Chapter 3 #2
“In another country. Nice brother, I never saw you as the type who’d kidnap his bride.” George seemed to be taking far too much amusement in the situation. Silence reigned for a few minutes, but a movement drew Sebastian’s gaze back to Alyx.
“You know if it’s merely a matter of getting her somewhere to talk to her, you could do what Daniel did.
” His lack of understanding must have shown because Alyx’s smile turned sheepish.
“When he approached me about working with him, I’d initially told him no, rather pointedly, and I used a taser to back me up. ”
Anna and Kate both laughed, but Sebastian simply focused on his cousin and waited.
“Anyway, not to be deterred, Daniel posted an advertisement for an audition and the description fit me to a T. As it turned out, I was the only one who received the ‘call’ to audition…” She spread her hands and gave an artless shrug.
“I think it was quite clever of me.” Her husband grinned.
“Don’t be so proud of yourself. Although it was clever, you really annoyed me.” She patted his leg, but her bemused affection gave her away.
Utterly unrepentant, the man laughed. “But the plan proved effective since you showed up without your taser.”
“Armand made me come see him, too.” Anna interjected into the conversation. “A command performance because of the scholarship fund.”
“I have apologized for my high-handed manner on many occasions.” The stiffness in his brother’s voice suggested he expected to apologize for it again.
“You have,” Anna soothed him with a pat to his arm. For the first time since the ‘consultation’ began, Sebastian bit back a grin. “But my point is, Alyx is right. Sebastian wants to see her, so he may have to find a way to get her where he can see her.”
Their point did possess merit. However, Meredith’s refusal to speak to him put a wrinkle in it.
She would simply turn down any business offers he presented via the family.
She knew about Daniel, so using Spherecast as cover wasn’t an option.
He’d told her about his family, including the story of how Alyx reunited with them. She knew all the major players except…
Pivoting, Sebastian studied Kate with renewed interest. Kate did not attend the higher visibility functions. Although retired from her position as one of the family’s bodyguards, Kate still did some work for Richard. She’d so far insisted the lower her profile, the better for their clients.
Kate met his scrutiny with a bland expression. “What?”
“She doesn’t know you.” A plan began to formulate as he turned the idea over in his mind. “You could go see her, get her to the plane and bring her to St. Christos.” The room went silent as if everyone considered his words.
“I’m sorry.” Kate blinked once. “You want me to go to—”
“Boston.”
“Right. You want me to go to Boston, put her on a plane then shanghai her into leaving the country because she doesn’t know me?”
“More or less. I know you’re talented and she wouldn’t be suspicious of you. Once she’s there, I know I can smooth this over. It’s a viable plan.” For the first time since Meredith pronounced her desire to end things, excitement thrummed in his veins.
“Actually, it’s a felony.” Richard put a hand on Kate’s leg. “Taking her out of the country compounds the issue.”
“Not if she chooses to go.” Of all people, it was Armand who answered.
He wasn’t looking at Sebastian, but at Richard.
“He needs her to be some place where they can truly talk. With the limited timetable, St. Christos is the best location. You said she is a professor?” He switched his attention to Sebastian.
“Yes, applied mathematics. She’s brilliant.” The description didn’t do her justice. Pride fisted in his chest. Meredith possessed the keenest mind he’d ever seen, and her gift with numbers seemed virtually miraculous.
“Wait, Meredith Blake? The author of Applied Game Models using a Nash Equilibrium?” Enthusiasm surged in Daniel’s tone.
“Perhaps.” Sebastian wasn’t sure. He’d known she was published. In fact, he’d collected all her papers and repeatedly tried to read them. His lack of understanding didn’t diminish his pride in her accomplishments. “She is truly gifted.”
“She’s an unqualified genius. You’re going to need a better plan.” Which didn’t help him at all, but Daniel wasn’t finished. “If she is who I think she is, invite her to a think tank situation. Suggest you want build new models using Return Times to create better advertising results.”
“I’m sorry, he wants to ask her to do what?” Alyx twisted to stare at her husband as though he’d sprouted a second head.
“Return Times uses the structuring of probability to predict functions in social networking and media. It…” The software billionaire trailed off and studied the blank faces around him. “Does it matter what it does if it gets her there? It’s an intriguing mathematical puzzle.”
Meredith loves puzzles.
“So I take her an offer to do the number theory hokey pokey and, if she agrees, then what?” Kate considered out loud.
Richard nodded. “We tell her it is a proprietary project, research and development. Those are always quiet and require a nondisclosure. You can make the arrangements for her flight, but she has to board of her own free will and we have to accept she may turn the job down.”
“Throw enough money at her and she’ll say yes,” George offered to the rapidly formulating idea.
“She doesn’t love money.” Sebastian shook his head.
“But she does love puzzles. We need to frame this as an impossible situation, the creation of a predictability model to help guarantee the drive of sales. So, instead of trying to predict a crowd, we’ll frame the request as we want to build a model to help us predict one person.
Her needs, her desires, and how to cater to them.
If it works, we’ll create the scenario in which she cannot say no because the outcome is what she wants as well.
” An outcome involving his presence in her life. He’d take her any way he could…
“Oh, I think it’s the most romantic application of math I’ve ever heard.” Anna’s sigh pulled Sebastian from his thoughts. “Armand, we have to help him.”
His brother chuckled and lifted Anna’s hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles gently. “As you wish, my love.”
“Daniel, can you write up the specifics of the different theories that might attract a professor of Dr. Blake’s caliber?
” Richard and Kate rose together, the two were so damn in sync.
“Armand, we’ll use one of the shell companies to host the offer.
Kate, darling, do you mind flying to Boston?
We’ll arrange for a second, unmarked private plane to handle her transport. ”
With a few sentences, his family mobilized. Within minutes, they’d all gone off to tackle various tasks and Sebastian was left with his eldest brother.
“This may not work,” Armand told him. “Are you prepared for the possibility?”
“As prepared as you were to lose Anna,” Sebastian stated. She’d thrown him with her ending their relationship with no warning and her refusals to take his calls. “But once we are face to face, we can work out our differences.”
“If she still doesn’t want you despite such remarkable effort?”
He knew Armand wasn’t deliberately provoking him, but the thought of losing Meredith for good was untenable. “Then I try again.”
Whether it took five years or fifty, he wasn’t giving up.
MEREDITH
Meredith stared out the window as the limousine pulled into a spot next to a private dock.
The past several days elapsed in a heady blur and, after nearly a day of travel covering six thousand miles, she’d almost reached her destination.
Of course, the presence of the speedboat suggested maybe she wasn’t.
As soon as the car stopped, Terry exited then helped her out. Accepting his hand, she tried not to grimace as her muscles protested. “Still managing?” he asked.
“Just tired. “ She didn’t sleep on planes, not even luxuriously appointed private planes such as the one provided by Eridani Corp. After releasing his hand, she took a couple of steps and stretched. The warm breeze blowing in over the crystal blue waters was a far cry from the snowy temps of Boston. She’d stripped off the sweater she’d worn for the flight and stowed her coat with the luggage.
Pushing up her sleeves, she glanced at their escort.
The enigmatic Kate Braddock served as her main point of contact since the request for her assistance on a proprietary study came in.
Normally, so late in a semester, she would have turned it down flat.
But when her department head approached her with the challenging proposition, it proved exactly what her beleaguered heart needed.
After contacting each of her doctoral candidates personally and making arrangements for her TA to handle her last three classes, Meredith believed she was more than ready to get away from her life, but nervous regrets plagued her on every step of the journey.
She’d left behind the cell phone Bastian used to contact her and left the country without sending him any type of message.
How many times has he done the same to me over the years? I never knew where he was half the time. Only scant days since she’d broken things off, so part of her understood it was too ridiculously short a time to be over him, even if she was the one to end it, yet...
Terry touched her arm and drew her attention back to the pier.
Their escort headed down to talk to the crew while a driver offloaded their meager belongings.
She’d been rather proud of herself for packing only one suitcase for the trip, but it looked rather lonely with Terry’s duffle bag.
At least he’d packed even lighter than her.
Ms. Braddock brought an even smaller bag.