All In
by Simona
Ahrnstedt
GENRE: Contemporary
Romance
BLURB:
In the cutthroat
world of Sweden’s financial elite, no one knows that better than corporate
raider David Hammar. Ruthless. Notorious. Unstoppable. He’s out to hijack the
ultimate prize, Investum. After years of planning, all the players are in
place; he needs just one member of the aristocratic owning family on his
side—Natalia De la Grip.
Elegant, brilliant,
driven to succeed in a man’s world, Natalia is curious about David’s unexpected
invitation to lunch. Everyone knows that he is rich, dangerous, unethical; she
soon discovers he is also deeply scarred.
The attraction
between these two is impossible, but the long Swedish nights unfold an affair
that will bring to light shocking secrets, forever alter a family, and force
both Natalia and David to confront their innermost fears and desires.
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Excerpt:
Michel nodded. After all, this was
what Hammar Capital did. Their team of analysts searched for companies that
weren’t doing as well as they should be. David and Michel identified the
problems—often incompetent leadership—and then vacuumed up shares in order to
put together a majority holding
Then they went in, brutally, took
over, broke the company into pieces and restructured, sold, and profited. They
were better at this than almost anyone else—owning and improving. Sometimes it
went smoothly. People cooperated, and Hammar Capital was able to drive its
agenda. Sometimes there was a fight.
“I’d still like to get someone from
the owning family on our side,” David said as southern Stockholm spread out
beneath them. Having one or more of the big shareholders, some of the giant
retirement fund managers, for example, on your side was critical for success in
a hostile takeover this big. David and Michel had spent a lot of time
convincing the managers, attended endless meetings, and run the numbers
countless times. But winning over someone from the actual owning family had
several advantages. In part, it would be an enormously prestigious symbolic
win, especially with this firm, Investum, one of Sweden’s biggest and oldest
companies. It would also automatically win over a number of other shareholders
who would vote in favor of Hammar Capital if David and Michel could show that
they had someone from the inner circle on their side. “It would make the
process a lot easier,” he continued.
“But who?”
“There is one person who actually
has gone her own way in that family,” said David as Bromma Airport came into
view on the horizon.
Michel was quiet for a bit. “You
mean the daughter, right?”
“Yes,” David said. “She’s an unknown
but considered to be quite the talent. It’s possible that she’s dissatisfied
with how the men are treating her.” Investum wasn’t just an old and traditional
company. It was patriarchal in a way that would make the 1950s seem modern and
enlightened.
“Do you really believe you can win
over anyone from that family?” Michel asked hesitantly. “You’re not exactly
popular with them.”
David almost laughed at the
understatement.
Investum was controlled by the De la
Grip family, and the company did billions of kronor worth of business a day.
Indirectly Investum, and thus the De la Grip family, controlled close to a
tenth of Sweden’s GNP and owned the biggest bank in the country. Family members
sat on the board of directors of close to every major Swedish company. The De
la Grip family was upper-class, traditional, and wealthy. As close to royalty
as you could get without actually being royal. And with significantly bluer
blood than any member of the House of Bernadotte, Sweden’s royal family. It
would be unlikely for David Hammar, the upstart, to get anyone from the
innermost circle— known for their loyalty—to change sides and join him, an
infamous venture capitalist and corporate raider.
But he’d done it before, convinced a
few family members to join forces with him. That often meant leaving a trail of
broken family ties behind him, which he usually regretted, but in this case it
would be a welcome bonus.
“I’m going to try,” he said.
“That’s damn near insane,” said
Michel. It wasn’t the first time in the last year he’d uttered those words.
David nodded briefly. “I already
called to set up a lunch meeting with her.”
“Of course you did,” said Michel as
the helicopter started its descent for landing. The flight had taken less than
thirty minutes. “And what did she say?”
David thought about the cool voice
he’d gotten on the line, not an assistant’s but that of Natalia De la Grip
herself. She had sounded surprised but hadn’t said very much, just thanked him
for the invitation, and then had her assistant confirm the lunch appointment by
e-mail.
“She said she was looking forward to
our meeting.”
“She did?”
David laughed, tersely and
joylessly. Her voice had been distinctive in that patrician way that almost
inevitably triggered his disdain for the upper classes. Natalia De la Grip was
one of about a hundred women in Sweden who had been born with the title of
countess, the elite of the elite. He hardly had the words to express how little
he thought of that kind of person.
“No,” he said. “She didn’t say
that.” But then he hadn’t expected her to, either.
AUTHOR BIO:
Simona Ahrnstedt was born in Prague and is a licensed
psychologist, a cognitive behavioral therapist, and most importantly, a
bestselling author. As her novels have swept bestseller lists in her native
Sweden, she has become a spokesperson for books by women, for women, and about
women. Her provocative women’s fiction has been sold in multiple languages as
well as audio format. She lives outside
of Stockholm, Sweden, with her two teenagers.
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