Manhattan Miracle (15 page)

Chapter
Eighteen

When I retuned to Brad's office, h
e rose. "Well?"

"I need a drink. Can I use your phone?"

"Of course."

I slid around Brad's desk, picked up the han
dset and dialed Amber's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, meeting's over."

"What happened?"

"I need a drink. Brad and I are going to the Station. If you want to hear the scoop, meet us there."

"I'm on my way."

"So are we."

I grabbed Brad's hand and pulled. "C'mon."

He took a step then stopped. "Aren't you going to tell me what happened?"

"I recorded the whole meeting. It's easier to let you and Amber listen than tell you both."

He got in step. "All right, but at least give me a hint."

When we got to the elevators
, I answered, "He had me checked out and found out what I did before I came to work at Bayside."

We stepped into the elevator and Brad pushed lobby. "So, does he have a problem with it?"

Neither one of us said anything as the elevator zipped toward its destination. We stepped into the lobby. "He doesn't seem to have as much a problem with what I did as he does with me stopping."

Brad pulled the door open. "What?"

Grasping his hand again, I stepped onto the sidewalk. "Let's hurry across the street. If you have anymore questions after you hear the recording, I'll answer them."

We rushed across the street and were greeted by Amber who'd just walked up. "Talk about timing." She cheek kissed me, hugged Brad and we waltzed into
the Station. It was only three-thirty so the place was mostly empty with the only customers sitting at the bar. I led them to the furthest, most remote booth in Libation Station and slid in. Brad edged up to my left side. Amber slipped in the other side of the round booth and glanced around. "I don't know if we'll get waited on here."

She was right. "Baby, why don't you get our drinks while I tell Amber what I told you?"

"All right, but don't start the recording without me."

"I won't."

He slipped out. "What do you want?"

Amber raised a finger. "I'll have a frozen margarita."

"I'll have a double Maker's Mark with water back."

After Brad returned with our drinks, I pulled the recorder out of my purse.
"Amber, why don't you slide around by me? I don't dare play this too loud and we'll hear it better if we're close together."

S
he sidled up to me and I turned the recorder on. No one asked questions as the recording played, but while the emotions that played across their faces ran the gamut from disbelief to outrage, they did utter exclamations such as, "Jesus Christ!", "What a dick!" and "Good for you!" when I called Grimes an effing asshole.

When the
recording ended, Amber asked, "You aren't going to do it, are you?"

"Not likely. The position and the money are tempting, but if I couldn't go through my first try with Councilman Warren, I doubt it's in me to do something like Grimes
is proposing. Besides, I detest the man."

"I detest him too, and I forbid you to become his client's
plaything. You are better than that."

"But Brad baby, that's what you did when you were me."

Brad shrugged. "I know. I was single, wasn't even interested in anyone let alone in love and the only steady jobs available paid minimum wage." Now that I'm a man, and have someone in my life, I see things differently."

My nostrils flared. "Of course it helps that you have the investment banking job you always wanted and a corner office with a view."

Bonnie, the waitress appeared. "Hi, guys. When did you sneak in? I didn't even see you until a second ago." She glanced at our empty glasses. "Do you need refills?"

Brad nodded. "Please."

She picked up the glasses and set down cocktail napkins in front of us. "What were these?"

"
Frozen margarita, double Maker's Mark  with water back and a Pink Lady. And while you're at it bring an order of those delicious nachos."

Bonnie nodded. "Anything
on them?"

"Just cheese.
Lots of cheese."

When Bonnie left, I turned to Amber. "
Now, that you've heard the recording, what do you think I should do?"

Brad chipped in, "I don't think you should do anything with that man. Remembe
r, Bella's missing sister was Grimes' last personal assistant."

"Brad's right.
If it was me, I'd sue his ass for sexual harassment. I'll bet that recording alone is worth several million."

Bonnie returned with our drinks. "The nachos should be ready in a couple minutes. I'll bring them out as soon as they're ready."

After Bonnie left, I switched the Pink Lady she left in front of me with the Maker's Mark and water she'd left in front of Brad. "I agree. I'll definitely sue him, but what will I do after that? The only field I've worked in since college is investment banking and Grimes said he'd blackball me."

Brad looped his arm around my shoulders.
"Well, sweetheart, I'm not going to stay there if you're not there. We're a team and between us, we have a tidy sum of money and…we have a list of Bayside clients."

I dipped my brow.
"What are you saying?"

"That we start our own service oriented securities firm. You're good and I'm good and together, we could make a ton of money for our investors and us."

Amber's eyes grew wide. "That's a capital idea. I have money too. I'd love to work with you guys. I could work the marketing end and bring in new clients. I'll bet I could talk Lew into joining us, too."

"
Awesome." Brad held his open hand up in front of me and Amber hi-fived it. "I know you're good and Ginger says Lew is good."

I was wary. "
I love your idea, but isn't using Bayside's client list to raid their client base unethical?"

"Yes,
at a minimum. It even be illegal." Brad sipped on his Pink Lady. "But what's on your recording is definitely illegal."

"And unethical and immoral,"
Amber chimed in, "The man is a pervert."

We paused as Bonnie set the hot plate of nachos and three small plates down. "Here you go. Careful the plate is hot. Anything
else?"

Brad delicately took a nacho and said, "
Ooh, hot! Nope, that's all for now. Thanks." 

I
grabbed a nacho and held it a few inches from my mouth. "Okay! If we are going to do this, I have an even better option than starting a company from scratch, and we could help a good friend of mine in the process."

Both
of them leaned forward and Brad said, "We're listening."

I sipped my bourbon
and chased it with a swig of water. "You don't know him, but when I first came to Bayside a man named Cliff Burns was my mentor. He taught me most of what I know and we became good friends."

"Go on,
" urged Amber.

"Cliff was a fixture at Bayside. Having been around for years,
he was quite a bit older than me and three years ago, when he became eligible for Bayside's twenty year retirement plan, he took it and did something he'd always wanted to do—he started his own equities company. His fledgling company hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but despite the extremely tough times we've been through, they managed to show a profit in each of the first three years."

Brad nudged me. "Get to the point
, Baby."

"I am. Three months ago, Cliff had a debilitating stroke. He's recovering, but he's in no condition to work, let alone run the company."

"It's for sale?" Amber asked.

"I think so. Meg, Cliff's wife, talked like she'd like to find a buyer…or at least someone to run it."

Amber swallowed a nacho. "What's the name of this company?"

I snickered. "Don't laugh—Bayview Equities."

They laughed.

Amber pulled her smartphone from her purse, to
uched in a number and hit send.

I frowned. "
Who are you calling?"

"
You're going to sue Bayside and we're going to buy a company. Seems like we need a lawyer, so I'm calling Bella. Do you mind?"

I laughed. "I'm sure she would get a kick out of suing her sister's former company. Be my guest."

"Bella?"

"I
t's Amber. Listen, I have Ginger and her boyfriend here and we want to ask you some things. Is it alright if I put my phone on speaker?"

"Okay, here goes.
"

"Hi
, Ginger."

"H
i, Bella."

"
So good to hear from you both. I miss you and Amber terribly."

"We miss you to
o!"

"
I haven't seen you and Amber since you came to my graduation from Harvard and we partied 'til dawn. Do you see each other much?"

I snickered. "
Only every day. We're still roommates."

"Ooh! Lucky you. I live with an accountant. Did you ever try to carry on a conversation with an accountant? Boring. They're horses of another color—green, I think.
So, How about boyfriends? Do you have any boyfriends?"

"Yes, both of us
. Mine is named Brad, and he's right here. Say hi to Bella, Brad."

"Hi Bella."

"Hi Brad. Have you been going with Ginger long?"

"Only a
week."

"What do you do?"

"I'm an account executive with Bayside Securities."

Bella started coughing.

"Are you all right?"

"I was until you mentioned Bayside."

"Sorry. Amber told me about your sister. I'm so sorry, but that's one of the reasons we called."

"Thank you. What reason is that?"

Ginger explained, "Brad, got me a job at Bayside as his secretary."

"Oh, you aren't
escorting any more?"

"Not while I'm trying this. Anyway, I landed on the President's radar and
he called me into his office not two hours ago."

"Really, he didn't waste any time. What did he want?"

"Essentially, to take your sister's place as his personal assistant."

There was silence. I thought the co
nnection was broken, then. "That pig. We must talk. Can you guys have dinner with me tonight?"

"Certainly
. Where?"

"Michael's at
6:00."

"We
'll be there."

"Ginger?"

"Yes."

"I'll have somebody with me, if he's available."

"Fine, we'll see you there."

I leaned back
in the booth, a low ball glass of Maker's Mark in my hand, and glanced at my friends. "Poor Bella, she must be agonizing over what happened to her sister."

Brad sighed.
"I know. I had no idea. I'd never heard about Mr. Grimes' personal assistant. And I certainly hadn't heard about her vanishing."

I glanced at my watch—
4:20. "We're meeting her at 6:00. It's a good thing you're going to be there, 'cause I’ve never met her.

Chapter Nineteen

At six o'clock, since the dinner crowd hadn't quite arrived yet, Michael's was less than half full. Telling the Maitre d' we were meeting someone, he allowed us to look for her. Brad had described Bella—beautiful, like her name, with long black hair and large doe-like brown eyes—so finding her wasn't that hard. Brad spotted her in a booth about half-way back along the left wall of the dining room. "There she is."

Her large doe eyes grew even larger when she saw me and the corners of her full lips curved up, turning into a full fledged, winsome smile. She was everything Brad described except she now wore her hair in a shoulder length bob.

With Amber in the lead,
Brad took my hand and headed for the booth, which gave me time to appraise her companion, who'd risen and waited. I'd expected him to be, and maybe he was, her man friend, but he was at least a dozen years older than Bella. He was tall, muscularly trim and handsome, but not in a pretty boy way. No, he was handsome in a hard-edged, rough, 'don't mess with me,' sort of way.

When Amber drew clos
e, he embraced her. Then as she slid in next to Bella, he turned and smiled at me and extended his arms. "Hi, you must be Ginger." He embraced me as I bobbed my head. "So pleased to meet you, I'm Gino Maroni."

"Ginger Allen. Gino, this is my friend, Brad Fairchild."