The Golden Chance (21 page)

“I think it's disgusting that people with as much money as you folks have don't pour a little of it back into the community,” Phila declared.

“We pour a shitload of it into a whole bunch of causes and organizations,” Reed retorted furiously. “Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“Really, Reed. Your language.” Eleanor frowned at him.

“If you're talking about contributions to a lot of stupid ultraconservative lobbies and the campaigns of right-wing politicians, I've got news for you,” Phila said. “They don't count. Helping people is what counts.” She aimed her fork at Reed again. This time there was a raspberry on the end of it. “Scholarships for local kids who couldn't go on to college otherwise count. Books for libraries count. Educational-assistance programs for disadvantaged youngsters count. Food and housing programs for the homeless count.”

“Jesus H. Christ,” Reed exclaimed in exasperation. “She sounds like Nora. Nora was always having us give money to every fast-talking sharpie who showed up at the front gate with a sob story.”

“That's an exaggeration, Dad, and you know it.” Nick interrupted calmly. “Mom investigated each cause carefully. She only had us give to the ones she'd personally checked out.”

“You know what they say about money,” Phila murmured. “It's like manure. It doesn't do any good unless you spread it around.”

Nick studied the fork she was waving in the air. “Phila, are you going to eat that raspberry or throw it at one of us?”

Phila blinked. “I don't know. It's a toss-up.” But she redirected the fork toward her mouth and bit into the fruit. She glared across the table at Darren. “I suppose you're going to be one of those wrongheaded, right-wing, ultra-conservative Republican candidates?”

Darren grinned slowly, displaying the kind of charm that would undoubtedly carry him a long way on the campaign trail. “If I am, you can bet I'm not going to admit it here and now. I may be a Republican, but I'm not totally stupid.”

Phila blinked again and then burst out laughing. Darren joined her. After a second's hesitation, Reed started to chuckle. The chuckle turned into a roar of laughter that filled the room.

When Phila glanced at Nick, she saw that he was smiling to himself, looking quietly pleased.

Eleanor rang for the cheese tray.

Much later that night Phila lay sprawled on Nick's chest, her chin resting on her folded arms. She was feeling delicious and powerful and happy, having just finished duplicating the marvelous sensation she had experienced earlier that day on the beach. Nick threaded his fingers through her hair, his eyes gleaming in the shadows. His skin still glistened with the sweat of their recent lovemaking.

“Did you have fun showing off tonight at the dinner table, foxy lady?” he asked.

“Was I showing off?” She toyed with a lock of his crisp, curling chest hair. “I thought I was just participating in the conversation as required by proper etiquette.”

“You had Dad and Darren eating out of the palm of your hand by the end of the evening.”

“I think they just like to argue. They get off on it.”

“They certainly enjoyed arguing with you.”

“Hilary and Vicky and Eleanor weren't so excited about it.” Phila squirmed slightly, seeking a more comfortable position.

“They're not sure what to make of you yet. You're a threat. I think they understand that better than Dad and Darren.”

Phila frowned. “I'm not a threat.”

“Depends on your point of view. Stop wriggling like that. You're going to get me hard again and I'm too old to recuperate that fast. Right now I want to talk.”

Phila grinned, thoroughly delighted that she could make him react to her so quickly. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I have to go down to California for a couple of days.”

“California.” Phila stopped grinning. “Why?”

“I've got a business to run in Santa Barbara, remember? I've left a good man in charge, but there are some things only the boss can handle. I won't be gone long.”

“Oh.” It was funny how fast you could get used to having someone around, Phila thought bleakly. The little beach house was going to seem quite lonely without Nick.

“You sound disappointed,” Nick said.

“Don't look so thrilled with yourself.”

“Going to miss me?”

“Yes,” Phila admitted starkly.

“Good. Now you can start wriggling again.”

“She's a lot different from Crissie Masters, isn't she?” Darren observed as he came out of the bathroom. He was wearing only the bottom half of a pair of black silk pajamas. “Remember how Crissie used to raise everyone's hackles?”

“I remember.” Victoria lay back against the pillows and studied her husband. “But I think Phila's a lot more dangerous than Crissie was.”

“Why the hell do you say that?” Darren turned off the light and climbed into bed beside Victoria. He did not reach for her. Instead he folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.

“It was easy to tell what Crissie was after. She wanted to cause trouble, to punish this family for abandoning her all those years ago. She wanted to make certain we all paid for what she had been through. Remember how she taunted all of us every chance she got? But I can't tell what Phila wants.”

“I don't know what Phila wants, either, but I'll tell you one thing: Nick wants her. Bad.”

“You mean he wants those shares. Nick's up to something,” Victoria said quietly. “Eleanor thinks he'll get those shares back for us, but I wonder. Do you think he'd have the gall to seduce Phila into giving those shares to him instead of convincing her to give them back to you?”

“Nick's never been short of nerve.”

Victoria was horrified. “For God's sake, Darren, we can't let him do that. Those are
Castleton
shares. They belong to us, and Nick knows that. Eleanor only called on him for help because she trusted him to do the right thing. She trusted him to get the shares back for
us
.”

“Even if he were planning to have Phila turn the shares over to him instead of us, you're assuming he can get her to do it. You can't be sure he can manage that. Phila strikes me as a woman who has a mind of her own.”

“Why else would he be sleeping with her unless he was seducing her into handing over the shares?” Victoria was impatient with Darren's lack of common sense. “Phila is not his type at all.”

“You think Hilary is more his type?” Darren inquired.

“In a way, yes. Oh, maybe temperamentally they're not perfectly suited and God knows I'll never be fond of the woman, but you have to admit she's got breeding and background and poise and all the things Nick should have in a wife. You wouldn't catch Hilary dropping a stalk of asparagus on the dining table in the middle of an argument.”

Darren grinned in the darkness. “No, probably not.”

“Darren,” Victoria said after a moment's thought, “if Nick did get those shares from Phila and if he used them together with the ones he inherited from his mother and his own block, would he have enough to take control of the company away from Hilary?”

Darren hesitated. “He'd need another large block.”

“Reed's?”

“That would do it. Or mine together with yours.”

“Nick will never get his hands on Reed's block,” Victoria said with certainty. “Reed would never back him in a move to unseat Hilary. Not after what he thinks Nick did to her three years ago.”

“What he thinks Nick did? You mean you don't believe the baby was Nick's?”

Victoria bit her lip, wishing she had not spoken. “Never mind. It doesn't matter now what happened. No point dredging up old news. It's the future we've got to think about. I'm worried, Darren. Your political chances depend on having the families back you both financially and by freeing you to run for office. Hilary's willing to do that on the Lightfoot side. Eleanor says we need her support.”

“I know.”

“You heard Nick tonight. He has the same attitude toward your going into politics that he had three years ago.”

“I realize that.”

“If you're going to make a successful run for governor, you've got to have the backing of C&L's chief executive officer. No, as much as I hate to admit it, Eleanor's right when she says we need Hilary in charge of the Lightfoot side of Castleton & Lightfoot. We have to support her.”

“You're always so clear sighted and rational when we discuss my political future, Vicky. Sometimes I get the feeling my future is more important to you than it is to me.”

Victoria caught her breath. “That's a terrible thing to say.”

“Tell me something. I've always wondered how much my father offered you to stay with me three years ago when you were getting ready to file for divorce.”

Victoria closed her eyes in silent anguish. They had been through this before. Twice. Once in the beginning and later when Crissie Masters had dredged it all back up again. “He didn't pay me a dime. I told you that three years ago and I told you that last year when Crissie found out about it from Burke and taunted you about it.”

“Oh, come off it. You had an appointment with a lawyer three years ago. Something changed your mind. Dad always claimed he bought your loyalty. I figured he must have promised you a lot to compensate you for the trouble of being a politician's wife and your role as mother of his grandson. He had no intention of letting you walk off with Jordan. Dad must have made it worth your while.”

“Stop it, Darren. I stayed because I wanted to be with you. I've told you that. Didn't I grovel enough the day I told you I wasn't going to get a divorce?”

“I just want to know what Dad promised you. A fortune in his will?”

“If he did, then the joke's on me,” Victoria said bitterly. “Because he didn't leave anything extra to me, did he?”

“Maybe Crissie got what he had planned to leave to you. Crissie threw everyone's plans into the wringer.”

“And Burke loved it. He loved watching her effect on all of us.”

Darren exhaled heavily. “Nothing's been the same since she arrived last year.”

“It wasn't Crissie who started changing things for all of us,” Victoria muttered. “The real changes began three years ago when Nick left.”

“Let's drop it. I'm sorry I brought up the subject.”

“Not nearly as sorry as I am.”

Darren sighed. “You know,” he said softly, “when Reed laughed at Phila tonight, I realized it was the first time he's really laughed during the past three years.”

“I know. God, I wish we knew what Nick was up to. Maybe Eleanor was wrong to bring him into this situation.”

“She should have thought about the possible consequences before she called him.”

“One's thing's for certain. We can't let Nick take control from Hilary,” Victoria declared.

“It could complicate things. On the other hand…”

“No.” Victoria stared at the ceiling. “It will ruin everything. Eleanor says we need Hilary at the helm while your career is getting started. Maybe sometime in the future Nick can come back, but not yet.”

“The trouble with Nick is that he tends to make his own decisions in his own time and he doesn't always bother to inform everyone else until it's too late to stop him.”

Eleanor sipped her late-night glass of sherry and stared out into the darkness. Too late she was beginning to wonder if she had made a serious mistake in bringing Nick back into the picture. She had realized as she watched him at dinner tonight that she was no longer certain she could depend on him to do exactly what she had wanted him to do.

She had pleaded with him to get the shares back from the little nobody to whom Crissie had left them, and Eleanor did not doubt that Nick would do exactly that. He would get them back. After all, he was family and he could work magic when it came to business. He had more of a talent for it than either his father or Reed or Darren.

But she was old enough now to know that magic never came cheap. What would this magician take as a fee for getting the shares out of Philadelphia Fox's hands? Perhaps, Eleanor, thought, the Castletons would lose them altogether. Perhaps Nick would get those shares for himself and use them.

She tried to imagine what he would do with them, and every option led back to one crucial point: Nick would have to get rid of Hilary if he came back to stay. The two of them could not coexist for long. The tensions between them were too violent.

But Nick would need more than the shares Phila now held if he wanted to wrest back control of the firm.

Eleanor knew she had to face the fact that if Nick succeeded in regaining control of C&L from Hilary, Darren's chances for a successful start in politics were going to be dimmed severely. Nick showed no indications of being enthusiastic about a gubernatorial campaign for Darren, and it would take combined family money to win an election. Money and the freedom to campaign actively.

Nothing must get in Darren's way.

“He's more of a man than you ever were, Burke, even though you could never admit it. But that's probably one of the reasons you were always so hard on him, always baiting him. You saw him as competition, didn't you? One of these days he'll have more power than you ever dreamed of having. He's going to be the next governor of this state.”