The Billionaire's Secret
Read The Billionaire's Secret Online
Authors: Jeannette Winters
Tags: #seduction, #hot romance, #steamy romance, #alpha male, #strong woman, #billionaire romance, #billionaire bad boy, #billioniare, #powerful billionaire, #taken by a billionaire
Betting on You Series
Book One
By Jeannette Winters
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The Billionaire’s Secret
copyright
2015 by Jeannette Winters
An original work by Jeannette Winters
Smashwords Edition
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All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may
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embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s
imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events,
business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover art provided by Trevino Creative
http://www.trevinocreative.com
This book is dedicated to Author Ruth
Cardello who has mentored me through this entire process. And
also to my son Luke who reminds me all the time to write because I
love it.
“Incredible, I never knew that about
him.”
Still wearing their black suits from earlier
that afternoon, the four men now sat in silence, silently recalling
their memories of Brad from the past ten years of their
friendship.
The loud crash of a waitress dropping a
glass brought them back to the present. One of the men said, “I
don’t think any of us knew.”
All four nodded in agreement.
“I still can’t believe it. Only
twenty-eight,” another said.
“That could have been any of us in the
accident.”
The somberness of the moment overtook the
noise of the bar. The men raised the beers they’d been nursing and
said in unison, “For Brad.”
***
Five years later.
“So are you telling me Jon’s not showing up
for this meeting, either?” Trent Davis asked as their monthly Skype
meeting began. His frustration was apparent not only in his tone
but in his facial expression as well. He continued, “Who knows what
lame excuse he’ll have this time. Maybe it’s time we reconsider
continuing on with this.”
“Trent, I wouldn’t consider you having a
date with a hot brunette as a valid excuse for missing last month’s
meeting, either,” Drew Navarro added sarcastically.
“You’re just jealous, Drew,” Trent
stated.
Ross Whitman knew even though both Drew and
Trent were extremely serious about business, they had also been
equally fierce competitors in everything else they did since they’d
met in college a little more than fifteen years ago. Even now,
although they were all thirty-four, there were times he was
convinced they were still living in their college frat house. If he
didn’t get them back on the issue at hand, this meeting could go on
all night without them accomplishing anything.
“We’ve invested so much in this,” Ross said.
“The four of us may have started this organization, but there’s no
reason we can’t continue building Takes One with only three of
us.”
Drew wasn’t ready to throw in the towel on
this project, or on Jon. “We have to remember why we started this.”
The three men thought back to Brad and his secret mission in life:
to make a difference in the lives of those who were suffering, one
person at a time. What amazed his friends to this day was how Brad
had been able to do so much with so little money. He was the only
one of them who hadn’t pursued a career in big business. No one had
understood why until he passed away. The day of his funeral, they’d
all committed to continue with his mission in his memory. “Our
objective was a priority to Jon when we started, and I believe it
still is. We just have to wake him up and remind him of that fact.
Anyone want to bet if I’ve still got the magic touch to make things
happen after all these years?” He laughed. No one commented. “Wise
choice, because you know you were going to lose your money.” He
laughed again. “Let me make some calls. I think I’ve got an idea
that might do the trick, and if it doesn’t work, then I will agree
to continue what we started without Jon’s involvement in Takes
One.”
Both Trent and Ross agreed—and were glad
they weren’t on the receiving end of whatever Drew was
plotting.
Jon Vinchi sat behind his mahogany desk,
everything in order except for one piece of mail, which it seemed
someone had intentionally left right in his line of vision. He
could tell by the envelope it was an invitation of some sort. Matt,
his personal assistant, handled all invitations for him with a
standard response: a polite “Regrets, I cannot attend,” and a gift
or donation suitable for the occasion.
Jon buzzed the intercom for Matt. On cue,
his assistant appeared at the door and asked, “Do you need
something, Mr. Vinchi?”
Without looking up, Jon held out the
envelope and said, “You missed one.”
Matt did not reach for the envelope, instead
responding, “Mr. Vinchi, that is not an invitation. It’s the
itinerary for the charity fundraiser that you’re participating in
Friday evening.”
Everyone knew Jonathan Vinchi not only did
not attend events, he definitely did not participate in them. Jon
slid the contents of the envelope out. His eyes quickly scanned
over the itinerary and stopped abruptly at his name.
“What the hell?” Jon muttered loud enough
for Matt to hear. Jon brushed the itinerary to the edge of the desk
toward Matt like it was an annoying fly and said, “Get on the phone
and let them know I will not be there Friday.”
“Mr. Vinchi, I have to admit I was surprised
when I saw the itinerary as well. I placed the call first thing
this morning to inform them of the error. The—”
“Good,” Jon interrupted. “Then this is no
longer an issue.”
Clearing his throat, Matt continued, “Not
exactly. Mr. Scott, the chairman of the event, informed me you had
emailed him personally to volunteer.”
It was unlike Matt to drop the ball. Not
wanting to spend all day going back and forth on this, Jon said
harshly, “Really, Matt? I personally volunteered? And you believed
that load of crap?” Shaking his head in disbelief at the entire
situation, he barked, “Fix it!”
“Mr. Vinchi, I have tried. Mr. Scott said
they could not change the program at this late date, as the
programs are already printed and in place. It’s three days before
the event.” After a short pause, he continued. “I’ve tried
everything, including requesting a copy of the email they stated
they received from you, but everything seems to be in order.”
Jon knew he hadn’t sent such a request.
Firmly he said, “Send it to me.” Without delay Matt turned and left
the office to forward the email.
Jon could not wait to see this so-called
proof from the event’s chairman. Once he had it, he would call Mr.
Scott himself and end this charade. He wasn’t going to buy any
excuse about a late cancellation. This wasn’t his error; it was
theirs. There was no way he was participating in that event on
Friday night.
The ding on his computer announced the
arrival of Matt’s email. He figured one quick phone call and the
misunderstanding would be resolved, then he could turn his full
attention back to his business, where it needed to be. Glancing
quickly at the email, it looked like it came from his personal
address. However, the message was signed “Jonathan Vinchi,” and he
never used his full name—he always used Jon. To everyone else, the
email would look legit. There was no way the chairman would have
known this email wasn’t from him. He was furious, but the error
wasn’t the fault of the chairman or the event planner. Someone had
gone to a lot of trouble to set him up, and he had a feeling he
knew exactly who it was and how he would deal with them.
Grabbing his cell phone, he sent a text
message to his three associates: “Conference call NOW!”
What the
hell were they thinking?
Jon thought. He was well aware his
duty to their organization for these types of events required
nothing more than sending a nice donation. If his friends thought
someone should participate in person, they should have submitted
their own names, not his. He was too busy for this nonsense.
Yesterday he had received a notice from the FDA informing him of
the software changes they required. If he did not meet their
thirty-day resubmission deadline, the entire project would be
kicked back, and he would need to start the submission process
again. The proposal had to be perfect this time. If not, he was
sure his competitors would swoop in on this opportunity to launch
their own devices. He had spent the last two years on this project,
and he was so close—only twenty-seven days left to make all the
necessary corrections. He could not afford distractions now. Too
much was riding on this; his name was riding on this.
He remembered what his father always told
him: “No one remembers the name of the person who came in second.”
These words motivated him all through high school to earn a full
scholarship to Boston University, where he earned his BA and
master’s degrees in computer science, and then his PhD in robotics
engineering at MIT. Those degrees had driven him to start his own
business, Vinchi Medical Engineering, and at age thirty-four, he
still lived by those words to keep the company on top.
The intercom buzzed. “Your conference call
is ready on line one, Mr. Vinchi.”
“What the hell were you guys thinking?” Jon
barked as soon as he got on the line. Not waiting for them to
answer, Jon continued, “Whose bright idea was it to submit my name
to participate at this event—or any event, for that matter? This
type of thing has your name written all over it, Drew. Is this your
doing?”
As always, Trent said it the way it was. “If
you had attended the last meeting, Jon, you would have been brought
up to date for this and would have had the chance to voice any
opposition to your participation.”
It was a moot point, Jon knew he’d missed
their last meeting—actually, their last few meetings— due to his
own business needs. But this stunt wasn’t solely about the meeting,
and he knew it. “Trent, I have always supported the decisions you
guys have made in the past, but I am not supporting this one. What
makes you think I will even show? I don’t have time for this
nonsense.”
“Time is valuable to all of us, Jon. We all
have our own companies to run besides supporting what is needed for
Takes One. Either you’re fully invested in this, or you’re not.
There are times when it takes more than sending in a donation, and
this is one of those times. When we started Takes One five years
ago, we committed to doing this kind of work. Yes, there are the
donations we grant anonymously, but the organization is about so
much more than that, and you know it,” Trent said.