Sexual Persuasion

by Sinclair, Maryn

  “Doing what you suggest would cost us a lot of money.”

  “Prison would cost you your life.”

  Max twisted his mouth into a thoughtful pose.

  Alex drank his coffee, put down his cup, and took a deep breath. “This will be my last transaction for Carpathian Enterprises. Jack Davidson is a slug, and I’m tired of dealing with slugs.”

  “You’re quitting?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why? It’s the woman, isn’t it?”

  “No, it’s me. I want out.”

  “Am I a slug too?”

  “You’re my friend, but I’ve closed my eyes to a lot of what goes on by pretending I don’t know about it, and I’ve bent the law without breaking it. Until this week when I did. I have a pretty good idea what would have happened to Davidson if I didn’t get my hands on his smoking gun. I would have acted like I didn’t know, but I’d’ve known.”

  “So what are you going to do, join legal aid? Become a rights advocate? Come on. You like the nice life, the money. All that won’t be easy to turn your back on.”

  “I’ve made enough money. Good investments, retirement funds, a few other things. I’ll be fine. I want out. I feel I’ve more than paid back your father’s investment over the years.”

  Max nodded, a slow come-to-reality nod that Alex had seen before.

  “You’re sure,” Max said. “You’ll be hard to replace.”

  “There are a hundred attorneys who’d be happy to step into my shoes. And many won’t close their eyes to the majority of what you do.”

  “So it is the woman. What is it? The house in the burbs with a white picket fence, two point two kids, and a dog?”

  “Probably not, but it has no impact on what I’m doing today, if that’s what I decide.”

  Max fingered the photos. “What are you going to do with these, or are they mine?”

  “They’re mine. I paid for them. I just wanted you to know who you’re dealing with.”

  “You or Davidson?”

  Alex paused, thought. “Both, I guess.”

  “We’ve been friends a long time, and you’re still full of surprises. But I trust you. If you didn’t come up with a solution to Davidson, he’d probably have disappeared. But you don’t want to know that.”

  Alex didn’t answer.

  Max’s man stood at the table, waiting to be acknowledged. Max looked up.

  “Boss, there’s a guy at the door, says his name’s Davidson. Should I let him in?”

  After a knowing glance at Alex, Max said, “Let him in, Gino.” He turned back to Alex. “The ball’s in your park. You better be right that I’ll be happy.”

  Alex wanted to say, Or what? But he let the comment pass. Davidson approached the table and took a seat without waiting. He licked his dry lips. He was nervous, and so he should be. Alex had set him up and stripped him naked. Davidson extended his hand to Max but not to him. His eyes rested on the photos and the contents of the sack. If looks could kill, the slivered eyes Davidson centered on Alex would send a knife through his heart.

  “That’s my property,” Davidson said, pointing at the papers and photos. “Andros stole them.”

  “Prove it,” Max answered.

  Davidson’s face reddened. “What do you want?”

  “My money,” Max answered. “Money you owe me. And the longer you don’t pay, the more in debt you are. If you were planning on using this smut to blackmail people so you could pay me off, you’d better forget it.” Max leaned forward, focused on Davidson. “Can you pay up or not, Jack?”

  “You know I can’t. I can’t even pay your goddamn loan-shark vig.” He glared at Alex. “And don’t try to hoodwink me with that bogus IOU. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know you can’t go into court with that. It’d be a toss-up who gets the longest jail sentence.”

  “You’re right. But I have film of you signing it. Film of Max telling you to read the small print.”

  “You filmed it? Jesus.” Jack wiped the sweat from his top lip. “You knew I was drunk.”

  “You don’t look drunk in the video, and we’d show it to people who count. I know you’ve tried to get money. There wasn’t a bookie in town who’d extend you credit, was there? Not when you owe Max as much as you do. Your house is mortgaged to the hilt. You tried to borrow money using the hotel as collateral, but these are bad times. They’re not lending, and you’re not a good risk. Even if you got the money, you’d lose the hotel gambling. Your father would come back to haunt you. Let’s face it, Jack. You gambled. You lost. Now it’s pay-up time, and you can’t pay. What do you think we should do?”

  “I need more time. I’ll find the money somewhere.”

  The stack of pictures in Alex’s jacket felt like hot coals. He pictured the photos of Charlotte, the same ones Jack had given him at Starbucks. His jaw clenched so tight he had to struggle to get out the words. He shook his head. “Time’s up.” He took Charlotte’s photos out of his breast pocket and riffled them at Davidson in a way Max couldn’t see. Davidson’s face reddened even more. Alex’s insides shook. “There’s a way we can even this out.

  “Your car and yacht are a piss in the bucket compared to what you owe Carpathian Enterprises, and you owe the banks for both of them. Here’s the deal. Keep it all: the house and yacht; even keep that gaudy two-hundred-thousand-dollar car. You’ll be paying on those for years to come. But you pay off the debt to Max with part ownership of the Regent. It’ll give him a controlling interest, but it’ll save you from losing everything.”

  “Because I will collect,” Max said, “one way or the other.”

  Davidson shot out of his chair. “I can’t do that.”

  “Sure you can,” Alex said. “You can fight this, try to sell part or all of the Regent, but then this stack of tapes goes to the police, and you’ll go to prison for all kinds of illegal recording. Presumption of privacy, audio. A good prosecutor will have you behind bars for a long, long time.”

  “And you’ll have to explain how you got them,” Jack said. “By doing the same thing.”

  Alex tilted his head in agreement. “Good point. But I didn’t say I’d take them to the police. I said they’d get them. I’m willing to take the chance. Are you, especially after they see what you’ve done over the years? Maybe you’ve already hit on some people. I don’t know. But you’d be personally sued by everyone who’s ever stayed there. We have pictures of how you set it up. You’d have to prove how we exposed your scam. And you can’t. By the time you get out of federal prison for illegally recording without consent, along with a string of other charges, you wouldn’t have anything left anyway.” Alex took a folded sheet of paper from his breast pocket. “Max will probably be pissed at me for making this deal.” He pointed to the figures.

  Davidson sat hunched over in his chair, head down, eyes slanting sideways at the paper.

  “This is what you owe,” Alex tapped his finger at a number on the page, “including the vig. This is what the hotel is worth in today’s market. You can see fifty-one percent doesn’t cover your debt, but sixty does. Now look at this. These are the projected figures of what the hotel could take in once Max implements some changes. Maybe he’d install a Broadway-style dinner theater. Who knows? He might even put in a small casino if this state relaxes the laws. Then the figures would escalate. Why should all the gambling money go to surrounding states? It’ll be a win-win for everyone, and you’d have a source of income. You’d probably lose it at the tables, but that’s your problem, not ours.”

  “Even if a bill passes, the Regent is small potatoes for getting a casino contract. They’ll want big money-making resorts.”

  “True, but a few slots, a couple of tables. Why not? Times are changing. The state needs money. Cities too. Why should Boston be left out? We have a few political connections that might help pull it off, wouldn’t you say, Max?”

  Max licked his lips. “Seems someone in the Office of Economic Development could be on our side.
There’d be a few people to buy, but money talks, doesn’t it?”

  “You fight this, Jack,” Alex said, “and I’ll make sure we expose what kind of person Jack Davidson is.” He pulled a disk out of his pocket. “This is a digital video recording of you and Rip Cord, recorded with the same equipment you’ve used to record people for years in every room on the top floor, including your private suite. I assume you reserved that for some very special people. I seriously doubt you’d want that exposed.

  “This is the best deal you’re going to get, and you’d still have a job. Kind of. Max’s people will be in there to protect his interest, but you’ll still appear to be the boss. Take it or leave it.”

  Max looked happy, but Alex wouldn’t know until Jack left and they discussed it. This was a clean sale, or it would be when Davidson signed it. The casino idea was iffy, at best, but things were changing.

  Davidson sat quietly, his face as crimson as his tie. “Doesn’t look like I have a choice, does it?”

  “There’s always a choice,” Alex said, “but sometimes it’s a Hobson’s choice.” He took an envelope from his inside breast pocket and extracted two papers. “Here’s the proposal. Look it over, and sign here.”

  Visibly deflated, Davidson said, “You don’t mind if I look this over more carefully than the last time I signed something for you, do you?”

  “Take all the time you need. Take it to that shyster lawyer of yours, O’Reilly. That’s if you want him to know what you’re doing. My suggestion is he isn’t trustworthy, but that’s my take. There’s no trick wording, no lawyer mumbo-jumbo. It’s straight English. Even you’ll be able to understand it.” Alex got up. “Coffee?”

  Davidson looked at him with what only could be described as hatred. “Scotch would be more appropriate, but coffee will do.”

  Alex brought a cup and the carafe to the table, filled all the cups. He sat down and waited while Davidson read the papers. Max remained quiet throughout. He trusted Alex to settle the business without getting involved, and that pleased Alex.

  Davidson signed the paper and slid it across the table to Max, not to Alex. Alex smirked at the obvious slight. He pushed another paper toward Jack. “Here are two copies of your IOU. Sign them both.” Jack did. Alex took one of the copies. “You made a good trade, Jack.”

  “I underestimated you, Andros. I’d heard you didn’t do the dirty work, but you play as dirty as your boss.”

  Max sat forward in his chair. “I’m not sure I like that comment.”

  “Thank you,” Alex said. “But neither I nor my boss plays as dirty as you. Know that we could have taken it all, and there wouldn’t have been a damn thing you could have done without exposing to the world what you are. That would have given me great personal pleasure. By the way, you will disconnect all the equipment in your hotel before Carpathian Enterprises takes over. I’ll let you know when that is. Now, get out.”

  Davidson took both papers, folded them, and slipped them into his jacket pocket. He gulped down the last of his coffee, stood, and walked out the door without another word.

  “Why didn’t you take it all?” Max asked.

  “And make this public? You know better than that. Besides, as slick as we thought we were, I doubt it’d hold up in court. In the future, if a bill passes and you’re able to put in some tables or slots, you don’t want people to think you’re running a crooked game.”

  “They’ll think that anyway.”

  “Don’t give them ammunition by doing anything illegal. You’d have the gaming commission all over you. That’s my advice.”

  “Illegal? How many crimes did you commit getting these?” Max asked, pointing at the tapes.

  “Why, Max, you know I never do anything illegal.”

  Max’s guffaw brought Gino to attention. Max waved him off. “So now I’m a hotel owner.”

  “Just barely. I ran the numbers. The hotel is worth less than it was a few years ago, but so is everything else. It was a good deal for you, and it was fair.”

  “And you’re always fair, aren’t you, Alex?”

  “I’d like to think so. But this time I did some things I didn’t like to make it work, but they had to be done.”

  “I’ll hate to lose you. My father always said that you had your father’s brains, and I had Anton Carpathian’s lack of ethics. I would have fleeced Davidson and wouldn’t have lost an hour’s sleep. We made a good combination all these years, you and me. I wish you’d reconsider.”

  “All good things come to an end,” Alex said.

  “So what now for you?”

  Alex checked his watch. “I have an appointment later this afternoon, and I’ve had two nights where I maybe got a couple of hours’ sleep. I’m tired. I’m going home to take a nap, think about some things.”

  “So, we’re finished?”

  “We’re friends. We’ve always been friends, and we always will be. We’ve known each other too long, been through too much. We’re just not in business together anymore.” Alex picked up the packet of pictures and tossed them in the sack of videos. “I’ll call you.”

  “Yeah. Let’s do lunch sometime. It’s always on the house for you. Oh, I forgot. I got a call from Rip Cord this morning. He appreciated meeting Davidson last night. Said he wanted to see him again.”

  Alex laughed. “We heard. Jack looked thrilled.”

  “I doubt Carl will be.”

  “Carl? Who’s Carl?”

  “You know him as Candy Gayheart. Carl’s an old, um, friend of mine who wanted a sex change. I paid for it. Top-of-the-line work. Between Cord and Candy, our friend Davidson will have a very busy sex life. Who knows? Maybe they’ll work out a ménage à trois.”

  Alex shook his head, laughed. “It couldn’t happen to a more worthy guy.”

  Alex left the restaurant. Okay, one down, one to go.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The Past―R.I.P.

  The store had been hopping all morning, but Charlotte’s thoughts were on Alex and his meeting. He’d always been so cool and collected, but last night she saw a different Alex Andros. Tense and uptight. And tired. She checked her watch.

  While they had eaten dinner at the Thai place, Alex had explained some of what he planned to bring Jack down. She wondered if Jack had photographed her at the hotel. They’d stayed in his suite a few nights. Then there was the yacht. Alex figured Jack probably set up cameras there too, but he wasn’t up for more than one break-in. If Jack had filmed her there and Alex found tapes, he wouldn’t tell her.

  “How’d it go?” she asked when Alex called around one.

  “I’m safe in saying that I’m not Jack Davidson’s favorite person. He looked like he could have stuck a shiv in me at any point during the meeting.”

  “Glad he didn’t.”

  “I’m going to take it easy this afternoon. Read a little, relax. I’m strung out. I’ll call you later.”

  “Okay. You know where I’ll be.”

  * * * * *

  Alex thought back to Gianni’s call. It had been years, and the call shook him badly. He’d decided it was time to face his demons―the last link to his past. The link that kept him from moving on. Now the time had come. He owed that to himself. To Charlotte. To Gianni.

  “You look good,” Alex said when the elevator door opened. Gianni always looked good in the past. Still handsome, still exuding an air of allure. But not to Alex. The time had come and gone.

  “You too.”

  It may have been the most awkward moment of Alex’s life. He didn’t have a clue what Gianni wanted or why he called. Certainly after all the years, there was nothing to resurrect. No relationship to rekindle.

  Alex ushered him into the living room. “Still drinking vodka?”

  “With a twist, yes.” He gazed at Alex, then looked around. “Great place. Wish I had designed the building. I’d have made some changes.”

  “Looks like you didn’t need this commission. You’re doing quite well.”

  �
�Have you been following my career?”

  Alex nodded. “Yes. I’ll always be interested in how you’re doing.” The confession surprised Alex. He was interested. After what happened, he wanted Gianni to do well. To get past the end of their relationship and the days that followed. Maybe Alex needed that reassurance as well.

  “I’ve followed yours too. Somehow I never expected you to represent someone like Max Carpathian. You kept that part of your life from me.”

  “It never came up.” It never came up because Alex never brought it up.

  Gianni smiled. “I’d say you’ve made a name for yourself too. Every time someone refers to you in the papers, it’s with guarded respect.”

  “Or disdain.”

  “That too.”

  Alex handed Gianni the vodka. He sipped his scotch. “Why are you here?”

  “To tell you that I’m finally over you. It took seventeen years. I’ve been with other men, but no one took your place. Until now. I’ve found someone. Someone I love as much―no, more than I loved you. It was the only way I could ever free my heart of you. But I had to see you one more time to make sure.”

  “And you’re sure?”

  “I felt nothing when I saw you. Nothing but gratitude that you stayed with me those last two months to see me through the worst of it. I wanted you to know I appreciate that.”

  “I’ve carried a lot of guilt. Sometimes it weighs on me.”

  “Nothing was your fault.”

  “I’ve felt it was.”

  “Time is not always the great healer people say, but love is.”

  “Who is he?”

  “No one you’d know. His name is Michael Schiff. He’s a neurologist. He’s moving into my new house with me.”

  “I’m happy for you. Truly happy.”

  “And you?”

  “I guess we left our marks on each other. There’s been no one for me either, until recently. Her name is Charlotte Stone. She owns a―”