Stingray Billionaire: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance)

by Alexa Davis

  I opened the door, entered the shop, and looked around. It was a small place, but I'd done some renovations to make it look shiny and new. I'd put in plush carpeting in a soft shade of gray and had the electrician install new lighting that hung lower and reflected in a way that made the metal and stones sparkle at any angle. I'd polished the jewelry cases to a shine and they were ready to house the gorgeous gems I'd purchased and imported.

  My office was in the back and had been sparsely furnished with a desk, chair, and a conference table for any private business that needed to be done away from the sales floor. I had a thin laptop computer that I took everywhere with me so that I could monitor the business no matter where I was, and now all I needed was an employee to help me sell the jewels.

  I'd thought long and hard about whom I would hire, and I'd decided that it needed to be a woman. I needed balance in the store, and a woman would provide just the right image and give me the opportunity to serve my clients in the way that was most comfortable for them. Sometimes a woman's touch was needed in order to close a sale or encourage an additional purchase, and I was no fool when it came to ensuring that my business had every possible opportunity to succeed.

  The question was where to find a qualified, knowledgeable, and attractive woman who could do all of the things I was asking of her. I'd tried ads in the paper and through the local gemological society, but so far, they'd not produced any viable candidates. I was going to have to find someone fast if I wanted to have any hope of turning this business into a success.

  I went back to my office and began scanning the list of temp agencies in the area, hoping that maybe one of them could provide me with a suitable employee.

  "Dammit, I'm going to make this work," I swore under my breath as I reached for the phone and dialed the first number on the screen.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Lexi

  The next morning, I woke up early when Anna pounced my face and demanded breakfast. "You're going to be my new alarm clock, aren't you?" I laughed as I stroked her head until she rewarded me with a purr. Anna meowed in agreement and then hopped down off the bed and padded to the door, looking back over her shoulder to make sure I got the message that she was hungry.

  "Fine, fine, fine," I said as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. I called out toward the bathroom, "Josh, did you make coffee yet?" and then bit my tongue hard as I sat back down on the bed remembering that Josh was no longer here. I tried to wipe away the tears as they flowed fast and hot down my cheeks, but the memories flooded my brain and before I knew it, I was curled in a ball on the bed, sobbing.

  "Mrrow?" Anna chirped as she hopped back up onto the bed and began rubbing her head against my arm. When she didn't get the response she wanted, she began butting her head against my hands and trying to move them away from my face as she chirped louder. Her meows became louder and more distressed until I was forced to pull my hands away to look at her. She sat in front of me, staring at me with wide blue eyes, and then reached out and patted my face before she began head butting me again.

  "Okay, okay," I said as I choked back the sobs that still sat in my throat. "I'll get up and feed you. Just understand that you're here because of a breakup and it's going to take some time to get over it. Got it?"

  "Meow!" she replied as she hopped off the bed and headed back to the doorway. This time, she sat down and waited until she was sure I was following her before prancing happily to the kitchen and chirping as I poured food into her bowl.

  "Happy now?" I asked and got a loud purr in response. I pulled out the coffee and started making a pot. I was halfway through my morning ritual before I realized that I'd made enough coffee for two and that made me start crying again. I knew that this was a normal response to what had happened not twenty-four hours before, but I also felt a little panicked about the fact that if I couldn't pull myself together, and do it quickly, I wasn't going to be able to land a job. And, if I didn't land a job, Anna and I would be out on the street with no place to go.

  "I'm not going to let him keep me from doing what I need to do," I muttered as I poured myself a cup of hot coffee and walked over to the computer to check the job listings. I felt my stomach turn over when I saw the spot where the computer usually sat empty and then realized that Josh had taken our shared laptop. "Son of a bitch! That does it!"

  The computer had been a gift from my parents when I'd gotten into Northwestern. It was old and slow, but it was mine, and Josh taking it with him made something in me snap. I might have loved him, but he had been an extraordinarily selfish person who took care of his own needs – rarely mine. I'd stayed with him because it was familiar and comfortable and, if I was honest, because I was afraid of being alone. Josh didn't take care of me, per se, but he did take care of everything that affected him, and he was a control freak, which meant I never had to plan anything. I'd always chalked it up to his quirky sense of responsibility, but as I sipped my coffee, I started to see how this was really an indication of his deep-seated narcissism.

  I'd cooked meals for us, but he'd done all the shopping and decided what we'd eat and when. I'd done the laundry, but he'd decided what detergent we'd use and how the clothes would be cared for. I'd paid my share of bills, but he'd held the checkbook and all the passwords to our accounts.

  "Oh God, Anna! He has all the passwords to the accounts! I have no money!" I groaned as I realized that without Josh, I was pretty much destitute. The tears began to well up, but before they fell, I sternly told myself that I was not going to fall to pieces. I was not going to crumble and become a sobbing mess because I was strong and capable and…

  "Fuck!" I shouted as I slammed my fist on the counter spilling coffee and causing Anna to jump and run behind the couch. When she peeked around the corner, I smiled at her and said, "I'm sorry, baby. I'm just mad and a little scared."

  "Purrt?" she chirped as she head butted the couch and cautiously approached me. I reached out and scooped her up, bringing her to my chin where I snuggled her and kissed her fuzzy little head.

  "Indeed," I said as she purred happily. "I'm going to make this work, Anna. You're not going to be out on the street or in some shelter. We're going to keep this place. I just need to figure out a way to do it."

  As I stood at the counter holding the kitten and sipping coffee, my phone rang and when I answered it, I heard a familiar voice shouting, "Kid! I got a role for you! Can you come to the office today?"

  "Hello, Peter," I laughed. "What's up?"

  "I just told you," he shouted. Peter Baxter had been my agent for the past six years, and while he was great at being an agent, he wasn't so good at mastering the finer points of technology. I had gotten used to him shouting into the phone after several lessons on cell phone etiquette had gone nowhere. "I got a role for you, and I need you to come to the office to pick up the information and get the rundown on what the client wants."

  "What is it?" I asked as Anna licked my chin and made me giggle.

  "What's going on? Why are you giggling?" he yelled.

  "It's a kitten, Peter," I said as I kissed Anna on her tiny little nose and then set her down on the floor.

  "A what?" he shouted. "Why is a mitten making you laugh? I don't understand you kids these days. Weird things are going on."

  "Peter, just tell me what the role is," I said as I fought back a bubble of laughter. His hearing wasn't the best even on good days, and the phone presented a whole other series of challenges. Most of the time, I found it entertaining, and since he was one of the best agents in Chicago, I let it go and tried to only have conversations with him face-to-face.

  "I can't, you gotta come into the office, kid," he said sounding distracted. "What time can you get here?"

  "An hour?" I offered.

  "Can you be here in an hour?" he repeated. "An hour would be good."

  "Yes, Peter, I'll be there in an hour!" I shouted into the phone.

  "Good!" he yelled back and then added, "Hey, why the hell are you sh
outing at me?"

  I burst into laughter and was only able to say, "Bye, Peter!" before hanging up and heading into the bathroom to shower and get ready for an audition for a mystery part.

  "I'm going to do this, Anna," I told the tiny kitten. She chirped as she batted around a dust bunny that she'd pulled from under the couch. I smiled at her antics as I said, "I'll get the part and then I'm going to clean this place."

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Max

  "Dammit!" I cursed as I slammed the phone down for the third time. There wasn't a temp agency in town that could find me an employee who could fulfill my sales needs, and I was running out of time and patience. "This is utter bullshit! How can they not have someone who can sell jewelry on their staff?"

  I sat staring at the picture of my mother I'd hung over the doorway. I'd hung the picture when I'd first bought the shop, and now, I wondered what she would say about this venture and what she would advise me to do. I thought about it for long time before I got up from my desk and walked out to the front of the store. I stood staring at the sales floor as I thought about how to go about getting what I needed. My mother had been a resourceful person, and she would have told me that if I couldn't get a real salesperson, then I simply needed someone who could play the role of a salesperson – at least, until I could hire someone who actually knew what she was doing. I needed someone who could act the part convincingly.

  "Hell, I'm sure this city is full of out-of-work actors!" I said smacking my hand down on a case. I quickly walked back to my office and did a search for talent agents in Chicago. The first name that came up was Acting Aces, a company that had its offices a few blocks from the shop and listed a number of well-known Chicago actors among its clients. I dialed the number and waited.

  "Acting Aces, where we make stars out of everyone! This is Gina, how may I direct your call?" an enthusiastic voice said.

  "Mr. Peter Baxter, please," I said.

  "Who may I tell him is calling?" she asked.

  "A client who has a desperate need for an actor and is willing to pay whatever it costs to find one," I said in an even tone.

  "Oooh, he'll love that! Hold on a sec, hon!" she squealed before putting me on hold and transferring the call.

  I listened to Frank Sinatra croon about wanting to be flown to the stars as I waited for the agent to pick up. It took several minutes, and by that time, I was questioning my choice of agencies.

  "Peter Baxter here!" the man shouted as he picked up the line. "What kind of actor do you need?"

  "Hello, Mr. Baxter," I said taken aback that he hadn't asked for any credentials, or even my name, for that matter. "I'm Max Malinchenko, I'm looking for an actor to help me open my new jewelry store."

  "You a Russian?" Mr. Baxter demanded.

  "Yes, my family is from Moscow originally," I replied.

  "You any relation to a Vladimir Malinchenko over on the South Side?" Mr. Baxter bluntly asked. I was taken aback because I hadn't thought about how deeply my father's connections might run and that I might not want to have the family name associated with my business.

  "He's my father," I admitted.

  "Yeah, well, you might want to lop off the ‘chenko’ part of your name if you're looking to start a business, son," Baxter said.

  "Mr. Baxter, while I appreciate your attempt to advise me on how to name my business, I did not call you for that purpose," I said in a stern tone, hoping to get him back to the conversation about finding an actor.

  "Hey, don't get all pissy with me, son," he said. "I'm just telling you that your pop is a known mafia man and if you are looking to start a legitimate business, then you'd better make some adjustments, so you don't get lumped in with the riff raft."

  "Mr. Baxter, my father is a businessman and he runs a number of legitimate businesses, and I resent your accusations," I said as I felt my blood began to boil. My father might be a mafia leader and a dangerous man, but that didn't give a perfect stranger the right to say these things about him to his son. "If you want my business, I suggest you change your approach."

  "Jesus, son, I've lived in Chicago my whole life, which is probably a hell of a lot longer than you've been alive," Baxter shouted into the phone. "Get off your high horse and take my advice or don't, but I'm not going to send one of my actors into a situation that I know is going to be dangerous if you're associated with a Russian mafia leader!"

  "Touché, Mr. Baxter," I said finally understanding that he wasn't a nosy, old man, but a shrewd businessman who was invested in keeping his people safe on the job. "I wasn't thinking of it that way. I'll give your suggestion some serious thought."

  "Good, now what do you need?" he yelled. "What kind of actor do you need? Tall, short, fat, thin, blonde, brunette?"

  "How did you know I needed a woman?" I asked. "And why are you yelling at me?"

  "It's my damn job to know, son!" he yelled. "And, who's yelling? I'm just trying to speak clearly over this damn line!"

  "Very well," I yelled back. "I need an attractive woman who can act like a jewelry salesperson for a couple of weeks. Someone smart and a quick learner."

  "Why are you yelling at me?" he shouted. "I can hear you just fine, dammit!"

  "Sorry, I need a young woman actor who can play a jewelry salesperson," I repeated.

  "I heard you the first time! I'm just looking through my files to see who've I've got available!" he yelled. "No, no, no, that one's out of town, hmmm, this one might work. Yeah, I think I've got one for you, Mr. Malinchenko!"

  "Just one?" I asked dubiously. This guy didn't seem to have a large stable of actors if he could only come up with one for me to interview. I sighed as I resigned myself to having to call multiple agencies and have this conversation multiple times over the course of the day.

  "One is all you'll need," he shouted. "She's a great one. Smart, pretty, but not too pretty, you know. She's a character actress, so she's used to playing a wide range of roles, and she's got a mind like a steel trap, I tell you. Straight As and can memorize any script in under forty-eight hours. I think you'll like her."

  "Sounds promising," I said as he piqued my interest with the description. I tried not to get my hopes up, knowing that it would be unlikely that I'd strike gold on the first try.

  "I'll call her and get here over here today," Baxter assured me. "What time do you want her at your place for the interview?"

  "You'll send her to my store?" I asked.

  "Hell yeah, they're all used to going out on audition calls. How the hell else do you think you're going to know if she works?" he shot back.

  "Good point," I agreed. "I'm at 5 South Wabash in the Loop. The store isn't open yet, so please give her my phone number and tell her to call me when she's on her way. I don't want to have to wait around all day for her to show up."

  "Hey, my people are professionals, son," he yelled. "If I say they're going to show up at a specific time, they do!"

  "No offense intended, Mr. Baxter," I said as I wondered what I was getting myself into and whether it was worth it or not. Baxter had moved on.

  "What's your phone number, son?" he shouted. I gave it to him, and he replied, "I'll call you back and let you know when she'll be there."

  As I hung up, I sighed and looked up at the picture of my mother hanging on the wall and said, "I hope this turns out all right."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lexi

  I showed up at Peter's office an hour and a half after he'd called. I had no idea where Peter was planning to send me for an audition, so I'd chosen to dress professionally, and had picked out an emerald green blouse that softy draped low enough to be sexy, but not so low that I looked slutty. I'd paired it with a black pencil skirt that had a moderate slit up the back and a pair of black pumps that were high enough to make my legs look longer than they really were, but were still functional for walking on city streets. I'd put my hair up in a loose French twist and gone easy on the cosmetics so that I looked fresh and natural.

  "Ki
d, you look dynamite!" Peter crowed when he saw me. He wrapped me in a big hug and asked how I was doing.

  "I'm okay," I said hesitating. I didn't want to spill the Josh-saga and end up crying before he sent me out on an audition.

  "You know, that McClean was an ass, kiddo," he said unexpectedly. "I'm glad you dumped him and moved on. You deserve someone much better than that two-bit hustler who can't act his way out of a wet paper bag."

  "Peter!" I exclaimed as I began laughing. Somehow hearing Josh described this way by someone in the business took a bit of the sting out of him dumping me. "How did you know?"

  "Aw, kid, don't you know by now that I know everything about everyone in this business?" he bellowed. "It's how I've stayed in business for as long as I have! Besides, that punk of a manager of his called and asked if I knew of other actors in LA who might need a roommate. Apparently, your boy didn't have a solid plan once he got to the city. What an idiot."

  "Peter, you're the best," I said shooting him a grateful look. Even if he was making up a story, which he often did, it was a good one and it soothed my bruised ego. "Where do you want me to go?"

  "Kid, I've got an odd job for you, but you're the only one I thought could play the part," he said as he looked at the paperwork on his desk. "I’ve got a guy who needs someone to play the part of a jewelry salesperson for a few weeks, and I think you'd be a hit in the role!"

  "Wait, you're asking me to work retail?" I narrowed my eyes. "I don't like the way this sounds, Peter."