snapping at each other?”
“I noticed,” Mason said.
“We’re both a little tense tonight. The last thing we should be doing is quarreling.”
A man’s low, derisive laughter interrupted Mason before he could respond. Quinn Colfax strolled out of the shadows of a vine-draped trellis.
“You call that quarreling?” he said. “That’s nothing compared to what goes on in my family. You haven’t seen a family feud until you’ve witnessed a Colfax family fight.”
The words were ever so slightly slurred. Lucy knew the glass of wine in his hand was not the first or second one he’d had that evening. He’d started early. But Quinn managed to walk a fairly straight line.