Willa snorted. "No. Did you expect one this time?"
"I hoped. There are some aspects to this bid that I'd love to have her input on. I'm concerned about the location."
"Isn't that already decided?"
Julio smiled. "Sure, they've picked out the place they want, but until construction starts, nothing is absolutely fixed, and I have some logistical questions."
"Why not just bid on what they ask for?"
"Because I'm not a robot and because this is a chance to show the world what's possible with the existing technology. I want to do this so that it will be successful, but not just in terms of meeting the project goals, either. I want people coming to me in a few years because they know I build successful projects and bow out of the ones doomed by petty political struggles."
She laughed. "There will always be politics."
"Yes, but if I establish myself the way I intend to, I'll be able to insist on doing things right. We've been successful, Willa, but my goal, my dream, is to move the bar higher and higher."
She put her hand on his. "Julio, you already live a dream. We are a glorious team and making money."
"I suppose I do." He smiled at her. "And I'm lucky to have you."
The words put a thin smile on her face.
Willa settled into her suite at Milan's elegant Baglioni Hotel, which adjoined the one reserved for Julio. She had her own work to do while he was at the meeting with the consortium that had assembled to build the business center. Some of her work involved taking care of things Julio wanted done before they returned to their home office in Barcelona. Some of the work was for herself, and some of it … Well, it was work he wanted done, but that she was having done to her own satisfaction. She had a goal, a dream of her own, that she wouldn't share with Julio.
Because it took her closer to her own goal, she decided to take the last task first. She had received a report from a private investigator in the United States-an update to an ongoing investigation. At her direction, it was written in vague language that would make it impossible for anyone but her to truly understand. She'd learned that the target was currently in a hospital in New York, details as to the cause to be provided as soon as known. There was also a summary of information about a patient from a rehab center.
"The records available are sketchy, but a female patient with the last name Edwards was recently released. The home address given matches that of the target. The patient spent sixty days undergoing treatment for addiction to drugs and alcohol."
Willa smiled. Sixty days was about the right timing. Perhaps she had less to worry about than she had thought. Julio had made a bad call, that was all. Still, a threat was a threat, and nailing the coffin lid down could be little more than a reasonable precaution. She went to her laptop and composed an email of instructions to a colleague in New York. It amazed her how much havoc a small amount of vague and ambiguous information could wreak if you presented it well.
She sipped the wine that she'd had room service bring up and turned her attention to the Milan project. She'd make certain Julio got that bid. He was a brilliant man, an inspiring man, and with her help, he'd be the most successful businessman ever. They'd write books about his achievements, that much was certain. Willa was too thorough and careful to let chance fuck that up, however. She always came to the table prepared. She had investigators working in Europe, looking into the backgrounds of the consortium members for anything she might use. Information was leverage. Willa liked pulling levers, especially when they allowed a tiny woman like her to bring a big, powerful man down to his knees. That was where big, powerful men belonged.
Most men had failings that she could use against them. All she had to do was find them, then apply herself to the task. Julio, for all his qualities and strengths, had a blind spot for women. He was drawn to them, and few wanted to resist him. In the main, that was fine with her. Most of them were leeches who wanted to cling to him. They wanted to be seen with him; they wanted him to pay lavish attention to them. And they were happy to sleep with him if that was all it took. Those women weren't a threat to Willa or her plans. If he fucked them in his office, she would smile and ask him to sign the documents that needed signing. Let him have his fun.
Willa was attracted to him, but more to his strength and power. She'd sleep with him if he asked her to, but she didn't need to do that to be a critical part of his team.
This new woman had threatened that, this Lissa Edwards. He'd returned enamored of her, wanting her to work side by side with him. She offered a combination of sexual attraction and business acumen that turned the man's head. Willa had cut off the communications, but now she had to change her strategy. She needed to fill the void herself. That meant making him see her as a woman. He had to learn how much he needed her, and if that meant taking him to bed so that he forgot Lissa Edwards, that would be fine. It took her along a different path than had been necessary before, but it would work. She would make him desire her; she would get him to seduce her and then she would get him to marry her. As his wife, she'd have more influence and be able to direct him, keep him focused.
She allowed herself time to enjoy fantasies of seducing him, and they were delicious. And it would be a fair exchange. She would give herself to him, let him use her body for his pleasure, and then she would take her place in the world as far more than some man's personal assistant. She'd put a sharp edge on the dealings they did then. Of course she'd need to indulge him from time to time even after they married, but she had no desire to keep up the pretense that she cared that much about sex. She would arrange for him to have affairs. Perhaps that flight attendant Elaine would seduce him. She looked like the type who would be interested in doing all the things women did to keep a man excited about her. That would keep his hunger for her at bay and, as a bonus, he'd probably feel guilty about cheating on her. That was a lovely bourgeois attitude that would keep him in line for important things.
After all, sex was a tool, an important tool, but little more. Sex was messy, and it could be tedious. He was a good-looking Latino, a hot-blooded man, and when they were married and she turned away from him, she would expect him to take a mistress. That was how things were done, and it would mean she'd have no fear of her losing him. That would be good, if the woman was acceptable. With women she approved of, she'd tolerate affairs whenever he wanted them. She didn't mind that. Not once she was in control, directing his incredible business sense, and his empire.
With that thought in mind, she composed an email to her investigator in Barcelona, telling him to collect information about Elaine. The more Willa thought about her, the better she seemed. She might even want to have an affair with the woman herself, just to assert her authority. Besides, to cuckold him with his own mistress sounded divine.
For now she just needed to keep him away from that terrible Lissa Edwards. Fortunately, she had Tina Peters to help with that. The woman was treacherous, but predictable, and her avaricious nature made her useful. For a time.
CHAPTER TWO
After the first few weeks in that damn bed, Lissa knew with a sickening certainty that there was no way a hospital would ever be a comfortable place. She'd tried and tried, but no matter what you did, within the strict guidelines set by the hospital, it remained bleak and nerve-wracking. Part of her desperately wanted to hire someone to paint the walls bright red or something else outrageous. Not that she particularly cared for red walls, but it would shake off the monotony of the place.
Of course the room was meant for sick people. It was a place for taking care of those who needed care.
Lissa needed care, but she wasn't sick. Even her doctor admitted she was healthy as a horse, assuming the horse was unable to get up off its back, had to lie with its feet in the air, was forced to eat hospital food, and was pregnant with triplets.
Yeah, that kind of horse. Huge-bellied with more kids than she thought possible. Just not sick, except for being sick of the damn hospital.
Her care was all precautionary stuff. She could've gotten a bed at home that would be just as uncomfortable and hired a cook and avoided the abysmal hospital food, but the doctor insisted that she needed to be monitored, in case she went into labor. And being in bed all the time, she needed nurses to make sure she didn't get bedsores or blood clots. So everything that was being done was to keep bad things from happening.
And the doctor insisted she had to be in the hospital. Hell, if she went home she'd miss out on having her blood pressure and heart rate on permanent display. Who'd want to miss out on all that? Besides her.
She was doing it for the babies. Once she'd decided that she could see herself as a mother, everything became about the babies, especially since there were three of the little tykes. The doctor suggested "reducing" the pregnancy, but that was basically aborting one to let her body take better care of the survivors. That didn't sit well with her. No, it was all or nothing, and she wouldn't consider nothing.
They were six months along and she didn't know their sex. She didn't want to know. A large sign pasted on the door served as a reminder: "Mention the sex of the patient's children and die!" it said. Even so, twice now she'd had candy-stripers almost blurt it out. She managed to stop them before she had to order their execution, but she had no serious hope that the babies would come to term, or however close they got, before some overeager do-gooder would decide that she HAD to know.