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“Derek,” I say, getting up to my feet and offering him a casual nod. He walks toward me and takes my hand in his, shaking it.
“Carter,” he greets me back, running his fingers through his red tie as he sits down on the chair facing my desk. “Sorry to drop in unannounced,” he says casually, looking around my office as if he’s trying to avoid my gaze. No wonder—after what happened in Eliza’s office I’d be surprised if he didn’t feel slightly awkward. Hell, I feel the same. I mean, it’s not like I’m in the habit of sharing a woman I want. Especially with a man like Derek, someone who I thought of as my rival—be it in matters of business or in matters of love.
Thing is, that moment the three of us shared makes all my past rivalry with Derek seem a little silly. As stupid as it may sound, the three of us made something beautiful. And yeah, I know I’m talking about sex, but even so… I never felt something quite like it. It bordered on the religious. It was a moment of true unbridled passion, the kind of thing that takes more than two people to create. Somehow, Eliza used the rivalry between Derek and I, and turned it into something different, something almost unbelievable.
“Don’t worry about that,” I tell him as his eyes finally meet mine. “Do you need something from me?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do,” he whispers, still in that casual tone of his. An almost too casual tone, as a matter of fact; in a way, it seems like he’s trying to hide something behind a facade of coolness.
“Shoot.”
“I want to run something by you,” he continues, placing down the folder he had under his arm on the desk and pushing it toward me.
“What’s this?” I ask him, picking up the folder and reading the red letters engraved on the front: RED LION AVIATION.
“This is an opportunity,” he says, his casual tone now turning into a serious one, his words now cold and calculated. “I’ve been holding onto this for some time now, but… After what the three of us went through, I think it’s time to bury the hatchet.”
“I agree,” I whisper, opening the folder and running my eyes across the first page, a legal briefing detailing the operations of the Red Lion airline. “I just don’t see what Red Lion Aviation has to do with it.”
“I think that, uh… This could interest you. Red Lion is a growing company, and I think it might be something you might be interested in adding to your portfolio. More so, I think it’d be a great company for Eliza to start investing in.”
“I see,” I continue noncommittally, turning page after page and allowing my eyes to wander over the spreadsheets detailing just exactly what kind of operation Red Lion runs, and the numbers involved. On the surface, it seems like an interesting company, but there’s something in these numbers that just doesn’t add up … and when I look up from the folder and meet Derek’s gaze, an anxious expression on his face, I realize that something’s very wrong with this picture.
“This company is garbage,” I finally say, closing the folder abruptly and throwing it down on top of the table. I lean forward, locking my eyes on Derek’s, and lower my voice. “Why did you come to me with this?”
Derek has made a name for himself with all his brash investments and the amount of risk he’s willing to take, but not even someone with his profile would be stupid enough to invest in a company like Red Lion Aviation. Even with nothing more than a casual glance at the few documents he offered me, I can tell right away that RLA is a house of cards about to crumble. And that’s if I’m being optimistic about it because the numbers I saw on these spreadsheets might be translated as something more insidious … something like embezzlement. And, despite what I feel (or felt) toward Derek, I know that he isn’t the kind of man who would be involved in a scheme like that.
Derek looks at me in silence, and I can see the gears turning inside his head. Getting up from my seat, I walk across the room and close the door, locking it behind me.
“What’s going on, Derek? There’s something very wrong about this deal, and I want to know what it is.” I move closer to him and, without even thinking about what I’m doing, I lay both my hands on his shoulders. Reaching for my right hand, he grabs it and then looks at me over his shoulder.
Once again, he keeps his silence, and I notice beads of sweat start pooling on his forehead. Then he just exhales sharply and leans back, running one hand through his hair.
