by Romi Hart
“But you understand his motivations for most things if I’m not mistaken,” Bernard returned. “He selected you, of everyone in the Prometheus Crest, because he believes you’re the best man for the job. The longer you sit at this table, the more I’m starting to agree with him.”
Finn’s head shot up and he locked his brown eyes on Bernard’s blue ones. “You still didn’t answer my question. If you’re so happy to meet a representative of the Prometheus Crest, does that mean you’re willing to form an alliance with us?”
Bernard cracked a broad, toothy grin. He lowered his eyelids and a scarlet blush flashed across his cheeks. Anyone who knew him well would understand how truly rare a blush like that really was.
Whether Finn understood it, Claire couldn’t tell, but she understood it. Her brothers and her sister would understand it, too, but they didn’t see it. None of them ever took their gaze off Finn.
How pale they all looked next to him. His darkness made Claire’s family look so strange to her all of a sudden. His brown skin, his curly black hair, and his dark eyes made such a startling contrast to their ivory-white skin, their blonde hair, and their identical blue eyes all staring back at Finn with the same stony expression.
For the first time in her life, she saw them as they must look to Finn—to everyone who sat across that table from them. How ruthless and determined and unwavering they seemed. Did he see them that way? Did he see her that way, too?
The two didn’t seem to belong to the same species. Could Finn really be New Breed? Claire found herself zeroing on the microscopic pores in his cheek, the faint scruff of whiskers sprouting around his chin, and her mouth watered to taste him. She wanted to thrust her nose into that skin. She wanted to trace her fingertips across his stomach to see if he reacted the same as other men.
When he looked over at her, she didn’t want him to look away. She wanted him to keep looking at her and nothing else. She wanted his eyes to see every part of her, even the ones no one else saw, not even her family—especially the parts of her no one else saw. She wanted him to know things about her she never shared with her nearest relatives.
Bernard raised his fingertips from the tabletop and let them fall again in the slightest approximation of a shrug. “Whether we form an alliance with the Prometheus Crest remains to be seen. This is our first meeting, so I fail to see how we could come to any understanding without further negotiation.”
Finn straightened up. The longer he talked to Bernard, the more confident he became. Maybe he wasn’t out of his depth here after all. Bernard was right. Victor Griffin did select the right man for this meeting.
“If you know all that about the Prometheus Crest,” Finn replied, “you must understand that time is of the essence. Our enemies could attack Anarock again at any time. The Prometheus Crest has only succeeded in protecting the city before because we had alliances with other Crests. Victor wouldn’t send me here to form one with you if we didn’t need your help.”
Bernard swiveled his chair sideways. He didn’t make so much of an effort to maintain eye contact with Finn as previously. Claire followed every shifting facial fluctuation. Did Finn even notice how the exchange fell more and more in his favor? Did he understand his counterpart well enough to see that?
“Time may be of the essence to your people, but it isn’t to us. SeamStream Crest never rushes into any decision. None of your enemies are threatening us. Take a look around you, Finn.” Bernard waved at the view behind his back. “None of this was won by making rash decisions and we won’t rush into this one. We will consider the Prometheus Crest’s request and we will weigh all the advantages and disadvantages before we make any move one way or the other.”
“How can you say none of our enemies are threatening you?” Finn succeeded impressively at keeping his voice controlled and easy. Claire wasn’t expecting that. She expected him to lose his composure at the first blockade. “Every time the military attacks the city, they put all Anarock in danger. They want to wipe all mutants off the face of the Earth, including you. If you’re New Breed like the rest of us, how can you stand by and watch us die to defend all New Breed? How can you sit up here surrounded in money while we take all the risks?”
Bernard swung around and came face to face with him. His eyebrow quivered upward more in fascination than in anger. Did Claire’s family find Finn as captivating as she did? “We are as much a part of Anarock as any other Crest, Finn, and the military isn’t attacking us. None of your so-called enemies have ever tried to wipe us off the face of the Earth. Why should we risk everything we’ve built to protect strangers?”
“We might be strangers, but we’re still New Breed. If they succeed in killing us, what makes you think they won’t come after you next?”
Bernard’s gaze slipped sideways toward the Zen garden. “I don’t think that will happen. In the first place, they don’t know anything about us.”
“That could change at any time,” Finn pointed out. “If they found out, there would be absolutely nothing to stop them coming after you—nothing except the other Crests, that is. If you leave us to twist in the wind, we might not be around to help you. If we were around, you might have squandered every bit of goodwill we might have had for you by leaving us to fight your battles for you when you could have helped us.”
Bernard rotated the last inch around. When he confronted Finn this time, his features lit up with genuine pleasure. He leaned across the table and rested his elbows on it. “That’s the only reason we’re negotiating with you at all. As I said, I’m very happy to be meeting with a representative of the Prometheus Crest and we have a lot to talk about before we come to any decision.”
Finn gave the slightest squirm in his seat, but he caught himself before anybody noticed. The longer she watched him, the more he impressed Claire with his matchless self-control. Some of the most powerful business moguls who walked through that door to negotiate with the great Bernard Novak didn’t do this well.
“So what would you like me to tell Victor about your intentions?” Finn asked. “Should I tell him we’re negotiating an alliance or not?”
“We aren’t negotiating one and we aren’t not negotiating one,” Bernard spread his arms wide and glanced right and left. “We just met. How can we begin to know if we want to negotiate or not?”
“Victor wants to negotiate. That’s why he sent me here. He wouldn’t have contacted you if he didn’t want this alliance.”
Bernard cocked his head and his eyes twinkled surveying Finn up and down. “Do you have any idea why Victor wants an alliance with us? Do you have any notion what Victor wants us to do if we do cement an alliance with the Prometheus Crest? Do you?”
Now Finn really did squirm. His gaze skipped from face to face, but he didn’t look at Claire again. “He said something about you being the most powerful house Crest in Anarock and I’m guessing he didn’t mean your money or your political influence.”
Bernard’s audacious stare didn’t waver from his face. “So you know nothing about us. You don’t know what we would do or what we could do to help you against your enemies. That’s not exactly the most efficacious position for you to make overtures to us for an alliance. We could turn out to be your worst nightmare.”
Those words rolled off his tongue with no effort whatever. Finn examined everyone facing him one more time. He comprehended the inner meaning of those words. “You’re right. I don’t, but that’s not my affair. I’m here to open negotiations on an alliance between our houses, not to attend to the consequences. That’s my superior’s responsibility.”
Bernard bit back another grin. “I would bet you any amount of money Victor doesn’t know what we would do or what we could do for your Crest, either. He doesn’t understand our power, does he?”
Finn surprised Claire out of her pants by bursting out laughing. He laughed right in Bernard Novak’s face. Bernard gaped at him in astonishment. No one ever laughed at him in his own conference room.
Claire
recognized the same shocked horror registering on her brothers’ and sister’s faces. They all blinked at Finn in stark disbelief. Claire never imagined she would meet someone more audacious and confronting than her father, but here he sat, Finn Weeks, laughing in Bernard Novak’s face.
Finn slapped his broad brown hand against the darker wood of the table. “You’re absolutely right. He doesn’t understand your power. You people keep your cards close to your vests, but he thinks you’re powerful so you must be.”
Bernard recovered in a fraction of a second. “Well, we are. We could help you in all kinds of ways, not all of them involving open hostilities with your enemies.”
Finn leaned back in his chair and the sudden mirth vanished from his countenance. “You keep referring to them as our enemies. You don’t seem to realize that they’re your enemies, too.”
“They aren’t.” Bernard copied him by leaning back and swiveling his chair from side to side. “I suspect the Omega Battalion doesn’t even know we exist.”
Finn narrowed his eyes at the man. “How do you know so much about us? How do you know about the Omega Battalion?”
Bernard waved at nothing. “We know everything about Anarock. We make it our business to understand everything. Nothing happens in Anarock—or anywhere else for that matter—that we don’t know about, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s been a delight to meet you. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other during these negotiations.”
Finn froze. “So…. are we negotiating?”
Bernard chuckled and got to his feet. “We’re negotiating about negotiating.”
He stretched his hand across the table and everybody else stood up, too, including Claire. That was the end of the meeting. Finn copied them and got up, but Claire still detected a trace of tension in him. He wasn’t finished. He shook Bernard’s hand, but he wanted to keep talking. He wanted to pin Bernard down. Claire recognized the signs only too well.
In a moment, everyone on the other side of the table headed for the door. First Pablo, then Conrad, then Bernard, and finally Damien and Lucy filed away from their chairs to the exit. Claire pivoted to go with them, but Finn hesitated.
When she turned around and saw him lingering behind. He looked around him blinking in astonishment. That was the first time he let himself reveal just how much this environment unnerved him.
She glided toward him and touched his elbow. “Congratulations. Welcome to SeamStream.”
He jerked alert and yanked his arm away. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t convince him. I wouldn’t be surprised if I offended him.” He shut his eyes and passed his palm across his forehead. “Victor’s gonna kill me.”
“You didn’t offend him,” she told him. “He was impressed with you. He was very pleased with your presentation.”
His eyes snapped open and his intoxicating dark gaze found her one more time. “My presentation! I didn’t make any presentation. I just….”
She eased a step closer to him. His presence infected her with an unstoppable need to be near him. “You made a very convincing case. He could have thrown you out. He could have turned you down flat. You did very well to get him to open negotiations at all.”
“Negotiations about negotiations,” he corrected.
She smiled. Her body vibrated just standing near him. “Come to our house for dinner tonight. We can talk more there.”
He whipped around fast and his stomach contracted. His eyes went hard. “What are you suggesting?”
She couldn’t stop smiling at him. Everything about him gave her a burning excited tingle in her belly. “I’m inviting you to dinner.”
He took an imperceptible step back. Moving away from her hurt her beyond belief. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Before she could say anything, he darted around her and headed for the door.
4
Finn stepped out of the conference room into that spotless reception area. It struck him as even more unbearably impeccable than before. The minute he crossed the threshold, he sensed Claire advancing on him from behind. Her very being radiated momentous implications, but he couldn’t articulate even to himself what those implications might be.
He detected her through the airwaves. The whole Novak clan gave him the same impression, but Claire herself cast a spell over his brain. He couldn’t shake it off. Her nearness confounded him so he couldn’t think.
He got through that so-called negotiation on a whim and a prayer. He floundered saying the first things that popped into his head, but he never for a second thought he could stand on the same level with Bernard Novak. That would be asking too much.
He couldn’t believe Claire’s assurance that he had held his own. Now he faced the prospect of going back to Ogru-Kuche and telling Victor he failed. Victor sent him here to seal an alliance with these people. What else could negotiating about negotiating mean if not failure?
The siblings and their father clustered around the reception desk. Finn would never think the words ‘reception desk’ the same way after seeing that behemoth of a desk.
Damien clenched his jaw and growled under his breath. “If they think they can pull this over on us, they’re going to find out differently. I say we cut them off with extreme prejudice. That’s the best they deserve.”
Lucy chimed in from the other side of the counter. “I agree with Damien. We have a reputation to protect. The very first time someone found out we let something like this slide, the rest of our competition would come gunning for us. If we cut them off without a word of explanation, we’ll be sending a message that we won’t tolerate any attempt to manipulate us, especially not such a blatant one.”
Damien rounded on her. “How can they be so stupid? I can’t believe they haven’t heard from at least someone that we don’t play that way. They wouldn’t enter into dealings with us if they didn’t know the way we roll.”
“We can’t cut them off.” Pablo spoke up for the first time. “They still have our whole shipment on the other side of the border. They won’t ship if we don’t pay up.”
Claire sauntered around Finn to take her place with the rest of the family. “There may be another way to get our goods without paying at all. That would stick the hot poker up their noses better than anything. They fronted for the merchandise. They’re counting on our payment to reimburse them along with a little extra for their profits. If we can take possession without paying, that would really give them something to think about.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Damien asked.
“We contact Juan Diego from Juarez. He’ll take care of it for us.”
The other siblings sank in on themselves. They all went silent and still. No one said a word.
Claire scanned the group. “What’s the problem? Do we mean business or not?”
Bernard tugged one of his shirt cuffs into place and jerked his shoulder inside his jacket. “Do it. It’s your idea. You make it happen. Let me know when the truck crosses the border so I can notify the buyers.”
The group broke up. The other siblings returned to their own work. Bernard took out his phone and did something on it.
Claire turned her attention back to Finn. “I meant what I said. You should come to dinner with us.”
Finn’s eyes widened. “Us?”
“Yes, us.” She burst into another magnificent smile. That smile lit up the world. He couldn’t escape the thrill of excitement it whispered into his heart. Did that smile mean what he thought it meant? Was she trying to suggest something between them?
She didn’t need to suggest it. Her body vibrated mystical energy into him. It made his blood boil. He knew that feeling. He knew when a woman wanted him.
He shook his head and did his best to retreat toward the elevator. “I shouldn’t. I should get back to Ogru-Kuche. Victor will be waiting for me to report about the….”
Before he could finish, Bernard glanced up from his phone. “You should. Come have dinner with us. We’d love to hav
e you.”
Damien strode around the reception desk and clapped Finn on the shoulder as he passed. “You’ll regret it if you don’t come. We got a supply of green-lipped mussels shipped in from New Zealand. You won’t get anything like that in Ogru-Kuche. You don’t want to miss it.”
Now Finn knew he couldn’t refuse. All his instincts told him to beat it while he had a chance, but at that moment, Claire slipped her hand through his arm. She marched him toward the elevator murmuring in his ear. “We can talk more about the negotiation there. We have so much to discuss.”
Before he knew what happened to him, Finn found himself alone in the elevator with her. She hugged his arm against her body. Her suit separated his skin from hers, but he sensed her energy radiating into him. She buzzed with passion and vitality. Was it sexual or just her unflinching confidence and grit to do what she set out to do? He couldn’t tell, but the two things got all mixed up in his mind.
She wanted…. Well, whatever she wanted, she would get it. She made it pretty clear she wanted him and he didn’t see anything stopping her from getting that, either.
In the lobby, she escorted him to the sidewalk where a long black limo waited for them. He got into it wrapped in a blanket of stupid confusion. What was happening to him? Did she cast a spell on him? He should be the one putting the moves on her, not the other way around.
The limo glided away. New Orleans slipped behind the car outside the window and a sinking feeling of dread settled in Finn’s insides. The more he associated with these people, the more they reminded him of the Mafia—the Russian Mafia. They weren’t Russian Mafia, though, because they weren’t Russian. They were New Breed, so he could only conclude that they were New Breed Mafia.
What business were they really involved in? What could be on that truck that they would go to such lengths to get back across the border? He knew absolutely nothing about them and neither did anyone else in Anarock. That last exchange proved that. Not even Victor knew the first detail about them while the Novaks knew everything about Anarock, the Prometheus Crest, and everyone in it.