CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT #2
Roux picked up the tumbler, rolled the autumnal liquid around in the glass and then he took a swig, watching us both with a snake-eyed glare, before saying, "I can order tea or coffee...anything you want. I like my guests to be comfortable.”
“We had a late breakfast,” I replied sharply. “Can we just get on with whatever…this…is!”
“We’re awaiting other guests, but sure, let’s take a seat,” Roux said as he strode toward the twin couches.
“I was…sorry, but not surprised, to hear that Erik got caught out,” Roux stated.
“He’s always been a naughty boy! The stories I could tell about the summers on Royal Island,” Roux said wistfully, “But then I’d have to make sure they were never repeated!
” he added, fixing us with a meaningful glare.
Oh, I got his meaning alright! His words made anxiety twist in my gut.
I knew Erik was part of an elite club and he and his friends would spend an annual two weeks on Royal Island in the Bahamas, but I was never invited.
It was his boy’s get-away, and what kind of partner would I be if I’d have gotten pissy about him going alone—not that I could have prevented him!
I knew Roux was attempting to unsettle me and even though thoughts of what my husband got up to with this overgrown man-child sickened me, I schooled my features.
Roux’s lust for something he couldn’t…shouldn’t have had put my dad’s life in danger and I would not let him win this game.
Jack sat on the first of the two couches opposite Roux, back straight, ready for anything.
I sat beside Jack and he placed his hand on my knee in reassurance, something he’d done many times before.
I liked it. Roux noticed Jack’s intimate touch. His brow cocked with amusement.
“I see you’re not resting on your laurels, Nate. Good for you!” I returned a stony stare. Suddenly something bumped against my foot; I looked down to see a Russian Blue cat wearing a strange vest with a large wooden spoon through the back, poking out at either side. What the hell?
“Ah, there you are Lo-li-ta!” Roux preened in a babyish voice as the cat leaped onto the couch and rubbed her face against his hand, scent marking him.
“You’re a curious girl, aren’t you? Yes, you are!
Oh, yes you are. That’s why Daddy had to put you in the harness…
to stop you from getting through the balcony balustrades, isn’t that right!
Daddy can’t have you falling again…you only get nine lives my lovely.
” The baby talk was creepy enough but the fact he’d named her Lolita… yikes!
“Back at college, Erik had quite the reputation for his wondering eye, did you know that?” Roux said nonchalantly, his fingers running over the Russian Blue’s brow, eliciting loud purring as his challenging gaze remained pinned on Jack and me.
“Did he tell you we were frat bros at Harvard? I was, only sixteen, quite the prodigy. I’m still one of the youngest students to acquire a degree from the Harvard Business School,” he bragged.
“Erik was at the School of Design,” Roux reminisced.
“We learn so much from our fraternity brothers,” he opined.
“It’s true what they say, college forges life-long connections. ”
I was aware that Erik studied for his Masters of Architecture at Harvard School of Design, but I never knew that he and Oliver Roux were in the same fraternity.
Erik kept that very quiet. What other secrets had he kept under wraps during our eleven years together?
I wondered then if I’d ever known Erik Thorne at all.
“I run a very successful organization. ORIGIN is worth billions. I’ve collected…friends and business partners globally.” He said this as if those friends and business partners were gaming counters.
“Do you understand what that means, gentlemen?” Oliver Roux asked rhetorically.
“The things people will do to please me…it’s divine watching them simper and squirm to get me to invest in their start-ups.
I have access to so much global power—business and government.
I can do virtually anything I want, without sanction. ” The truth of that was sickening.
Roux then set his attention on Jack. “Everyone’s got a price, what's yours Jack? Nate here—” he said gesturing to me, “—will do reasonably well out of his divorce. He's not greedy…it’s rather admirable because Erik’s fucking loaded and Nate could have taken him to the cleaners…
made him drop a spot or two on the Forbes rich list,” Roux chuckled, then absently he picked up his drink and took another swig from the tumbler.
“Yeah, you’re…financially comfortable, Nate.
But you...you Jack, you're a jobbing actor who just hit the ground running with a blockbuster. Opportunities are coming your way fast and you can do so much more with your life.” Roux tossed back the remaining alcohol, stood and the cat jumped off the couch and slunk underneath it.
Roux placed the empty tumbler on the coffee table and then strode to the French doors.
His back to us he stared out over the roofline towards the treetops of Tiergarten.
I shared a look with Jack, and Jack did a covert wanker hand gesture.
I grinned. It seemed neither of us knew where Roux was going with his boastful monologue.
Personally, I wanted him to get to the point and put his cards on the table.
Jack rose from the couch and took a position leaning nonchalantly against the far wall facing the French doors. Jack’s arms were behind his back and his pretty mouth was held in a line of disinterest. My guess was he’d made the move to get a wider view of the scene on his button camera, clever boy!
“There's a secret to my success, you know,” Roux began again as he turned to face us. “Honesty is vital, as is transparency—you gotta keep the lines of communication open and let all players know their place in the game,” he stated. “Everyone has a hole inside them,” Roux said seriously. I nearly spluttered a laugh, but bit my tongue, the sharp pain a distraction. Roux’s direct eye contact moved back and forth between Jack and me, ensuring he had our complete attention, before he set his gaze on Jack and said,
“You have to look at a person, really look at them, read them, understand them, discover their hole…and then work out what will fill that hole.” Oh man! I wish he would shut the fuck up or I was going to lose it. I took a side glance at Jack to see he was biting his lip and his eyes were watering.
“Some people fill their hole with money, others with drugs...what do you need to fill your hole, Jack? Whatever it is, I can give it to you!” Roux said decisively. “As long as you give me what I want!”
“You most certainly cannot!” Jack barked out, the air of an outraged matriarch in his tone. I couldn’t keep my laugh in any longer.
“My god, do you hear yourself? You really are an insufferable git, Mr. Roux. I bet nobody ever told you no—well, apart from Dr Ling Mai—man, that must have stung!” Jack sassed.
I chuckled at seeing the clenched tension in Roux’s jaw.
He couldn’t abide disrespect and it thrilled me to see Jack rile him.
Even though it was reckless to poke the bear we had backup just a few floors down.
Jack’s play was to annoy Oliver Roux as much as he could to get him to reveal himself.
Roux set his stare of silent intimidation on Jack, and I felt it, like a shift in the air that made me haul in a breath, as if Darth Vader was using The Force, but Jack appeared unaffected and he continued.
“I mean, imagine, a seventeen-year-old girl-genius refusing a bloated, vain, old billionaire. What was she thinking? Women eh!” Jack exclaimed, and honestly, I wanted to applaud. I was sick of this braggadocious idiot.
Roux turned and set his intimidating gaze on me. “Nate, it's a shame you can't muzzle your new pet.”
“Oh please!” I chuckled. The man was a pretentious idiot.
“Disrespect will not be tolerated!” he barked.
“There's a hierarchy that your husband understood. He accepted his place in it. He knows that I’m the true ‘King of the World’.
It's a pity your friend doesn't get it—but he will,” he pouted, his face red with rage again. Oliver Roux’s temper really was on a hair trigger!
“XANDER!” Roux called out and moments later a man stepped out of one of the guest rooms and loped down the hall into the lounge.
He was a tall skinny man in his early sixties wearing an oversized grey suit with a baby blue shirt, unbuttoned at the neck to display an unruly bush of grey chest hair. I recognized him in an instant.
“Nate, Jack, you’ve met Xander before, or do you not remember? I hear Rohypnol can really do a number on the memory!” he chuckled. Xander paused a meter away from his boss.
“Yes, Mr Roux,” he wheedled.
“You were right about this one,” Roux pouted, gesturing to Jack, 'Lippy little muthafucka. You got anything to muzzle him with?”
“Excuse me!” Jack exclaimed in alarm as Xander retrieved a Heckler & Koch VP70 pistol from the back of his waistband and pointed it at him.
“This should keep him quiet for a while!” Xander sneered.
I put my hands up and moved in to stand in front of Jack.
“Hey, hey, there’s no need for that! What the fuck is going on Roux?
Why did you invite us here?” I roared, horrified that someone was pointing a loaded weapon at Jack.
I hoped the task force was watching this and getting ready to arrest this bastard because the exit keyword was on the tip of my tongue.
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