For the first time, being this vulnerable with someone wasn’t accompanied by a magnitude of fear.
“How’re you so damn perfect?” I divulged without thinking. I hadn’t meant to say those words but they were true.
He grunted. “I’m far from perfect, baby girl.”
Not that far,I silently thought.
“So, are still deciding whether to work atCombs and Combs?Have you talked it over with your therapist?”
“Not yet. I hadn’t even thought about it in months until my father came to my office today. I’ll bring it up in our next session. But enough of my daddy issues. Tell me about your trip. How’re the renovations going?”
“Smoothly so far. Everything’s on schedule. I’m just ready for it to be done. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
I smiled. “How come you’ve never opened a restaurant in Vegas before?” It’d been something I’d been wondering. Xavier had been in the hospitality business for close to fifteen years with restaurants in more than three states. And considering Vegas was closer to Houston than some of the other cities he had spots in, I wondered why he hadn’t contemplated that market in the past.
“I did.”
I lifted my head in surprise but stayed silent, waiting for him to expound.
“I was about twenty-five and had owned a couple of restaurants by then. I was full of myself and heard this entrepreneur was looking for investors to open a restaurant in Vegas. I figured it was going to be my leg into Sin City. I sought him out over the next few months, and everything seemed legit. He requested I put up the money upfront. I was cool with that, because I figured I’d make it up on the backend. He was supposedly meeting with casino and hotel owners, but I never attended any of the meetings. I was fine with that because I was busy in Houston and D.C. at the time. I was just going to be a silent partner anyway.”
I grinned at that, knowing my baby likes keeping himself in the background when it comes to his business. To the public, he was the strong, silent type.
“So, I thought contracts were signed, and the deal was done. I decided to do a pop-up visit and go check on renovations only to find that nothing was being built. Well, that’s not true, there was a restaurant being built at our location, but we didn't own it.”
“Shit,” I cursed.
“Yeah,” he responded. “I was pissed because I’d put up a hell of a lot of money, plus this was what I’d thought was my first break into Vegas. I’d planned it to be a springboard to more ventures. Come to find out, dude was a smalltime entrepreneur who did have a couple of restaurants not in Vegas, but acquired most of his money scamming people.”
“Damn, so how’d you handle it?”
“It took me a while even to find all this out. By the time I’d caught wind of what was happening, he was nowhere to be found. In the meantime, I gathered as much information on him as I could. About five years after he skipped town, he returned to Vegas, looking for investors. It took a couple of years, but he eventually opened two restaurants on the strip. After a year of doing just okay, his businesses began to fall apart. Head chefs started quitting, staff turnover was a mess, reviews got worse and worse. And a year and a half ago, he finally had to shut them down. He now owns just one restaurant far off the strip.”
I squinted at the gleam in Xavier’s eye. “What’s this guy’s name?”
“Dominic Rossi.”
I frowned, not familiar with the name.
“And his failing restaurants were just bad luck?”
“Nah, that was all me,” he declared with his cocky ass grin. The dimple that rested just above the start of his beard emerged. “I’d been waiting years to get his ass back. Knew my time would come, and had people in Vegas looking out for me.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “It took me a while to make sure everything was right before trying to open a spot in Vegas again. But it was a lesson learned. Taught me to do my work and not trust someone else with my business, be patient, and how to find someone’s weak spot.”
I looked at Xavier through the screen of my phone as he continued to talk about his restaurants in Vegas. When discussing the betrayal he’d suffered at the hands of Dominic Rossi, his eyes darkened almost to black. Now, as he talked about the ongoing renovations and plans he had for his new places, his eyes brightened. I realized in that moment just how calculating he could be, and God help me, it turned me on even more. Was there anything this man could do that I wouldn’t find sexy?
“I gotta get up early in the morning.”
I pouted, knowing that I needed to let him go. Hell, I had to get up for work in the morning too.
“Four more days, baby girl,” he stated, as if he could read my thoughts.
“Technically five, since you get in late Friday and I won’t see you until Saturday.”
“Or, you could just meet me at the airport Friday night. You know what? I’ll schedule my car service to pick you up before they pick me up from the airport.”
Before I could even respond, I saw him pulling his tablet out.
“What are you doing?”
