SEBASTIAN
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“Good morning, Mr.Remington,” Donna in reception greets me as I stride across the lobby.
“Morning.”I nod and keep walking.
At the elevator, I push the button, grateful we have a private one for the executives.If I had to listen to a dozengood morningsevery day, I’d probably go insane.
Nobody’s getting a raise because they greet me better than anyone else or have a smile in the morning.I prefer it when my employees ignore me.
Unless of course I ask them a question.
One would think, as the boss, you could ask that of your staff.Apparently, that’s “not appropriate.”
The door closes and I snort out a private laugh.
I check my email on the ride up to the top floor, grinding my teeth when I don’t see an email from Khalid or Rashid Al-Mansour.
This isn’t good.
Stepping out, I stride down the executive floor to my spacious corner office.I give the billion-dollar view of Manhattan a cursory glance, drop my bag on my chair, and tug out my laptop.
“You’re here.”Victor appears in my doorway.
“I am.”I don’t bother looking at my CFO as I connect my laptop and drop my bag on the floor.
Victor stands on the other side of my desk and slides a hand into his pocket, the other one lifts a mug to his lips.
“How did the rest of your meetings go in London?”
Victor flew home from Dubai while I traveled on to England.I’m certainly not telling him the highlight of my trip was the flight home.
“My jet is stuck over there.”
“What?So you flew commercial?”He chokes on his coffee and coughs.
“Yeah.”I laugh, and he stares at me like I spoke Russian or something.
“Those poor passengers.”Victor laughs as he coughs some more.
You have no idea, Victor.
“Yeah, anyway, it went fine.I still haven’t heard from Khalid.”
I walk down to the executive lunchroom while Victor follows me, reminding me about the report I still haven’t come back to him about.
“So what do we think about the sheikh disappearing?”he finally asks, sounding concerned.
When I mentioned it in Dubai, he’d had too much to drink and shrugged it off.Now he’s clearly catching up.I’m trying not to worry.It could be something that has nothing to do with us.
But we are expecting half a billion dollars from the sheikh.He’s the major investor, besides Remington Obsidian, and if it falls over at this point in the project, it will be our biggest failure.
I don’t fail.
We are the most successful luxury development company in the country.
“Khalid's disappearance is a concern, yes.But his silence since is even more worrying.”
