The only man that seemed to work as much as I did was Leo. But then he made up for it with his wild personal life.
If he kept his antics low key, I wouldn’t care what he did, but he liked the attention.
I picked up my glass, drank down the wine, and set it back on the table.
He hadn’t always been like this. When we were younger, he’d been sweet, thoughtful, and protective of the people around him and himself.
I missed that boy so much. The boy who my parents told me repeatedly to think of as another brother.
As if.
Then he’d come back from college and turned into a man who was a total asshole. He’d lost the sweet side of him and replaced it with a prick.
My phone rang, snapping me out of my brooding.
It was Leo.
The first thing to pop into my mind was he’d done something else that was stupid.
“What do you want, Vaughn?”
“I just thought I’d give you a heads-up. I’m going out tonight. It’s a meeting with a business associate.”
“Unless your meeting is at a strip club, I don’t care.”
He remained quiet for a second, causing me to sit up.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You have a meeting at a strip club. Of all the misogynistic bullshit ways of doing business…”
Leo started to laugh. “God, Riya, you are so easy to rile. No, it isn’t at a strip club.”
Asshole. Leo loved to fuck with me.
When we were kids, before everything changed, he would get me worked up about something or another as a game. I was a “by the book” kind of girl, and he never followed the rules.
It was all fun and games until that one time he’d brought his college friends home to visit and I was still the awkward girl in high school. Those boys had been elitist pricks, looking down their noses at the way we lived. They’d found every chance they’d gotten to make some snide comment or imply about how they were old money and we were new.
What had hurt the most was when Leo hadn’t defended me when his friend started picking on me about my looks and my overly skinny body shape. It was as if he wanted so hard to be part of their world that he’d forgotten the humble life we’d started in.
Pushing back the thought, I asked, “Then why are you telling me?”
“Because it’s with Darius Whitaker.”
He couldn’t be serious about meeting the man whose wife had been in the tabloids with him only a few days ago.
“Are you kidding me? That’s even worse. No. I forbid it.”
“You can’t forbid me to do anything. Besides, I’m not the one who asked for the meeting.”
“Vaughn, this is a bad idea.”
“Why don’t you ever call me by my name?”
“Vaughn is your name.”
“It’s my last name.”
“It’s what everyone besides our families calls you.”
“You can say it, Ri.” His voice was deeper as he said the nickname only he ever called me.
I closed my eyes.
Riya, remember he doesn’t affect you like before.
Who was I kidding? He’d always had that sex-mixed-with-chocolate voice.
“Vaughn, you need to keep out of the tabloids, and that means avoiding anyone associated with Mrs. Whitaker. That doubly applies to her husband.”
“I doubt he arranged a meeting just to punch me on the street for anyone to photograph.”
“You would deserve it if he did.”
His tone grew hard in complete contrast to seconds ago. “I didn’t sleep with Whitaker’s wife. I thought you believed me.”
“Does it truly matter if I believe you?”
“Yes.” He paused. “How can you help me if you don’t have faith in me?”
I sighed. “It’s not personal. It’s my job. Whether something happened or not, I’m supposed to spin it in a way you come out smelling like roses.”
“This is all for money? A job?”
If he only knew that I wasn’t getting a dime for helping him. I couldn’t ever see myself taking a cent from Damir.
I was lucky enough to have offices that made a hearty profit that I personally didn’t have to take on new clients. My partners were amazing, capable, and would keep the company running.
The only reason I worked as much as I did was because I had no personal life, and working occupied my time.
Who was I kidding? I was a control freak and had to have my hands in everything.
This was the first time since I’d started my company that I had given up the reins to my partners. Outside of Mira, it was very hard for me to let anyone take the lead, especially when it came to my business.
“I’m independently wealthy, Vaughn. If I wanted, I could be just like the socialites you like to bang and spend my days shopping.”
“You seriously have a chip on your shoulder.”
The hell I did. “Explain to me how I have a chip on my shoulder.”
“You look down your nose at me and the people around me but don’t ever forget you’re one of us. Not touching your trust fund and working a job doesn’t change anything.”
“Wrong. I remember where I came from. I don’t pretend I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Or that my parents weren’t immigrants who worked as servants to the rich so they could put food on the table.”
“You think I don’t remember?” I almost thought there was a tinge of hurt in his voice. “You don’t know me at all.”
“Maybe I don’t. What I do know is that I’m here to fix the mess you created. Do not go to the meeting.”
There was silence on the line.
I pulled the phone away from my face and looked at it.
He’d hung up on me.
Chapter Five
Leo
I walked into my penthouse and headed straight for the bar. Pouring myself a healthy serving of Macallan 25, I shot it back in one giant swallow.
My life had become a shit show.
I should have fucking listened to Riya and stayed away from Whitaker. But I’d gone.
Darius Whitaker was Hollywood and music royalty. Not just because he was the product of a marriage between two legends, movie-studio head Christopher Whitaker and one of the greatest singers of all time, Nikki Davis. Darius had taken over his father’s studio and mother’s music label and created an empire. Nearly every big-budget movie or show in the last five years had been produced by him. Which made him a savvy businessman and well seasoned beyond his thirty years.
From the first hello, I knew Whitaker was itching to deck me.
I couldn’t blame him. I’d made out with his wife. It didn’t matter I’d stopped it from going further.
Over the last few months, the stories in the tabloids had hinted at strife between the couple because Whitaker had refused to cast his actress wife in a film starring the current Hollywood “it” action hero. I hadn’t really paid attention to the stories, only nodding when my sister, Sonia, gave me all the latest NYC gossip during our weekly game nights.
Now I wished I’d listened to Sonia’s chatter.
How was I to know my sister’s love for tabloid nonsense was useful? Now I was going to have to get her to give me the gossip on anyone I did business with in the future.