226 Inevitable Crash (18)

Since Kyro had fully expected for someone to come out sooner or later to extend a 'helping hand', he wasn't startled by the missive. He told Lara to arrange a meeting. The sooner they saw each other, the sooner he'd find out what angle they would use to try and get at him. And if they were the ones also working behind his back to quicken Dioscuri's fall.

He tried not to think about Jane. They hadn't separated on the best of terms and hadn't seen each other for years after. What did she even want after appearing out of nowhere again?

It didn't take him long to find out. The meeting was arranged for five o'clock, and Jane herself was the one the who met him in a private room. There was an older man behind her, named Mr. Smith, but Kyro didn't know him. He had to be someone from Horten Family Group's board, though.

They greeted each other as if they were all strangers. Kyro didn't pay extra attention to anyone, or reminisced about the past. But Jane wouldn't have come if she didn't do that for him.

"Do you even recognize me?" she asked with a laugh, tilting her head sideways.

At some point, she had gotten a boyish cut, her dark hair only barely longer than his own. But no one would ever confuse her for a man. With her delicate features, she looked like a flower in need of protection.

Though her dress bellied that. She was wearing dark pants and a white shirt beneath a dark jacket. Unlike many women, she didn't bother to act coy or show off her figure to win others. It was something he'd admired back in college, and it didn't seem to have changed throughout the years.

When he thought about it, she didn't seemed to have changed in the least. Besides her hairstyle, she looked and sounded the same. Had time stopped for her?

"How could I not? But we're not here to talk about that."

Jane stiffened at those words, but only for a fraction of a second. Her smile stayed on her face, bright as ever. "So cold. And to think I fought for the right to be the one to meet you here."

"Why would you do that?"

Kyro didn't hide the scepticism from his words. They hadn't seen each other for years, and she had risked her career for him? That would be the joke of the century. She left him because she thought her career was more important to her than him, and they had been dating at the time.

"Kyro." Jane sighed and crossed her arms. "I know that we separated not on the best terms, but it's the past. Both of us have changed in the meantime, so there's no need to hold a grudge against me for back then. We should start all over again."

The look she implored to him was sweet, but he wasn't blinded by it. Her acting was good, but she wasn't a professional. However, the fact that she was even trying rang warning bells in his head. What did they have to promise her to lower herself to such a level?

He though about giving her some assistance, pretending to be enamored, but then shook his head. As she said, they were over. No point to drag the past into the future.

"Can we start over?" The genuine question caught Kyro off guard. He looked at Jane and saw that she was laughing deprecatingly at herself. "I told them you wouldn't be fooled, but they didn't believe me. I had to give it a try."

"So the show's over?" Kyro asked while taking a sip of water from the glass on the table. "I almost miss it already."

"Things have changed," Jane said, her expression growing serious. The smile disappeared, replaced by tightly pursed lips. "And your situation is not an enviable one. You should know that."

Kyro shrugged. If they thought that, he wasn't going to agree. Even if Dioscuri was to crumble in ten minutes, he wouldn't admit it to his opponents. They didn't deserve to profit from his fall if they couldn't judge the situation themselves.

"Do you want to say you're fine?"

"I've hit a bump on a road, happens to everyone."

"No need for the games, Kyro," Jane said, her eyes narrowing. She took out a couple document cases which she passed to him. "We know all about your plight. Since you've made the mistake of kicking Gale Mosley out, you've been on a swift decline, your own people raising up against you."

'Their spy network is pretty decent.' Kyro checked the documents and saw the too-accurate data regarding his balance sheets. The information was portrayed as estimates, but as someone who knew the real numbers and what was released to the public, he knew they couldn't have calculated everything to such precision.

'Seems like I have my second culprit. They must be working together with Mosleys, but just what is their goal? The whole of Dioscuri? Interesting.'

"Do you have anything to say?" Jane asked, looking at him with hooded eyes. She seemed to already know his answer.

It was quite good dealing with old acquaintances. He didn't even need to speak to be understood.

The man behind Jane, Mr. Smith, chose that moment to speak up. "You cannot refuse us." He placed some more documents on the table. "No one will give you a better offer."

"Maybe," Kyro said with a shrug, skimming over the contract details. The man was being serious; it was a generous deal. Everyone in Dioscuri and its extended family would keep their jobs, all minor projects could be done autonomously, while only large ones would require approval from the Horten group.

As for Kyro himself, he'd be free to stay as well. His actions would have to be reported to the higher ups, but he'd be free to make a lot of decisions himself.

If Kyro was anyone else, he'd probably take such an offer. But it hadn't been his dream to be the richest or most powerful man alive, so their deal didn't entice him. He'd rather fight and lose than join the side that organized his downfall. Working for those who defeated him by pummeling him in a dark alley just didn't sit well with him.

"You can't expect to win," Jane said, looking at him like she'd looked when they were studying together and he would decide to bang his head against some problem that was out of his reach at that time. "Dioscuri's crash in inevitable."

Kyro shrugged at her. "Then it should crash."

Jane leaned a bit closer, studying his face. "What happened to you over the years?"

Before Kyro could think to answer, Mr. Smith next to Jane spoke up again. "What if I told you there's a way to save your Dioscuri?"

"Oh?" Kyro smiled at him, his expression lacking any warmth. "You have another offer?"

"I do. One you should appreciate." The man turned to his companion. "Jane, do you want to say it?"

"Fine." Jane frowned a bit, then leveled her expression, so there was nothing on her face. It was just a blank mask. "The board values your talents and thinks that for you to fall here would be a loss for everyone. That's why, if you were to marry into one of the families that are in the board, you could keep Dioscuri by yourself, and Horten family group would do all in its power to make sure it would stabilize. At no cost to you."

For a moment, Kyro just sat still, his mind having went on vacation. He'd expected many things, but not a marriage proposal. There was no prepared answer for such a thing in his head.

Noticing his stupefaction, Mr. Smith grinned. "And Jane here just so happens to be a daughter of one of the most important men on the board. What do you say?"