Kay opened her suit jacket and placed her hands on her hips. She didn’t want to hear it. She just didn’t!
She shook her head. What else could they do? If that video got out, the President would gladly get his Justice Department to launch an investigation, and the Republicans on the Hill could call for committee hearing after committee hearing, and the whole thing could become a fiasco of the highest order. With her as the bait.
Kay pinched the bridge of her nose. Her anguish was immeasurable. She still couldn’t believe that all she worked for would hang in the balance, and Nico Bacard, of all people, might just be the only person on earth who could help her out of the fix she was in.
“There’s no other alternative,” Rog said as if to amplify the point; as if he sensed that she was finally coming around to the reality of the situation. “He’s the only man we know with as much reach as the FBI, and more ability to stop bad things in their tracks, before it destroys the woman he once loved. If that video is out there, he’ll not only find it, but find out who’s behind it.”
Then Rog made it even plainer. “One of our mega donors has a plane waiting, Kay. There’s a van out back on the loading dock that’s supposed to be loading supplies through our back door. That van will get you to the airport undetected by your Secret Service detail, or any nosy reporters. A car will be waiting for you at the airfield on the Riviera, where he lives. And you’ll go to him. It’s all been arranged.”
Kay looked at him. “When you say it’s all been arranged, does that mean he knows I’m coming?”
“Everything’s been arranged,” Rog said, “except that. I figured it would be best if he sees your face. In person.”
“Because he might turn us down,” Kay said. “Is that what you’re saying?”
Rog wasn’t going to lie to his best friend. “Yes,” he said.
Kay smiled. Unbelievable! “And if I don’t go to him?” she asked Rog.
“If you don’t go,” Rog said, “you can kiss victory goodbye. Point blank period. Full stop.”
Kay leaned her head back. All of her years of hard work. All of her positioning and angling and ass kissing and jumping through hoops and doing everything she was supposed to do to get to this place in her life would go up in smoke over a lying video? And Nico, of all people, was the only person who could help her? Nico? The man who broke her heart?
It was too much. Way too much.
But Kay was a realist. She knew Rog was right. There was no other way.
CHAPTER FIVE
A quiet night on the French Riviera as Nico stood in the living room of his magnificent home carved on a hill, a home with all-windows and no-walls, and stared out over the enormous expanse that surrounded him. With a glass of champagne in his hand, he listened to the soft hum of jazz on a phonograph he purchased at auction for in excess of a million dollars, and felt the headaches of the day melt away beneath that Coltrane sax. He was in another place. He was completely and utterly relaxed.
But, as usual in his busy, double life, there was an interruption. His phone rang. At first, he didn’t budge. If it mattered, they’d call back. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t.
They called back.
And Nico wasn’t pleased. He was trying to decompress. He walked over to a nearby table and picked up the landline. “Yes?”
It was Kofi, his number two. “Have you heard anything from Sal Gabrini?”
“No.”
“That’s strange.”
“Did you do it?”
“We did it.”
“How many did we take out?”
“At least sixteen. I think more. But at least the sixteen you ordered.”
“What about our side? Did we take any casualties on our end?”
“We lost one.”
“Who?”
“Kid named Jeremy Dack. You don’t know him. He was relatively new.”
Nico exhaled. Unfortunately, that kind of news went with the territory. “Okay.”
“What if he doesn’t call, Boss? What if he just hits back?”
“That’s not Sal’s style. He’ll call.”
“So we wait?”
“Yes, we wait,” Nico said with irritation in his voice. “You have a problem with that?”
“No. No problem. I didn’t mean anything by it, Nico. The guys are asking questions. I need to know what to tell them.”
“You don’t tell those fuckers anything. That’s what you tell them. Nothing!” And then he slammed down the phone.
Motherfuckers, Nico said out loud. But the truth was the truth: if Sal Gabrini didn’t see the wisdom in keeping the peace, and forced Nico’s hand, there would be war. Which would be damning. And could cause problems for Sal, but also for Nico. Because they both flew under the radar on purpose. And that was the part all those under Nico never seemed to understand. They were successful because Nico kept them under that radar too. And he wasn’t about to let anybody destroy that image he’d cultivated all of his adult life.
But he wasn’t at home to get into it with Kofi or anybody else. He was home to relax. To find peace again before he had to handle another crisis.
And for the most part it worked. He was grooving to Coltrane again, and Dizzy after him. And it was all good.
Until he saw car headlights in the distance, and a car heading straight up the winding hill, toward his estate.
Nico frowned. “Who the fuck is that?” he wondered out loud. His men, both in his syndicate and in his corporation, knew not to come to his home without permission. It just wasn’t done. Who didn’t get the memo?
But when Nico saw the car stop, and when he saw Kay Laine step out of that car, he would have sworn his heart stopped. His hand lost all grip on his glass and it crashed to the floor with a resounding crash. And he didn’t even hear it. “Kay? Is that Kay?” He was unable to believe his eyes.
And then he hurried over to his front door, and opened it with a wide swing to be certain he was seeing who he thought he saw.
When he opened the door, Kay was already approaching it. And she stopped in her tracks, too, when she saw Nico.
They had not seen each other, in person, in a decade. In ten long years. And now she was right in front of him? And he was right in front of her?
Neither knew what to do. Neither knew what to say.
Until Nico finally breathe again, and opened his door wider.
Without a word being spoken, Kay walked across the threshold. And they both remembered it all too well. They couldn’t stop remembering how that once-in-a-lifetime love came together for them, and how it all fell apart.
CHAPTER SIX
Ten Years Earlier
“Pastrami.”
“How much?”
“Two pounds.”
After the butcher sliced the meat, he grabbed a sheet of wax paper, set it on the scale, and flopped the pastrami on the paper. “Little over,” he said to the customer.
Ralph Sturgis looked at the meat. “How much over?”
“Couple of slices.”
Ralph thought about it. Then he nodded. “I’ll take it.”
As the butcher wrapped the meat and placed the price tag on it, Ralph looked out of the big picture window. When he saw the car stop at the curb, and saw the man get out in an overcoat, he immediately knew something was off. It was too warm a day for a coat that big, and the way the guy was looking in his direction and then was heading toward the entrance made Ralph concerned too. He knew he could be overreading it. He was known to be a very paranoid man. But just because he was paranoid didn’t mean they weren’t after him.