Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (100 page)

“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.”

***

After 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.”

***

The 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.

He was older than Red, perhaps late
forties or even early fifties.
 
But
it was obvious that he took very good care of himself.
 
His broad shoulders and muscular build confirmed
that much.
 
What Nicole found most
daunting were his eyes, however.
 
He
had light colored eyes, but when he glanced at Nicole his eyes darkened.
 
And like Red, she saw a very similar
intensity and hunger in Kane’s gaze when it locked on hers.