He should have known it wouldn’t last.
Later that night, as they were served dinner by the rented villa’s housekeeper, Rose suddenly looked up at him in the candlelight. The two of them were sitting together at the end of a long table, in front of the wall of windows with a view of the moonlit Pacific and the Gulf of Cortez. He could see an old fishing boat with hanging lights, and in the distance was an enormous cruise ship. Mariachi music from the resort town below drifted up the hillside through the open windows.
Rose took a bracing gulp of a lime margarita, then leaned forward over the table. The candlelight cast shadows on her face, giving her the beautiful, concerned expression of a Renaissance Madonna as she asked quietly, “Why have we been traveling so much? Has Lars called the police? Has he been chasing us?”
Xerxes snorted. “Växborg would never call the police. That would just reveal his own crimes. He’s still in Las Vegas, settling the divorce.”
“Then why?” She pressed her lips together. “It must be your business making such demands,” she said softly. She shook her head. “It must exhaust you.”
He wanted to explain to her that it wasn’t his business, just his failure to find Laetitia that kept them constantly on the move; but the words choked in his throat. He couldn’t bear Rose’s sympathy now, on top of everything else. If she tried to smile and tell him consolingly that he was still a good man and no doubt trying his best, or that it wasn’t his fault, he would smash the wall with his fist.
When he did not reply, she looked down at her plate. She took another bite of her enchiladas de mariscos. Waving her fork, she tilted her head at him, her eyes gleaming.
“I know you’re rich and powerful and all,” she teased, clearly trying to elevate the mood, “but what exactly do you do, anyway?”
Xerxes served himself more of the enchiladas and fish tacos that the villa’s cook had prepared. “I buy distressed companies. I sell the divisions that are profitable. I discard the parts that are not.”
Her face closed down. “Oh.”
He blinked at her. “You don’t approve?”
She shook her head.
“Why?” he asked curiously.
She shrugged.
“Tell me.”
She sighed. “Look, I know I don’t have any right to criticize. You’re a millionaire with a private jet and I’m a waitress with fifty dollars in my bank account. But I’ve been working my way through college, studying entrepreneurial business management at San Francisco State…” She hesitated, biting her lip, as if she expected him to mock her.
He leaned forward in his chair. “Go on.”
“Your company seems profitable, and that’s great, but…”
“Yes?”
She pressed her lips together, then looked up. “But people work at those companies. People who lose their jobs.”
“So?”
There was a loud burst of mariachi music from the town below, and she looked in the distance at the dark, moonswept Pacific. “I’m biased, I guess. My grandfather had a candy company a long time ago. It did really well, then things fell apart. Ingredients became more expensive, and we didn’t have the nationwide distribution of the larger companies. Ten years ago, after my father took over, a conglomerate offered to buy Linden Candy. It would have made us wealthy, but my dad knew they’d close the factory and move production, leaving half our town out of work. So for the sake of his employees—his neighbors and friends—my father refused.”
“Foolish.”
“No, not foolish!” she retorted. “It was noble. Courageous, even. My dad said we would either all sink together, or he would find a way to make the company succeed.”
“And what happened?”
She looked down at her hands in her lap. “In spite of all his best efforts, the company went bankrupt.”
Xerxes gave a single firm nod. “He never should have allowed his feelings to override his business judgment.”
“He was protecting his employees!”
“He didn’t protect them. He failed them. And worse—he failed you. If he’d sold the company, you wouldn’t be working your way through college at the age of twenty-nine.”
She glared at him. “My father did the right thing. He held to his principles. I thought you of all people would appreciate that.”