Winner Takes It All Read Online Free PDF Page A

Sheridans just a little bit, so rather
than Christian hand it down to his kids, he has no option but to
sell it.’
    Tom laughed out loud,
finishing his drink.
    ‘ Jackson it
might have escaped your notice, but I’m hardly the type to go in
and ruin a company. You have the wrong man.’
    ‘ But you’re
the right man, can’t you see? You’re the disowned sister’s son.
You’re ordinary, you went to state school, you’ve never held down a
job, you’ve got no money. The Cusacks have no reason not to trust
you. I need to you infiltrate the family. Grandmother’s positive
there are secrets flying around and I need someone to uncover them.
Anything to discredit the Cusacks and make our bid go more
smoothly.’
    ‘ I can’t do
it,’ Tom said with a shake of the head. ‘It’s not my
style.’
    A steeliness fixed
Jackson’s eyes and he seemed to bore right into Tom’s
soul.
    ‘ How else are
you going to repay me my one hundred and fifty thousand
pounds?’
    ‘ But you
said….’
    ‘ Look, Tom,’
he said, trying to make his voice softer. ‘Just do this favour for
us and grandmother will write you back into her will. I’ll give you
a seat on the board of Sheridans, make you a major shareholder and
you won’t just be putting on poxy little plays in fringe theatres
in Islington. You’ll be able to afford to open in the West End.’ He
smiled like a wily fox. ‘Why I might even start buying
theatres.’
    ‘ But these
people have done nothing to me. I can’t spite them.’
    ‘ They took
away your inheritance Tom. Sheridans should be ours and if you
really want to repay me and be a part of this family, you’ll
do this one thing to help us get it back.’
    ‘ How do I
start?’
    ‘ Well cousin,’
he smiled smugly. ‘You start by going home and packing your
suitcase because you’re coming to New York with me on Thursday.
You’re going to stay in my Manhattan apartment; we’re going to have
some fun and you can meet grandmother for the first time
ever.’
    Tom sighed, feeling as
though he’d just made a pact with the Devil.
    ‘ I don’t have
much choice in this do I?’
    Jackson sat back, that
lofty expression returning to his face.
    ‘ No Tom, you
don’t.’

    Three
     
    Alex couldn’t remember
when she last felt so bored. She had a stack of paperwork to get
through and was dying to get started on the project her father had
set her, and instead she was stuck here in The Amersham Arms,
watching The Bell Jar - Tim’s other passion. As well as conducting
ridiculous and pointless research projects, he also played the
keyboard and acted as a sort of manager for the group. Alex
couldn’t possibly begin to imagine who would pay good money to
watch a bunch of middle class students who were all around thirty,
performing their fey little songs.
    As well as her contempt
at the music, Alex also couldn’t stand the group members. Justin,
Tim’s best friend and Mini Me was the guitarist; an extremely
irritating girl called Annika played drums and the singer was Toby
Jenson – quite possibly the most annoying man Alex had ever met. He
liked to consider himself an activist, a socialist and generally
right on and yet his father was a life peer, a member of the
Conservative party and somewhere right of Ghengis Khan. Toby
couldn’t be blamed for his father’s sins, but there was something
about him that made Alex feel he was pretending to be a man of the
people and come the day the trust fund matured he’d go running back
into the fold of his family.
    Right now they were
performing ‘Gone’ a song about a teenager who has a secret abortion
and kills herself. Alex sat surrounded by mainly Tim’s fellow
academics who were swaying to the whistful music, pursing their
lips and nodding appreciatively, feeling somehow worthy because
they were listening to songs with ‘proper’ lyrics. Alex couldn’t
share their enthusiasm and this made her feel slightly guilty. Of
the Cusack family, it was only Paula and her