She angled toward Mori, bowed and then strode out of the room, uncaring of the stunned silence that her abrupt departure caused.
Chapter Eleven
“Here.” A glass of red wine appeared in Helen’s line of sight. She followed the glass to the feminine hand that held it to the woman it belonged to. “You look like you need it,” Samantha continued.
Helen slowly took the glass. It was nearly midnight and she was sitting at a small round table next to a window in the hotel’s top floor cocktail lounge. She’d never been up there before, and it had seemed an admirable choice when she hadn’t wanted to remain alone in her hotel room all evening.
Instead, she’d sat alone at this table, staring out at the lights and wondering what had become of her life. “Thanks.” She silently toasted the other woman with the glass before taking a sip. She had half a dozen empty glasses on the table. None of them had contained a drop of alcohol. “Who would have thought, back when I was once your babysitter, that we’d be on the other side of the world like this?”
“I’ll take that as an invitation,” Samantha said, as she slid into the chair opposite Helen.
“Sorry.” Helen shook herself. “Of course, join me.”
“As long as I don’t have Jack with me?” Samantha’s gaze was sympathetic. “He told me you two had words this morning before the meeting.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“He didn’t mean it, Helen.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “I never realized just how optimistic you were, Samantha.” She tilted her glass again in the other woman’s direction. “Here’s to the hope that that trait always serves you well.”
“He’s stressed out over the merger. And he’s somewhat unnerved over the fact that he’s realizing you aren’t the woman he’s always made you out to be.”
“Samantha, I love you. I’m glad you and Jack are together and making each other happy. But I do not want to talk about this.”
“Well, maybe you get to call the shots a little too often, Helen,” Samantha countered gently. “Come on. We’re a family. Families say stuff all the time that they don’t really mean.”
Helen drank the wine down in only a few gulps. Family? She wanted badly to think so, but reality had a way of eroding such hopes. “Does Jack know you’re up here?” She could tell by Samantha’s expression that he did not. “Go back to your husband, sweetheart, and don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
Samantha let out a long breath. She rose and came around to Helen’s side, dropping a kiss on her head. “You’re not fine and families are allowed to worry, whether you like it or not.”
“She is right.”
Helen nearly toppled the wineglass at Mori’s voice. She looked past Samantha at him. “Where did you come from?”
“Nesutotaka,” he said calmly.
Her lips tightened. “Very funny.”
“Join Jack and me for breakfast before tomorrow’s session,” Samantha whispered for Helen’s ears, then she turned to Mori and bowed. “Good evening, Mr. Taka. If you’ll excuse me?”
He returned the greeting. “Of course, Mrs. Hanson.”
Samantha shot Helen another look as she hurried out of the bar.
Mori took the seat that Samantha had occupied so briefly. “I have been calling your room.”
She focused her gaze somewhere around his temple. Anything to avoid looking in those black-brown eyes of his. “Really? Why?”
“To speak with you.”
“I think our speaking together should be kept in the conference room, don’t you?”
He reached across the table and caught her chin, moving it an inch until her gaze met his. “What has upset you? You were not yourself at our meeting today, either.”
The glass of wine had been a mistake, just as it always was. “I guess I find it harder than I thought it would be to face the man I spent hours making love with across a negotiating table.”
“Do you regret it?”
Her throat tightened. “The way you must?”
“I did not say that I did.”
She leaned toward him, keeping her voice carefully low. “Well, what do you feel, Mori? Because I have realized that I do not have the first clue when it comes to reading you.”
“Do you wish that I would sweep you into my arms like some foolish American movie regardless of the setting? It was a meeting, Helen.”
“No, I don’t wish you to act like some besotted idiot in a stupid movie! I expect…I expect…oh, damn!” She pushed back from the table. “I don’t know what I expect, that’s how badly you’ve got me twisted up. Look, I am a big girl. Last night was…a diversion for both of us. A one-time deal where we both got what we wanted out of it.”
He stood also, his expression hardening. “That is what you believe?”
“What else can I believe, Mori? You looked right through me today.” She hated the fact that her voice caught. She wasn’t a teenager begging her boyfriend not to desert her when he left her pregnant. She was a forty-one-year-old adult who, for years and years, had been playing the cards her life had dealt.
So why did she feel as if she hadn’t learned one thing in all that time? And why did everything seem to hurt more now?
“It’s late. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow at TAKA.” She turned away.
He caught her arm, preventing her from getting more than two inches.
She looked up at his face and was abruptly reminded of the night he’d held the Samurai sword in his suite at the Anderson hotel.
Her mouth dried.
“I could not look at you without giving away my feelings,” he said grimly. “Is that what you wish to hear, Helen? Do you want my brother and my associates to know from my expression or my actions that I am consorting with you?”
“Consorting with the enemy, you mean? We’re not enemies, Mori. You and I both want the same thing—for Hanson Media to be part of TAKA Corporation. Why do you think I made sure you even heard of Hanson Media?”
The challenge seemed to linger in the air long after it should have.
“You sent a prospectus.”
“A good six weeks after I knew you’d already been investigating the advantages of an acquisition,” she said tiredly. “I made sure that Hanson Media was on the list of companies you routinely review for acquisition.”
“How?”
“I was the wife of George Hanson. I worked with more committees for more social functions or philanthropic events than you can possibly imagine. I have contacts, Mori, from many corners of the world, quite honestly. And I used them.”
“Why TAKA?”
“Because despite the fact that your company is so traditional that there are no women in senior management, TAKA is still the best in the industry. Your assets, your operating principles. And because I respected the leadership of TAKA’s new CEO,” she told him bluntly. Why not? What more damage could she do now? She’d already slept with the man, breaking all manner of ethical behavior. What was one more—one last—revelation between them?
“You investigated TAKA.”
“I investigated you. And don’t pretend to be shocked. We both know that you investigated me, as well.”
“Had my people done a better job, the existence of Jenny Anderson would not have come as such a surprise.”
She wasn’t amused and couldn’t pretend to be.
“You are cannier than I realized,” he finally said.
“A trait I’m sure you will never be able to appreciate.”
“You think, because of my culture, that I do not understand shrewd behavior?”
“Shrewd, yes. Secretly manipulative? Probably not.”
“You did this to save your late husband’s company.”
“We’ve been over that point already. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She started to bow, but he caught her shoulders.
“Do not patronize me, Helen.”
Was he so oblivious that he couldn’t recognize that she was dyi
ng by slow degrees? “Sumimasen. That was not my intention. I just want to get through the next few weeks, Mori. That’s all.”
“And us?”
“As you’ve made plain to me, there is no us to concern myself with.”
“Because I do not acknowledge you in front of my associates.”
“That’s just it, Mori. I don’t need you to tell them that something important has occurred between us. But I don’t want you hiding the fact even from me! Don’t treat me as if I don’t exist in that conference room. I won’t ever be involved again with a man who cannot bring himself to acknowledge my value in a business setting.”
She looked around them, profoundly grateful for the fact that, at that hour, there were only a few patrons in the place, and they looked three sheets to the wind. “I won’t do that to myself again. I can’t. And I’m sorry if you can’t understand why that is so important to me. So all I can say now is…good night.” When she moved, he released her, which was a good thing because she wasn’t sure what she’d have done had he not.
Bursting into tears wasn’t an acceptable action, even if she felt like she’d earned having one darned good howl.
The elevator that opened directly into the lounge was waiting, doors wide and she stepped on, turning to face outward.
Mori hadn’t moved.
He stood where she’d left him, his expression closed.
She pushed the button for her floor and the doors slid shut.
Only then did she blink.
A hot tear slid down her cheek.
“Messages and mail for you, Hanson-san.”
Helen headed for the reception desk and the smiling young woman who’d called out for her. She took the stack. “Domō arigatō.”
The girl smiled and nodded. “It is my pleasure, Missus. Please enjoy your morning.”
If only.
Helen slid the items inside her portfolio and followed Jack out into the morning sunshine. David, Evan and Andrew were there, waiting, also. On this, the last scheduled meeting for the merger, they would all also be attending the meeting.
By the end of the day, the merger would be complete. Signed, sealed and delivered.
And Mori hadn’t spoken privately with her since the night nearly two weeks earlier when he’d tracked her down in the cocktail lounge.
She felt a cowardly urge to hang back, to join Samantha and the other women for their day of playing tourists while the men bellied up to the bargaining table.
A limo was already waiting at the curb. “What are the messages for?” Jack asked. If he was aware of her nerves, he gave no hint.
She didn’t look at the slips clenched in her hand. “The voice mail on my phone isn’t working properly. I’m sure it’s just stuff from Sonia.”
He didn’t ask any further questions and she climbed into the vehicle. Since the day they’d argued, he hadn’t brought up the subject again. She supposed his uncommon reticence was probably Samantha’s influence. She didn’t care where it came from as long as it came. She didn’t have any more stamina to keep facing Mori without losing her composure and stay firm against Jack’s open censure.
She found herself sitting next to Jack and David, facing Evan and Andrew.
“We only have three points left to cover.” Jack was looking out his side window. His fingers drummed against his knee. “One of which is the corporate philanthropy issue.”
“I suppose you think I should just let them cut the corporate match to whatever they want.” She looked at the other men, waiting for some response.
“No.” Jack’s voice held a wealth of impatience. “But the sixty that Mori has already put on the table isn’t completely out of the question.”
Andrew nodded. Evan just looked distracted.
“What do you think, David?”
“If they’ll go to sixty, they’ll go up.”
“That’s what I think, too. I want seventy-five,” Helen said.
“You should have been a defense lawyer,” Jack muttered.
“Given the circumstances, I’ll take that as a compliment.” Whether he’d meant it as one, or not.
He snorted softly.
Helen opened her portfolio and glanced through the messages and mail.
Judge Henry had finally sent the letter.
She glanced at Jack from the corner of her eye, but he was still looking out the window. She discreetly slipped open the envelope, reading through the Judge’s brief handwritten note. It accompanied another, smaller sealed envelope for Jack.
Satisfied, she tucked the second envelope in a pocket in the portfolio to save for later and continued paging through the messages. “Jack, I know the whole family is having dinner together tonight, but I was hoping to grab a few minutes of time with you and Evan.”
Her middle stepson looked across at her. “Why?”
“There’re a few things I want to talk with you both about.” She closed her portfolio just as the taxi stopped in front of the TAKA building.
Evan’s eyes narrowed. “What things?”
Sometimes he was so much like Jack, a fact he would undoubtedly deny. Adamantly, since he considered himself far less rigid than his older brother.
“It’ll wait,” she dismissed smoothly. “Jack, remember, seventy-five percent. You can argue it, if you like. I know how you like to do that.”
“Well, that’s the truth,” Andrew agreed drily.
The men all eyed each other, half smiles on their faces.
She took in a slow, deep breath and let it out.
Everything was going to be fine. Just fine.
After dozens of meetings, the security guards had become familiar faces. Helen smiled and greeted them by name as she passed them for the elevator.
“You do have a way with people,” Andrew muttered as they climbed on the elevator.
As they rode up, Helen was too nervous to worry whether Andrew’s comment was a compliment or a condemnation.
When they walked into the conference room, Mori, typically, had not yet arrived. But Richard was already there and they joined him by the tea tray.
Anticipation seemed to hover, thick and heady, in the air.
“There are going to be a few board members here for this,” Richard warned under his breath. “I overheard Shiguro talking about it.”
Helen looked over to where Mori’s younger brother was holding court with half a dozen other men. “Board members haven’t joined any of the previous meetings.”
“We haven’t had the entire Hanson contingent here at once, either. We’re in the homestretch, kiddo.” Richard squeezed her elbow. “You done good.”
She swallowed the knot of nervousness that continued rising in her throat despite her efforts otherwise. Who was she kidding? She had an MBA and a decent mind on her, with no real work history other than the internship where she’d met George. The fact that she’d gotten this far was a major miracle and she knew it.
Then Mori’s father, Yukio, strode slowly into the room. He was immediately surrounded by bowing TAKA employees.
Her heart sunk to her toes. She turned slightly toward Richard so that only he would hear her whisper. “Yukio Taka is one of the board members coming today?”
“Kind of looks that way,” he murmured, looking around her at the man in question. “Guy walks around like he’s the emperor himself.”
Helen turned again to face Yukio’s direction and decided it was an apt description. He was not as tall as Mori, nor as broad in the shoulders, but his iron gray hair was as thick as Mori’s clipped hair. More than his physical presence, though, it was Yukio’s aging face that caught at Helen.
It gave new meaning to the word stern.
And the look he was giving her would have probably meant death in some previous century.
Even though she hated having to do it, she lowered her lashes respectfully, put her hands on her thighs and bowed deeply. When she raised up again, she liked to believe she caught a glint of surprise in the man’s eyes.
> But the moment was too brief to be certain, and then Mori entered the room.
He nodded at his father and went to the head of the table, his motions uncommonly brisk. “Shall we begin?”
Everyone quickly moved to the table and assumed their seats. Yukio sat directly across the table at the far end from his son. Moments later, two other elderly men shuffled into the room and took the two empty seats on either side of him. The other board members, she presumed.
Shiguro rose and introduced the TAKA visitors and then he sat down again, looking clearly rattled. While Richard stood and introduced Evan, Andrew and David, Helen looked past Jack to Mori.
He was watching her. She felt her cheeks warm and reminded herself just how easily the man had blocked out their personal relationship.
Then he spoke, seeming to direct his comment directly to her. “We will be brief today.” A faint smile touched his lips and he finally looked around the table. “At least that is my hope.”
A smattering of chuckles sounded. Helen glanced at the far end.
Yukio’s expression had not changed.
She pulled out her gold pen, holding it tightly. The homestretch, she reminded herself. She could smell the barn.
Shiguro directed them to open their agreements to the suitable page. “The last remaining points, as we all remember, are the duration of the transitional management, the appointment of Hanson representatives to the TAKA board and setting policy for the philanthropic corporate match for Hanson North America.”
There it was. No longer Hanson Media Group, but Hanson North America.
Helen stared hard at the pages in front of her and listened to Richard set forth their proposed timetable for the transitional management to ensure that all elements of the agreement actually took place. “While we realize TAKA would like to work through the transition as quickly as possible, we believe that a three-month period will be most feasible.”
They’d begun requesting a five-month duration.
TAKA had wanted one month, but that was more noise than sense, and everyone was perfectly aware of it.
Mergers & Matrimony Page 14
