“Happy too. I’ve got no reason to go back.”
“I’ve got work,” Nicole said. “As it is, they’ll be furious at me for bailing on them three days in a row.”
“Screw them. You and I will just start our own company.”
Nicole looked at him to see if he was joking. He was toasting another marshmallow and this one was on fire too.
“Red, are you being serious right now?”
He blew the marshmallow at, glanced at her, and then popped the whole thing in his mouth. “Mmmmhmmm.”
“Is that a yes?”
He nodded. “Mmmm.”
“Red. Are you really going to start another company?”
He chewed for a long time and finally swallowed. “When you came back into my life yesterday, it was like my whole system got a jumpstart. Until you showed up, I’d just been chopping wood and taking walks, swimming, fishing. I tried hard not to think about what might be next for me. I didn’t feel like there was a next without you in my life.”
She blinked, tried not to shed any more silly tears. “Oh.”
“But the moment you were back with me, I felt all of this energy. And today, for the first time, I really wanted to get back in the mix,” he said, twirling his stick in his hands and staring into the flames. “Kane Wright will be officially acquiring Jameson International next week, and when he does, I’ll be sitting on a mountain of cash. Not what it could have been or should have been,” he clarified. “The stock’s down and with all the bad news, Kane Wright was able to get it for a song—relatively speaking.”
“So what does that mean?”
“Well, it’s a great deal for him. Jameson International is still a fundamentally sound company and so Kane will be bringing it back to prominence if he can.” Red continued to look at the fire as if hypnotized by its glow. “But today I got to thinking. Fuck him. Maybe I should start my own company—a new company from the ground up. And maybe I’ll kick his ass, this time.”
Nicole wasn’t sure she liked the sound of this. It sounded like Red was preparing to go back into battle and maybe risk everything. “And you—I mean we—we have the money to finance it?”
Red sat back in his chair. “Babe, we’re going to have something on the order of half a billion dollars when the buyout is completed. It ain’t what I used to have. I lost almost two-thirds of my net worth because of everything that went down with the EU and Germany. But I still have a whole lotta money.” He looked at her and grinned. “And I’m getting back in the game. I’m going to make Kane Wright wish he’d never laid eyes on me.”
***
The next day, they decided it was time to return to the real world and started out just after ten in the morning.
Nicole was grateful when the ride back to Brooklyn finally came to an end. They’d been on the road over five hours, and both of them had had to take their own cars, so it had been a lonely drive.
They’d stopped on the way to grab a quick bite and spend a few moments together. And then they’d stopped again to return Nicole’s rental car.
Danielle still hadn’t called back and now Nicole was truly getting worried. Nicole had called and texted her half a dozen times and still…nothing.
At around three-thirty in the afternoon, they arrived at Nicole’s apartment building.
“She’s not home,” Nicole said, as she opened the door and stared at the clearly empty apartment.
“It’s a weekday. She’s probably still at work.”
“I tried her store on the way here. They said she’d called out sick the last couple of days.”
“Uh-oh.” For the first time, Red looked concerned.
“You think something happened? I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll call Kane Wright and ask him point blank if he’s been in touch with her or bothered her in any way,” he said, after some thought.
“I feel like this is all my fault. If she’s in trouble right now, it’s because I got her involved in this mess.”
“Look, everything’s going to be fine, Nicole. I swear.” He took her by the shoulders and kissed her deeply.
She kissed him back. “Will you call him right now?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t look happy about it, but he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. A moment went by and then someone picked up. “Kane.” Pause. Red made a disgusted face. “Yeah, it’s me.” Long moment. Nicole couldn’t hear anything but a vague mumble from the other line. “We’re looking—hold on, let me fucking talk. We’re trying to get in touch with Nicole’s roommate and she seems to have disappeared. Have---wait—what?” He strained to listen. “Kane, what the fuck is going on?” Again, straining to listen. Red seemed totally baffled by whatever Kane Wright was telling him. “Yeah. Fine. Fine.”
He hung up, shaking his head in dismay.