Chase leaned over to me and mumbled under his breath, “He will be getting his just desserts.”
Malcolm took a seat. “Oh, you have had some champagne. Were you celebrating something?”
“No,” Todd lied. “I am just rather partial to the fine stuff. Shame you didn’t arrive earlier, then you could have joined us in a glass.”
“Not to worry, I will just stick to my usual beer,” Malcolm said.
Over my dead body was he having any of my champagne anyhow.
Malcolm chatted on about his ideas for the development for a solid fifteen minutes before Todd stopped him.
“Sounds amazing, Malcolm. I’m sure we can come to some arrangement. Now can I talk candidly with you about the building? This is highly confidential and other than Haley you must not speak of it. We have taken her into our small circle and not even Arthur Green knows this.”
Malcolm’s eager eyes opened wide and he shuffled closer to Todd. “Anything we talk about is strictly confidential. You have my word.”
“So, part of the funding behind King enterprises comes from the Adult Entertainment Industry.”
Malcolm’s jaw dropped for a split second before he quickly recovered himself.
“We are hoping that some of our wealthier investors will choose one of the King homes and we’re also going to keep one for filming high class movies. We’ve been speaking to Haley this evening and think it would be beneficial for you to come to our current film set, see what we do, how we do it and then use that vision on the home Mr. King intends to keep for that purpose. You may or may not see some of the investors on that day too. I must point out that if any of this become public knowledge, Mr. King has advised me to do whatever is necessary to shut down the leak.”
You couldn’t miss the tenseness in Malcolm’s shoulders at those words and when he spoke a slight tremble under laid his voice.
“I won’t say a word.”
Well, who’d have thought it? Todd seemed to be rather enjoying pretending to be some kind of mob member.
“So, we will be in touch with Haley about you coming to see us. Would you be okay with attending on a Saturday, probably outside of usual office hours so that your employer isn’t suspicious?”
“Of course, we will do everything necessary to assist you in this deal, won’t we, Haley?”
“Of course,” I stated and I raised my glass which was still partly full of champagne. “Here’s a toast to a successful conclusion to our arrangement.”
Everyone clicked glasses, with only Malcolm not privy to the double meaning of my statement.
We stayed silent on the subject until safely back in Todd’s car.
“The fucking mouth on that man, Haley. I don’t know why you didn’t just let me and Todd beat him up at the back of the restaurant.”
“Because he’s not worth it,” I stated. “I knew he’d show up tonight. I told you he would. He’s a backstabbing bastard. Thank you for winding him up tonight. I’ll tell him it was a sham after I’m allowed to say I won the development.”
“Don’t say anything just yet, Haley,” Todd said, winking at me through the rear view mirror. “I’m not done with him. He’s coming to the studio. I have plans to get him out of your life for good.”
“You’ve gone all Godfather. Are you going to put a horse’s head in his bed.” I laughed.
“No, but I do have plans for his head,” Todd’s dark eyes glistened with mischief.
“I’m seeing a totally other side to you tonight, Mr. Ross,” I told him.
“You’re going to see all our sides when we get home, darlin’,” Chase added and my stomach fizzled with excitement.
“Oh, she just trembled. Don’t be a nervous girl, we’ll be gentle.” Chase said.
“I’m not nervous,” I told them. “I actually can’t wait.”
Chapter Seven
Haley