The Laws of Seduction: A French Kiss Novel (22 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Courting

B
Y THE TIME
they were crossing the Ben Franklin into Philadelphia, the cloudiness hugging the coast was behind them and the sky was bright and clear. From the bridge they could see Penn’s Landing Wharf and the double masts of the schooner, the
Esther Reed
, her sails now tightly furled as she idled in port.

Charlotte remembered the time she had spent on the ship with Dani Lloyd down there at Penn’s Landing. She and Occupy Vagina had been protesting the misogynistic practices of Liberty Sail and Mercier, the then-parent company who owned the
Esther.
Dani had chained herself to one of the masts, prompting Marcel Mercier to fly over from Cannes to attempt to toss her off. Who knew they’d fall in love, and he’d end up buying the schooner for his new bride as a wedding gift? And now here they all were again, in port under such different circumstances. It just showed how much things stayed the same.

Until they changed. Irrevocably.

Because Charlotte had fallen in love with Rex just as deeply and just as fast as Dani and Marcel had. The difference was Charlotte couldn’t bring herself to tell him, and for a very good reason. For as much as he’d been saying how much he loved her, not at any point did he tell her what he was going to do about it. And until he did, she wasn’t about to give him her heart. Not so he could just fly away to Marseille with it.

This time, she promised herself, unlike all her other relationships, it was going to be different.

This time, she needed to know he loved her for sure.

“There she is,” Rex said, looking down from the bridge into Penn’s Landing. “That’s what all that fuss had been over? That boat?”

“Not just any boat,” Charlotte said. “That’s the
Esther Reed.
I still find it hard to believe Dani could love anything more than that ship, let alone Marcel.”

“And now she has both,” he said, steering Charlotte’s car down the off ramp.

“Only because she couldn’t take one without the other,” Charlotte said. “Though if Marcel had been honest with her from the start, maybe they wouldn’t have had to go through what they did.” She looked at him. “Honesty goes a long way.”

Rex looked askance. “Is that some kind of hint? Because if it is, I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Of course you have—turn here.” He did, and soon they were in the parking lot walking toward the ship.

For the first time since they’d been together, Charlotte got to see Rex out of his work clothes and in something a bit more casual. He had put on khakis, a polo, and boat shoes, things he had purchased when they’d gone shopping in Margate, and he looked so unlike himself she hardly recognized him. Even so, although his clothing was relaxed, she could see no reflection of it in his demeanor, his whole body seeming to tense the closer they got to the ship.

“Are you okay?” she said, rubbing his shoulder.

“I’m all right,” he said, quickly flexing his fingers.

“You’re about as
all right
as I am,” she said, taking his hand. “For one reason or another I feel like we’re both walking up the gallows.”

He brought her hand to his lips, kissing it. “Well, don’t. You have nothing to worry about. And for what it’s worth, you make me feel better just by being here.”

“Hey,” Charlotte suddenly said, looking toward the ship. “That’s not Marcel. Who is it?”

Rex craned his neck, squinting, as they trotted down the steps to the pier. On deck was a large man coiling a rope around his massive arm, resembling a larger and more intense version of Marcel. He looked up and spying them, waved.

“That’s André,” Rex said. “Or as he likes to be called, Andy.”

“Andy Devine?” Charlotte said. “Julie Knott’s husband?

“That’s him,” he said as they approached the ship.

“Should I be afraid?” she whispered, taking the hand Rex offered as they climbed aboard. “He looks kind of scary.”

“Nicest man in the world,” Rex said, helping her down. “Unless you cross him. Do that and you might as well slit your wrists.”

“
Bonjour
!
” Andy said, meeting them at the gangplank. He shook Rex’s outstretched hand. “
Alors, qu’est-ce que tu deviens
?
”

“
Comme ci, comme ça
,” Rex answered. “How about you?”

“Not bad, not bad,” he said, looking to Charlotte.

“Andy, this is my attorney, Charlotte Andreko,” Rex said. “And, I’m happy to admit, a bit more.”

“
Enchanté
,” he said, shaking her hand. Charlotte noticed he spoke French with much the same American lilt that she did, and then it struck her. Andy had an American father, although all three men—Andy, Marcel, and Rex—were linked through the contentious Viviane, all possessing her smoky allure. “Dani told me you crewed on the
Esther
for their sail to Boston.”

“That’s right,” she said. “Though I didn’t make it all the way. Marcel kicked me off the ship on Martha’s Vineyard.”

Andy laughed. “That sounds like my hothead brother. Never lets his emotions get in the way. Sheesh.”

“Is your wife here as well?” said Charlotte. “We just saw her a couple of days ago.”

“She’s at the TV station,” Andy said. “She’ll be here shortly. She can barely fit behind the wheel, so Denny’s dropping her off.” He laughed. “I think she’s had it after this. Even
I
can feel her pain.”

“Where’s Marcel?” said Rex, and Charlotte could tell, a bit impatiently. “I feel like I’ve been summoned.”

“And don’t think you haven’t,” said Andy, going to the other side of the ship to a table covered in linen, fine china, and a centerpiece of white roses. Aside it was small liquor cart. “Can I offer you both a cocktail?”

“I think I’ll need one,” Rex said and Andy smiled, holding up a bottle of forty-year-old scotch. “Jesus, you’re certainly softening the blow, aren’t you?”

“After this, you’ll never know what hit you,” said Andy, pouring two fingers. “What’ll you have, Charlotte?”

She looked to Rex, and he smiled. “Whatever he’s having. Though pour mine around some ice.”

“You got it,” Andy said, pouring the same for himself. “Marcel and Dani should be up any minute. They’re below decks getting ready for a sail to Bermuda in the morning. Dani is still in the habit of filing a float plan. Which, of course, is a good thing.”

“Sounds like a nice, long honeymoon,” Charlotte said.

“Not that he hasn’t been working all along,” Andy said, glancing to Rex. “Proof of that will be apparent soon enough.”

“Like now,” Marcel said, climbing out the companionway with Dani behind him, both carrying steaming trays of hors d’oeuvres. There was enough food to feed an army with, but Charlotte didn’t think she could swallow a thing. As calm and collected as Rex appeared on the outside, Charlotte could tell he was wired beneath. Something was coming and it was always worse waiting for the other shoe to fall.

“How are you, you fucking bastard,” Marcel said, shaking his DGD’s hand. “You’ve been giving me heart attacks lately.”

Andy slanted Charlotte a glance. “My brother, the master of subtlety.”

“Charlotte,” Marcel said, eyeing her warily. “Still hate me for leaving you at the Vineyard?”

“For the record,” Dani said, reaching to clasp Charlotte’s hands, “I was hardly all in with that idea. But who listens to me anyway?”

“I do,” Marcel said to his wife, the two exchanging a smoldering glance. “Now go get yourself a drink, and me too, if you’d be so kind.”

Charlotte felt a small pain deep within her. What must it be like to be that secure in your relationship? It must be wonderful.

“Outside of the obvious, you’re probably wondering why I asked you here,” said Marcel, taking a beer from his wife. He took a slug and set it down. “Am I right?”

Rex shrugged. “Of course.”

“Then I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.” He whipped out his index fingers like the barrels of two six-shooters. “You’re fired.”

“
Excusez-moi
?” Rex said, nearly dropping his drink. Charlotte grabbed Rex’s arm as he charged at Marcel. “Why you mother—”

“
Calme-toi, calme-toi!
” Marcel cried, jumping back, a look of elfish glee on his face. “Just hear me out before you freak out on me. I think you may even like what I have to say.”

Rex glared at Marcel, his face a study in barely contained rage. “Go ahead,” he said.

“Primarily, let me apologize,” Marcel said. “Seems I’ve kind of taken you for a ride. That whole mess over at the Ritz with Lilith and the lobbyist?”

“
Oui
. . .” Rex said, hardly breathing it.

“We kind of knew about it,” Andy said.

“
Quoi?
” said Rex, his fist clenching. “You knew about it and you didn’t warn me?”

“Now hold on,” Marcel said. “All we knew was something was going to happen to try to make you look bad.”

“To ruin your credibility and Mercier’s,” Andy added. “So our value would sink so that Richette could make their move. And to do it, they had to get you and your dreams of harbor expansion out of the way.” Andy’s brow arched. “Seems you’re a very persistent man.”

“Did you get this from your mother?” Rex said to Marcel. “Did she tell you this?”

He thumbed his chest. “Me? Hell no. She could be dying on my doorstep and wouldn’t even try to knock.”

“My family and I visited her in Marseille a couple months ago,” Andy said, his deep blue eyes smoldering with intrigue. “You have no idea the transformative power behind a couple days with the grandkids.” He looked to Charlotte. “Though the real leverage kicks in when you try to bring them home.” He shook his head, like still amazed. “Viviane was crying like a baby.”

“And babbling like she was shot full of sodium pentothal,” Marcel said. “After that, she started telling Andy everything.”

“She told me about meeting up in Paris with Jean-Paul Levere, the Richette CEO,” Andy said. “She told us about his wanting her cooperation in another takeover attempt of Mercier. I told her to play along with whatever they’d try to do.”

“You see, we had no idea what kind of move they were going to make,” Marcel said, “and then you were arrested.”

“If you thought they were behind it, why didn’t you tell me?” Rex said, still seething.

“We still weren’t sure. But then you told Marcel about those recordings,” Andy said. “We suspected Lilith may be working with Richette when she was dragging her feet with the dredging bill, but we had no proof. But when she tried to steal your phone, we knew.”

“Knew what? That evidence of her infidelity could ruin her career in Congress?” Rex laughed. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It doesn’t,” Marcel said. “It was because your recording tied Lilith to Brendan Hitchell, when she said she’d be meeting him for lunch. Which she never actually would, no matter what she told you. And no matter how much she was meeting him in private.”

“I still don’t get it,” Rex said. “Why wouldn’t she want to be seen with him in public?”

“Because she and Hitchell were both gobbling up Richette stock,” Andy said. “And the last thing she wanted was to be seen within a mile of him.”

“So they were both trying to use inside information to hopefully make themselves rich.” Charlotte looked to Rex. “Seems their blind trust wasn’t so blind after all. And that’s the ethics violation I told you about.”

“If not criminal,” Andy said. “Lilith didn’t give a damn about her reputation in Congress. All signs were pointing to her getting crushed in the election, and that’s the way she wanted it. By the time Hitchell’s bill passed, she’d be out of office. So she needed to steal your phone so any evidence of what was really going on would be gone.”

“And then
maman
snatched that possibility away,” Marcel said.

Rex looked away a moment, absorbing it all. “Goddamnit—you should have told me.”

“I’m sorry,
mon ami
,” Andy said. “Perhaps we should have. But once you decided you were going down to Washington, Marcel said it would send Hitchell and Lilith into panic mode.”

“You’re like a fucking car crusher when you get pissed,” Marcel said. “I knew you’d scare the shit out of them and make them get sloppy. And that’s when they went nuts and started buying Richette stock like there was no tomorrow.”

“So where did all of this lead to?” Rex said.

“We called Richette’s bluff on the takeover attempt,” Andy said. “As of this afternoon, they’re now on their way to becoming a wholly own subsidiary of Mercier.”

“What?” Rex said, astonished.

“That’s right,” Marcel said. “We pulled all our resources together, and with a couple of low-interest loans from all that cheap American money floating around, we grabbed fifty-five percent of Richette stock and gained a controlling interest.”

“And now they’re all scampering like rats from a sinking ship,” Andy said, pulling out his phone. He tapped it a couple of times, holding it up. “Look at this text I just got from Julie.”

Hot off the police wire! Tell Rex that his little lobbyist friend just spilled her guts to the DA and she’s been arrested on filing false charges.

“Damn,” Charlotte said. “And I’ll bet that’s only the beginning of it. They’re all going down.” She looked to Marcel. “And I thought Rex was devious.”

“They don’t call Marcel the
enfant terrible
for nothing,” Dani said.

“It was the recordings that really did it,” Marcel said. “Now
that
was brilliant. That made her fuck up even more.” He clapped his other hand over Rex’s shoulder. “You’re the best there is, Rex.”

“So if I am,” he said, taking a couple of steps back, “why are you firing me?”

Marcel glanced to his brother. “Well, now that we’re so big, how can we leave you over in Marseille? Who’s going to run our North American operations? Especially now,” he said, glancing to Charlotte.

“You’re joking,” Rex said, almost as a whisper.

“I joke a lot,” Marcel said, “but not about this. You’d control everything from the Hudson Bay to the Panama Canal, and it’ll be yours to run any way you want. You see”—he clasped him by the shoulders, his expression never more serious—“Mercier is and always has been a family business. We’d like to keep it that way. What do you say, cousin?”