by Annie Jocoby
He looked at his glass for a long time after he said that last line, and I could tell, even without trying to tune into his vibrations, that the issue of Mandolina's mother was a sore subject for him.
I tentatively decided to join the conversation. "Mandolina's mother. Where is she?" It really was none of my business, but I was looking for any kind of an opening. That was always the secret to negotiations, in my view – trying to find common ground. Make the person really like you. True, I also got what I wanted through some ball-busting, but I always preferred to attract the bees with honey instead of vinegar.
Miguel again took a deep breath, and looked at the ceiling. He spoke softly in Spanish, and I studied Slade. I knew that Slade knew what Miguel was saying, so I was going to have to ask him later. Miguel swallowed hard, his Adam's Apple prominently bobbing up and down. He finally looked at both of us, his face composed.
"So," he said, addressing Slade. "Why do you ask about my daughter? As you know, Ms. Garancino has a huge advantage in the movie world just now. Nobody hotter on the scene than her. What can you offer me that would match that?"
I studied Miguel, wondering why he deliberately ignored my question. I know that he heard me. Why did he pretend that I never spoke at all?
Slade cleared his throat and looked over at me. There was something in his demeanor that had changed. I couldn't put a finger on it, but I just had a feeling. He took a deep breath, and took a sip of his scotch. Then he raised an eyebrow and looked at me again.
"I can offer you a supplier's contract. Long-term. I have a supplier in Afghanistan. That's where I get my opioids for the medicines that I produce. I've talked to my Afghan supplier, and they would be willing to enter into a three-year contract with you for all the opioids that you can supply. So, it would be open-ended, and worth millions to you. You'll have an option, of course, at the end of the three-year contract to extend it if your working relationship is satisfactory. I think that this would be an excellent opportunity for you to really break into a lucrative region of the world."
Miguel narrowed his eyes. "That is it?" Then he shook his head. "Mr. Bridgewell, look around. I have enormous wealth. I do not need additional contracts, although I thank you very much for your offer. It is very generous, do not get me wrong. But what Carlotta has offered me is more precious to me than any multi-million dollar contract. I can get those anywhere. What I cannot get anywhere is a chance for my daughter to realize her dream. Carlotta has offered me this."
Slade looked over at me, and I knew. I knew that Slade had a feeling that Miguel was going to turn down this offer. That was why he had such an odd look on his face before. There was something in what Miguel was saying in Spanish that made Slade realize that this Afghan thing was never going to fly.
I cleared my throat. "Mr. Sanchez," I said, trying one more time. Something told me that the issue of Mandolina's mother would be the key to it all. "I'm really so sorry to ask this, but what happened to Mandolina's mother? You said-" I was about to bring up the fact that Miguel had referred to the mother in past tense, but Miguel cut me off.
"Mr. Bridgewell, do you have any other offer for me? Because, I am very sorry. As you noted before, I am a very busy man."
Slade opened his mouth and then shook his head. "No." He looked over at me. "Serena, I think that it's time that we leave Mr. Sanchez." He stood up and offered his hand to me. Then he shook Miguel's hand. "Mr. Sanchez, it was a pleasure to meet you. I am very sorry that we cannot do business."
I furrowed my brow at Slade, and he furtively glanced at me. His expression told me all that I needed to know. Just trust me, his expression said. I got this.
I shook my head. Charlotte was going to be missing Slade soon and would be putting an APB out on him. If she somehow figured out what was going on here on this compound, she would be livid and who knows? She might show up and accelerate the deal. Once the deal was sealed, that would be it. Our window would be closed.
Our window would be closed and our goose would be cooked. She'd have us both dead by the time the sun came up. Miguel would rat on us, tell her what we just tried, and that would be it.
With a beating heart, I took Miguel's out-stretched hand. "It was a pleasure," I said, as Miguel kissed it.
"The pleasure was mine." His smile was soft, and his eyes seemed kind.
He pressed a button, and the same woman who led us back to Miguel's study or office of whatever this magnificent room was, appeared and led us back through the house.
When we got back out, into the sunlight, I glanced at Slade.
"Don't ask right now," he said. "I have a plan, and we have to execute it soon. And I mean soon."
I nodded my head as we got into my car and drove off. I was dying to find out what Slade knew, but it was just going to have to wait.
Chapter 12
We drove off, and Slade took my hand. "Okay, here's the deal. Mandolina's mother isn't dead. That much I got."
"Okay. How do you know?"
"He doesn't know that I know Spanish fluently. He was speaking rapidly, but I understood every word. Remember that? He looked up at the ceiling and spoke aloud?"
"Yes, of course. That was why I was trying to ask him what happened to the mother. I hated to pry like that, but I somehow knew that the mother was going to be the key to this whole thing."
"It is. He said her name. It's Marguerita. He was saying, in Spanish, that he would give up all of his wealth if he could have one more year with her. She wasn't around, of course, but it would be fairly easy to figure out where she is. I just have to talk to my computer hacker, Ivan, to get the records on where she is. He might even be able to figure out what's wrong with her. It's a long shot, but, hey, I'm a drug developer. What if I could offer Miguel a cure for whatever is wrong with her?"
"Slade, isn't that asking too much? I mean, we have to figure something out, and figure it out quickly. Once Charlotte finds out what we're doing, we're both literally dead. Literally. What if she has terminal cancer or something? You know that you don't have a drug for everything."
Slade reached out his hand. "Listen, let's just find out what is wrong with Marguerita, and then I can maybe figure it out. You forget that my company has developed numerous drugs that aren't on the market yet, because they're still going through clinical trials and have yet to be approved. I have some very promising drugs that have been shown to combat many different kinds of cancer, drugs that aren't available to the general public. What if I could help Marguerita with something like that? Give Miguel something that isn't available to the public yet, but has promise? Might he go for a Hail Mary like that? Would it be worth it to him?"
I shook my head. "That sounds dangerous. And, besides, you couldn't cure your mother's pancreatic cancer. I mean, when you thought that she had pancreatic cancer. You never suggested giving her something off-market."
"That's because I haven't yet found an effective treatment for that particular kind of cancer. Nobody has. Everybody's trying, of course, but, since it's rather rare, compared to other types of cancer, there hasn't been that much money in finding something." He shook his head. "Listen, it's worth a shot, isn't it? If he's going to be swayed by Charlotte helping his daughter, he might really be swayed by a chance to help his wife."
I nodded my head. "Why didn't you go with our original plan of helping his daughter in our own way? You know, because you know the same people and all of that."
Slade shook his head. "I made a snap decision not to. It just hit me that Charlotte could really help his daughter, because Charlotte is so in demand right now. I know that I don't have the same connections or the same cache as Charlotte does in the movie business. I literally made a quick decision not to go down that road. I don't think that it would have worked, and, even if Miguel made the decision for me to help Mandolina, instead of Charlotte, I feel that I wouldn't do Mandolina justice."
"Sometimes it happens like that, I guess. You go into a negotiation, and read the room, so to speak, and
immediately decide against using a pre-planned strategy. That's happened to me more times than I can count."
Of course, my being an empath was part of the reason why I often changed course in the middle of a negotiation. I could always get a vibration on what would work and what wouldn't, and that usually made me change my mind and try something different. That made me a very successful negotiator.
What impressed me is that Slade had that same skill. He was able to read Miguel and immediately decide to change strategy. Of course, we still weren't entirely clear on exactly what that strategy entailed. I only knew that it was going to have something to do with possibly finding a cure of the ailing Marguerita.
Slade turned into our hotel. "Okay, I'm going to call Ivan. I have to find out where Marguerita is, and, hopefully, get her records. Once I find out what we're dealing with, I can hopefully figure out a plan to get Miguel on our side."
At that, we went into the lobby and took the elevator to our suite. When we got into our suite, Slade called Ivan. "Ivan," Slade said, "I need you to find some information out for me.....Marguerita Sanchez, address------….yes, I need to know where she is staying right now...find out what her medical condition is as well if you can...thank you."
Slade got off the phone and sat down on the chair. "Well, now, we wait. We wait and find out what is going on with Marguerita. After we find that out, we find out how to approach Miguel."
I smiled. "You know, I knew when I saw his house that there was more to the story. I would imagine that his wife was the one who decorated it, or had it decorated. It was just too perfect, too feminine. Not that this man doesn't have a feminine side, because I imagine he does. But seeing that house...." I shook my head. "I just kinda knew that there was something to it."
"I did too. It's pretty obvious that we're dealing with somebody who loves something more than money. I can't believe that I offered him a contract worth millions and he turned that down flat." He brought me down on his lap and nuzzled my neck. "Turns out that even wealthy drug king-pins can have a heart. And pharmaceutical CEOs."
I sighed, wanting and needing to feel him inside of me. I turned my head to him and he kissed me lightly. I closed my eyes as his kisses started to become more urgent. "I missed you," I whispered. "Like you wouldn't believe."
"Oh, I believe," he said. "I felt the same. There wasn't any way that I would have been able to stay away from you for any length of time." He kissed me more passionately and I could feel his hard-on through his pants.
He carried me to the bed, and he lay beside me, stroking my hair. I closed my eyes, wanting to revel in his touch. I wanted to drink it in, just in case I never saw him again. That was possible, after all. If Charlotte beat us to Miguel, then that would be it. Game over.
He put his hand on my cheek and kissed me slowly. I sighed as he slowly and gently stripped off my clothes. I craved less vanilla, but, for now, vanilla would do. Vanilla was heavenly. Vanilla was exactly what I needed.
He stripped off his clothes too, and entered me languidly. He was going to make this last, and I wanted him to. I needed him to. As he rocked in and out, I came to orgasm after orgasm.
Later on that night, after we made love several times, I just lay next to him and watched him while he slept. He woke with a start and his eyes locked with mine. "What's going on?" he asked me.
I shrugged. "I'm just nervous." I drew a deep breath. "This might be..."
"Stop. We're going to get through this. We're going to get through this."
He spread his arms and I lay in them. For now, just for now, I felt safe.
Chapter 13
The next day, Ivan called Slade. "What did you find out?" Slade asked.
I watched as he wrote down the words "Huntington's Disease." He nodded slowly and screwed up his face. He then put his head in his hands. "Thank you," he told Ivan. "Thanks for the information."
I knew something about that disease. It was degenerative and almost always fatal, if not 100% fatal. I had no idea if Slade had something in the pipeline that would help.
He took a deep breath. "Huntington's Disease. We don't have a cure for that."
I knew that. "Right. But I've heard of..."
"Promising therapies, including genetic editing? Yes, that's probably the most promising therapy out there today. My company has been working on actually doing just that, along with a lot of other companies. But..." He shook his head. "What can I bring to the table that other companies cannot? I need to have something, otherwise I just violated a woman's privacy for no reason. That will just make things that much worse."
"Slade, this might help. I don't know. But what if you promise to work on finding a cure for this disease? You said that your company has been using this genetic editing idea, and that it's promising. What if you make a commitment to this disease, and you can present that to Miguel? It'll give him some hope at least."
Slade gave me a look that I couldn't quite discern. "I don't know about this. My company is on the forefront, really, of this particular therapy. But it doesn't feel right. I'll be committing to finding a cure for this in exchange for a massive drug shipment going to one mob family. That's not why I wanted to go into pharmaceuticals. I want to find cures for rare diseases, of course, and all diseases really. But agreeing to pursue a course of action in exchange for a drug shipment sounds..."
"Unethical. I know. But look at it this way – there are people all over the world suffering from this disease. They'll all be helped immensely if you do this. If you find a cure, you'll be helping so many people. It'll be something wonderful that came out of this entire mess if you really think about it."
Slade nodded his head. "Okay. So, I make a commitment to pour let's say $50 million into finding a cure for Huntington's. Miguel's no fool, though. He's going to want to make sure that I'm as good as my word. I could give him a list of researchers who I have working on this, and their credentials. I could also give him a copy of all the clinical trials that our company already has underway, as well as all the trials that we're conducting in the future. I don't really know what else I can give him except my word."
"He might take it,” I said. “After all, just the possibility that you'll be working feverishly on finding a cure for this disease might be enough to sway him. It's better than anything that he has now. He'll have a personal company who can keep him in the loop on all the breakthroughs, and he'll be guaranteed that Margeurita can get into a clinical trial as soon as the therapy becomes promising. As it is now, Margeurita may or may not be able to take part in a clinical trial, and he probably doesn't have anybody that he can just pick up the phone and call about progress. Tell him that you'll be that guy. The guy that he can talk to whenever. That's probably what he wants and needs."
Slade nodded his head. "Okay, then, it's worth a shot. It's really the only shot we have."
I tilted my head. "Where is Marguerita?"
"She's at the house, of course. She has nurses with her around the clock. She's apparently been symptomatic for two years. At the very least, I can offer him the drugs that my company has already developed to treat the symptoms of Huntington's now. There are quite a few that I can offer, including some that are not yet available to the general public but will be within the next few months."
"That sounds promising, really. You can offer him some new drugs for her months in advance. That would be priceless, because that represents a few months that she doesn't have to suffer as much because she'll be getting all the latest drugs even before they come onto the market."
We made our way out of the hotel and into my car. "Well, here goes nothing. He's either going to kill us because we invaded his wife's privacy or he's going to give us anything we ask for. Let's hope it's the latter, of course."
As we drove along the highway on the way to Miguel's, I said a silent prayer.
It was now or never, of course.
Chapter 14
We arrived at Miguel's at just after 10 AM. He wasn't expecting us, as
Slade wanted to surprise him. The reasoning for this was because this was a negotiation that could only be done in person, and he couldn't really explain to Miguel over the phone why he wanted to come back to see him. The upshot was that there was a chance, probably a big chance, that Miguel was going to send both of us on our way.
That is if we didn't face Charlotte in the house. That was also a risk.
As we got to the gates of the estate, we were greeted with the same two men in berets. Slade simply smiled. "Hello, we were here yesterday. We'd like to see Miguel again today."
One of the men looked at Slade and me suspiciously. "Why are you going to see him today? I do not think that you have an appointment."
"We don't. But I wanted to see him. I'm a pharmaceutical CEO, as he knows, and I'd like to negotiate with him about possibly finding a cure for his wife." No use beating around the bush. Miguel was either going to be pissed beyond belief or he was going to let us in to see him. That would have been the outcome either way, so at least we knew what to expect at the outset.
Beret man grimaced and then spoke in rapid Spanish into his two-way radio. Rapid Spanish speaking came right back, and, to my relief, Beret man nodded at us and waved us through.
I let out a huge breath. This was a good sign. He was going to listen to us. He was going to hear us out. I looked over at Slade as we drove along. "What did Miguel say in Spanish?"
"Nothing, really. He just said to let us in. That doesn't mean that he actually wants to talk with us. It might mean that he wants to kill us." Slade smiled slyly, but I didn't. He might have been joking – I think – but I found nothing funny about this situation. Whatsoever.
We drove along the dirt road, and, to my surprise, Miguel was waiting for us outside. He was sitting at a small table that in front of the house, smoking a cigar and squinting in the sun at us. Slade and I gave each other a look. Both of us were apprehensive. I knew this. My stress was through the roof, and Slade's was palpable. I didn't even have to tune into his vibrations to know this.