Page 43 of Interview with the Billionaire

Bridge: Moving on.

[I clear my throat.]

Bridge: In that case, I’m curious about your business relationship with your wife.

Damien: It’s an excellent relationship. She created a fabulous product. We licensed it.

Bridge: You mean you financed it.

Nikki: The hell he did. He offered. I said no.

Bridge: And so he came in through the back door. Paid you for a nude portrait. But you both knew what it was for. And that’s fine. But my question is if you’ve worked together in any other capacity.

[The look at each other. I’ve clearly hit a nerve, as he’s obviously been pulling strings so that his wife’s software gets a massive contract with Stark International.]

Nikki: No. But I don’t think either one of us would rule it out.

Bridge: I don’t imagine you would. But you do work with Jackson.

Damien: I do. Yes.

Bridge: That must have been an unusual situation. He’d grown up knowing about you, but you didn’t know about him.

Damien: It wasn’t ideal, no.

[He crosses his arms. Looks at me.]

Damien: Lena, what’s going on?

Bridge: Just trying to put together an article.

Damien: My relationship with Jackson has been thoroughly explored in pretty much every form of media out there. What aren’t you telling me?

Bridge: Not a thing. You don’t know me as well as you think you do. You never gave us the chance.

[Beside him, I see Nikki raise a brow.]

Damien: What would you like to know about Jackson and me?

Bridge: What’s in the works next?

Damien: We’re expanding the Resort at Cortez, actually. Building a second residential section. Adding on to the resort. Increasing transportation to and from the mainland. We’re very excited about the project.

Bridge: So you started out brothers, became coworkers, and now you’re friends?

Damien: That’s accurate. Does that bother you?

Bridge: You don’t think it smells of nepotism?

Damien: I think it wreaks of talent.

Bridge: And you, Nikki?

Nikki: I definitely smell talent.

Bridge: Are you intimidated by the scope of your husband’s business ventures. He’s everywhere. I imagine there’s not a person in the world he couldn’t connect with in well-under six degrees of separation.

Damien: Lena, what’s this about? Even if that were true, what does it matter?