Maguire. Finally.
I stabbed the call button. “Where have you been?”
“We have your brother,” a robotic voice said.
My blood ran cold. My chest felt like it had filled with concrete.
“If you want to keep him alive, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
Zane
God, this party was boring.
Zane Roth sipped his wine and glanced around the ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental. The party held the Who’s Who of New York society, all dressed up in their glittering best. The ceiling shimmered with a sea of crystal lights, tall flower arrangements dominated the tables, and the wall of windows had a great view of the Manhattan skyline.
Everything was picture perfect…and boring.
If it wasn’t for the charity auction, he wouldn’t be dressed in his tuxedo and dodging annoying people.
“I’m so sick of these parties,” he muttered.
A snort came from beside him.
One of his best friends, Maverick Rivera, sipped his wine. “You were voted New York’s sexiest billionaire bachelor. You should be loving this shindig.”
Mav had been one of his best friends since college. Like Zane, Maverick hadn’t come from wealth. They’d both earned it the old-fashioned way. Zane loved numbers and money, and had made Wall Street his hunting ground. Mav was a geek, despite not looking like a stereotypical one. He’d grown up in a strong, Mexican-American family, and with his brown skin, broad shoulders, and the fact that he worked out a lot, no one would pick him for a tech billionaire.
But under the big body, the man was a computer geek to the bone.
“All the society mamas are giving you lots of speculative looks.” Mav gave him a small grin.
“Shut it, Rivera.”
“They’re all dreaming of marrying their daughters off to billionaire Zane Roth, the finance King of Wall Street.”
Zane glared. “You done?”
“Oh, I could go on.”
“I seem to recall another article about the billionaire bachelors. All three of us.” Zane tipped his glass at his friend. “They’ll be coming for you, next.”
Mav’s smile dissolved, and he shrugged a broad shoulder. “I’ll toss Kensington at them. He’s pretty.”
Liam Kensington was the third member of their trio. Unlike Zane and Mav, Liam had come from money, although he worked hard to avoid his bloodsucking family.
Zane saw a woman in a slinky, blue dress shoot him a welcoming smile.
He looked away.
When he’d made his first billion, he’d welcomed the attention. Especially the female attention. He’d bedded more than his fair share of gorgeous women.
Of late, nothing and no one caught his interest. Women all left him feeling numb.
Work. He thrived on that.
A part of him figured he’d never find a woman who made him feel the same way as his work.
“Speak of the devil,” Mav said.
Zane looked up to see Liam Kensington striding toward them. With the lean body of a swimmer, clad in a perfectly tailored tuxedo, he looked every inch the billionaire. His gold hair complemented a face the ladies oohed over.
People tried to get his attention, but the real estate mogul ignored everyone.
He reached Zane and Mav, grabbed Zane’s wine, and emptied it in two gulps.
“I hate this party. When can we leave?” Having spent his formative years in London, he had a posh British accent. Another thing the ladies loved. “I have a contract to work on, my fundraiser ball to plan, and things to catch up on after our trip to San Francisco.”
The three of them had just returned from a business trip to the West Coast.
“Can’t leave until the auction’s done,” Zane said.
Liam sighed. His handsome face often had him voted the best-looking billionaire bachelor.
“Buy up big,” Zane said. “Proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Clubs.”
“One of your pet charities,” Liam said.
“Yeah.” Zane’s father had left when he was seven. His mom had worked hard to support them. She was his hero. He liked to give back to charities that supported kids growing up in tough circumstances.
He’d set his mom up in a gorgeous house Upstate that she loved. And he was here for her tonight.
“Don’t bid on the Phillips-Morley necklace, though,” he added. “It’s mine.”
The necklace had a huge, rectangular sapphire pendant surrounded by diamonds. It was the real-life necklace said to have inspired the necklace in the movie, Titanic. It had been given to a young woman, Kate Florence Phillips, by her lover, Henry Samuel Morley. The two had run away together and booked passage on the Titanic.
Unfortunately for poor Kate, Henry had drowned when the ship had sunk. She’d returned to England with the necklace and a baby in her belly.
Zane’s mother had always loved the story and pored over pictures of the necklace. She’d told him the story of the lovers, over and over.
“It was a gift from a man to a woman he loved. She was a shop girl, and he owned the store, but they fell in love, even though society frowned on their love.” She sighed. “That’s true love, Zane. Devotion, loyalty, through the good times and the bad.”
Everything Carol Roth had never known.
Of course, it turned out old Henry was much older than his lover, and already married. But Zane didn’t want to ruin the fairy tale for his mom.
Now, the Phillips-Morley necklace had turned up, and was being offered at auction. And Zane was going to get it for his mom. It was her birthday in a few months.
“Hey, is your fancy, new safe ready yet?” Zane asked Mav.
His friend nodded. “You’re getting one of the first ones. I can have my team install it this week.”
“Perfect.” Mav’s new Riv3000 was the latest in high-tech safes and said to be unbreakable. “I’ll keep the necklace in it until my mom’s birthday.”
Someone called out Liam’s name. With a sigh, their friend forced a smile. “Can’t dodge this one. Simpson’s an investor in my Brooklyn project. I’ll be back.”
“Need a refill?” Zane asked Mav.
“Sure.”
Zane headed for the bar. He’d almost reached it when a manicured hand snagged his arm.
“Zane.”
He looked down at the woman and barely swallowed his groan. “Allegra. You look lovely this evening.”
She did. Allegra Montgomery’s shimmery, silver dress hugged her slender figure, and her cloud of mahogany brown hair accented her beautiful face. As the only daughter of a wealthy New York family—her father was from the Montgomery family and her mother was a former Miss America—Allegra was well-bred and well-educated but also, as he’d discovered, spoiled and liked getting her way.
Her dark eyes bored into him. “I’m sorry things ended badly for us the other month. I was…” Her voice lowered, and she stroked his forearm. “I miss you. I was hoping we could catch up again.”
Zane arched a brow. They’d dated for a few weeks, shared a few dinners, and some decent sex. But Allegra liked being the center of attention, complained that he worked too much, and had constantly hounded him to take her on vacation. Preferably on a private jet to Tahiti or the Maldives.