Chapter 21 #2
By the time the last of the guests had left and the caterers were stacking their silver trays, Pam was gone.
John might have guessed it. She never made things easy.
He called the hotel and learned that she had checked out before the party.
One of his PR people reported having seen her change clothes in the ladies’ room.
Another reported having seen her leave the store and jump into a cab.
A third called the airport and found that her name was on the passenger list for a flight that was now taxiing onto the runway.
He tried calling her in Boston later than night, but she didn’t answer. He tried calling her at the company’s suite in New York, although he knew she rarely stayed there. She preferred the Hilton. Or Hillary’s. So he tried calling her there, but a groggy Hillary was the only one to answer.
He wondered if she was seeing Cutter Reid. The thought drove him wild. He simmered all night, took the first morning flight back to Boston, and went to her apartment and pounded on the door.
He never expected her to be there, but within a minute she opened the door.
She was tying the sash of a long white robe.
Her face was clear of makeup and flushed from sleep.
Between that and the hair tumbling over her shoulders, she looked warm and womanly.
John felt an instant physical response, which annoyed him all the more.
She was wary. “What is it, John?”
“No bright ‘hello’? No ‘how are you,’ or ‘didn’t that go well yesterday’?”
“Sorry, but I OD’d on small talk.”
She did look tired, which got all of his suspicions going again. “Where the hell have you been? I thought you would stick around after the party.”
“What for? It was a success. We both knew it would be.”
“There were people to thank. That’s your responsibility, too. We’re business partners, for Christ’s sake.”
She arched a slender brow. “Business partners? Are you kidding? I’m a company employee. Just one of the designers.”
Since he-wasn’t about to acknowledge that her work was in any way superior, he focused on the family connection: “You’re a St. George. You have a stake in the company.”
“Only in theory. I don’t get my say for another two years.”
“Keep up the bitchiness and you won’t get it at all.”
“Bitchiness? For God’s sake, John,” she threw up a hand, “I’m stating facts. I don’t control my share of the company. You do. I just work there.”
“And when you’re not working there, you’re running around drumming up business for yourself and your designs. Think you’re pretty hot, hmmm?”
“I don’t need this.” She started to close the door. He caught it with a foot and stepped inside before she could stop him, then kicked it shut.
Whirling around, she retreated into the apartment. He followed and reached the kitchen, in time to disconnect the call she was making, then snatched his finger away seconds before she would have crushed it slamming down the receiver.
“Who were you calling?”
“The police. I don’t want you here, John.”
He drew himself up. The taller he towered over her, the more dominant he felt. “Tough. I want to talk.”
Incredibly, she held her ground. “Not now. Not here. This is my apartment. The lease is in my name. I pay for it with money I earn, and you’re trespassing.”
“I’m your brother.”
“Half-brother. Get out.”
He knew then that he had riled her. That was something—certainly better than the way she looked through him sometimes, refusing to admit he was there. Leaning back against thé wall, he folded his arms on his chest. “I want to talk.”
“About what?”
“You. What you’re doing. Where you’re going.”
“You already know all you have to.” She was standing by the counter, looking defiant but just that little bit nervous, which enhanced his sense of control.
“Not by a long shot. I want to know whether you like what you’re doing.”
“If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be able to do it so well.”
“No modesty there.”
“Why play games? We both know that my pieces are selling faster than every other designer’s but one, and his figures are high because he has a contract with an Arab who has him making things for every woman in his entourage. My jewelry wouldn’t sell if it weren’t good, given the prices we charge.”
“Do you think they’re too high?”
“No way. We design for the wealthy, and the wealthy can pay.”
“So what’s your gripe?”
“I don’t have one. You do. At least, I assume that’s why you’re here. What’s the matter?” She tipped her head. “Uptight because I’m doing well?”
He laughed. “You’re doing well because I allow it.”
“Try again.”
“It’s true. How do you think you got started?
Do you think all those people came to see that first show because they heard your work was good?
Good pieces of jewelry are a dime a dozen.
Stunning jewelry is what’s rare, and yours isn’t stunning.
Most of those people came as a favor to me.
I made calls, told them about the show, asked them to drop by.
I do things for other people; they do things for me. ”
“If they came by as a favor to you, they came back later because they liked my work. I’m not that naive, John. People don’t spend thousands for a ring or a necklace, then wear those pieces out in public and send their friends in for more if they don’t like what they’re getting.”
“The Phelans? The Goodmans? The Andersons?
They’re all my friends.”
“They were Daddy’s friends.”
“The Phelans introduced you around Philly. The Goodmans did it in Scarsdale. The Andersons were your entree in Southampton. Those were my contacts.”
“They were St. George contacts. I made the initial phone calls. I made the trip arrangements. If favors were paid, they were paid to Daddy. He was the one who began dealing with those people twenty-some years ago. They were St. George clients long before Facets was conceived. You call them your contacts. I call them my contacts. We can stand here arguing about it, or you can get out of here and give me some air.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?” he asked, working harder to appear complacent. “I’d be careful if I were you, Pam. You forget that Pamela St. George Originals are part of Facets.”
“Only if I want them to be.”
He shook his head. “Whether you want it or not. Remember that standard contract you signed when you started working? It gave Facets the right to your name.”
“It did not,” she said, but she pulled her robe tighter.
He saw it as a nervous gesture and took heart. He also took a leisurely look at the curves she’d inadvertently emphasized. “Check it out. You’ll see I’m right.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist. “It gave Facets the right to any and all pieces I made while in the company’s employ. I take my name, my skill, and my following with me when I leave.”
He shook his head slowly. “I think not.”
“I read it carefully, John, and I had a lawyer read it after me. If that contract gives Facets the right to my name, then it’s been altered. Not that I’d put that past you. You did it before, with Little Lincoln and Cutter.”
“Cutter.” The name alone dented John’s composure.
“Don’t bring him into this.”
“Why not? You owe him. You stole Little Lincoln.”
John wasn’t about to confirm or deny the claim. “From what I understand, he doesn’t need it. He’s earning big money.”
“Little Lincoln was his legacy from Daddy.”
“Little Lincoln is barren. It isn’t worth two cents.”
“Then that’s poetic justice, I’d say.”
“And Cutter?” John shot back, determined to catch her in a trap of her own making. “What does he say?”
She stared at him without saying a word.
“You’re seeing him behind my back,” he accused, his anger rising. It was always that way when it came to Cutter Reid, right from the first, when Eugene had dragged him off the streets and shown him the kind of care and compassion that John had always wanted.
Pam’s eyes were cold. “I see lots of people behind your back, because if you found out who they were, you’d try to control them, too. At some point it won’t work, John. I’m getting older and smarter. If shrewdness was what I lacked, I have a fine teacher in you.”
“I told you not to see him.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said with a sudden snap.
“Way back in December that time, you told me that if I ever saw him again, you’d have him canned from the mine and run out of town.
” She stood straighter. “You made the threat, then without waiting to see what I’d do, you carried it out.
” She started to tremble. “Only you weren’t satisfied with firing him and making him leave.
You beat him, too. You beat him, then went at him with a belt that left horrible, ugly gouges all over his back. You almost killed him, John.”
The murderous look in her eyes might have unsettled him if he hadn’t been so furious. “I should have. I should have known he’d come crying to you.”
“He wasn’t crying. Cutter doesn’t cry. He survives. He did it when he was a kid. He did it when you left him for dead. And he’ll do it again, if need be, because that’s the way he is. He’s far stronger, far more of a man, than you’ll ever be.”
Without thinking, John lunged. He had no idea what he intended. Red fury drove him on. A flash of silver stopped him before he reached her, though. It was a long, wide kitchen knife. A butcher’s knife. And it was in her hand, pointed at him.
“Don’t you touch me,” she warned.
He straightened, but he didn’t back off. She wouldn’t use the knife. At least he didn’t think so. “Relax, Pam.”
“And don’t tell me what to do.”
“You’re getting upset.”
“As well I should! I saw his back! I saw what you did! It was horrible!”
“So it turned you off? That’s good, at least.”
“It didn’t turn me off. I kissed every one of those scars, but they didn’t go away. So I’ll kiss every one of them the next time I see him, and each time after that. You’re an animal, John.”