My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 114

Moke, HE MOVE

Victor Makes His Move

-Katia-

Sam put the background file on my desk at seven AM.

+25 Brous

“On a surface level, everything checks out,” she said. “Halo Systems is legitimate-registered in the UK, with clean financials and significant government contracts across Europe and the Gulf. Victor Hale joined MI6 at twenty -two, left at twenty-nine, and founded Halo at thirty. Built it fast.” She paused. “Too fast, actually. The growth rate in the first two years doesn’t match the client acquisition timeline. Someone was helping him

“Who?”

“I don’t know yet. I need more time.”

“How much time do I have before the meeting?”

Sam looked at her watch. “Two hours.”

I read the file. Then I read it again. Then I closed it and looked out the window at Dubai doing its morning thing brilliant and indifferent and entirely unconcerned with whatever was happening in my hotel suite.

Victor Hale had requested the meeting through the WEG hospitality office, which meant Julian’s team had facilitated it, which meant Julian knew about it. He had not mentioned it at breakfast. That told me something.

I got dressed and went to the meeting.

Victor was already in the private dining room when I arrived.

Standing, not sitting. That was the first thing I noticed. He had positioned himself at the window with his coffee, looking at the view, so that when I walked in, I would see him against the Dubai skyline – deliberate framing. He turned when I entered with the smile of someone genuinely pleased to see me, which was either real or the best performance I had encountered in a long time.

“Ms Kensington”, he crossed the room and shook my hand. His handshake was exactly right – firm, brief, and no games. “Thank you for making time.”

“Of course,” I said.

We sat. Coffee arrived. Victor talked about I* Technologies for four minutes with the specific fluency of someone who had done serious research – not surface-level, not the kind of information you picked up from a press release. He knew the architecture of the Invisible Shield. He knew the Dubai expansion timeline. He knew the Amsterdam node relocation that Davies had confirmed three weeks ago in a meeting that had not been public.

I filed that away and kept my face completely neutral.

“I’ll get to the point,” he said. “I want to buy into I* Technologies. A forty per cent stake. The valuation my team has put together is generous – I think you’ll find it difficult to refuse on the numbers alone.”

He slid a document across the table.

I looked at the number at the top of the first page.

He was right. It was generous. It was so generous it was almost designed to be refused the kind of number that made you ask what someone actually wanted because nobody paid that much for forty per cent of something without wanting something the money didn’t cover.

I closed the document.

1/3

You Make This Move

“No,” I said.

+25 Bonus

Victor nodded slowly. He had expected that. There was no surprise in his expression, no recalibration, just the settled patience of someone who had prepared for the second act of this conversation.

“May I ask why?” he said.

“Because I Technologies is not for sale,” I said. “Not forty per cent of it. Not four percent of it. Not now and not at any number you’re likely to put in front of me.”

“That’s a strong position for a company still in an expansion phase.”

“It’s my position,” I said. “It’s not a negotiation.”

Victor looked at me for a moment. Then he picked up his coffee and leaned back slightly, and the smile changed. Not dramatically just slightly. The professional warmth dialled back a fraction. Enough that I could see what was underneath it.

“The Middle East markets,” he said. “The ones you haven’t entered yet. Gulf infrastructure, government contracts, and defence adjacencies.” He paused. “Halo has significant relationships in those spaces. Relationships that took years to build.” Another pause. “It would be unfortunate if those relationships made I*’s entry into those markets difficult.”

There it was.

The threat, dressed in a suit, sitting across from me over coffee in a Dubai hotel, delivered with the specific politeness of someone who wanted it understood without being on record as having said it.

I looked at him.

“Mr. Hale,” I said. “I’ve been in business long enough to know the difference between a proposal and a threat. And I don’t respond to threats regardless of how well they’re dressed.” I picked up my bag. “I* Technologies will enter whatever markets it chooses to enter, on whatever timeline it chooses, and the relationships you’ve spent years building will have to decide for themselves who they’d rather work with. I stood. “Thank you for the coffee.” Victor did not stand. He looked up at me with an expression that was almost admiring. Almost.

“You’re exactly what I expected,” he said. “That’s rare, by the way. Most people are smaller in person than their reputation.”

“Call my office if you have a legitimate proposal,” I said. “Show yourself out.”

I left.

Sam was in the corridor.

She had been there the whole time – not inside the room but close enough. That was Sam. She fell into step beside me as I walked toward the elevator.

“Well?” she said.

“A forty per cent stake offer. Generous number. Threat about Middle East market access when I declined.” I pressed the elevator button. “He knew about the Amsterdam node.”

Sam went very still. “That meeting was internal.”

“I know.”

23

2ictor Makes His Move

+25 Bonus

“Which means he has someone inside our operation. Or inside WEG’s.” She paused. “Or both.”

The elevator opened. We got in.

“He’s dangerous,” Sam said.

“I know.”

“This isn’t a normal competitor situation, Kat. The way he looked at you last night

“I know, Sam.”

She looked at me. “What are you thinking?”

I looked at the elevator doors.

da

I was thinking about eighteen months of I* contracts that had gone to competitors we couldn’t identify. About a company that had grown too fast in its first two years. About a man who knew the details of an internal meeting and had flown to Dubai specifically because I was here.

I was thinking about the fact that Julian had not mentioned this meeting at breakfast, which meant he either

unlikely – or he knew and had said nothing on purpose, which meant he didn’t know Victor had requested it

was already moving on it.

–

I was thinking three moves ahead, and none of them were comfortable.

“I’m thinking,” I said, “that we need to find out who helped him build Halo Systems in two years.”

The elevator opened on our floor.

“I’ll start today,” Sam said.

“Start yesterday,” I said.

I went to pack for New York.

We were going home.

6

12

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify