“It’s not your fault, Belle. If Kalin is straight, that is? How much do you really know about what he’s doing?” She wrinkles her brows and narrows her eyes.
“The executives, the ones we think are behind this. They’re trying to wrest control of the company from him. Kalin offered me a lot of stock to prevent what they are trying to do.”
“How much is a lot?”
“Do you know the bonus money I got?”
“Yeah, of course. How could I forget, moneybags?” She gives me a teasing smile.
“This is going to make that look like spare change.”
“Holy shit, Belle. How much are we talking about anyway?”
“Enough to piss those guys off. Enough to try and scare us out of the deal.”
I glance at Lia and she’s staring ahead with her mouth partially open.
“What he’s doing is planning to take away some of the executives’ wealth and power of decisions. They don’t take kindly to that sort of thing. I’m sorry, Lia. They’re trying to scare us into not going forward. They knew they would get to me if they hurt you. He’s going with me to the police station tomorrow. Kalin thinks that they came after you because it would keep me from going forward with this. If it were just me, or him, then they know it wouldn’t scare us off. But you—he thinks they were trying to hit a soft spot with me.”
“How would they know that?”
“I don’t know. But they’ve done this before. And Kalin thinks they were following us.”
“Jesus Christ, that is creepy Belle. Were they outside of our apartment?” She lifts her dark brows at me.
“I don’t know. But I’m not going to do this if you don’t want me to. Our friendship is too important, and I don’t know what these goons are capable of.”
“No, fuck them. If Kalin can show us all that he’s on the up and up, and these thugs are just trying to steal from him…or whatever…then fuck them.”
I pull into the apartment driveway and help Lia out of the car. “I don’t want to see anything else happen to you, Lia. If you want me to stop and walk away, I will.”
“No. No! Fuck them. Look what they did to me, Belle. You think I want them to walk away with the money? Fuck no. Nothing would give me more satisfaction than seeing them lose millions of dollars, and see it transferred to you.” I notice that in spite of her injuries to her face and arms, she holds her shoulders back and radiates confidence. I cannot help but feel absolute love and admiration for her in this moment.
I hug her. “You are my inspiration, girlfriend. I love you.”
“I love you too, babygirl.”
“There’s just one more thing.”
“Oh, Jesus, Belle, what could possibly top what you just told me?”
“I think you should come inside and sit down for this.”
Chapter Eleven
Lia situates herself on the couch, away from the rip, and I bring her a glass of chardonnay. “Don’t worry about this mess,” I say. “I’ll clean up the rest tomorrow morning.” I step over a stack of scattered papers, sofa foam, and bits of broken furniture.
“Amateurs.” Lia snorts.
I pull my desk chair up to the coffee table and sit down. “How are you feeling?”
“Good. This chardonnay is delicious.”
“Yeah. Another Kalin special. $495 a bottle.”
“I’ll drink slower.” She chuckles. “So what do you have to tell me that requires a $495 bottle of chardonnay to butter me up?” She smiles at me.
“Lia, the only way the stock transfer can take place is if Kalin tranfers it to a member of his family. As you know, his fiancée died, and he doesn’t have kids. His parents are in Florida, retired. They don’t want to be bothered with any company management responsibilities, and anyone else he has considered he does not trust completely.” I peer at her for a moment and take a sip of wine.
“So why are you in the middle of this?”
My eyes drift down and back up to meet hers.
Lia gazes at me, and her eyes dart to the floor and then back to me, her eyes growing wider as if she’s putting pieces of a puzzle together in her head. Her mouth falls open and her forehead wrinkles. “You’re not saying what I think you’re saying.” She shakes her head slowly, reading my expression.
I take in a deep breath and rub my fingers along my neck. “Lia, Kalin asked me to marry him.”
“He what!” Lia leans in and her neck cords with tendons. Her eyes sweep over my face, as if to check for any clues of insanity. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“So the only way he can transfer stock is to a family member, and now he asked you to marry him? I asked you if he was on the up and up. This is a pretty clear sign that he’s not, don’t you think?”
I take a breath and collect my thoughts. “Believe me, I thought about everything. Isn’t he just using me? Why me? Why now? But every point I brought up, he came up with an answer for. Do you remember what you said about knowing if a guy is just using you or knowing if he really wants to be with you?”
“Yeah. None of those fit Kalin now,” she huffs.
“He said if I walk away from him, or he leaves me, I can have the stock. Does that sound like he just wants to use me?”
“He’s a smoothie, Belle. You better make sure a lawyer confirms that.”
“Of course. But it’s more than that. Whenever I look for the dark side of Kalin, or the manipulative side, I find something better. He’s as genuine as they come. Of course he has his dark side. We all do. He hates these executives, but he’s not like them. He’s not like them at all.”
“Belle, he didn’t get to where he is by being an angel. He’s probably shrewder and better at what he does than they are. You would be naive to think otherwise,” Lia insists.
“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know anymore. All I know is that when this happened to you, I told him I wanted out. I mean, I never agreed to it in the first place. But after this, after you, I told him I wanted out.”
“Good. What’d he say?”
“He told me he thought he was just going to lose the company. But when he found me, all his prayers were answered.”
Lia snorts loudly and almost spills her wine. “Oh, he is good, isn’t he?”
“Oh, Lia, I know how corny it sounds.”
“But you believe him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let me ask you this, sweetie. How do you feel when you’re with him? Money and mansions aside, what do you really feel?”
“That’s just it, Lia. I want to push him away. I wish we could go back to just us, our simple lives. I could walk away. I want to. But whenever he is close, I feel like everything is okay. The rest of this just fades away, and all the heaviness is gone, and then it’s just us together. But then I think about what this has cost us, and about you, and I don’t want any of this anymore. I’m torn up inside, and I don’t know anymore.”
“Oh, sweetheart, don’t you worry about me. If he’s the real deal, you should hold onto him. I’ll tell you what. When we go to the police station tomorrow, we’ll see what’s he’s got to say for himself.”
“That’s all I want right now.”
Tears pool in my eyes and I don’t know why I’m crying.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” she asks.
“I just hate to see you hurt. I don’t want you in this situation.”
Lia stands up and kneels next to me, clasping my hand. “Sweetheart, you couldn’t have known this. Stop blaming yourself. Okay?”
“Okay.” I sniffle.
“That’s my girl. Now let’s try to figure out what this fiancé of yours is up to,” she says in a playful tone.
“He’s not my fiancé yet,” I protest. “You’ve had a terrible day. But I am so happy you’re okay. Get some sleep and I’ll clean this mess up.”
“Okay, moneybags.” Lia hugs me and heads to the bathroom to clean up before bed.
“And stop calling me that.”
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She peeks her head out from the bathroom. “Goodnight, moneybags.”
I roll my eyes at her and she giggles before shutting the door. I know the only way to protect Lia is to find whoever did this and make sure they pay. Lia is right in that there’s no point in blaming myself, but I can at least make sure these scumbags are brought to justice. I may be naive about stocks and contracts and shady dealings of the real world, but I know enough to know that money influences the scales of justice, and this fight won’t be won without it.
The next day, Lia and I are meeting Kalin at the police station to talk with Detective O’Donnell. We take a seat in the waiting room and watch the display of human tragedy parade before us—from drug dealers, gang members, prostitutes, and pimps to an occasional capital crime. The white-collar criminals dress with style and panache with their equally polished lawyers, and part of me wonders if they would be harder to convict.
Kalin comes in looking stunning in a navy check jacket, a white cotton shirt unbuttoned enough to see his golden skin and sprinkling of hair, and casual light denim jeans. His thick hair is sleeked back, and wavy strands fall casually around his forehead. His dark whiskers outline the strong angles of his jaw. He looks like he walked off a GQ page, and I suddenly realize that Lia and I are staring at him.
“You look great,” I say, getting up from the chair.
Kalin kisses me on the cheek. “Dressing well couldn’t hurt during a police interrogation. So I hear.” He puts his hands up in mock innocence.
“No bike today?” Lia mutters.
“Not today.” Kalin smiles at her. “Miss Marzella. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” Lia glances down and she twists her mouth into a convincing smile while her eyes flick to his.
“Lia, I am so sorry. I had no idea these lowlifes would come after you. I wasn’t thinking, and I’m sorry.”
“Kalin, it’s not your fault. At least as far as we know.” Lia glances at me with a sideways smirk.
“I want to get to the bottom of this. That’s why I’m here. We’re going to find out who did this to you, and make them pay.”
“Mr. Davis, Miss Marzella, Miss Ried, the detective will see you now.” The receptionist peers into the waiting room from the hallway.
Kalin gestures for us to go ahead, and he trails behind us.
“Mr. Davis, I’m Detective Richard O’Donnell.”
“Please to meet you, Detective.”
“Here’s my card. This is an ongoing investigation, Mr. Davis. So if anything new comes up, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”
“Of course.” Kalin sits next to me and Lia, and places the card in his front pocket.
Kalin and I proceed to brief the detective about everything from our initial meeting about the stock transfer to the break-in at his Southampton home.
“Miss Ried, when you told me yesterday that you’ve only made one new acquaintance over the past few weeks, you failed to mention that it was none other than Mr. Kalin Davis, the founder and CEO of TALVIS Advertising. Estimated worth, two billion dollars. You also failed to tell me that he was preparing to transfer to you twenty percent of the stock. Now I’m no mathematician, but that seems to be a transfer of wealth of, oh, four hundred million dollars.”
The detective paces around the room with his thumbs in his pockets, making the gold police badge on his waist constantly visible.
“Detective, with all due respect, the agreement was confidential, and I instructed Annabelle to keep it that way,” Kalin interjects. “She was understandably hesitant to reveal this information to anyone before speaking with me.”
“Four hundred million dollars plays to motive, don’t you think, Mr. Davis?”
“Four hundred million dollars?” Lia’s mouth drops open, and she shakes her head at me in disbelief. I shrug like I can’t believe any of it myself.
“Oh, I’m sure it plays to motive. Especially with these greedy bastards,” Kalin adds, glancing at me with a knowing look of disgust. “In fact, the reason I showed up here today is to shed some light on what I think happened.”
The detective leans over his desk and glares at Kalin. “Why don’t you do that for us, Mr. Davis.”
“Glad to help, detective. The sad irony is that Lia has the least to do with this. I guess you could say she is guilty of knowing us, or more accurately of knowing Annabelle, who was given this contract by me. As you know, my security team reported a break-in in Southampton at both my home and my yacht. I believe it was a couple of hours before the same men showed up at Lia’s apartment. If you have not received that information, I am sure the police are more than willing to pass it along.”
“They also reported that nothing was stolen, and nothing was missing from your property.” The detective places his hands on his hips, and shoots an interrogative glance at Kalin.
“Detective, they only wanted to see if I had a plan to transfer the shares, and if I in fact did have a plan, who the recipient would be. The stock agreement was left in the desk. But they had to have seen it. It was worth more than anything else in the place.”
“How would they even know about it?”
“The board knew I was upset about being ousted as CEO for spending time with Rebecca. They knew I had very little regard for them as managers, or as human beings for that matter.” Kalen’s tone is glib. “They had to have known I wasn’t going to take this lying down. So they were on the lookout for what my next move would be, and they probably went as far as having me followed by some of their lowlifes.
“This is where Annabelle comes in. They knew I was spending more and more time with her, and that she was already hired as my marketing associate. Certainly they knew that she was positioned to learn the interwork of the company, and possibly more.
“Now they probably saw that we were romantically involved as well. This probably signaled red flags everywhere. Because what the board knows is that I can transfer shares to a family member, including a spouse. If I were to get married again, they would suspect that this is exactly what I would do. And even worse for them, she would be a company manager sitting on the board with an active role selecting managers.”
“The question is, would you get married just to transfer the stock and retain control of the company?” The detective crosses his arms and glares at Kalin.
Kalin runs his fingers along his lower lip and stares across the room for a moment. “Detective, I didn’t think I would ever control this company again. I have enough to live comfortably, and I figured I could start another company or just move on. But after I saw the way these new executives treated the employees, and enriched themselves with what I had built, I knew the right thing to do was to stop them. Even with that weighing on me, I never expected to meet someone like Annabelle.”
Kalin takes in a quick breath. “She really took me by surprise. She’s smart, she’s beautiful, and she could certainly run this company better than these lowlifes.” Kalin glances at me and smiles. “Under my guidance, of course.”
“They’re Ivy League educated managers with years of experience, Mr. Davis. You think Ms. Ried can run company of this size better than them?” he scoffs.
“They already showed how much they know about business when the profits declined substantially in my absence. But they are worse than incompetent, detective. They are dishonorable and devious,” Kalin sneers. “There’s more to running a business than an expensive education. Annabelle has qualities that they never will, and that means more to me than experience or education. I wasn’t expecting to meet someone like her.” Kalin places his hand over mine. “But all the pieces started falling together, and I knew I was falling in love with her, and I couldn’t stop it.”
This is the first time I’ve heard Kalin speak so openly about his feelings for me, and I feel warmth race through me. I can’t stop a goofy smile from spreading across my face. Lia smirks and shakes her head at me. I bug my eyes out at her.
“That’s all very touching. Ho
wever, it is also very convenient,” the detective barks.
Kalin returns his gaze to the detective. “It would be unwise to get married simply to transfer the stock, Detective.”
“And why is that, Mr. Davis?” His lips twist into a condescending smile.
“Because the stock transfer is an irrevocable transfer. Even if I did get a divorce, I wouldn’t be able to get the stock back. It would be a four-hundred-million-dollar gift to an ex.”
Kalin’s eyes drift to me and back to the detective. My eyes lock on him while he speaks, and I realize he is confessing how he really feels about me. Fear clashes with the warmth of his words, and for a moment I wonder if I this is real, or if I’m wanting to believe in a fairy tale.
“I am the one who is at risk here, detective. I am the one who stands to lose the most,” Kalin says.
“Why would you trust someone like Ms. Ried on the board?”
I glower at the detective.
Kalin exhales sharply. “What is important to me now is that the company is put back on track. I can teach someone like Annabelle those skills. It doesn’t require a Harvard MBA. It requires some integrity and, yes, a bit of backbone and business savvy. But it doesn’t require stealing from employees and cutthroat business tactics to remain competitive. We have competent management throughout the company. We just need honorable leadership. Besides, she is running the advertising with me, not alone.”
“And you happened to fall in love with her.”
“And I happened to fall in love with her. Love is not so easily explained, Detective.”
“So now two thugs threaten Lia. Why?”
“The major shareholders control the board, and they don’t like that position threatened. It's as simple as that. They cannot do anything about the contract. They just wanted to see whose name was on it. Once they saw that at Southampton, they came to Annabelle’s apartment to scare the hell out of her. Maybe they wanted to see if she’d signed it. Or maybe they intended to scare Lia so that Annabelle never would sign it. You’ll have to ask them when you arrest them,” Kalin adds with a tone of impatience.
Undeniably His Page 10
