“I’m sorry about your father,” he said. He paused for a moment and studied her before he spoke. “I think it’s time I give you a piece of advice.”
“All right.”
“You need to move on. Whatever your father does or says can’t get in your way any longer. You can’t allow it to stop you. You can’t let it fill you with self-doubt. Everything is about to change for you with this hotel, Leana. Harold gave you a golden opportunity. God bless him for that. If you’d come to me, I would have financed the hotel for you. That’s how much I believe in you. You and Celina are different people, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have the means to be as successful and as savvy as she was. You need to stop second-guessing why George treats you the way he does. He is who he is and you can’t change it or him. You need to come to terms with that now and let it inform your life as you move forward. Achieving success means focus, hard work and a measure of luck, not wallowing in the past and wishing for things that never will come your way, such as your father’s acceptance of you. It’s not going to happen. So, move on, or you’ll never get out of your own way.” He pointed at the hotel. “And you’ll never make that a success. Am I clear?”
He’d never spoken to her so directly before, but she knew he was right and nodded. “You’re clear.”
“From this day forward, I don’t want to hear another word about your father and how he mistreats you. It’s boring. It’s a waste of time. Is that understood?”
“It is.”
“I’m only saying this for your own good.”
“I know you are. Harold used to say the same thing to me.”
“So, why are we having this conversation now?”
She shrugged at him. If she mentioned again how much her father had hurt her in her life, he’d probably leave. But she knew he was right just as she knew Harold was right. She had to leave her father behind and realize that she’d never have the relationship she’d always wanted with him.
So be it.
She turned to look up at the hotel. That was her future. Mario was her future. Having a family with him was her future. What happened today with her father and Pepper was carefully designed to take her down a notch by preying on her insecurities. They were coming after her with their own hotel. They planned to open it on the same date. And knowing her father as well as she did, she knew he’d come after her with everything he had. What she’d seen from Pepper suggested the same thing.
She leaned forward and kissed Anastassios on the cheek. Always the gentleman, he kissed her back and she smelled the faintest scent of his cologne, which is just how it should be—not overpowering, but intimate.
“Do you want to see my hotel?” she asked.
“Is that even a question?” he said.
* * *
Before they went inside, he introduced her to the security team, which was led by a former Marine, Sean Scott.
He was older than she, probably in his forties. Though he was in such great physical shape, it was difficult for her to tell exactly how old. He was a mountain of a man and all business, but she took an immediate liking to him not only because he presented well, but also because he came armed with a plan. He and his team would be fixtures at the hotel from now until opening night, and likely several weeks beyond.
“What happened with the tarp won’t happen under our watch,” Scott said. “You and your construction crew will be safe, as will your hotel. We have ears everywhere, Miss Redman, and we’ll be listening. Our intelligence is bar none.”
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“No harm will come to you, Miss Redman,” he said.
* * *
Inside the hotel, the security team was introduced to the construction crew and then they dispersed to check out the hotel on their own. They weren’t here for aesthetics. They were here to consider ways in which the hotel was vulnerable to a possible attack and how to prevent one from happening.
“They’re not taking what was written on that tarp lightly,” Leana said.
“Why should they?” Anastassios said. “It wasn’t name-calling. It was a threat. You’ve been targeted before. It’s clear to all of us that you’re being targeted again.”
“By whom?”
“Your father has a lot of enemies, Leana.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Then consider this. Sean, his team and I talked before coming here. We all agree. Someone wants to finish what Louis Ryan started. First it was Celina. Ryan got her. Now, it’s different. Now, it’s you. And, after Holt and Stout, obviously others. Probably even your father.”
* * *
Though chilled by what he said, Leana went through the motions of showing Anastassios the hotel. She showed him the massive lobby, with its black-and-white tiled marble floor, freshly polished and gleaming as if it was newly installed and not the original that it was. She pointed up at the towering ceiling, where the massive Lalique chandelier hung in all of its glinting decadence. It was twelve feet at its widest point and eighteen feet tall.
“It was custom-made for the hotel by René Lalique himself back in the twenties,” she said. “You collect Lalique, don’t you?”
“I do,” he said, admiring the chandelier. “And in case you don’t know, that chandelier could probably pay off a sizable chunk of your mortgage.”
She took him to the hotel’s once-famous restaurant, On the Park. Then she showed him several rooms, including the Presidential Suite, in which, she told him, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed when the hotel was in its prime.
She told him it was important for her to restore the hotel to what it once was, not to modernize it into something it wasn’t intended to be. She talked and talked, she heard his approval and she saw him smile. She pointed out this detail and that detail, but she couldn’t shake what he had said to her earlier.
Now, it’s you. Probably even your father.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
When Anastassios left, he told Leana that his stay in New York would span the next several weeks.
“I might need to leave for Europe for a few days, but I have plenty of business to tend to here this month. I plan to be here for the opening of the hotel. It’s on my schedule. If you need me at any point, call me. I’m here for you. I’ll call you if I learn anything about the murders of Florence Holt and Charles Stout. Somehow, they’re related to what’s happening to you now. We know this. They sat on Ryan’s board. There has to be a link, particularly after the woman who likely killed Holt interviewed you. Sean has access to intelligence many of us don’t have. You’ll be in good hands with him. Do what he says. If you feel you need protection, use him or a member of his team. And use your husband’s family, for God’s sake. Use everyone who can help you. But if there’s anything I want you to take away from today, it’s that you need to forget about your father and push forward with your hotel. Focus on your career, not on your father’s ridiculous dismissals of you. I’ve now seen the hotel. It’s fabulous, Leana, and your success is in hand if you don’t screw it up.”
On the sidewalk, he kissed her on each cheek before he stepped into his limousine and moved down Park.
Leana looked at her watch. There was one last thing she wanted to do today. She knew it was a risk, particularly given their contentious relationship when they worked together to open The Hotel Fifth three years ago.
Still, she knew he was right for the job as general manager. When they first met, she was hired to be the general manger of The Hotel Fifth, which he resented because he thought the job was his and frankly, he felt more qualified to pull it off. If she was to be honest with herself now, she had to admit he was right. She’d seen him in action. He’d been in the hotel business for years and he possessed skills she didn’t have. If he was committed to managing a hotel of this stature, she knew he would make it what it needed to become—one of Manhattan’s best.
She had no plans
for managing The Park. Moving forward with securing other properties was her goal―that’s how she needed to leverage the money Harold had gifted to her.
She wondered if he’d be interested in working with her now? She hadn’t spoken with him in years, and she didn’t know where he was or if he was even in the city. But she did have his cell number, assuming he still used the same one.
She reached into her pants pocket, removed her cell and found his number. She hesitated for a moment, gathered her thoughts and then called Zack Anderson.
* * *
To her surprise, he answered, but when he did, his voice was cool. Her name likely appeared on his phone. “This is Zack Anderson.”
“Zack, it’s Leana Redman.”
“Hellohoware?”
“I was wondering if you and I might talk.”
“I’m fairly busy right now, Leana. You have no idea how busy.”
“I’d like to extend an offer to you.”
“What offer?”
“I’d rather do it in person. Are you available now? I can come to you.”
“You’ll come to me?”
“Of course, I will.”
A silence passed.
“I suppose this is about your new hotel, which is getting all sorts of flattering press today.”
He meant to sting, but she wasn’t about to engage him. “Zack, if we could begin again on equal ground and let go of the past, I think you’ll be pleased with what I’d like to offer you. Can we meet?”
“We can meet.”
“Where can I meet you?”
“I’m the general manager of The Hotel Fifth,” he said. “Your father hired me. You can meet me here now. And don’t worry—Pepper isn’t here. It’ll be just us.”
She closed her eyes at the news that he was managing her father’s hotel, but then she remembered Anastassios’ words. She opened her eyes, shook it off and focused on her goal. “I’m not worried about Pepper,” Leana said. “You’re in my father’s hotel, not hers. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
* * *
When she arrived at the hotel, she gave the building a quick appraisal, noted that the damage to the top exterior of the building was repaired, and then looked at what was perhaps the most striking part of the building—its sleek, modern sign. It was so smooth in its conception, so spot-on when it came to where Manhattan was right now with design. It looked as if it were designed for the next century. Centered above the entrance, shining in the sun, were three words in ten-foot-tall steel letters:
The Hotel Fifth
Just being here again caused Leana to pause. But not for long. She stepped inside the lobby, which looked nothing like her lobby just as this building looked nothing like her building. Where hers spoke to the past, this hotel, with its four thousand rooms, four restaurants, five bars, two nightclubs, and theater that seated 3,000 and rivaled any on Broadway, reached to the future.
Zack Anderson was nowhere in sight when Leana entered the hotel, but neither was anyone else, which she thought was odd since they were opening in a month. Right now, her hotel was a hive of activity. She waited for a moment by the revolving glass and steel doors before she decided to walk around the lobby. Given all that had happened here, she moved through the space with mixed feelings, most of them negative. Some of them haunting.
Take yourself out of it. Assess the competition while you still have the chance.
She focused on the details. The lobby was just as she remembered it—huge, cavernous, and filled with seven floors of shops, restaurants and bars. Nothing had changed, which stymied her. Wouldn’t her father have gutted everything to mark this space as his own, especially since everyone knew that Ryan had owned it?
She stopped to admire the waterfall at the lobby’s center. It was designed so that the water appeared to fall from nowhere that was visible, though in reality, it flowed from a concealed location high above in the ceiling. As it fell, the water didn’t ripple. It was just a wide, pure band of shimmering light that slipped into an illumined abyss.
The sound of the waterfall was the only thing she heard. Where were the construction workers? On the higher floors? There was no buzz of people. None of the chaos she expected. It was just her, alone, in this spotless space that appeared to be ready for business today, not in a month.
Behind her came Zack Anderson’s voice: “So, what do you think?” he asked. “Surprised by the changes?”
She turned to him. Anderson was a slight, good-looking man with silver hair cut stylishly short. He was in a black suit and wore a gold tie. He was in his forties, but there wasn’t a line to be found on his tanned face. Must pay his toxes, she thought.
“Surprised is an understatement. I was expecting something new.”
He continued to move toward her. “Your father thought it was unnecessary. With the exception of opening night, the lobby and the hotel have never been used. Everything shut down when it all went wrong. Obviously, there was a lot of repair work that had to be done to the higher levels, which took time to fix due to the extent of the damage. But even when the repairs were finished, the hotel sat empty for months before the board at Manhattan Enterprises decided to put it up for sale. Your father stepped in and bought it.”
“When was this?”
“Five, six months ago?”
“Was it publicized?”
“Your father kept it quiet. He wants a major reveal when it opens.”
Of course, he does. “Is anyone working here?”
“Starting next week, a complete crew arrives to begin preparations for opening day.”
“Why the wait? You could have opened months ago.”
She saw it when she said it, and once again, she felt betrayed.
“When you bought The Park a year ago, your father knew it. He decided to wait to open his hotel to coincide with your opening. Pepper told me he knew he could get more press that way. ‘It’s Redman Versus Redman on Opening Night.’ Or something like that. It was a savvy move, but I bet it doesn’t sit well with you.”
“It’s business,” she said. “That’s what our relationship is. Would I prefer that we weren’t opening on the same night? Sure. But my father is right—it will bring headlines. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t have what I have. I’m going to crush him on opening night.”
“What do you have, Leana?”
“Hopefully you, to begin with.”
“I figured that was coming. Why do you want me to run your hotel?”
“Because I saw how good you are. We didn’t get off to a good start, Zack, but that doesn’t mean we can’t build a solid business future together. I’m prepared to pay you triple what my father is paying you. I might own the hotel, but you’ll run it. She’s yours. And instead of managing a shiny new building like this, you’ll be managing an elegant, renovated piece of Manhattan history. Beyond that, my brother, Michael Archer, is preparing to help me make the opening an exclusive event.”
“Big movie stars? Pop stars? That sort of thing?”
“Mostly movie stars, but nothing too hip because we want to appeal to society. Anastassios Fondaras also will assist to that end. We need the Park Avenue set to embrace the hotel for a host of reasons. Mostly, we want them to view the hotel as the place where family and friends can stay when they come to visit. We need to show them a standard of excellence on opening night. Michael will come through with an A-list crowd of older celebrities, and a few key younger celebrities who are making the right movies. He also has friends who are forces on Broadway. He has contacts who can get the best of those who headline at the Met. It’s going to be done right and it’s going to be big. I’d love to show it to you and see what you think.”
At that moment, someone entered the hotel. Leana turned and saw that it was Pepper Redman, still in her white Chanel suit, her red hair curling up from her shoulders and her shoes striking the floor with such force that it sounded as if bullets were being fired into it.
Bemused, Leana watched her.
“Oh, Pepper,” she said. “And just when I thought I’d had my fill of you.”
“What are you doing here, Leana?”
“It’s my father’s hotel. I don’t recall him issuing a restraining order against me to stay out of it.”
“That will change in about fifteen minutes. Get out. You don’t want me to call security.”
“Oh, please, Pepper. You are so out of your league, you don’t even know it.” She turned to Zack. Her eyes sparkled. “Pepper here is from Arkansas—”
“Atlanta!”
“It’s Arkansas, and don’t let her tell you differently. She’s one of our poorer relations. It’s my impression that her idea of security would involve the Klan, torches, a group of starved, vicious dogs, the distinct smell of moonshine hanging in the air, and, somewhere, some idiot charged with waving the Confederate flag and another charged with firing a pistol at the ceiling.”
Pepper nodded at Zack while she reached into her oversized Dior handbag to find her cell. “Thanks for telling me that she was coming.”
Leana kept any sense of surprise from her face. She simply looked at Zack in disappointment.
But then he returned the surprise when he spoke to Pepper. “I had a feeling why Leana was coming by today, Pepper.”
“To check out the goods. To steal our ideas. It’s all so obvious.”
“What ideas?” Leana said. “Nothing’s changed.”
“Whatever.” She found her phone and pulled it out.
Zack continued. “Actually, Pepper, Leana came by to offer me a job as general manager of The Park, which I’m now officially accepting. I asked you here because I wanted to tell you the news to your face instead of being a coward and doing it over the phone. Or, worse, in an email. Beyond that, I also wanted to let you know what I’ve come to think of you over the past few months, none of which is good. You’re overbearing. You’re rude. You have an insufferable inferiority complex that reveals itself in your bullying attitude. And you’re also common. Cheap. When I first met you—before you started talking too much and marching around as if you were a member of the Gestapo—I thought you were well put together. I was impressed that you graduated from Wharton. But my opinion of you has changed. You don’t care about this hotel. You don’t love the hotel business, something I personally find offensive. You’re only here to advance yourself. You’re reckless. And you’re mean. When it comes down to it, all you are is lipstick on a pig and I’m here to tell you, Pepper, that Leana Redman and I are going to boil your ham hocks come opening night.”
Park Avenue (Book Six in the Fifth Avenue Series) Page 13