Stingray Billionaire: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (13 page)

“Hold on a sec,” I tell
her. Covering the phone, I call, “Hey, Nick?”

“Yeah?” he returns from
the main room.

It’s funny how I only
remember I’m naked when I start walking toward Nick.

“Naomi’s lobbying for us
to fly her out here,” I tell him. “I say it’s up to you, but if she does come
out here, we’re going to have to figure out a way to bring Sammie and Max,
too.”

“That won’t be a
problem,” he says. “Most of the people who went out to the Mulholland office
are still there. Let me know when
you’re done
and I’ll make a
couple of
calls.”

“All right,” I say into
the phone, “we’re going to send someone to
get
the three of you.”

Naomi gasps. She says,
“Oh my god, thank you so
much. You
have
no idea how much I …”

She’s still going, but
I’m standing here watching Nick
look at me
.
He has that look in his
eyes,
and I’m
ready for more.

“Yeah, Nan, I’m gonna
have to let you go,” I say into the phone and hang up.

*
                   
*
                   
*

Nick’s still at work when
there’s a knock on the door. I still don’t know why he got her out here so
quick. I would say I didn’t know how, but I’m starting to see how money can
change things.

I open the door and
Naomi’s standing there with her oversized sunglasses and her best Jackie O.
outfit. “Oh my god, it is so great
to be here
finally
. You wouldn’t believe the flight I had,” she says, pushing her
way past me and into the house. “This place is
fantastic
!”

Behind her, Trevor is
unloading Max’s crate from the back of the
car,
and I go to help him while Naomi makes herself too much at home.

Trevor and I get Max’s
carrier
set down on the
ground,
and he’s whining and wagging his tail.

“Oh, I’m so
happy
to see you too,
buddy
,” I tell him. “We’ll let you out in just a second.”

“The gate to the property
is closed,” Trevor says. “We can let him out now if you wish.”

I follow Trevor’s gaze up
the long walk to the front door.

“Did she bring his
leash?” I ask. “I just don’t want him getting around back and running off down
the shore.”

Trevor ducks his top half
back into the car and comes back out with Max’s leash in one hand and Sammie’s
crate in the other.

“Hey there, Sammie!” I
say to my tabby, but he couldn’t be less interested.

I get Max on his leash
and Trevor’s kind enough to bring Sammie in, but once we’re inside the house,
Naomi is nowhere to be found.

“I hope you don’t mind me
saying, ma’am,” Trevor says, closing the front door, “but your sister’s a real
firecracker.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to
inflict her on you like that,” I tell him.

Trevor smiles, “Oh no, it
was a pleasure.” He gives the main room a quick once-over and, with a very red
face, he says, “If there isn’t anything else, I should get over to
Stingray
so Mr. Scipio doesn’t have to wait on
me.”

“Thanks again, Trevor,” I
tell him. “You’re the best.”

He glances around one
last time and then shows himself out.

I bend down and let Max
off his leash, giving him a good, long round of attention. I’d do the same with
Sammie, but he took off once his crate was open.

“Come on,” I tell Max.
“Let’s
find
Naomi.”

Max takes off like a shot
down the
hallway,
and I just start
laughing. Even with all the hassle Max gives Naomi, he adores her.

I follow him down the
hallway, but a moment later, he’s running back toward me to make sure I’m on my
way. The next instant, he’s running back down the long hall.

This is
the furthest I’ve been into the beach house so far, but Max just keeps taking
me down more hallways until he comes to stop at an open door. He sits and I
could swear he’s smiling as he watches me.

I get to the doorway and
Naomi’s inside, looking through papers.

“What are you doing?” I
ask.

“Come here,” she
whispers.

I shake my head. “You
should put those down,” I tell her. “Those are Nick’s.”

“Duh,” she says. “I told
you I wanted to come out here to protect you. I
can’t
do that very well unless I have all the information.”

“What exactly do you
think you’re going to find going through his business papers?” I ask.

“They’re not business
papers,” she says. “They’re mostly receipts from what I can tell, but it’s
still super
exciting
.”

“Naomi, I’m not joking.
Put that stuff down,” I command.

She rolls her eyes at me,
but sets the papers back on the desk, saying, “Fine.”

I run over to the desk
and straighten the papers. In the next breath, I realize two things: First, I
have no idea where these
documents
are
supposed to go or how he arranged them. Second, Naomi’s not in the room
anymore.

Closing the door behind
me, I leave the room.

Max wags his tail and
then runs off, so I follow him. I expect him to lead me to where Naomi is
again, but once we get back to the main room, he picks a spot on the floor and
lies down.

“Naomi!” I call out, but
there’s no answer.

This is
the downside of houses like this. She could be anywhere, and as long as she
hears me coming and relocates, it could take hours for me to find her.

“Nan!” I shout.

Still no answer.

Finally, I stop playing
nice, “Nan, if you don’t tell me where you are I’m going to have Nick send over
some of his guys to take you back to the airport!”

“I’m in here!” Naomi
calls, and I follow the sound to a room just off the main hall.

She’s standing in front
of a large painting. If I knew anything about art, I’d probably be able to tell
you which of the masters painted it, but to
me,
it just looks like an incoherent blob of color.

“Check this out,” Naomi
says and grabs one corner of the painting’s frame.

“Wait!” I say, but the
frame
swings easily on a hinge, revealing a
hidden safe behind it.

Naomi gives me a quick
eyebrow raise and puts her ear to the safe and starts turning the knob.

“What is the matter with
you?” I ask. “I’m gone a couple of
weeks,
and you turn into a
nosier
version of
MacGyver.”

She asks, “What do you
think is in here?”

“I have no idea,” I tell
her, “and
I bet
that’s the way Nick
wanted it.”

“There’s another one on
the other wall,” she says. “I’ll race you.”

As terrible an idea as it
is, for a moment, I consider it. I bet I could crack a safe way before she
could.

That’s all interrupted,
though, by the sound of the front door closing.

Naomi and I hurry out of
the bedroom, though I have to send her back in to put the painting back the way
it was.

I get out to the front
room,
and Nick is crouched down next to Max,
scratching the dog behind the ears.

“You’re home early,” I
say. “I thought you were working late tonight.”

“Yeah,” Nick says, but
doesn’t look up at me. “There was a change of plans.”

I walk around so I can
see Nick’s face. He looks like he’s seen a ghost.

Chapter
Ten

Seeping
Through

Nick

I have an early meeting
with the board, but I’m having trouble seeing the upside of going.

Marly wasn’t lying when
she said I didn’t have the people on my side I thought I did. Over time, though
more usually from event to event, employees will see their employers in
various
ways.

All of the stories in the
press about me fooling around while my company tanks have done an impressive
job of making me almost universally hated among the
higher-ups
here at the office. Not that any of them have come right
out and said it.

Malcolm has a different,
somewhat more diplomatic style than Marly did, but so far, it’s proven to be
just as effective. I already know what every member of the board is going to
say.

So, I get up from my
desk,
and I walk down the hall toward the board
room. As I go, people chatting at the watercooler grow silent, those at
computers stop typing. They know where I’m going.

I get to the board
room
and I show myself in. The members of the
board
are gathered and waiting for me
. I
take my seat in silence.

Leaning forward, I put my
elbows on the table, my forehead on my clasped hands and take a breath. I raise
my head and look at the eight people who might, it turns out, be able to remove
me from the company.

Not one of them has the
guts to speak first, so I take the lead.

“This is your meeting,” I
say, opening my hands. “Let’s talk.”

Daniel Reeves, the
unofficial spokesman for the eight, says, “Nick, what are you doing?”

“I’m waiting
for someone
to say something,” I tell him.

“You know what I mean,”
Reeves says. “Over the years, we’ve tolerated a lot from you. In the early
years, you were still getting your
chops,
and nobody’s holding it against you, but you’re a real leader now. When you
move, people pay attention. So why is it that when our company was plugging
along great, you decided it was time to uproot and move headquarters where
nobody will ever find it?”

“It’s on a map,” I tell
him. “Seriously, pull out your phone and bring up GPS. It’ll give you
directions and everything.”

“Nick …”

“What?” I snap. “This
wasn’t a problem until it
was made into
a
problem. The only thing happening now is the satisfaction of a self-fulfilling
prophecy the eight of you bled throughout this company.”

“You can’t run a business
like this from a place like that,” Geraldine Peña, my CFO,
chimes in
.

“Who cares where the
headquarters are?” I ask. “Everyone said we were supposed to set up in Silicon Valley,
but I didn’t hear too many complaints when I decided on New York.”

“That’s not the most
troubling matter,” Reeves jumps back in. “You make our investors nervous, Nick.
You always have.”

“I’ve also made our
investors filthy, stinking rich,” I answer. “They’re the ones causing our stock
to drop. They could turn this whole thing around by coming to their senses and
remembering the same thing you should remember.”

“What’s that, Nick?”
Reeves asks.

“They’re where they are
because they trusted me.
You’re
here
because you trusted me,” I answer. “I haven’t always been right, but I’ve
always tried to
do
right. Every step
of the way, I had people telling me it couldn’t
be
done
or that I was going to kill the company by making this decision or
that. Here I am, twenty-eight years old, still sitting at the head of one of
the largest tech companies on the planet. Do you think I tripped and fell into
the gig?”

Mason Handler, my
executive vice-president answers, “We know what you’ve done for the company,
Nikolai. We just don’t all agree that you’re taking it in the right direction
now. That’s what we’re talking about: Now. Maybe we’ll pull out of this, but
the numbers keep going down. We’ve been losing since you left for that
godforsaken hellhole.”

“Maybe it’s that I don’t
understand, maybe it’s that
you're not
clear, but I fail to see how your incendiary, though remarkably bland, quotes
to the press are doing anything but making it worse,” I accuse. “I read that
piece in the Times, Handler. Don’t think I’ll forget about it, either.”

“You can sit here and try
to throw the blame back
on
us, but the
fact of the matter is it’s simply not appropriate to have a CEO more concerned
with his personal life than he is with the company he runs,” Reeves says. “Not
when a
corporation
of this size is at
stake.”

“I don’t grant your
premise,” I respond. “Since day one when it was just
Jacque and me
sending
code
back and forth to each other across our dorm room, I have worked tirelessly for
this company and that dedication has only grown as the business has grown.”

“This ain’t an easy
conversation for any of us,” Verne Pollock, our biggest investor and easily the
most gutless person in the room, says. “We don’t want to start taking action,
but the investors I represent—”

“Oh, come off it, Verne,”
I spit. “The only investor you’ve ever represented was yourself. You’re not
loyal to this company any more than you’re loyal to me.”

“That is outrageous!”
Verne roars, rising to his feet. “I will not sit here and be spoken to in this
way!”

“Oh sit down,” I tell
him. “You have a stroke and these seven will replace you faster than they’ll
replace me.”

“Yeah, then we can just
join each other on the unemployment line, won’t we?” he asks.

I take a breath. This
approach isn’t
working,
and I don’t know
why I ever thought it would.

“Listen to me,” I say.
“We can talk about the specifics of the relocation, but
first,
we’ve got to remember we’re not all in this thing together.
If this company goes under, I’m sure everyone in this
room will get a dozen offers before the doors close, but the company I helped
build, the foundation of my entire career, is over.
If you think I don’t
take that seriously, you’re out of your mind.”

Reeves starts in again,
saying, “We understand the personal attachment you have to this company, Nick,
but you have to understand where we’re
coming
from
.
It isn’t
just another dip in
stock prices, Nick. You’re Napoleon marching the company straight to Waterloo.”

“Okay,” I say with a
chuckle. “So, what are we talking here? Are you honestly going to try to have
me removed?”

Reeves says, “We don’t
want to do that. At this point, the board is prepared to trust your judgment,
so long as that judgment is to give up this ridiculous move to Mulholland and
get this company back on track.”

The room is quiet for a
minute.

I take a deep breath.
“Give me a month,” I tell them. “If I haven’t convinced you by then this is the
right
move I
’ll drop the whole thing.”

“We can’t promise that,”
Geraldine says. “If we continue to lose investors—”

“A month,” I say and
stand. “Until then, I don’t want to hear anything more about it.”

They don’t agree. They
don’t disagree. One way or the other, they’re going to keep pushing to remove
me. They’ve smelled the blood in the
water,
and they’re not going to stop until I’m gone, devoured.

I look over the eight
faces that are to decide my fate once more before walking out of the room.

Fifty-one percent. I
still hold a fifty-one percent vote.

I wish that were the end
of the story, but there are ways around it. One of the quickest ways around it
is to declare me incompetent, thus evaporating my say in the matter.

I’d love to argue that an
incompetent CEO
could never
have built
something like this, not from the ground up, but that means nothing next to two
consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Even though I know Marly
had more than a little to do with all this, I wish she was here to tell me what
the hell I’m supposed to do now.

*
                   
*
                   
*

By the time I get home, I
just want to give Ellie a kiss, collapse on the couch, and maybe have a long
series of high-proof drinks.

Max greets me at the
door, and I give him a light pat on the head before going further into the
house.

“Nick?” Ellie calls. “Is
that you?”

“Yeah,” I holler back.
“Where are ya?”

“I’m in the kitchen,” she
says. “Come in here. I want you to taste this.”

Max accompanies me to the
kitchen where I find Ellie stooping over a pot of red sauce.

“That smells good,” I
tell her. “What are you making?”

She looks over her
shoulder at me, saying, “I found a recipe for manicotti I wanted to try. Tell
me what you think of the sauce.”

She gathers a dab of the
bubbling red onto the wooden ladle she’s using to stir and holds it in front of
her face. Very gently, she blows on it before holding it out for me to sample.

As she brings the spoon
of the ladle closer to my mouth, I can smell the garlic and the oregano. My
mouth is
watering,
and my lips are almost
to the ladle when, somewhere behind me in the house, Naomi lets out an
ear-splitting, “Woo!”

I am now wearing Ellie’s
sauce as a goatee.

“Oh!” Ellie says with a
chuckle as she reaches behind her for a paper towel.

“Hi, Naomi,” I groan.

The Michaels sister I
don’t
like comes bouncing into the room
and laughs heartily as Ellie kindly dabs the sauce from my face. “Didn’t see ya
there, Nicky boy,” Naomi says.

“Eh!” Ellie interjects.

“Oh,” Naomi says, “sorry
about that. I was asking my sister earlier if you had a nickname and that kind
of came up.”

I turn my head to look at
Ellie and with about ten times as much irritation in my voice as I intend, I
say, “Thanks, Ellie.”

Ellie’s eyes go wide for
a second, but she lets it slide—for now, at least.

“So, I was wondering if
you could help me with something Nicky—” Naomi stops herself. “I’m sorry, it’s
like someone telling you not to think of a pink bunny. No matter what you do,
it’s the first thing that comes to—”

“Can I give you a hand
with that?” I ask Ellie.

“Naomi, would you excuse
us for a minute?” Ellie asks her sister.

This
isn’t
going to be good.

Naomi says, “Sure,” but
instead of leaving the room, she just crosses her arms.

I’m not in the mood, but
I don’t want to make things worse, so I keep my quiet.

“Nan, now,” Ellie
commands and Naomi’s eyelids go wide. She leaves the room, leaving Ellie and me
alone. Ellie turns back to me, asking, “What was that all about?”

“I’m sorry,” I respond.
“Things at the office are …” I trail off. “It doesn’t matter,” I tell her. “I
shouldn’t have snapped at either of you the way I did. I apologize.”

“Is everything okay?”
Ellie asks.

“I’m fine,” I answer. “I
think I just need a drink.”

Ellie nods, saying,
“Yeah, I’d say so.”

“How about some
champagne? Are you in the mood?” I ask.

“I should probably keep
my head clear until
I’m done
mangling
this recipe,” Ellie answers with a soft smile. “You go ahead, though.”

“You sure?” I ask. “I’ve
got a bottle of Dom Perignon we could—”

“Was it the Rose
Vintage?” Ellie interrupts, wincing.

“Yeah,” I answer, looking
at Ellie out of the corner of my eye. “Tell me she didn’t.”

Ellie
winces
again.

“I thought you were going
to talk to her about that,” I say. “Since
she’s
been
here,
she's drunk
all my
expensive booze, used more than three ounces of caviar as a beauty
mask,
and she’s claimed the north end of the
house as her own.”

“I know,” Ellie says.
“Come here. She steps closer and puts her arms around me. “I know she can be a
pain sometimes, but she’s my sister,” Ellie says. “I’ll talk to her, okay?”

“I think I have a
bullhorn around here somewhere. From what I’ve seen, you’re going to need it to
get through that thick head of hers,” I say.

Oh, I
was close.
I was so very, very close.

“Excuse me?” Ellie says.
“I get that you had a bad day at
work,
and Naomi’s been a pill, but that is no
reason
for talking about her like that. I know she doesn’t
listen,
and I know that bugs the crap out of you, but could you
keep the snotty comments to yourself?”