“You,” Eve gasped, “you’re funny! Just listen to you!”
“Hearing me describe a man’s demotion is amusing?”
“Demotion!” Eve threw back her head and laughed some more, but her laughter stopped when Zach grabbed her, hard, by the shoulders.
“How can you laugh at another man’s misfortune, dammit? Have you no heart?”
Eve wrenched free of him. “Are you stupid, or are you blind? Of course, Kaplan wouldn’t extend the loan deadline. Kaplan knows zilch about making movies. Besides, he’s only a bank officer.”
“Only a…”
“Brubeck’s a vice president. And he’s just been made one of the directors. That’s why he’s been transferred to Arden. To the main office in Arden, I might add. And, just in case you’re going to sit around waiting for the ax to fall on his head because he lent me that money, don’t. His promotion came through after he’d approved the Triad loan.”
It was gratifying to see the sudden wash of crimson that swept into Zach’s cheeks, but the pleasure didn’t last long.
“So, you managed to climb past Kaplan,” he said. “But then, that wouldn’t have been so difficult for a woman of your talents. Look at how you worked my old man.”
“I did not work Charles,” Eve said sharply.
“No?”
“No. He heard me express some ideas and he liked them.”
“I’ll just bet he liked your ideas,” Zach said with a taut smile. “What man wouldn’t?”
Eve opened her mouth, then shut it. She’d be damned if she was going to let Zach Landon force her onto the defensive. You only lost ground, arguing with the Zach Landons of this world.
“Instead of making speeches about my morality,” she said, her tone icy, “you might try phoning the State Affiliated office in Arden and talking with Ed Brubeck. Tell him the film’s almost completed—Horace did turn up, didn’t he?”
Zach nodded. “Yes,” he said wryly, “the star returneth.”
“Good. Then you can assure Brubeck that the movie will hit the video stores within the month, and——”
“The video stores?” Zach stared at her in disbelief. “Let me get this straight. Triad’s gone into debt to make a movie that won’t play in the theaters?”
“Right.”
“Dammit, woman, how could you be such a fool? What’s the logic in making a movie that won’t earn any money?”
“Do yourself a favor, Zach. Get your hands on some books about making movies in the nineties and read them. Maybe, with luck, you’ll learn something.”
The flush rose in his cheeks again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Lots of films go straight into video stores They’d never recover a dime otherwise.”
“Dogs, you mean.”
“You’re catching on.”
“If this movie’s so bad, why are you making it?”
Eve sighed as she walked into the kitchen.
“I inherited it,” she said as she filled the kettle with water. “From the former head of the company. Any other clever questions?”
He hesitated. Everything had seemed so obvious a little while ago. But now—now, he wasn’t so sure
“Well?” She put the kettle on the burner, turned on the flame and swung toward him. “Last chance, Zach. If you’ve other things to ask me, ask them now.”
“Horace’s owner is complaining,” he said brusquely, his eyes on her face. “He says he let you have the horse at a ridiculous rate.”
Eve snorted, yanked open a cupboard door and began banging cups and saucers onto the counter
“Did he bother telling you that this Horace isn’t the real one? Horace went to horse heaven the week before we started filming. According to Triad’s contract, I could have walked away.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because,” she said patiently, “we’d already laid out big bucks for everything else. And Horace’s owner offered a solution. He had another horse. It looks like Horace, but it’s not as smart.”
“Yeah,” Zach said with a little laugh, “tell me about it.”
“Do you take milk or sugar?”
“What?”
“With your tea. Milk? Or sugar?”
He didn’t take tea at all, not since he was ten years old and sick with the flu and Stella had fed him endless pots of the stuff. But there was something about this tenuous peace, about standing in the warm, cramped kitchen with Eve in her flannel robe…
“Sugar,” he said, frowning. “Sugar’s fine.”
“So? What else do you need to ask me?”
He looked at her. Her expression was bland but he knew she was enjoying this. It wasn’t just that she was getting a kick out of his needing her help, although he wasn’t kidding himself; she was definitely lapping it up
But there was more to it. She was knowledgeable about moviemaking, he had to admit that, more than he’d expected and surely more knowledgeable than he. It made sense that she would be. She’d been on the fringes of the business for a long time, and once the old man had handed Triad to her, she’d probably done some fast and furious homework so that she could make herself seem indispensable. The last thing she’d have wanted would have been for Charles to have taken away her toy.
She was, after all, not just beautiful but bright.
“No more questions?”
Zach looked at her. “The caterer,” he said. “The crew’s not happy with his meals lately. They want roast beef. He wants more money.” He paused deliberately. “Or is it just that he misses you, Eve?”
Color swept into her cheeks but her eyes never left his.
“The caterer’s planning on branching into residential work,” she said stiffly. “I told him that if he fed the crew well, I’d put in a word with a friend who writes an influential food column. Any other questions, Mr. Landon?”
Zach took a long drink of his tea, then put the cup down. What the hell, he thought, an
d he took a deep breath.
“Perhaps I was hasty in firing you,” he said.
Eve grasped the edge of the counter for support. “What did you say?”
“You heard me the first time.” He smiled. It was not a particularly pleasant smile, she thought giddily, but it was a smile, nonetheless. “Don’t push your luck by making me repeat it.”
Her hand began to shake; she set her cup down carefully on its saucer and drew a deep breath.
“Well,” she said, “well.”
“You do know something about the film business.”
“Yes. I do. I tried to tell you that.”
“Not nearly enough to rate the top spot, of course…”
The smile that was hovering on Eve’s lips disappeared. “Your father disagreed.”
“My father was influenced by your other assets.”
Her eyes flashed. “Are we back to that?”
“We never left it. You played my old man like a champ.”
“This is my house,” she said sharply, “not the Triad office. I’ve no intention of listening while you insult me.”
“Listen while I make you an offer, then.”
“What kind of offer?”
“My brothers and I intend to sell Landon Enterprises.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“Only that we can’t do it until Triad gets out of that sea of red ink it’s floating in.”
Eve smiled coolly. “My heart bleeds for you.”
“Here’s the deal,” Zach said brusquely. “I’ll let you run Triad but you’ll have to answer to me on a daily basis.”
Her heart leaped, but she folded her arms over her breasts and eyed him cautiously.
“Why? Why would you ask me to come back to work?”
“I just told you. Because I have to put Triad into the black. That next movie you’re planning…What’s it called?”
“Hollywood Wedding. But how did you…?”
“Did you think I’ve spent the week sitting in your office doing nothing? I know all your plans for Triad, Eve, even that you’ve already promised to spend money you don’t yet have.”
“Only because I’m convinced Hollywood Wedding will save the company.”
Zach nodded. “How much do you need?”