“What, you don’t believe me?” Mikey asked. “Don’t believe me then. And when I make it big, still don’t believe me, alright? When you want me to help you out, still don’t believe me.”
“You help me? Ha! That’ll be the day.”
“You wait and see.”
“Whatever, Mikey,” said Rocco as he looked at his wrist watch. “He’s late.”
“But even then,” said Mikey, “after that graduation, he’s turning right back around and heading right back to who-knows-where he came from. If I was his wife, I wouldn’t put up with that shit, man.”
“Quit lying! You’d put up with it in a heartbeat.”
Mikey grinned. “For that money, I might. Just like his wife. I’d play dumb too”
“Kari Grant might be a lot of things,” Rocco said, “and I knew her when he first met her and she barely had a pot to piss in. But she’s never been a dumb girl. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She knows what she’s got, and she knows how to keep what she’s got. She’s not going anywhere.”
“But that’s the problem, way I see it,” said Mikey.
Rocco looked at him. “What are you talking? What’s the problem?” he asked
“Mr. D. acts like he knows she’s not going anywhere,” said Mikey, and then he looked at Rocco. “That’s the problem.”
But as soon as the steps to the jet dropped down, Rocco stood up straight and forgot about Mikey. Mikey tossed his cigarette and stood up straight too.
And Alex Drakos, the head of the international conglomerate Drakos Capital, began walking down the steps of the plane with his longtime assistant, Priska Rahm, at his side. Once their feet hit the tarmac, they began heading straight for the limousine.
But then another vehicle drove up, and three men quickly stepped out.
“Uh-oh,” said Priska as they continued to walk. “The suits are here.”
But Alex was singularly focused. With his own Armani suit flapping in the cool night breeze, seeing them only made him walk faster. He would not be deterred, he didn’t care what they had to tell him.
And true to form, the three men, all of whom were Alex’s accountants, moved toward the limo as Alex and Priska approached it.
“I’m late, gentlemen,” Alex said before they could get a word in.
“It’s urgent, sir,” said one of the men as they met up with Alex.
“Not tonight it isn’t,” said Alex firmly as Mikey opened the back door of the limousine for him.
“But, sir.”
Alex gave him a hard look. “Not tonight, I said,” he said as he was just about to get into the limousine. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Half a billion gone, sir,” the man said quickly.
But it was enough said. Alex stopped in his tracks and he and Priska both looked at the three men.
“What are you talking about?” Alex asked them. “Half a billion of what?”
“The audit has been completed,” the same man responded. “You’ve lost just shy of half a billion dollars, including upfront expenditures, since The Drakos opened.”
Alex was stunned. He knew they were bleeding cash up front. It was expected in a new venture the scale of The Drakos Hotel and Casino. But half of his fortune? “Is it the casino?” he asked.
“The hotel,” said the lead accountant. “The casino held its’ own. We expected it to be the engine that drove our revenue eventually, but it almost broke even this early in the game. But that hotel is drinking money, Alex.”
Alex frowned. “But why so much?”
“On its best night lately it’s been barely a third full, sir,” said another suit. “That’s barely revenue to pay the enormous staff, let alone the bills. In the meantime, new motels are springing up all over the place with rock bottom prices that we can’t possibly compete with.”
“Can’t be that many,” said Alex.
“But it is, sir.”
“How many?”
“Within a thirty mile radius of The Drakos, we’re talking one-hundred and ninety brand new, dirt-ass cheap motels that have come on line since we opened our doors.”
Alex was stunned to hear that number.
“And here’s the kicker, sir,” said another one of the suits. “Those motels are putting themselves out as the connector to your casino. They actually advertise your casino as one of their selling points. ‘Why spend all of that money at The Drakos hotel, when you can stay at our place for a tenth of what The Drakos charge.’ That’s their spiel.”
“And the tourists are eating it up, sir. We don’t stand a chance. The revenue hit we’ve taken proves it. It’s as if The Drakos Hotel and Casino has suddenly become the biggest money drain of your professional career. If we keep losing like we’re losing, it could go belly-up by the end of our fiscal year, sir.”
Alex could hardly believe it. His finances were already problematic, and now this? He opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips, unable to reconcile the idea that he was failing miserably at what he had projected would one day become his biggest money maker of all.
He let out a harsh exhale. The suits had succeeded in shocking him.
He looked at Rocco. “Get Reno Gabrini on the phone,” he said, and got into his limousine.
CHAPTER SIX
Jordan was one of two students on stage with the faculty members of Arapahoe Private School, 7th through 9th grade division, as the vice principal had just concluded giving his speech and had introduced the principal. As the audience of proud middle school graduates and their proud parents listened to the principal’s words of wisdom, Kari and Oz, along with Kari’s best friends Faye and Benny Church, Jordan’s godparents, and Lucinda Mayes, sat quietly in the audience too. Only Kari kept glancing back toward the entrance doors. She wanted to text Alex again, but phones had to be turned off inside the ceremony. And it didn’t matter anyway. He hadn’t responded to any of her prior texts.
“You are now about to leave us and enter a new world,” said the principal. “You are now about to enter the big leagues. You are about to enter senior high!”
The students in the audience cheered. Kari looked at Jordan on stage. He pushed his glasses up on his face. He should have been happy up there, given his accomplishments. But he kept looking toward the entrance too.
But as Kari stared at her son, and despite Alex’s absence, she couldn’t help but feel proud. She knew it wasn’t the big graduation. She knew many residents thought middle school graduation ceremonies were nothing more than vanity trips. Especially since those same students would remain at Arapahoe, but would simply graduate into their senior high school, 10th through 12th grade division.
But Kari didn’t care how they felt about it. She remembered where she and her son come from, and how far they’d come together. She remembered how they struggled so badly that sometimes they barely had food to eat. A mother at fifteen, she and her boyfriend were young and dumb and trying to be the best parents they could be.
But then he passed away, leaving Kari, at sixteen, as Jordan’s sole source of support. It was the blind leading the blind. But for almost all of Jordan’s life, before Alex came into the picture, she led him. Blindly, but she led him. Now he was sitting on that stage as the valedictorian of his middle school class. The head of his class. Don’t you dare tell me God ain’t good, Kari thought, considering where they’d come from. And then she looked back, once again, at the entrance doors.
After the principal sat down, the salutatorian, the second highest ranking student, stood up and gave her speech. Fascinated by her gift of oratory, Kari stopped looking back and focused on what she was saying. Until she saw others in the audience looking back, and then a big smile appeared on Jordan’s face.
Kari turned around too. And there was Alex, walking down the aisle. Priska was with him, undoubtedly because whatever deal he was working on was going south and they had been strategizing, but she took a seat in the back. And Alex Drakos, the richest man in a wealthy town, always caught the
attention of the residents whenever he made an appearance at local events. And he looked so handsome heading her way, Kari thought, as he swiped a strand of hair out of his face, that she felt proud to be his woman. There had only been one man in her entire life that Kari truly loved. Until Alex came along.
Oz leaned against Kari as Alex squeezed past the other parents on their row and made his way toward them. “The champ is here,” he said sarcastically, echoing a television commercial. But then, Oz being Oz, added: “With his sorry ass.”
Kari smiled. Even Oz’s foolishness wasn’t going to kill her joy as Alex sat in the seat beside her. “Sorry I’m late,” he said as he sat down.
“You’re right on time,” Kari said to him and placed her hand around his big arm. Alex smiled, and leaned against her too.
She understood what he was trying to do. It took a lot for him to leave negotiations all the way in Asia to get back to Florida for Jordan’s middle school graduation. “You showed up before Jordan gave his speech,” she added. “That’s what counts.”
“I had no choice,” Alex whispered to her. “You would have kicked my ass if I hadn’t shown up.”
Kari grinned and leaned closer against his big, muscular body. “Got that right,” she whispered back and squeezed his thick bicep.
Alex smiled and looked at her. Something about her happy brown face always warmed his heart. With no effort at all, his heart always fluttered whenever he saw her again. It was love, he supposed, although he had nothing in his life to judge it against. But nobody had ever made him feel the way Kari made him feel. In women, she was his diamond standard, while everybody else were rocks.
He glanced down at her clothing. She wore an attractive blue pantsuit with no blouse beneath the jacket, and her legs were crossed revealing a gorgeous pair of special-made stilettos he remembered purchasing for her. But Alex’s eyes kept traveling up her body to that blouse-less jacket. And her ample cleavage that was showing just at the crack. He hadn’t had his mouth all over those in nearly a week. He’d been out of town that long. And even when the graduation was over, there would still be no time: he had to hop right back on a plane and get right back to the negotiation table before that deal fell through too.
And after what the suits had told him about the financial state of his hotel, closing deals were vital to his financial survival. He couldn’t afford to lose anymore close calls.
But when he looked up on that stage, and saw his handsome young son smiling from ear to ear, he forgot all about deals and financial hardships and focused on what mattered most in his life: Kari and Jordan and, sometimes, he thought with a smile, his kid brother Odysseus, who reached over Kari and shook Alex’s hand. They were why he was busting his ass to maintain his empire. They were why he was determined to leave them in a solid financial place that would remain solid, not just through their lifetimes, but for generations to come. And Jordan was valedictorian. His heir was at the top of his class. He leaned back, crossed his legs, and basked in the awesomeness of that young man’s accomplishment. Drakos Capital was going to be in good hands, he felt, with Jordan.
And when the second ranked student sat down, and Jordan stood up, Alex and Kari and Oz didn’t care. They rose to their feet in grand applause. And when Alex rose, the entire auditorium rose. Not because they thought the world of Jordan the way the Drakos family did. But mainly because many of those parents either had business ties to The Drakos Hotel and Casino, or wanted business ties with the biggest job engine in all of Apple Valley hands down. They were staying in his good graces.
But Alex didn’t give them a second glance. His attention was on his son.
When they all sat down, he glanced at Kari and saw the tears well up in her eyes as Jordan gave his speech. He saw the way her chest lifted up and down as she undoubtedly recalled their past struggles. He took his big arm and placed it around her small shoulder. He was pleased that he had relieved so much of her going it alone stress after they hooked up.
Kari could see many in the audience looking their way again when Alex hugged her. And she knew why. They still couldn’t believe how Kari Grant, as some still called her, managed to win the heart of the billionaire playboy Alex Drakos. It used to bother her that they felt she was so unworthy. It used to truly be a hurtful thing. Now she didn’t give a damn. Whether they accepted her or not was of no consequence to her. She loved Alex and she believed he loved her too. That was all that mattered to Kari.
He handed her his handkerchief, and she leaned against him as they listened to their son, and as she dabbed her big, proud eyes.
After the ceremony, they said their goodbyes to their good friends.
“You should be so proud of him, Kari,” Benny Church said as he hugged her. “I know I am!”
Faye and Benny were Jordan’s godparents. “Thanks, Benny,” Kari said. “And I am proud. Jordan works very hard in school.”
“Yes, he does,” Lucinda said as she hugged Kari. “God gave you a good one, girl.”
“Tell Jordan we’ll see him later,” Faye said as she hugged Kari too. “Benny’s got to meet a client, and Lou and I rode with him.”
“I’ll tell him,” Kari said, they said their goodbyes to Alex and Oz and Priska, too, and left. Most of the parents remained, however, as their graduates were meeting with their class sponsors before they were excused.
Alex and Kari, along with Oz and Priska made their way toward Alex’s limousine to wait on Jordan. Alex placed his hand around Kari’s waist and pulled her closer against him. Oz and Priska walked together just behind them.
“I heard the suits are in town,” said Oz as they walked.
Alex glanced back at him. How in the world would he have heard that so quickly?
Oz smiled that charming smile of his. He wore his big hat and Valentino suit, and had his cigar between his teeth. He removed it. “They called and asked where they could find you,” he said. “I told them you were expected in town any moment. And by that look on your face they hooked up with you already. What did they want?”
Alex didn’t respond to that. Not because he was being rude, but because it was still sinking in. If he spoke it, it would prove that it was no mistake.
Kari caught his hesitancy too. She looked at him. “Bad news?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
“That bad?” Kari asked.
“The Drakos is doing all it can to officially become a money pit,” said Alex.
“A money pit?” asked Oz, who, as a transplanted Greek, was still learning American terminology.
Kari already knew the lingo. She wanted to know the bottom line. “To the tune of?” she asked Alex.
Alex exhaled. “Just south of half a billion dollars,” he said.
Both Kari and Oz stopped in their tracks. Priska and Alex stopped too.
“Half a billion dollars?” Kari asked.
“Damn!” said Oz. “That can’t be possible! You had that kind of money tied up in it like that?”
“Far more than that,” said Alex. “To put it in perspective, when that woman opened the PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip all those years ago, it cost her 1.6 billion dollars, the most expensive hotel and casino in America at that time. When that woman died and Reno Gabrini took it over, he made it work. Somehow he made it work and had it turning a profit almost right away.”
“But?” asked Oz.
“But we haven’t been so lucky. Just the opposite, in fact.”
“But when you say half a billion dollars,” said Kari, “are you saying you’ve already lost that much?”
Alex let out a harsh exhale. “Yes,” he said. “That’s why this deal with the British has got to work. If it falls through, I just might fall through with it.”
“Why are so many of your deals falling apart lately, brother?” Oz asked.
“Vultures can smell blood in the water,” Alex said. “They know I’m bleeding. Maybe not to the extent I really am, but they can smell it.”
“A
nd they suddenly want him to sign off on sweetheart deals,” Priska said.
“But I don’t do sweetheart deals,” said Alex. “Thus the impasse.”
Students began to pile out of the side door of the auditorium and run to their parents. Alex, Kari, and Oz began looking for Jordan.
“You see him?” Alex asked Kari.
“No,” said Kari.
“I see him,” said Priska, and everybody looked where she was looking. When Jordan, who was looking for them, too, saw them, he ran to them.
“Oh, Lord, don’t let him knock those old ladies over,” said Kari. Alex and Oz laughed.
Jordan, grinning too, ran straight to Alex. “You came!” he said with great affection.
“And miss my son’s graduation? Not in your lifetime, buddy!”
“You were just scared Mom would knock you out!” Jordan said jokingly.
Alex and Oz laughed vigorously. “That too,” Alex admitted with a nod.
“How did you like my speech?” Jordan asked.
“Loved it,” said Alex. “You’re going to make an excellent CEO for Drakos Capital.”
“But after me, though, right?” asked Oz.
“Jordan’s my heir,” Alex made clear. “Jordan’s next in line behind me.”
Jordan grinned from ear to ear and pushed his beloved uncle Oz. Oz smiled, too, and pushed him back. He already knew the line of succession. He had his own wealth.
But Alex and Kari glanced at each other. They also knew how it all turned out in this delicate time would determine just how massive an empire Jordan would rule.
But they didn’t go there around Jordan. They all, instead, piled into the limo, with Kari and Jordan sitting on either side of Alex, and Oz and Priska sat across from them.
But Jordan wasn’t valedictorian by accident. He was an inquisitive kid. He asked questions. “How long are you in town this time?” he asked his father.
“I’m on my way to the airport now.”
“Ah, Dad! Right away?”
Kari saw Jordan’s disappointment. She was disappointed too. But she stood up for Alex. Especially in light of the news. “You remember I told you he wasn’t going to be able to stay very long, Jordan, remember? He has to get back to London.”
Alex Drakos: Branding Her Again Page 3