Cover to Covers (33 page)

“It will fly, Gary. I’ve done a lot of research into this and I feel we need to prepare. If we stay in just oil and gas, we may lose out on some great opportunities.”

“When I left you my company to run, I told you not to change anything. It makes us money. Now you’re growing balls and wanting to change what works for us?”

Tyler was un
fazed by his stepfather’s comment. “It’s my company now, Gary. Has been for ten years, and I have run it just like you wanted, but it is time for a change.”

“No changes!
” Gary coughed. “I still have a vested interest and I’ll demand the board of directors cut you off at the knees. I still own the majority shares and I can have you removed as CEO.”

“Gary, do you want me to run this company or do you want to run it, because if you don’t let me do what I think best, you might as well come back and take over.”

“Maybe I should come back. You obviously can’t be trusted to—”

“Fine,” Tyler
interrupted. “I’ll leave tonight. You can fly up from Austin in the morning and take over first thing.”

“
Now hold on, Tyler.” Gary’s voice rose over the cell phone speaker. “I don’t want you to leave; I just want you to do as I would have done.” He took in a wheezy breath. “I know you mean well, but that market is too unsteady and untested to gamble on.”

Tyler took a strategic pause, letting Gary stew for a moment. “What if I sent you some research to prove my point? I’ve got a guy at UT
in Austin in the alternative energy research program with some exciting numbers, and a few projects that are certain to take off. All we need to do is set him up with us to develop this. Long-term, this could make us a fortune.”

Gary
was quiet for several seconds, making Tyler grin. He had gotten his stepfather’s attention.

“All right, send me what you have and I will take a look at it. But if I am not impressed, you’d better be ready to pull the plug.”

“Gary, with oil getting harder to drill and the lease prices going up in the Gulf, it would behoove us to find another energy prospect. I know Shell and BP created such divisions years ago. We need to keep up and fend off possible future downturns.”

“Perhaps you have something there. Send me everything
you’ve got.”

Tyler felt a rush of victory in his veins. “If you don’t mind my asking,
how did you find out about my plans for an alternative energy division?”

“I’ve still got a few friends in place there. They keep me update
d.”

Tyler viewed the
flashing lights from atop the skyscrapers outside his office window. “I can’t truly be in charge until your old cronies start listening to me and not you, Gary. You gave me this company to run, so perhaps you should let me run it and stop being a backseat driver.”

A low whistle echoed through the phone. “This is a side of you I’ve never heard before. You mind telling me what’s
going on? A week ago you were fine with the way things were, now you want to change everything.”

“I just want what is best for Propel. If we are going to stay competitive, we need to explore the changing energy markets.”

Gary chuckled, a low rumbling noise that had always reminded Tyler of cattle mooing in the field. “That’s a nice line to use at board meetings, son, but it don’t mean shit to me. I figure you’re out to prove something to someone, am I right?”

Tyler leaned back in his chair, shaking his head. “I’m not proving anything—
”

“
This is about that New Orleans girl, isn’t it?” Gary coughed again. “Your mother told me you would do something stupid when you found out. But an alternative energy division? I never saw that coming.”

Tyler paused
as a trickle of dread rose up his throat. “What are you talking about, Gary?”

“
That writer you went to see in New Orleans…the one I couldn’t get you to leave during that Oklahoma mess. Your mother heard from her friends at the club that she got engaged to some guy. They said it was all over the Internet. Barbara predicted you would pull some foolish stunt when you found out.” Gary paused to take a breath. “Boy, was she right.”

Tyler
sat up in his chair. “I have to go, Gary.” He hung up his cell phone as he turned to his laptop computer on the corner of his desk. Hitting the keyboard, he waited as the Google page came up. Typing Monique’s name into the search engine, he pressed enter and scanned the results.

It did not take long to find her fan website with
the announcement that she and Chris Donovan were getting married at the end of the year. Tyler stared at the screen for several minutes, wondering if somehow it had been a mistake. But as he absorbed the truth, he became sick with disbelief. Monique had turned to Chris for comfort and Tyler was positive her pit bull of a manger had taken advantage of the situation. But how could she have swept aside her feelings for Tyler and planned on marrying another? Had he been so wrong about her? Perhaps she had not really cared for him at all.

O
verwhelmed by his rage, Tyler threw the cell phone in his hand across the room. After watching the phone bounce off the far wall and crash to the ground, he slammed his fist into the desk. The pain that shot up his arm felt good. Damn good.

“If that’s what she wants, then she never truly wanted me
,” he thundered.

G
rabbing his suit jacket from the chair behind his desk, he spotted the cell phone on the floor. He stopped, wondering about the calls he would miss without it.

“Screw it!”

Tyler marched out of his office, determined to put Monique and the past behind him. He had to believe that she was just another in a long line of women he would eventually forget. In the end, she had turned out to be just like all the others.

Heading down the hallway toward the entrance, he reasoned he was better off without Monique Delome and her silly romance novels. All he needed was another woman and he could put her out of his mind
for good. Or at least he hoped he could.

Tyler stepped up to the
silver elevator doors in the reception area just about convinced that he was over Monique. As the elevator doors opened, his heart grew colder. It was best not to feel anything for anyone, that way he could be spared the eventual blow of disappointment. Peter had taught him that, and now Monique Delome had only reinforced that belief.

When
the silver elevator doors closed before him, Tyler felt that surge of confidence awaken in his bones. The old Tyler Moore was back, and the emotions Monique had brought to the surface were quickly drowning behind his cool disregard. He was ready to get back to the business of being a grade “A” bastard. It was time to not give a damn about anyone anymore.

Chapter 2
6

A cold December breeze was whipping around Tyler’s head as he emerged from the back of the black limousine. He pulled at the lapel of his fitted black Armani tuxedo and then took the sleek white hand that was outstretched to him.

A very young, leggy brunette with brown
, bedroom eyes rose from the car. “You look sexy in that,” she cooed, admiring his tuxedo.

“Only you would accept an invitation to one of these stuffy fundraisers
.” Tyler slipped his arm about the waist of her barely there, beaded black dress.

The off-the-shoulder number was fitted about her slender
body and cut in an uneven hem about her mid-thigh, accentuating the long, luscious curve of her legs. Tyler’s eyes roamed the woman’s figure while he thought ahead to festivities he had planned for her later that evening.

“You keep staring at me like that,” the attractive brunette
purred, “and we might not make it to the party.”

Tyler looked up at the grand entrance to the Dallas mansion in front of them. The ten-foot high double oak doors had bold Texas stars carved into them, with large brass knockers shaped like cowboy boots in the center of the stars.

“Not to worry, Giselle. We’ll say our hellos and get back to my place as soon as politely possible.”

Giselle placed her red-painted lips next to his ear. “Just don’t tie my hands so tight this time. They had to put make up on my wrists at my last photo shoot because of your little games.” 

He patted her small butt. “I promise this time, no bruises.”

The double doors suddenly opened before them and a matronly woman,
wearing a shiny silver dress that resembled something better suited for outer space, let out an ear-piercing cackle.

“There he is,” she called from the doorway. “I almost thought you were going to stand me up, Tyler Moore.”

Tyler’s lips spread into a flirtatious grin. “Now would I ever do that to you, Lynnette? You are the best hostess this side of Fort Worth.”

Another boisterous cackle shattered Tyler’s eardrums. “This side of the Mississippi
is more like it,” Lynette admonished. She motioned to Giselle on Tyler’s arm. “My word, you look wonderful, Giselle, and congrats on making the cover of Cosmo. You were fab, girl.”

Tyler
could not help but notice how Giselle beamed at the mention of her celebrated cover photo.

Lynette waved them up the front steps. “Well, get you
r gorgeous butts in here and come and meet the victims I lined up for this shindig.”

Tyler escorted Giselle to the wide steps that
were surrounded on either side by lush gardens.

“Who are we supporting this month, Lynette?” Tyler inquired as he came to a stop before his hostess.

Lynette waved a plump hand covered with diamonds at him. “Some art council from New Orleans looking for money to rebuild the music programs in their public schools.”
  Tyler halted at the doors. “New Orleans?”

Lynette came up to his side. “Yeah, Mike Guidry talked me into it. He knows quite a few
of the musicians that are here tonight. Most are still living in Dallas since Katrina.”

“
Are only musicians coming to this thing?” he cautiously questioned.

Lynette d
irected her saggy brown eyes to him. “Yeah, why?”

He
shrugged, trying to appear uninterested. “No particular reason.”

“I love New Orleans,” Giselle imparted. “I spent a weekend there so drunk I can’t remember it.”

Lynette let out a short snort. “Didn’t we all.” She motioned for them to move ahead into the house as her gaze swept over the model’s figure. “Why don’t you two check out the buffet?”

Tyler dipped his head to their hostess. “Thanks, Lynette.”

As they made their way through an outlandish entryway with delicately painted tiles of flowers set into a marble floor and a fountain shaped like a steer built into a sidewall, Giselle turned to Tyler.

“Let’s find the bar.”

The entryway opened into a huge living room with twenty-foot ceilings made of rustic wooden beams anchored into white plaster. Two oversized fireplaces built out of stone sat on opposite ends of the room, while a carved wooden bar occupied the corner. An old-fashioned jukebox to the side of the bar filled the room with golden oldies from the seventies and eighties.

Giselle’s eyes
devoured the thick, plush white furniture, long paintings of red sunsets covering the walls, and assorted brass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. “I want a place like this someday.”

“Work hard and you’ll get it
,” Tyler assured her.

She
rubbed up against him. “Maybe there is another way to get what I want.”

Tyler
was all too familiar with that lusty look for his wealth and when he saw it in a woman, it was time to cut his ties. He made a mental note to get everything he wanted from the attractive Giselle, but once morning arrived, he was going to send her on her way and never see her again. She had served her usefulness, and Tyler was ready to move on.

“I was thinking that perhaps we should set up some kind of living arrangement,” Giselle
coyly hinted.

Tyler
’s eyes darted about the room. “Living arrangement?”

“With me going back and forth to New York, and you working here with Propel, it’s always so hard to coordinate our schedules. Perhaps if we shared a place, we could spend more time together.”

Yes, it’s definitely time to move on,
Tyler thought.

He
nodded to the bar. “Let’s get a drink and discuss it later, at my place.”

Tyler quickly turned his attention to some of the other guests milling about. They were slowly making their way to the bar as Tyler
identified several familiar faces amid the crowded room. He nodded to his divorce attorney, Fred Bishop, and made a mental note to stop and say hello when a petite woman with dirty-blonde hair stepped out from behind Fred.

Tyler’s heart
pounded and then he stopped short. She was wearing a deep burgundy dress that gathered at the waist on one side and dipped suggestively at the neck. Her hair was swept up in a fancy twist, and a simple pearl necklace hung about her slender neck.