Park Avenue (Book Six in the Fifth Avenue Series) (34 page)

“Not at all.”

“Are you certain about
that?
 
Because your tone implies
otherwise.”

The elevator doors slid
open.
 
“The conference room you were
searching for earlier is just to your right,” he said.

*
 
*
 
*

The drawings were
detailed and impressive, but she was so distracted by his attitude, she had
difficulty focusing on what he was saying about why this piece of furniture
needed to go in that corner, that piece of art needed to go on that wall, and
that chair was critical to the overall aesthetic.

Frankly, she just wanted
to take the plans to the ninetieth-floor apartment and get a better feel for
the space and his vision for it.
 

So, that’s what she
proposed.

Hugo Morel looked up at
her, mid-presentation.
 
“You want to
take these to the apartment itself?”

“I do.”

“But it’s all right
here.”

“I haven’t seen the
apartment.”

“I’ve
drawn
it for
you, Miss Redman.
 
Everything you
see here is what you’re going to see up there.”

“Not really,” Leana
said.
 
“Your drawings are fine, Mr.
Morel, but they lack the sense of drama and excitement I know I’m going to feel
when I step into that apartment.
 
I
want to experience the space and see how well your plans suit it.
 
Bring the drawings.
 
I know your time is tight.
 
So, let’s go to the apartment now.”

“This is exactly how your
cousin said this meeting would play out.”

And then Leana saw all of
it.

“Sean,” she said, “would
you mind stepping outside for a moment?
 
You might want to close the door.
 
Mr. Morel and I are going to have a little chat.”

*
 
*
 
*

“Exactly what did my
cousin say to you?”

He rolled up the plans
and then looked at her.
 
“You want
all of it?”

“All of it.”

“Let’s see.
 
She said you didn’t want me on this job
and that you lobbied your father against it.
 
She said you were no fan of my work, but
that she was going to try her hardest to overrule you and convince your father
to go forward with me.
 
Right now,
that’s looking doubtful.
 
I think I
should just leave, Miss Redman.”

“I think you’re being
melodramatic.
 
Am I talking to the
former model or to the businessman?”

“Go to hell.”

“Oh, please.”
 
She held out her hands in an effort to
cool him down.
 
“First of all, I
said none of those things.
 
My
cousin feels that with me now on the job, she’s losing the power my father
handed to her.
 
She feels
threatened.
 
She’ll say anything to
undermine me and what she said to you proves it.
 
This is New York.
 
Don’t tell me this is the first time
you’ve seen this kind of ambition from someone, especially when they’re as
desperate as Pepper Redman is to leave their mark.
 
I have no reason to lie to you, Mr.
Morel, because I really don’t care what you think of me.
 
All I care about is getting this job
done in a professional and successful manner.
 
I do like your designs, but if we’re
going to go forward, I need you to listen to what I just said and drop the
attitude so that we can come to terms and hammer this out.
 
Are you willing to do that?”

“I’m afraid not, Miss
Redman.”

“Then at least show some
respect to my father, who stopped everything for you when you called him.
 
Frankly, you owe him that.”
 

She pulled out her iPhone
and called George, who answered on the third ring.
 
“Dad, I’m with Hugo Morel, who is upset
for good reason.
 
I’m going to put
you on speaker and I need you to answer my questions and possibly his.
 
Are you ready?
 
You’re on speaker now.”

“What’s this about?”

“Have I ever lobbied you
to not hire Hugo Morel?”

“What are you talking
about?”

“Just answer the
question.”

“Of course you
haven’t.
 
Why?”

“Because Pepper said I
did.
 
Next question.
 
Have I ever said that I wasn’t a fan of
Mr. Morel’s work?”

“In fact, you said just
the opposite.”

She looked up at
Hugo.
 
“Is there anything you’d like
to say to my father, Mr. Morel?
 
Now’s your chance.”

He looked at her for a
moment, then his face softened.
 
“Mr. Redman, I do have a suggestion for you.”

“What’s that, Hugo?”

“Keep your niece in
line.
 
She almost derailed this
meeting.”

“I’ll fill you in later,
Dad.”
 
Leana clicked off the
phone.
 
“Are we good?”

“We’re good.”

“I apologize.
 
I thought I left grade school years
ago.
 
Apparently, thanks to Pepper,
I’ve returned to it.”

“Families can be
difficult, probably even more so when they are under the pressures your family
is under every day.”

“Let’s not talk about
family for that very reason.
 
I
would like to see the space because, in spite of what Pepper said to you, I
have not seen it.
 
Would you mind?”

“Not at all.”

They left to see it with
Sean, and Leana and Hugo Morel spent the better part of an hour going over his
plans and, with her input, changing them considerably.
 
They sat on the floor of what was to
become the apartment’s living room, which was sprawling and looked directly
over the Park, the views of which Leana had never before seen—at least
not like this.
 
They talked about
what they liked about his design, what might be changed, and then came to a
consensus.
 

“Are you happy with the
changes?” she asked.

“I am happy with
them.
 
You know, you have a good
eye.”

When he said it, she
couldn’t help but laugh.

He flushed and stared in
horror at her eyepatch.
 
“I didn’t
mean it that way.”

“I know you didn’t, but
it’s still funny.”

Whatever tension had been
between them earlier had now evaporated.

“I’m sorry I was such a
bastard earlier.”

“I’m sorry I was such a
bitch.”

“You only were reacting
to me.
 
Pepper really set me up to
not like you.”

“Poor Pepper.
 
A lost fox in the woods.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Who knows?
 
I can’t figure her out.
 
She’s probably off her meds.”
 
She looked down at the plans.
 
“With your permission, I’d like to show
these to my father.
 
I think he’ll
agree with me that we should go forward with them immediately.”

“They’re yours.”

“Do you have time to talk
about how we market this beast?
 
I
know my father already has done a fairly substantial push with another
agency.
 
But now we need to take it to
the next level.
 
If you don’t have
time and want to meet later, we can.
 
But it should be soon.”

“I have
time,” Hugo said.
 
He pulled out his
cell from his jacket pocket and pressed two buttons.
 
“In fact, with my calendar now clear, I
have the rest of the day.”

CHAPTER
FORTY-FIVE

When Leana returned to
Redman International later that afternoon, she found her father in his
office.
 

“These are the plans you
should go with,” she said when she walked inside.

He looked up from his
desk.
 
“Don’t you knock?”

“Did Celina knock?”
 
She put the plans on his desk.
 
“Look at them.”

“I’ve seen them.”

“Not these, you
haven’t.
 
Look at them.”

He unrolled the plans and
saw a completely different concept from the one Pepper showed him yesterday,
which she approved and which he liked very much.
 
“What is this?” he said.

“A better plan.”

“Hugo came to you with
new
plans?
 
I don’t understand.
 
He knew we liked the others he
presented.”

“I didn’t like what he
showed me, so he agreed to work with me on developing what you see there.
 
It’s more streamlined now.
 
The position of the furniture allows a
potential buyer to sit down and see a better perspective of what you’re really
selling—the views.
 
There are
other changes.
 
A lot of them,
actually.
 
You can compare these
plans with the originals, and go with whichever one you want.
 
I don’t really care.”

“Leana, do you always
have to have a chip on your shoulder when you speak to me?”

“Do you want the reasons
why?
 
Probably not.
 
So, let me ask you a question—have
you reprimanded Pepper?”

“I’ve talked to
Pepper.
 
She denied all of it.”

“Well, that was a
mistake.
 
On the phone, Hugo told
you that because of her, your deal with him nearly derailed.”

“I understand that.
 
I also don’t believe her.”

That surprised her.
 
“So, what are you going to do about
her?
 
She almost lost you
Morel.
 
What else will she screw
up?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“And how do you know
that?
 
Did you fire her?”

“No,”
George said.
 
“She’s answering to a
new boss.
 
You.”
  

CHAPTER
FORTY-SIX

For a moment, Leana stood
there, stunned.
 
She didn’t know
what to say to her father.
 
For
years she had waited to hear that kind of support from him.
 
She felt at once confused and elated,
but then she took a mental step back and considered what his offer meant to her
now, at this moment in her life.
 

It could change its
course.

Her own career was about
to flourish.
 
She was on the cusp of
creating something for herself through her own hotel.
 
And then other projects would come.
 
There was more that she wanted to do by
herself.
 
If she became Pepper’s
boss, what would it mean for her and her own plans for the future?
 
It meant a step backward, not forward.
 
She would be working for her father, not
for herself.
 
And yet, to finally
hear her father recognize something in her that made him want to make her a
part of Redman International was meaningful in ways that few would understand.

Harold would have got it
, she thought.
 
And Mario will get it, though he’ll
tell me to go my own way, just as Harold would have.

“Have a seat,” George
said.

She sat down and realized
that this was a pivotal moment for her.
 
Her father’s acceptance was key to her.
 
So why was she filled with doubt now?

“The new plans are
excellent,” he said.
 
“Better than
the others.
 
How much input did you
have in creating them?”

“I told Hugo that we
could improve upon his concept, and we did.
 
We worked hard on it.
 
Our input was equal.
 
We were in the ninetieth-floor
penthouse.
 
We sat on the floor, and
kept riffing off each other until we came to a place where both of us were
happy.”

He looked down at the
plans.
 
“This is the quality of work
Celina would have done.
 
She would
have challenged Hugo, as you did, to get better work out of him.
 
Pepper didn’t do that.
 
What you pulled off benefited the
project.
 
Couple that with how
you’re handling the opening of your hotel and I’m impressed.”

“I appreciate that.”
 
For once, she could sense that he
actually was proud of her.
 
It
seemed surreal to her.
 
And
dangerous.

“I need you to manage
Pepper on this project,” George said.
 
“She’s too young.
 
And she’s
lying, which I won’t tolerate.
 
She
almost destroyed our relationship with Morel today.
 
What is it between you two?”

“The truth?
 
I resent her.
 
You took her under your wing in ways
that you’ve always refused to do with me, for whatever reason.
 
And she’s happy to remind me of that
whenever she can.
 
She shoves it
down my throat.
 
We hate each
other.”

“Hate is a strong word.”

“Hate is the right word.”

“Can you work with her?”

“If you sat down and told
her there would be repercussions if she didn’t follow my orders, I could work
with her.
 
But she’d need to know
that she’d be sent home to Arkansas if she didn’t.
 
Our relationship is too contentious for
her to have any respect for me, but she at least needs to take my lead seriously
and do her job as directed by me.
 
If she can do that and can put all of this other shit behind us, which
I’m willing to do, I think we could work together and all of us will benefit.
 
But I’m not going to bullshit you.
 
It’s not going to be possible unless you
intervene.”

“I’m ready to do that,
but only if you’re prepared to take the job.”

“You know I’m opening The
Park soon.
 
I need to be working
there now.
 
You know how important
the final days are.
 
How will that
affect working for you?”

“I can give you the time
you need to work on your hotel on a part-time basis.
 
Zack Anderson is there for you now.
 
Lean on him.
 
Have him take over once the doors are
open.
 
He’s fully capable.
 
You can work at the Columbus Circle
project in the mornings, and spend time at your hotel in the afternoons and
evenings.
 
When your hotel is
finished, you can come to Redman International and work for me.”

“What happens to Pepper
in the meantime?”

“Pepper has other
projects that I’ll oversee more closely, but none of them are as important as
the Columbus Circle project.
 
You’ll
need to manage her as best as you can on that job.
 
She’ll hear from me what’s expected of
her.
 
She’ll know you’ll come on
full-time when your hotel is open.
 
We’ll take it from there and determine who’s doing what.
 
In the meantime, if she pulls any of the
shit she pulled with you today, she’s done.
 
I
will
send her back to
Arkansas.”

“She’ll tell you she came
from Atlanta.”

“We both know
better.
 
So, what is it, Leana?
 
Are we a team?
 
You impressed me today.
 
You’ve impressed me with your
hotel.
 
The concepts you and Hugo
came up with are terrific.”

She needed to buy herself
time.
 
“Let me talk to Mario,” she
said.
 
“I need his advice, just as
you used to talk over big decisions with Mom.
 
I’ll get back to you in the morning.”

“By eight?”

“Actually, I start work
at five.
 
You’ll hear from me then,
if you’re awake.
 
If not, I’ll call
back.”

She stood to leave, and
as she did so, her father also stood and came around his desk.
 
“I know you feel as if I undercut you
with my hotel.
 
But I think you
understand now that it’s not personal.
 
It’s business.
 
Do you see
that?”

In spite of the fact that
she and her father each took a bullet at The Hotel Fifth, she had to admit that
she did.
 
Business was about
opportunities.
 
It wasn’t about
personal attachments or what haunted you in the past.
 
Her father got that hotel for a steal
and he capitalized on it.
 
She
understood now.
 
What bothered her
is that he still planned to open it on the same day as The Park.

“Would you consider
opening it the weekend after The Park opens?”

“No.”

“So, this is what I’ll
learn from you?
 
That family doesn’t
matter?”

“You see?
 
You’re making this personal again.
 
But it isn’t, Leana.
 
It’s purely a business decision.
 
You need to understand how business
works if you’re going to be successful.
 
Because we’re opening our hotels on the same day, the press will latch
onto it because they know of our tumultuous history together.
 
The exposure for both of us will be
significant.
 
That’s what matters to
me.
 
It’s what should matter to
you.
 
You have to manipulate the
press in order to get your share of it.
 
We’ll each have a successful opening.
 
In the end, we’ll each win.”

“How do I know that?”

“Because I’ve been at
this for years.
 
You know, Celina
and I fought all the time.
 
It was
part of our everyday lives.
 
Sometimes, days would pass and we wouldn’t speak to each other.
 
As you and I work together, the same
will be true for us.”

“That sounds pleasant.”

“I’m telling you the
truth, and I’m giving you my best advice.
 
Take it.
 
Run with it.
 
Absorb it.
 
If you want to carve out your own name
in this city, you’re going to have to learn to be ruthless because that’s how
the game is played here.
 
It’s not
played by being nice.
 
You need to
be cutthroat, even with me.
 
I can
help you with that.”

“That’s
the thing,” Leana said.
 
“I’m not so
sure how I feel about that.”