Billionaires: The Hero: A Deal for the Di Sione Ring / The Last Di Sione Claims His Prize / The Baby Inheritance

CHAPTER FIVE

MINA DIDN’T SLEEP WELL. For hours she’d lain awake, terrified that despite Nate’s assurances she was safe, Silvio would come after her. That perhaps his declaration it was over between them had just been to lull Nate into a false sense of complacency before he came after her to seek revenge.

“Refuse me again and you’ll discover the depths to which my anger can sink. I will not tolerate you repeating any of your silly jitters to anyone, Mina.”

She had trumped that. She had married another man!

She had little time to nurse her coffee over breakfast with Nate, however, her brain barely awake when he hit her with his Business Rule Number One. “You only get one chance to make a first impression. Looking the part is the first step to realizing the role.”

She couldn’t disagree with that, because clad in a silver-gray suit with an ice-blue tie, handmade Italian shoes gleaming on his feet, Nate looked every bit the power broker that he was. So off she went with Susana, the manager of the hotel’s boutique, to outfit herself with a casual and business wardrobe.

Susana had opened the boutique early just for them. She installed Mina in a chair in the fitting area with a tablet and coffee while she and an assistant gathered clothes. Mina used the time to research her enigmatic husband, hoping for some clues as to what made him tick.

It turned out to be a rather useless activity, because none of the business profiles she pulled up on Nate delved into anything more personal than she already knew. The grandson of legendary shipping tycoon Giovanni Di Sione, he had worked his way up the ranks of Di Sione Shipping, eventually running various overseas branches of the company before leaving to start Brunswick Developments, his multibillion-dollar real-estate development firm.

A self-made man who has used his uncanny business acumen, aggressive street smarts and brutal negotiating tactics to land marquee deals that put him on the Forbes billionaires list at age thirty-four.

Giving in to an urge she couldn’t suppress, she typed in her husband’s name plus the word woman. A slew of photos came up. True to his word, the majority of his dates at the high-society events he frequented were brunettes, with a few blondes of late. All stunning. All vastly more sophisticated than her.

“Ready?” Susana bustled into the changing area with another armful of clothes. Mina put the tablet down and got to her feet to take half the pile.

“Can I give you some advice?” the other woman said, glancing down at the tablet. “Don’t do that. A man like Nate is going to have a past. You’ll only torture yourself.”

Heat scored her cheeks. “I will say congratulations on doing the impossible,” continued Susana as she hung up the suits. “Mingmei will undoubtedly be wondering how you did it.”

“Mingmei?”

“The manager of our Hong Kong hotel. Better you know about that one before you come face-to-face with her. Mingmei and Nate had an affair before she came to work for him.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Three years ago. Clearly it ended well because he hired her, but Mingmei—”

“—still desires Nate.”

“Perhaps.” Susana handed her a cream-colored suit. “How did you and Nate meet?”

Mina’s brain worked furiously. “We met at the hotel in Sicily where I worked. In the bar. It was...love at first sight.”

Susana smiled. “That I would have liked to have seen. It would have been entertaining to watch the Ice Man fall.”

Mina diverted the conversation to clothes after that before she stumbled over another answer. Three hours of endless fittings later, she walked out of the boutique the owner of a stylish, power-based wardrobe with some pretty things for the evening. “You’ll need it,” Susana had advised. “Nate’s social calendar is daunting.”

Her phone rang as she walked back across the courtyard. She glanced at the screen, her stomach doing a slow churn. Her mother. Maybe it was better to get it out of the way.

She sat on a bench and took the call. “Ciao, Mamma.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Then, “Che pensi che stai facendo, Mina?” What do you think you’re doing?

Her cheeks fired, her fingers trembling around the phone. “I couldn’t marry Silvio, Mamma. I told you that but you wouldn’t listen.”

“So you disgraced your fiancé, this family, in front of the entire city?”

She bit her lip. “He hit me. I can’t live with a man like that.”

“And you expect your American tycoon to be any different? Men are all the same. They want a beautiful wife on their arm who obeys them, Mina. Who uncomplicates their life. Start disagreeing with your American after the rosy glow is over and see how he acts.”

“Nate would never hit me.”

A pause. “Where are you now?”

She chewed hard on her lip.

Her mother made a strangled sound. “What will you do? Go live with him in America? You will surely have to now, because your reputation is in tatters. This family’s reputation is in tatters.”

A lump formed in her throat. She didn’t even know where Nate lived. Only that it was in New York.

“Mi dispiace,” she murmured huskily. “You left me no choice, Mamma.”

“You disappoint me, Mina.”

What was new about that? She had always disappointed her mother. Had never understood why when she’d done everything asked of her. Had attained top grades at school, had dated her endless contingent of bachelors, and still been found lacking.

“What about our plan? To sell the ring?”

Her heart sank. There it was. What her mother truly cared about. “It hasn’t changed. I will sell the ring and pay off our debts. But as I’m sure Pasquale told you, I can’t do that for a year.”

“Perhaps,” her mother said deliberately, “your husband could help.”

She closed her eyes. “I won’t ask that of him, Mamma.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. There would be no inquiry as to how she was. Whether she was happy. None of that mattered to her mother. Had never. “I have to go,” she said thickly.

“Mina—”

She ended the call. A deep, all-encompassing throb moved through her. Made it hard to breathe. She’d gotten past her naïveté about her mother a long time ago. It was the depth to which she didn’t care that shocked her now.

She was alone in this world. Utterly alone. Her life would have to be shaped by her and her alone.

* * *

Nate had just finished reviewing the financials for the Emelia when Mina walked through the door in a charcoal-gray suit, her traffic-stopping legs clad in a pair of finely made Italian heels.

If he’d thought a suit would help dull his attraction to her he had been entirely wrong. The suit was conservative, covered all the requisite parts adequately; it was what was under it that was unavoidable. The fitted jacket highlighted her tiny waist and taut high breasts, the knee-length pencil skirt skimmed generous hips.

A power suit to be sure, but on his wife it swayed all the power in favor of her innate sensuality.

He brought his gaze back up to her face. Studied the pallor that blanched her honey-colored skin. “What’s wrong? Did Silvio contact you?”

She set down the bag she was holding and slid off her shoes. “No—it’s—I’m fine.”

“You were having nightmares about it last night. You’re not fine.”

A flush filled her cheeks. “I woke you?”

“I was still working. Mina, I promised to protect you and I will. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“I know. I do. It’s just—sometimes my imagination gets the better of me.” She raked her hair out of her face. “That’s not why I’m upset. My mother called. She was furious. Not that I hadn’t expected that. My reputation is in tatters. Also not surprising.”

“Then why the lost look? What did she say to you?”

She shook her head. “You are my boss now. I should keep this professional.”

He gave her a wry look. “We are also married. I think we have a rather unique relationship. What did she say?”

She exhaled. “She wasn’t worried about me. She didn’t ask if I was okay. She didn’t care if I was happy with you. She said I’d disappointed her.”

He lifted a brow. “For running away from a monster to marry a man who professes to love you and will keep you safe? For delivering the exact same result in the sale of the ring? What kind of a mother is she?”

She shook her head. “She never wanted children. My father did. I was always with my nanny, Camilla. As soon as my father died, she sent me off to boarding school in France, as if she couldn’t wait to get rid of me. I always came home with good grades, top of my class, but it seemed inconsequential to her. She just didn’t care.”

“How old were you when your father died?”

“Eight.”

The image of a tiny Mina being sent off to school at such a young age pulled at his heartstrings. “You’ve never talked to her about it? Asked her why?”

She lifted a shoulder. “My mamma—she is cold. It’s her way. I told myself to let it go. To not wish for the impossible. But sometimes I do. I wish I knew what she finds so...lacking in me so I can fix it.”

He knew how that felt. To always wonder what it was about you that was so defective your own father wanted nothing to do with you. That he could turn his back on his own flesh and blood and slam a door in your face when you had come to beg for assistance. To deny you even existed. But he knew it was a fruitless pursuit. A soul-destroying pursuit.

“It’s better not to wonder,” he told Mina roughly, “to look for that flaw in yourself you think they see in you. Because it’s not you, it’s her. She should have been a proper mother to you and she wasn’t. That’s her cross to bear, not yours. Don’t waste your life trying to figure out something you’ll likely never get an answer to.”

She blinked. “Are you talking about your father?”

He ignored that. “Learn how to stand on your own two feet. How to exist without her approval. It will be the most empowering thing you can ever do.”

She nodded, but hurt still throbbed in her eyes.

He sighed. “What?”

“She’s all I have.”

His heart squeezed. “You’re better off without her. That’s not how a true parent acts.”

Her mouth compressed. Turning on her heel, she walked into her bedroom, came back and handed him the massive diamond solitaire Silvio had given her. “I need to give this back.”

He took the small fortune out of her hands. “I’ll have it sent to him. Speaking of which, we’ll need to get you a rock for show.”

“It’s not necessary.”

“You’re my wife, Mina, it is. People will be looking.”

She sat down on the sofa and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Susana asked me how we met. I was unprepared for the question. I told her we met in the bar at the Giarruso. It was the first response that came to me.”

His mouth curved. “That I picked you, extraordinarily innocent Mina, up in a hotel bar after work?” He sat down on the sofa opposite her. “Seems a stretch but we’ll go with it.”

“I should know a few pertinent details about you if we’re to carry this off. It was awkward with Susana.”

He lifted a brow. “Such as?”

“Where do you live in New York?”

“I have a penthouse off Central Park in the heart of Manhattan. It’s not as beautiful as Sicily, but I think you’ll enjoy the energy of the city.”

“You said we’re not going back to New York right away?”

“We have week-long stops in Hong Kong and the Maldives after Capri, then we head home.”

She blinked at the blindingly fast pace of her new life. “Brothers or sisters?”

“I have seven half siblings from my father’s marriage.”

“Are you close to them?”

What to say? That he and his brothers and sisters were perhaps the most dysfunctional clan on the planet? That there was not only a deep wedge between himself and Alex, but a distance he kept with all of them because every single one of them was a bit broken from their past and it was easier not to open up old wounds?

“I’m not sure I’d characterize it as close,” he said finally, “but we do interact from time to time.”

“I know you run and like the opera, but do you have any other hobbies? Other leisure activities I should know of that are a passion?”

His mouth twisted. “Work is my passion. I work fourteen-...fifteen-hour days, Mina. Not much time for anything else. Which,” he suggested, “is what we should focus on now. Unless you have more questions?”

She shook her head. “That will do for now.”

He picked up the report on the Emelia’s financials and handed it to her. “Review this. We’ll talk it over after you’ve had a chance to read it, but first I want to go over the ground rules of how we’ll work together.”

She crossed her legs primly and sat back to listen.

“First of all,” he said, “you are here to learn. So learn. The most valuable thing you can do over the next year is to sit back and listen, soak up everything that’s being said, conduct your own analysis, and afterward, when it’s just the two of us, you can ask any questions you may have.

“Secondly, I want you to watch the people in this meeting or any meeting we’re in. Watch their body language, look for their nonverbal cues, because they are often more telling than what is coming out of their mouth. Always look for an angle, because everyone has an angle in business, an agenda they’re walking into the room with. Understanding these goals and different agendas is a crucial skill in any negotiation—antagonistic or friendly.”

“I’ve been told my father was brilliant with people.” A proud light entered Mina’s eyes. “He once solved a strike that had been going on for weeks at one of our plants by walking into the picket lines and hashing out a deal with the workers.”

“Which translates into my third rule,” said Nate. “I want you to be a problem solver. Come to me with a solution, not an issue.”

She nodded. “Bene.”

“That’s it for now.” He nodded toward the report. “Profits have been sagging over the past year at the Emelia. We need to light a fire under things. See what you think.”

* * *

The meeting with Giorgio and the Emelia management team went worse than Nate had expected. Complacency had set in at the hotel and it seemed his general manager had no plan how to lift sagging profits because he didn’t think he had a problem.

“The market is down, Nate,” Giorgio soothed in that smooth-as-silk voice of his. “We’re doing everything we can to entice new customers to the hotel, but we can’t manufacture them.”

Nate directed a look at Mina. “Was the Giarruso’s occupancy rate down this year?”

She frowned. “Not much. I think the manager said five percent.”

“And you are down fifteen percent,” Nate said to Giorgio.

Giorgio put his hand on Mina’s arm as if she were a child in need of correction. “It must have been more than five percent. Perhaps you have the numbers wrong.”

“No,” said Mina. “It was nowhere near fifteen percent.”

Giorgio sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you propose I do? Alter the economies of the western world? Manipulate the markets? We’ve upped the sales and marketing budgets. The effort is there, Nate.”

“The effort is ineffective.”

Giorgio’s face reddened. Silence fell at the table.

“What about repeat guests?” Mina interjected. “Your number is way down. What if you—”

Nate shot her a withering look. She sat back in her chair and closed her mouth.

“What is your plan of attack for them?” Nate asked Giorgio.

“We’ve done a whole discounted rate campaign. It isn’t moving rooms.”

“Then it isn’t compelling enough.”

Giorgio looked at Mina. “What were you going to suggest?”

Nate nodded tightly at her to go ahead.

“I was thinking of a ‘remember the memories’ type campaign,” Mina said. “I was here in Capri on holidays with my family years ago. When we arrived it brought back such great memories. So perhaps something more emotion based than financial.”

Giorgio steepled his hands together. “I like it.”

Nate liked it, too, but wished the idea had come from his manager and not his protégée. He continued to grill his top man until the end of the three-hour meeting, then mercifully ended it, ushering Mina up to their suite in tight-lipped silence.

“I know,” Mina said in a preemptive strike, the minute the door closed behind them, “I wasn’t supposed to talk. It’s just it was getting painful and I had an idea.”

“Painful is good. Discomfort shakes people up and pushes them outside of their comfort zone. Which, quite frankly, Giorgio needs desperately right now or he will be out of a job.”

Her eyes widened, color washing her cheeks. “I thought by offering up an idea, Giorgio might build on it.”

“And by doing so you undermined my attempt to teach him a lesson. After I told you not to talk.” Nate pinned his gaze on her. “When I put someone in the hot seat I’m doing it for a reason, Mina. So keep your mouth shut.”

She took a step back. “Mi dispiace. I—I didn’t realize that’s what you were doing. It won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t,” he agreed, his voice sharp as a knife. “Because you will stick to my rules or you won’t play at all.”

She nodded rapidly, pupils as big as saucers, hands clenched by her sides. He did a double take. She was afraid of him?

Then he remembered what she’d just gone through... How intimidating he must look to her at twice her size towering over her. Furious. Mina wasn’t one of his toughened, worldly employees used to his rants. She was a baby chick who’d just taken fledgling steps out of the nest.