CHAPTER FIVE
“Do we need to go over this again, Tommy?”
Tommy looked at his cousin Reno. “You’re upset because I’m asking questions?”
“I’m upset because I don’t make up the rules. We have to get that signature or we can kiss it all goodbye. I wanna make sure you understand that.”
“You don’t have to make sure I understand anything, Reno. If she wants to sign, she’ll sign. If she doesn’t, she won’t.”
“Here we go!”
“Yes, here we go,” Tommy said. Their plane had just touched down in Alberta, British Columbia, and they were in the backseat of the limousine on their way to Ingrid Hawken’s vacation home.
Reno had met with her twice before. This would be Tommy’s first time.
And he didn’t like the terms. “Where do you get these people from anyway? I’ve owned my own corporation for decades and I never had to pull this shit. ”
“It’s just this one time, Tommy, geez! Why are you making a federal case out of this?”
“Because this is insane. Why do I have to seduce this woman just to get her to agree to a contract that’ll benefit her as much as it benefits us?”
“Because she’s not there yet. How many times I got to tell you that? If we get her onboard then we’re home free, Tommy. But she needs something extra to get her over the top. You can be that extra.”
“An extra? How the hell am I supposed to pull that off, Reno?”
“I told you how. She has a weakness that we’ve got to exploit.
I told you this a thousand times. She has a thing for great-looking guys.
She sees a great-looking man and she’s putty in your hand.
That’s the joke about her. Only it ain’t no joke.
She’s one of the richest and most ruthless women in Europe.
But that weakness does her in every time.
Now to be honest, she’s like you when it comes to her preferences. Black men are usually her taste.”
Tommy frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean she’s like me? Black men are not my taste!”
“You know what I mean. Black women are your taste. I’ve never seen you date anything but a black woman your whole life even with all those gorgeous Italian girls running around. She’s like you, only in the other direction. That’s what I mean.”
“Then how does it make sense for me, a white man, to be asked to do this?”
“You have unusually great looks, that’s why. You’ll do.”
“I’ll do?”
“You’ll do,” Reno said, sounding like the mobster he never liked to be perceived as.
“What more you want me to say? We’ve got to get that bitch to sign, okay?
Can I put it any plainer than that? There’s no two ways about this.
If we can’t get her ass on board then we can kiss our dream goodbye.
And Reno Gabrini ain’t kissing shit goodbye. We’re getting that signature.”
Tommy shook his head. He couldn’t believe he was agreeing to this ridiculousness.
Reno told him there was a glitch and he needed his negotiation skills.
But it wasn’t until they were on Tommy’s plane and almost to Alberta did Reno admit what kind of negotiating skills he was talking about.
But they were within a few miles of her house and she was the missing link they desperately needed to get the dream of their European Industrial Complex off the ground.
Without her sign-on, the Europeans would sign off.
Without a major European backer the European Union already made clear that they would not allow the massive project to come to fruition. They had to have The Hawk. Period.
Tommy looked at Reno. “Who’s this woman anyway? I’ve never heard of her before.”
“That’s because she’s not somebody that wants to be known. She just wants to be rich. And she is by the way. In multiples of us. The Hawk is what they call her.”
“Why?”
“She can be overbearing. Let’s put it that way.”
Tommy shook his head again. “I don’t know why I agreed to any of this. I don’t even like business partners, especially those I don’t know.”
“You think I like doing it this way? I don’t like it either.
In the States we do our own thing. You own the Gabrini Corporation and I own my hotels and casinos and the government be damned.
Neither one of us are used to this set up, although I’ve done a few deals with the Europeans before.
But nothing on this scale. Just think of it as one of your mergers. You do mergers all the time.”
“That’s different, Reno, and you know it.”
Then Reno exhaled. “Look, I know my methods are unorthodox. You’re my cousin, my best friend, and my business partner all rolled into one.
You think I wanna put you through this shit?
You think I wanna go out like this? Hell no!
But we can’t do the deal just the two of us.
We can’t have a Europe-based company without the Europeans.
The European Union already made it perfectly clear that we must have European investors of at least twenty-five-percent ownership or they won’t allow our venture to ever see the light of day.
And the kind of money we’re talking has to come from the heavy-hitters.
Ingrid is the heaviest hitter who at least will entertain the idea.
So that’s where we are. We’ve got to get her signature or our dream is doomed, there’s no ands, ifs, or buts about it, and we’ve got to get it now. Today.”
But as their limousine stopped around the waterfall at the main house of the Hawken estate, and their bodyguard got out and stood at the back passenger door, Tommy was still hesitant.
Reno frowned. “Why you acting like some debutante afraid of her coming out party?”
“Why do you think?” Tommy looked at him. “You know what my childhood was like. Because I supposedly had these great looks I was treated like an object for anybody and everybody to use and abuse. You know how I hate that shit!”
Reno knew about Tommy’s twisted childhood and how, even to this day, people wanted to be around him only because of his so-called “gift” for having unusually great looks.
But those great looks, as Reno knew all too well, never got him anything but trouble.
Reno knew asking him to take advantage of that “gift,” when Tommy viewed it more as a curse than a gift, was asking a lot. But there was no other way.
“Just this one time,” he said to his cousin as they sat shoulder to shoulder. “We get her signature and it’s over. You won’t have to see her again as long as you live. Because after that signature she’ll be all in whether she likes it or not. I’ll deal with her after we get that signature.”
Then Reno exhaled. “What can I say, Tommy? Her weakness is her weakness. And her weakness is great looking guys like you. Whether you wanna believe you’re great looking or not, women believe it. It’s just a fact of life you’ve got to face.”
“Then you seduce her if it’s a fact of life. You’re good looking. You woo her ass.”
“Who said anything about good looks? She don’t give a damn about good looks. Only great looks. Which means you’re all we got. You’re it.” Then, after a few seconds, Reno reluctantly added: “If it’s Grace you’re worried about, don’t worry about that. She’ll never know.”
Tommy and Reno shared a brief glance that made clear they understood each other. They had so many secrets between them, secrets that they would take to the grave, that the weight of it all was jarring. But it was what it was.
“Let’s just get this shit over with,” Tommy said as he tapped the car window, their bodyguard opened the backdoor, and he, and then Reno, got out.