Chapter 5 : A Ride With My New Friend
Chapter 5: A Ride With My New Friend
Keava POV
The interior of the limousine had been spared no expense to match the prestige of the man who owned it. Premium leather seats, a flat screen television, and a cabinet filled with expensive liquor and Cuban cigars. This was every playboy’s dream.
Roman’s expression, however, was anything but playful.
“I don’t want to waste your time, Miss Petrov, so I'll cut to the chase,” he said, his green eyes piercing mine.
“I don’t know the exact details of the story you wanted to publish concerning Mr. Salazar but whatever the nature of it is, all I want is for you to keep any mention of me out of it.”
I almost laughed. So he wanted to hush me and make sure his reputation was not marred by his presence at the Andromeda.
It wasn’t in my character to accept bribes but I wanted to see what he had in his sleeve.
“I’m assuming you have an offer for me in order to comply with that request,” I said.
“Less of an offer and more of a mutual understanding between like-minded individuals.” His tone was entirely business-like with not a hint of the man who had kissed me. I strongly avoid recognizing how much that small fact bothered me.
“Let’s hear it then.”
Roman opened up a folder and flicked through it.
“I recognised you immediately last night,” he explained. “I had seen a photo of you with my brother a few years ago when you two dated. It was a bit reckless of Andrew to date an investigative journalist, what with his unsavoury tendencies, but that is who he is. I did my digging of course and unearthed some facts about you that are not public knowledge.”
He passed the file over to me. My eyes widened at the contents. Memories that had been kept buried for years came to the forefront with the vengeance of a tsunami.
“Alexandrea Keava du Morte; daughter of the late Francois du Morte and heir to the du Morte estate. That is until your father passed and you vanished, presumed dead by Paris officials but you're still fearful that your father’s business partners still have people looking for you. Did I get all of that right?” All of his words hurt, yet he still didn’t look at me.
“You’re blackmailing me,” I glared at him.
“No, I’m not,” he muttered, void of any emotion. “Whether or not you decide to publish anything on me I won’t release that information. Whoever the people after you are, they deserve to burn in the deepest pits of hell.
The reason that I’m showing you this is to let you know that I’m operating on good faith. I will protect your secret and all I’m asking is for you to do the same out of the goodness of your heart and not fear.”
No, this was too good to be true. No one was this benevolent, not even the most saintly of the elite. There had to be a catch.
Perhaps he wanted an informant at the Times. The press was important to people like him; they both feared and relied on it to remain relevant.
“If that is not enough, I can also offer you protection,” he offered, his green eyes losing their coldness and was replaced by concern as he finally looked at me. Or perhaps that was just the lighting. “I know that the De Morte Corporation would like nothing more than to know your location and current identity.”
“I’ve kept myself hidden from them well enough on my own,” I responded.
A part of me shuddered on the inside thinking about the cold-hearted bastards who had stolen my real father’s legacy.
Trust came hard to me because of my past, my father’s partners, my adopted father, the men I had dated. As much as I wanted Roman’s words to be true, there was a part of me that told me to get out of the car and have nothing to do with him.
But there was another part of me that begged me to stay. The part of me that somehow found comfort in his presence despite the situation. The part of that glancing at his lips, hoping for them to kiss me again.
I felt my face begin to flush and my heart to drum slightly faster beneath my ribs.
Should I take the plunge just because I felt attracted to this man?
“There is nothing more important to me than my job,” I said finally. “I value the truth above everything else. With that being said, I’ll accept your request on the condition that you help me do what I do best.”
“You want me to fund your investigations?” he asked, intrigued.
“I want your help getting access to social circles and information that would otherwise prove difficult,” I stated. “I want to expose corrupt politicians and billionaires and having you on my side would make that easier.”
“If this is still about Edwin Salazar–”
“It is,” I confirmed. “You seemed interested in him as well when we met last night. You know he’s dirty, I can tell.”
Roman gazed out at the city lights. His face was calm but the tension in his neck was evident. It made me want to reach out a caress–
–STOP! I needed to focus.
“You know more about Salazar than what you told me at the club,” I pushed. “I did some more digging; you run the most successful company in New York so it seems strange that you’d have difficulty getting into his inner circle. Then I found out that Salazar tried to get backing from Cabot industries just a few months before you became CEO, but he was denied.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Roman muttered. There was a shadow in his eyes that I would recognise anywhere, it was the same look I would get when I thought about De Morte Industries.
I decided not to press further and just wait for his answer.
If he rejected me then I wouldn’t have to deal with him again. It would make things less complicated but my heart yearned for him to accept so it could have more time in his presence.
JUST CALM YOURSELF! IT WAS ONE BLOODY KISS! I scolded myself for having the emotional capacity of an adolescent.
No, it was just for professional reasons. His resources and access to the upper class would be invaluable, not to mention his pre-existing distaste for Edwin Salazar.
This would not escalate into something more…I was certain.
“If we are to work together and I give you access to my resources,” he started. “Salazar needs to be the top priority, but needs to be dealt with delicately. Salazar has eyes everywhere and is very aware of who his friends are and who his potential enemies are. Your name pinged on his radar before you even began to investigate him.”
“As long as our goals are the same then I have no issue with that,” I said as calmly as I could while my heart fluttered. “I’ll tell my boss that I’m dropping the Salazar story.”
“As well as anyone else in your circle who may know; friends, family, colleagues…anyone,” Roman said sternly. “He has many people in his pocket. There are even those in my company who I don’t trust completely.”
The car stopped. I looked outside and was surprised to find that we had arrived at my apartment building. I hadn’t even told him my address and he had already known where I lived.
I needed to be more careful.
Men like Roman were dangerous and I had let my guard down, allowing him to ambush me the way he did.
As soon as the bald man opened the door for me, I stepped out and Roman waved once before his man closed the door. Not even 5 seconds after, he was gone.
I crashed on my sofa the moment I arrived upstairs, my mind whirling and swirling from the events of the past few days before drifting into unsettling dreams of being followed and chased by trees wearing Salazar’s face.
Roman POV
There was no point in asking Matthew if I had made the right decision in further entwining Keava into this conspiracy. He would berate me, call me a foolish coward for entangling a stranger into my ‘little revenge’ plot, as he liked to refer to it.
I told my driver to take me home rather than to my Manhattan penthouse. The drive would be two hours but I craved the quiet of my country manor over the never-ending buzz of the city; incessant like flies over a pile of rotting meat.
When we arrived at the manor’s front entrance, I stepped into an empty hall. All of the maids had already turned in for the night so I was all alone.
Andrew had moved out soon after Alastor had died, and good riddance to that; he would have turned this place into a brothel had he stayed.
I decided to head to my study rather than go straight to bed. There was no way I would be able to sleep with all that was on my mind…especially her.
I couldn’t understand why her visage haunted me. It could not just be her beauty for I had seen photographs of her before. She was objectively attractive but I don’t fawn over every woman with a fair form.
Was it her scent? The way the light glinted in her eyes and highlighted her pristine complexion? Perhaps it was the sound of her voice; how it could have the ferocity of fire while still being gentle.
Was that why I kissed her? Because I had become infatuated in the few minutes I spent in her presence?
No…I was not so juvenile as to believe in something like that.
Falling head over heels for a girl he just met was my brother’s domain.
Focus!
I pulled out the file I kept hidden behind the bookshelf and opened it. I needed a reminder of what was important.
Several images, images that still gave me nightmares as fearsome as the day I saw my uncle’s lifeless body in person.
His throat had been slit, hands and been severed…sawed off by the looks of it with a rusted blade. his face had been badly bruised and beaten to the point where you could barely see it was him.
The police ruled it out as home invasion, stating that the violence had clearly been committed by amateurs with no idea how to effectively take out a victim.
But that is what made me suspicious. It was so amateurishly done that it reeked of deliberation.
Someone had wanted it to look like senseless violence when it was an act of meticulous intent.
My uncle had been murdered. of that I was certain.