Because He Watches Me (Because He Owns Me, Book Nine) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (39 page)

“And a sixth today,” Alric said.

“Who?”

“One of our art directors,” Lucas chimed in. “It’s a big problem. We can’t compete with the salary that Kane Wright is offering our people.”

“Kane Wright?” Red said, and if his gaze had been intense before, Nicole thought, it was now burning with the brightness of a thousand suns. The German ad agency executives wilted beneath his glare.

“I thought you’d been told,” Lucas peeped.

“No. I was not.” Red sat back in his chair and put a hand on his chin, looking down, lost in thought.

“It’s criminal what that man has done to Aufrührerische Kreativität,” Helga told them. “He’s purposely trying to ruin us, going after our most important people and offering them ridiculous sums of money to move to his agency.”

“Why would he do that?” Lucas asked them, throwing up his hands. His veneer of happiness and friendliness was gone, and now he just seemed bewildered. “Why would he pay so much just to take our people?”

Red still hadn’t spoken. The room fell silent as everyone looked to him for an answer. Finally, he spoke.

“Kane Wright is trying to destroy me,” he said.

Nicole watched him. She thought that he looked already as if he’d lost some enormous battle.

“We will fight back,” Lucas told him. “We are going to work hard, hire new people, and we will regain ourselves. I promise you that, Mister Jameson.”

“Who’s Kane Wright?” Nicole asked, softly.

Everyone turned to her now. They looked at her like she’d just asked him who Barack Obama was.

Red smiled. “Kane Wright is the European version of me. Only a little bit older, a lot richer, and a hell of a lot more ruthless and lacking in ethics.”

“I promise you these maneuvers of his will come back to haunt him,” Lucas said, pounding the table with his fist. “He can’t be allowed to get away with this.”

Red sighed. “I appreciate that, I appreciate your loyalty also. Have the three of you also been approached by Mister Wright?”

The three Germans exchanged glances and then slowly nodded.

Red sighed. “Did any of you accept an offer yet? Tell me now. If I find out you’ve lied to me today, I will make it my life’s work to pay you back for this breach of trust.”

Alric, the sharply dressed young man with the brown hair, uneasily raised his hand. “I’m sorry. I did just recently accept an offer to work with Kane Wright.”

Helga and Lucas turned and gawked at the younger man.

“Alric, are you insane?” Lucas practically yelled. “You’re taking the blood money from that horrible leach?”

“I’m so sorry. I know I should have told you,” he said softly.

“And you come in our meeting to spy on us?” Helga said. “You have no shame, Alric.”

They began arguing in German.

Red stood up. “Lucas, please call security and make sure they come and escort this man out of the building immediately.”

Alric started to leave, his head hanging.

“Thank you for being honest with me,” Red told him as he left.

Alric nodded, but Lucas just kept yelling at him again in German and ushering him out of the conference room.

“Could you give us a moment of privacy?” Red asked Helga.

She stood up, sweating and apologetic. “Of course, of course. We will wait outside,” she said.

Soon the room was empty. Red walked to where Nicole was sitting and knelt before her. “I’m sorry I’ve let you down,” he said.

She put her hands on his face and smiled. “You could never let me down. I love you no matter what.”

He kissed her palm, took her hands in his own. “I screwed up,” he said. “I lost focus and I made crucial mistakes.”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” she said. “You can’t beat yourself up over it.”

“I think my CFO might have been secretly angling for a position with Kane Wright the entire time. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.”

He got up and went to the back table and poured himself a glass of water, continuing to speak. “It’s like a chess match. Kane Wright set me up, knowing that if I overleveraged myself in order to buy this company, then he would be in a position to destroy me.”

“How did he know?” Nicole said.

“That’s where my CFO came in. I trusted him and he convinced me to make the deal, even though we both knew there were substantial risks. I have a feeling he’ll turn up working for Kane Wright within the next few weeks or months.”

“Is there anything you can do about it?” she asked.

“I’m weak right now. Soon we’ll lose our big clients and then this multi-million dollar acquisition will instead be a time bomb waiting to explode and destroy Jameson International.”

“There has to be a way to stop him,” she said. “Can you rehire those employees he stole, offer them even more money to come back to work at here?”

Red shook his head. “No, I can’t compete with Kane Wright in a price war, especially not now. Our stock is falling, and the word on the street is that I’m bleeding. I’ve been told that the board of directors of Jameson International is meeting at the end of next week. There’s a very good chance I’ll be terminated from my position as CEO, and Kane Wright will try and force a hostile takeover of our company.”

“But you founded the company, they can’t fire you!”

Red smiled sadly, took a sip of water and appeared thoughtful again. “Yet another mistake I made was that I only technically own forty-nine percent of the company. I needed to raise capital a few years back and so I gave a controlling interest away, knowing that it would take a very extreme circumstance for me to actually be forced out of my own company. But that day is here,” he said. “Too many mistakes, a bad economy, and a very powerful man intent on ruining me. That’s what it’s taken for me to lose everything I worked so hard to build.”

Nicole stood up. “We’ll build another company. You’re Red Jameson, you’re a genius.”

“Some genius,” he laughed. “Others might call me a one-hit wonder after this debacle.”

“Nonsense,” Nicole said. “I know what you’re capable of.”

“Apparently so does Kane Wright.”

***

A
fter a long
, grueling day trying to find solutions to a problem that seemed unsolvable, Nicole and Red finally returned back to their hotel at seven o’clock that evening.

Red was exhausted, more tired than she’d ever seen him. He went and took a long steam in the sauna and Nicole tried to relax and watch some TV. Most of the channels were in German, but she was able to find an older American film, Pretty Woman.

Nicole loved that movie, and she found it ironic that of all the movies that could have been on TV right now, Pretty Woman was the one she’d found at this precise moment.

And then she thought of Red’s mother, who’d basically accused her of being no different than a prostitute. Erica Jameson would have found it more than interesting that one of Nicole’s favorite movies was about a young, beautiful prostitute who falls in love with her rich client.

But for Nicole it was all about the love story, love triumphing over everything. No matter how different two people were, she thought, if they loved one another than they could find a way to be together.

Red had left his phone on the nightstand next to the bed. It started to ring during the scene where Julia Roberts was being treated shabbily at the posh store on Rodeo Drive (which just happened to be one of Nicole’s favorite scenes).

She glanced at Red’s cell and saw the number was unknown. For some reason, Nicole had a strange gut feeling that this call was important. “Red!” she called, grabbing the cell phone and getting off the bed. “Red, someone’s calling!” she cried out, but there was no reply from the bathroom.

Instinctively, she answered his phone before they could disconnect. “Hello?”

The voice on the other end was deep, pleasant, and decidedly not American, although the accent was impossible to pin down. “I must have the wrong number,” he said.

“Are you looking for Mister Jameson?” she asked, her voice betraying her nervousness at having answered the phone without Red’s permission.

“Are you his assistant?” the man asked.

“I’m—I’m a colleague,” she stuttered.

“Oh,” the voice chuckled with good-natured humor. “A colleague. Yes, of course. I imagine you’re a rather beautiful young colleague, as well. Would your name happen to be Nicole Masters?”

She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. How did this person know her name? She didn’t answer at first. And then, collecting herself, said, “May I tell Mister Jameson who’s calling?”

“Yes, but first I’d like a chance to speak with you, Nicole.”

She didn’t know what to do. If she denied her own name, she’d be lying for no reason. But she also didn’t feel comfortable with this strange man knowing who she was, when she didn’t know who he was. “I think I should just get Red—Mister Jameson, I mean—on the line.”

“Oh, that’s really too bad. You have a lovely voice.”

“Thanks. And who should I say is on the line?” she asked yet again.

He chuckled. “An old friend.”

Something in his voice made her nervous. And she didn’t know how she knew this, but Nicole suddenly had a strong gut feeling that this stranger was the very man they’d been talking about all day long. She’d never heard of him before today, but Nicole sensed that this was none other than Kane Wright.

“I’m not sure that Red wants to speak with you right now, Mr. Wright.”

Suddenly it was his turn to pause. After a long moment, he laughed as if delighted. “Aren’t you the smart little detective? No wonder Red fancies you. Beauty and brains, the full package.”

“I’ll let him know you called.”

“No,” he said, and the charm melted away from his voice. “Tell him that I’ve made dinner arrangements for the three of us tonight at the most exclusive restaurant in all of Berlin.”

“Tonight?”

“Yes,” Kane replied. “Reinstoff, at nine-thirty sharp. Please don’t keep me waiting, Nicole. My patience only extends so far.”

“Well, I don’t—“

And then the line went dead. She looked at the phone like it was a poisonous snake, feeling as though she might have just received a venomous bite due to her impulsivity in answering Red’s phone. What was she thinking? He was going to be furious.

Stunned, she knocked on the bathroom door again, and he still didn’t answer. So she opened the door, hit full blast by the steam from Red’s sauna. The bathroom was enormous, and she rounded the corner to the stall in the back. “Red, I need to tell you something,” she called out.

“Nicole?” he called back, his voice echoing. He emerged from the sauna with a towel wrapped around his waist and his body glimmering, covered by a thin sheen of sweat. Beads of water dripped down his black locks of hair that fell across his forehead. “Is everything all right?” he said.

“I don’t know.” She handed him his cell. “I might have just done something stupid.”

He checked the caller ID and saw the most recent blocked number. “Tell me what happened,” he said.

“Your phone started ringing and I had this feeling it was important, so I answered it.”

Red looked up at her, surprised. “You answered my phone?”

“I’m sorry.”

He smiled, then, and moved to kiss her lips. His kiss tasted salty sweet. “My darling, of course you can answer my phone. I’ve got nothing to hide.”

She sighed in relief. “I wasn’t sure if…if you’d think…”

He waved her concerns away. “Now tell me the rest.”

“It was Kane Wright,” she said.

His eyes went flat and cold. His lips tightened into a straight line, and his jaw clenched in that familiar way. “What did he want?” Red asked, through his teeth.

“He somehow knew it was me on the line without my telling him.”

Red walked to the sink and grabbed another small towel, patted down his face. “Of course he knew. He reads everything, he keeps meticulous tabs on all of his competition—especially me.”

“He was trying to flirt with me, I think.”

Red looked at her in the mirror, his eyes blazing now. “He flirted with you?”

“A little, in a gentlemanly, polite way. It seemed harmless enough, but I thought I should tell you just the same.”

“Don’t fall for his old world European charm, Nicole. The man is a vermin.”

“He didn’t impress me,” she said. “You’re the only one who can charm me.”

Red turned and looked at her. “Are you sure about that, Nicole?”

“Of course.”

“You might be put to the test on it sooner than either of us thought.”

She folded her arms and tilted her chin up, defiant now. “It won’t be a test for me,” she said. “I love you and you alone.”

“Good. Where did he tell us to meet him?” Red asked, throwing the towel to the sink.

“How did you know he wants to meet with us?”

Red laughed. “I’ve been studying him for as long as he’s been studying me.”

Nicole told him the restaurant and the time. Red nodded. “We’d better get ready, then.”

***

T
he restaurant was located
in a huge old building that Red told her had once been a Prussian factory. They exited the cab and the doorman held the door for them to enter. Nicole nervously looked down at her black cocktail dress and wondered if she should have worn something less “sexy.”

But Red had seemed happy with what she’d chosen for an outfit. He was dapper in one of his classic black suits with a crimson tie. He smelled of aftershave and mint.

Once inside, Nicole was shocked by how dark the lighting was. Each table had an immaculate white tablecloth and was illuminated by a spotlight from the high ceiling above, but the diners were all shrouded in gloom.

Tinkling piano sounds drifted through the room like smoke.

Red nodded towards the far end of the restaurant. “That’s him,” he said, starting to walk that way as the hostess enquired something in German. Red said something back to her in her native language, and she accompanied them to a table in the back of the room.

When they were close enough for Nicole to see what this mystery man actually looked like, she was shocked to find that he was a very handsome person, not at all whom she’d imagined from the sound of that voice on the phone.