“Did she really?”
I shrugged.
Michael grimaced.
“Fine. I’m not done yet.” As Michael threw out the carrot, I glared at him.
“Just get on with it. I need to make some decent decisions.”
He chuckled as if he was holding a great secret. “Ms. Blair has a family.”
“We all fucking do.”
“Not like this one. Her father is Jonathan Blair of Blair Development.”
It took me all of five seconds to comprehend what he was telling me. “You’re shitting me.”
“Nope. Blair Development, by far Elliot Enterprises’ greatest competition and if I had to guess, the company who might be whispering in several pairs of ears including Barchella Hotel Group, suggesting they are the firm to handle this job. Maybe the meeting this week wasn’t as innocent as your father would like to believe.”
Fury funneled inside of me. While there was no chance she’d been sent as a spy, my guess was that when the lovely Vanessa had learned who I was, she’d gone straight to Daddy, who’d fed her details of exactly what to do to gain information andleverage. What surprised me wasn’t her attempt at subterfuge, but that she’d suddenly bailed on the possibility of a very lucrative contract.
I laughed and adjusted my tie, thinking about the very moment I’d had my fingers wrapped around her long, lovely neck. “That juicy information changes everything.”
“How so?”
“She will enter into a contract with me.”
“And just how are you going to make that happen?”
I took a deep breath, savoring the moments I would share with her as a business partner and as perhaps as something else.
“She’s going to begin to understand the punishment she’ll receive for crossing me.”
“Be careful, Christian. Jonathan is powerful. He also holds the attention of several influential corporate moguls and a number of politicians up and down the East Coast, including in Florida. You don’t want to cross him.”
“You underestimate me, my friend. I’m like a dog to a bone.”
He shook his head. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Get the contract ready, Michael. For this afternoon. I will have several additional clauses buried deep within.”
“Why the rush?”
As a smile crossed my face, a feeling of satisfaction settled in. “Because I’m soon to be married.”
My grip on the steering wheel was tight. My mind was active. My pulse skyrocketing. No one turned me down, let alone attempt to extort or otherwise play any kind of game with me. I was damn good at playing all of them.
Chess.
Poker.
Roulette.
And much more salacious games.
No one won against me. And here she was, pretending she was sweet, her morals preventing her from partaking in a slight charade. What a joke. She was the ultimate game player. I’d spent a full hour checking on her father’s activities. He’d made more than a few overtures toward various resorts, both statewide and abroad while also contacting various city officials in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and Fort Myers. It would seem Blair Development had their sights set on invading Florida.
Over my dead body.
