by Hannah Ford
He rubbed his hands on his knees. “Okay. Okay. I’m going to stay calm here.”
“I’m scared that if I back out on the deal—“
“Of course you’re going to back out,” Red told her. “I don’t give a shit what evidence he has on me. Yeah, I employed undocumented workers. You know why?”
Nicole shook her head.
He continued talking, his voice low with barely suppressed rage. “These were people seeking political asylum, but they couldn’t get into the United States anymore because of all the red tape and the Homeland Security crackdown. I’m talking about good people who were speaking out against their horrific governments and their lives were in danger. Occasionally we would find a way to help them. Very, very rarely, but we did it and I’m not ashamed of it either.”
Nicole couldn’t help but say what was on her mind. “But you’re sure they weren’t terrorists or something? You’re sure they didn’t just fool you into believing they had good intentions?”
Red laughed. “Yes, I’m sure. They were the very opposite of terrorists. These were reporters, peace activists, men and women who were brave enough to speak out against dictators and abuses of power in their respective countries. What we did wasn’t legal—but I think it was moral. And I don’t care if Kane releases those so-called incriminating documents. Fuck him.”
“I love you,” she said, smiling at his passion and his bravery. This was a man who was willing to do the right thing even if it put him in jeopardy.
He smiled at her. “Well, I love you too, buttercup.”
“But now that Kane’s paid Danielle’s loans off, I’m also scared for her. I can’t imagine what he’ll do if he’s not compensated in some way.”
“Listen, I’m going to take care of this right now.” Red stood up and walked to the cabinet, opened it, rummaged around. “I know I put my cell phone in here somewhere.”
“Clearly you intended to forget about it.”
“It felt good to stop using the phone for awhile,” he said. “Ah. Here it is.” He picked it up and showed it to her. “I’m going to make a call to Kane Wright and deal with this little situation.”
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“I’ve never been more sure.” He smiled at her. “I don’t get any service in the cabin, I need to drive up the road a bit to get a signal. You wait here, I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t do anything crazy,” she said, suddenly afraid.
“I’ve never been this clearheaded in all my life.” He grabbed his keys from over by the sink and wrapped his hand around them in a fist. He was smiling, and in that moment Nicole realized something.
Red Jameson had come back to life.
***
He returned to the cabin about fifteen minutes later, looking satisfied.
Nicole was walking around the cabin on her slowly healing ankle, trying to regain some mobility. It was a lot better, the swelling was down and the bruising had gone from a dark purple to a lighter smattering of blues and greens. “So?” she asked. “How did it go?”
“It went. I took care of it.” He threw the car keys on one of the bookshelves and looked at her. “You’re getting about nicely.”
“All credit to my doctor. I’m not sure if it was the frozen peas, or maybe late last night when he found some creative ways to rehab my ankle.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve got some new positions in mind for today.”
She expressed a mixture of feigned surprise and genuine pleasure at this statement. “I’m a very willing patient.”
“I noticed.” He walked to the cabinet and started to rummage through it. “Hungry?”
“Yeah.” She plopped herself down on a chair and watched him. “So, are you going to tell me exactly what happened or not?”
Red glanced over his shoulder at her. “I told Kane Wright to stick whatever evidence he has against me up his ass.”
She laughed. “No you didn’t.”
“Ummm…yeah. I did.”
“And that was it?”
“I told him to leave my fiancé alone, and I assured him that he had plenty of money at his disposal and there were lots of desperate escorts and sex workers who’d be pleased to relieve him of some of it.”
“Oh, boy,” she sighed, putting a hand on her forehead. “This doesn’t sound like it went well at all.”
“Actually it went great. Shitheads like Kane Wright respond better to a show of strength. That’s the only thing that backs ‘em off.”
“But what about Danielle?”
“Oh, right. I almost forgot.” Red opened a package of bagels, went to the fridge and took out some eggs and bacon. “Breakfast?”
“Sure. Besides, that’s the only other meal you know how to cook.”
“True. I suppose I could have just made you toast.” He started the burner and grabbed a pan from above the stove.
“I’m still waiting to hear about the Danielle situation.”
“There’s no situation,” Red replied. “Kane started bitching about how there’d been an agreement and he was being ripped off. He gave me the sob story about how he’d paid off her debt under false pretenses, yada yada. So I told him I’d take care of it and I did. Phoned my accountant and had him wire Kane the money right after we hung up.”
“So you just spent a hundred thousand dollars on Danielle’s loans?”
“Why not? That’s nothing to me—and it’s worth getting him out of our lives for good.”
“I feel awful,” Nicole said. “I didn’t mean to start this trouble for you. That’s a lot of money. I’m sure Danielle would be happy to pay you back over time…”
Red shook his head. He was throwing bacon strips in the pan and they started to pop and snap in the grease. “I don’t want her money. Consider it my formal apology for being such an asshole and running away from my responsibilities. If I’d been around, you never would have been in that situation to begin with.”
“I guess. It just feels weird to me.”
Red turned to her. “Nicole, that’s our money. What’s mine is yours. Do you mind that I spent our money to help your friend out of a jam?”
“I suppose not.” She still felt uneasy, though. “I’d like to call her and let her know what happened. She still thinks that Kane paid off her debt and I’d rather she know the current situation. I’m sure it’ll put her mind at ease.”
“After breakfast I’ll drive you up the road so you can call her,” he said. “You can’t drive on that ankle.”
Nicole couldn’t help but smile. Even now, Red was trying to protect her, if only from driving a mile up the road on a sprained ankle.
When he was done cooking breakfast, they sat down at the table together and ate. “Not bad,” Nicole told him. “I’m impressed. You sure you don’t have any other recipes up your sleeve?”
He winked. “Maybe one or two.”
She playfully slapped his arm. “You liar! You can cook!”
“Who do you think taught Chef Roland everything he knows?”
“Well, which is it? I thought he taught you.”
Red shrugged and refused to answer. “So. Moving on, we’ve got bigger fish to fry—so to speak.”
“We do?”
He broke off a strip of bacon and popped it in his mouth, nodding and pointing at her belly. “The little elephant in the room. Specifically, in your belly.”
She automatically put a hand on her stomach and looked down. “Is it crazy that I sort of forgot for a second?”
“I don’t know. I just know that we have a lot to discuss.”
“Like?”
“Like, when do we want to tell people that you’re pregnant? And, what’s the next step? Don’t we need to make you a doctor’s appointment and all of that stuff?”
Nicole swallowed. “I—I don’t know the answer to any of those questions. I’ve never been pregnant before.”
“Neither have I, so I guess we’re going to figure it out together.”
He chewed his bacon and grabbed her hand in his. “I’m so happy we’re doing this,” he said. “Starting a family together.”
“Do you have a preference?”
“I’d prefer our child not have Kane Wright’s accent.”
“I mean gender.”
He sat back in his seat and appeared to give it genuine thought. “No. No, I think either way could be amazing. Having a little girl that looked and talked and behaved like you would be exquisite. But then again, it might be a blast to have a boy that I could do boy stuff with too. Know what I mean?”
She nodded, her eyes glistening with tears. “I do.”
They ate and talked some more, and Nicole was pleasantly surprised to find they were almost always on the same page about things, as they pertained to the unborn child. Neither of them wanted to stress about getting the kid into fancy private schools like so many wealthy New Yorkers did. They both wanted to find out the sex of the child in advance. Neither of them wanted to have their families overly involved in decisions around how the child would be raised. And Nicole definitely didn’t want to be one of those couples that used nannies to do all of the hard work of raising a child.
Red agreed with that too—mostly. “I think that a balance has to be found. I know too many rich parents with kids who are more attached to the help than they are to their mom and dad.”
“The help. It sounds so aristocratic and stuck up. I hope I don’t turn into one of those obnoxious mothers who drink wine and bitch about the help.”
He laughed. “I don’t see you as that type. Poor choice of words on my part.” He kissed her hand. “That being said, having someone around to give us a spell every once in awhile might not be such a bad thing.”
“Yeah, they’re called babysitters.”
“Touché.”
She smiled at him. “I’m not trying to be bitchy,” she said. “I mean, this is so totally new to me. I’m just thinking aloud.”
“We’re allowed to think aloud,” he told her with a smile.
She smiled back. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”
“Wait until tonight, when I show you those new positions.”
***
By the time night had fallen, Nicole had made two attempts to call Danielle with no luck, and she’d had no missed calls or voicemails from her either.
“It’s pretty strange,” Nicole said as they sat outside the cabin in two chairs next to the fire pit Red had made. The fire crackled and sparks flew off it, drifting and floating into the sky.
“What’s that?”
“Danielle. I can’t figure out why she didn’t call me back by now.”
They were toasting marshmallows and Red’s had caught on fire. He pulled it towards his mouth and blew out the flame. Now half the marshmallow was black. “I’m sure she’s just busy. Maybe she has a hot date.”
“No.” Nicole shook her head. “I know Danielle and she’d be calling me back no matter what. She’s always worried about me, and besides—I told her it was important.”
“Do you want to drive back tonight?”
Nicole thought about it, as she put her melted marshmallow between two graham crackers and a piece of Hershey’s chocolate. “I’m having too much fun right now. Is that selfish of me?”
“Yes,” he said, through a mouthful of food.
She shrugged and bit into her s’more. “God that’s good.” She enjoyed the rich chocolate melting on her tongue. “I’m sure she’s fine. I just have a weird feeling is all. I’m worried that Kane Wright might have gotten to her before we had a chance.”
“That would be like him,” Red agreed.
“Thanks, that makes me feel better.”
“I’m just telling you that he might have contacted her and messed with her head. But once we talk to her, she’ll calm down, even if she’s nervous right now.”
“As long as she’s just nervous and not…something worse.”
“Worse?”
“He had some shady characters working for him. You don’t think he’d have someone hurt her, do you?”
Red smiled at her. “What, you think Kane Wright put a hit out on your roommate over a measly hundred grand?” He laughed. “He might be an asshole, and he might be a psychopath, but he’s definitely not stupid. And he’d have to be an idiot to hurt her over an insignificant amount of money.”
“One hundred thousand dollars isn’t significant to most people.”
Red nodded. “I know. But Kane Wright isn’t most people. The guy spends a hundred grand on a fucking Oscar viewing party, for god’s sake.”
“Okay, okay. I believe you.” Nicole moved her chair closer to Red’s and snuggled up against him.
“I feel like I’m at summer camp,” he laughed.
“Only we’re the last counselors left for the season.”
“Unless we picked the wrong summer camp and this is Friday the 13th or something.”
“Don’t even joke about that. It’s way too dark and isolated out here.”
“Oh, come on. I’ll protect you, babe.” He wrapped a strong arm around her and she smiled because, the truth was, she did feel protected.
“Can we just stay here forever?”
“Happy too. I’ve got no reason to go back.”
“I’ve got work,” Nicole said. “As it is, they’ll be furious at me for bailing on them three days in a row.”
“Screw them. You and I will just start our own company.”
Nicole looked at him to see if he was joking. He was toasting another marshmallow and this one was on fire too.
“Red, are you being serious right now?”
He blew the marshmallow at, glanced at her, and then popped the whole thing in his mouth. “Mmmmhmmm.”
“Is that a yes?”
He nodded. “Mmmm.”
“Red. Are you really going to start another company?”
He chewed for a long time and finally swallowed. “When you came back into my life yesterday, it was like my whole system got a jumpstart. Until you showed up, I’d just been chopping wood and taking walks, swimming, fishing. I tried hard not to think about what might be next for me. I didn’t feel like there was a next without you in my life.”
She blinked, tried not to shed any more silly tears. “Oh.”
“But the moment you were back with me, I felt all of this energy. And today, for the first time, I really wanted to get back in the mix,” he said, twirling his stick in his hands and staring into the flames. “Kane Wright will be officially acquiring Jameson International next week, and when he does, I’ll be sitting on a mountain of cash. Not what it could have been or should have been,” he clarified. “The stock’s down and with all the bad news, Kane Wright was able to get it for a song—relatively speaking.”
“So what does that mean?”
“Well, it’s a great deal for him. Jameson International is still a fundamentally sound company and so Kane will be bringing it back to prominence if he can.” Red continued to look at the fire as if hypnotized by its glow. “But today I got to thinking. Fuck him. Maybe I should start my own company—a new company from the ground up. And maybe I’ll kick his ass, this time.”
Nicole wasn’t sure she liked the sound of this. It sounded like Red was preparing to go back into battle and maybe risk everything. “And you—I mean we—we have the money to finance it?”
Red sat back in his chair. “Babe, we’re going to have something on the order of half a billion dollars when the buyout is completed. It ain’t what I used to have. I lost almost two-thirds of my net worth because of everything that went down with the EU and Germany. But I still have a whole lotta money.” He looked at her and grinned. “And I’m getting back in the game. I’m going to make Kane Wright wish he’d never laid eyes on me.”
***
The next day, they decided it was time to return to the real world and started out just after ten in the morning.
Nicole was grateful when the ride back to Brooklyn finally
came to an end. They’d been on the road over five hours, and both of them had had to take their own cars, so it had been a lonely drive.
They’d stopped on the way to grab a quick bite and spend a few moments together. And then they’d stopped again to return Nicole’s rental car.
Danielle still hadn’t called back and now Nicole was truly getting worried. Nicole had called and texted her half a dozen times and still…nothing.
At around three-thirty in the afternoon, they arrived at Nicole’s apartment building.
“She’s not home,” Nicole said, as she opened the door and stared at the clearly empty apartment.
“It’s a weekday. She’s probably still at work.”
“I tried her store on the way here. They said she’d called out sick the last couple of days.”
“Uh-oh.” For the first time, Red looked concerned.
“You think something happened? I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll call Kane Wright and ask him point blank if he’s been in touch with her or bothered her in any way,” he said, after some thought.
“I feel like this is all my fault. If she’s in trouble right now, it’s because I got her involved in this mess.”
“Look, everything’s going to be fine, Nicole. I swear.” He took her by the shoulders and kissed her deeply.
She kissed him back. “Will you call him right now?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t look happy about it, but he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. A moment went by and then someone picked up. “Kane.” Pause. Red made a disgusted face. “Yeah, it’s me.” Long moment. Nicole couldn’t hear anything but a vague mumble from the other line. “We’re looking—hold on, let me fucking talk. We’re trying to get in touch with Nicole’s roommate and she seems to have disappeared. Have---wait—what?” He strained to listen. “Kane, what the fuck is going on?” Again, straining to listen. Red seemed totally baffled by whatever Kane Wright was telling him. “Yeah. Fine. Fine.”
He hung up, shaking his head in dismay.
“What happened? Is something wrong? What did he do to her?”
“I have no idea, Nicole. I’ve never heard him in such a great mood, I could hardly get a word in. He must have really done something shitty. That’s what seems to make him happiest—when he does something really nasty and underhanded.”