Consequences

Part 83

Doug opened the door. Five pairs of inquisitive eyes turned to focus on Isabelle. Nervously she stepped into the room. With his palm in the small of her back, gently stroking up and down to reassure her Doug quickly made the introductions. Ryan, Charlie, Jared, Caitlin, and Ailsa were there.

"We've met." Isabelle blinked as she looked at and recognized the woman in front of her.

Caitlin nodded. "Yes, erhm, hi!" Doug narrowed his eyes at Caitlin. He knew from what Jared had told him that she was angry with Doug for not standing by Isabelle. Caitlin threw her husband a beseeching look. She'd said she wouldn't interfere, but she had!

Isabelle looked at the other woman present and she was also familiar. "And I know you." Isabelle announced and then she glanced at Doug who looked a touch sheepish. Isabelle returned her gaze to the young woman. They'd met a couple of times when the lease changed. "You're my landlord." Isabelle accused, and being the bright woman that Isabelle was she figured out that Doug was behind the new rental agreement.

Ailsa squirmed, looked at Doug hoping he'd bail her out, but he looked a touch anxious so she looked back at Isabelle and decided to keep things simple. "Er, yeah."

If he wanted a relationship with Isabelle he was going to have to come clean. "Actually we all are. As you've probably figured out." Doug told Isabelle, and wondered whether his life was just about to become even more complicated and whether the relationship they had just about reestablished had just been torpedoed. "We bought the building." Doug announced calmly and waited to see Isabelle's reaction.

"I see." Isabelle's eyes narrowed as she tracked from one face to the next. She knew all of these people.

"I was trying to fix the fall out." Doug said flatly when she looked far from pleased. His business was going belly up, and now it would appear he had just burnt his bridges where his personal life was concerned. Doug knew her well enough now to know that Isabelle would not be happy to learn he had manipulated her situation.

"I see." Ryan and Jared shared a look when they too recognized that tone of voice. Not a happy woman. Ryan waited for his brother to start digging himself out of hole. Looked like Doug was floundering.

"Here," Ryan held out a chair for Isabelle. She took it. Her brain worked quickly as she made sense of the new information. Basically Doug was her landlord.

"Isabelle may save our bacon." Doug told the rest of the group, even as he watched Isabelle process what he'd said about owning her building. "She has shares in us."

"So?" Ryan asked and walked over to stand by his wife.

"So, Isabelle is not going to sell to whoever is buying up wholesale, is she!" Doug looked at his brother, "Unless of course you upset her!"

"Oh. Right." Ryan nodded and grinned at Isabelle.

Isabelle glanced at the worried faces, "Can't you track who is selling and buying?" She expected Ryan to know what and who was behind this take over. If the man could find out that it was her credit card used to make the first engagement announcement, he was bound to be able to track the person responsible for this takeover.

"I'm trying." Ryan said and shrugged.

"I'd only figured what was going on last night." Doug told Isabelle, "I needed to confirm a few things today. Which Ryan did early this evening. Someone is trying to take us over."

"And I take it you don't want to sell." Six pairs of eyes focused on her. She shrugged. "Umm. Just checking." Isabelle folded her arms and tried not to sound nervous, as she queried, "So what are you going to do?"

"Wait." She was told bluntly and quietly by Jared. Isabelle looked across at the rather handsome man and wondered what he meant by 'wait'. Wait for what? If someone was buying them out surely they needed to put a stop to it?

"I'm so sorry." Alisa said, "I never thought anything like this would happen. I planned to have bought back my share as soon as I raised the funds." It had all seemed so simple. But what she now knew was that she had jeopardized what they'd built by making her shares available. It might be a small business, but it was theirs, until she sold that one percent. She felt guilt swamp her.

"It's ok." Doug shook his head, knowing that Ailsa felt bad about her contribution to their current predicament. But it was a simple mistake and in any case none of them expected their shares to be in demand! "None of us anticipated this."

"That's because we aren't as business savvy in that way." Ryan muttered to himself. Though he knew they had made a pretty simple mistake. At the time none of them knew that Ailsa had sold her shares. None of them considered it important. Not until they realized today that the other shares had been bought up at a rate of knots over the last few days.

"We are now." Doug said with pride and looked across at Isabelle. Theirs was a small business, it had a decent turnover, they were profitable, they employed a significant number of people locally, and until today they had ambled along on grit, determination and luck. But at the helm of their company were two men who had learnt their trade through experience, and in some cases, like this, the experience was tough. "Isabelle dug her family out of debt and kept it from becoming public knowledge. She understands what needs to be done. She can help us to keep this company." Doug said pointedly, and with conviction,

"What?" Isabelle frowned.

Doug made eye contact. "You are family after all." Jared and Ryan both started at Doug's blunt statement. The three other women watched Isabelle with open interest.

Isabelle gulped. Ok, well if she had any concerns about him wanting people to know they were together, those were well and truly squashed. If Doug trusted her to help try to keep his business afloat then the least Isabelle could do was help. Though, in reality she wasn't sure whether she was out of her depth. What did she know about running a business like this? Which reminded her about their association.

"Are you sure someone isn't doing this because of our association?" Isabelle asked as it dawned on her that she might be the reason for their plight. People might be targeting this company because he was involved with her. "No sooner are we engaged for the second time, and your company is involved in a hostile take over bid. Seems too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Our association?" Doug asked. "Why would that affect anyone other than us?"

"To show that the Soujour-D'Sa family will drag you down if you associate with them in any way."

"The Soujour-D'Sa family isn't taking us down." Doug quirked a brow at Isabelle. "I'm with you. Engaged to you. But that has nothing to do with the business." Ryan and Jared shared a look. The last single man standing in their little family had clearly just announced albeit subtly that he was no longer on the market.

Two hours later they headed for a local Chinese restaurant and sat down to eat dinner.