CHAPTER TWO
Cameron
I’m sitting in the corner of the room, my back to the wall, looking out at the suits and the glitter, a glass of scotch in my hand. Ice clinks against the crystal, slowly melting. I’m not planning on drinking what’s left. It’s for show along with the Bulgari cufflinks and Aubercy shoes. There’s endless entertainment on this island. Gambling and women. Street-illegal cars. I’m here for one purpose—business.
“Ground floor,” the man in front of me says. His name is Don. Dan? I’m not sure. Beads of sweat line his pale brow. “This kind of opportunity, it doesn’t come along every day.”
I have a hundred investment opportunities cross my desk on any given day. I’m not interested in ordinary. You don’t come to Malaking Kuta for ordinary. “What’s your role in the company?”
“Business. I’m the moneyman.” He laughs. “It’s my job to get us funding because this kind of market opening won’t last forever. A small investment, one point five mil, and we’d be global in two months.”
It would take closer to three million dollars and six months, but I don’t bother correcting him. It doesn’t matter. Gabriel Miller taught me everything I know about investing. Follow the dream. Someone in his company might have vision. It’s not Danny here. His dream is to cash out. The payday. He doesn’t care about the technology or about the lives it would impact.
Which means he’s worthless to me.
“Excuse me,” I say, setting down my drink and standing. I ignore his startled words and his promises to call me. I hope he doesn’t have my number.
There are a few people I came to the island to meet. A woman who rarely leaves her mansion in northeast China. A man who travels so much it’s hard to pin him down. A married couple who own an island in the Bay of Bengal. People who can deal with the large volume of cash Miller Industries is ready to invest. With the market tanking, this is the perfect time to build it back up.
Mr. Knapp stops me as I cross the room. A short man who looks perpetually angry. I think he tries to look pleased to see me, but it only comes off as a grimace. “Mr. Kidwell. We’re honored to have you here at Malaking Kuta. After our many invitations to Gabriel Miller, we thought he would never attend.”
I offer a bland smile. “Your persistence paid off.”
“And I’m certain you will be most pleased with the luxuries we have to offer. You must have seen your private cabin. Was it to your liking?”
The porch had been bigger than my first apartment when I moved to Tanglewood. Only feet away from the lapping blue water. Blinding white sand. It would have been an oasis to someone on vacation. For me it held the same appeal as a dimly lit hotel room—a place to rest between making deals.
I’ll meet with Jade Changueng and Anand Shah and the Wilson couple. I’ll see if anyone else on the island is worth doing business with, and tomorrow, I’ll fly back to Tanglewood.
“It was satisfactory,” I tell Mr. Knapp.
He frowns. “No no, we want to do better than that. We wish to please you. That’s the purpose of Malaking Kuta—pleasure in all its forms. Would you like a woman sent to warm your bed tonight?”
The sexual daring of the island makes it legendary. If I want a woman, I’ll find her myself, among the bejeweled women sprinkling the crowd. Maybe it will be Jade Changueng, whose talents have distracted me for an hour or two before. “No, thank you.”
“Perhaps a man?” He gives a sneaky laugh. “Or both? Don’t worry if you have certain predilections. Our entertainment is well versed in the sexual arts. And tolerant. Very tolerant.”
Hell, he’s practically inviting me to beat them. “No.”
He brushes off my refusal with a pudgy hand. “They are too pedestrian for you, these practiced people. We have something much more interesting tonight for a man of your refined tastes.”
Christ. I keep thinking he’s going to run out of illicit things to offer. “Such as?”
“Fresh meat.”
A little flare of heat in my veins. That is interesting, but it shouldn’t be. Nothing matters except signing on the bottom line. Follow the dream. Find the people who will change the world. Give them enough money to do it and then reap the profits afterward. “Fresh meat.”
“We’re having an auction. Three specimens. All of them new to the island. All of them untrained.”
Jesus. The idea of initiating someone into sexual bondage, of that shiver of uncertainty, even fear—it shouldn’t be so appealing. I’ve fought for years to get rid of the desire. Only in the dark, alone, do I admit my wish to control someone. To own them. “I’m not sure I’ll attend. There’s work to do.”
“You must. You must. Everyone else will be there. No one will miss it.”
No, I doubt the people I want to deal with will miss the auction if it’s the entertainment of the evening. There’s a reason those people only emerge to this island—to sate their sexual appetites. Which means I’ll have to go along with it. I’ll have to watch someone be placed on an auction block, touched and examined, sold to the highest bidder. Lust rages inside me at the thought, but I force it down.
When I left Detroit, I took a job as a clerk under Gabriel Miller. It was beneath me. My brother sure as hell never would have done something so demeaning. But I knew it would be the start of something new. He taught me everything I know about business. I worked my way up and now I get a percentage of the deals I ink. A thick bank account pays for a penthouse apartment that’s empty while I work long hours. It’s not a warm life, but it’s a lucrative one.
I give a short bow. “Then I’ll see you tonight, Mr. Knapp.”
He smiles, and my blood turns cold. It’s not a nice smile. “One more thing.”
“I would prefer to rest before the evening entertainment.”
“There’s someone else I want you to meet. I’m sure you’ll agree once you see them.”
Keep a cool head. That’s the first thing Gabriel taught me when I was young and stupid. Full of anger at my brother. Full of unfulfilled desire for his girlfriend. That’s the only reason I don’t punch this fucker and his obsequious smile. Rule number one: keep a cool head. Rule number two: follow the dream.
Men in suits and women in gowns move aside, revealing a couple that I never expected to see again. Certainly not here. Not on Malaking Kuta. It’s my brother, Curtis. The woman I’ve loved for years stands at his side, wearing a small but sparkling diamond. Her eyes meet mine, those gorgeous blue eyes that have haunted my dreams. The ones that show up when I’m stroking my cock alone in bed. That mouth that moans my name.
The woman I can never have. She’s on the island.
“Cameron,” she says, sounding as surprised as me. More.
I struggle to control my emotion, but it’s like trying to tame an ocean. Keep a calm head? No goddamn way can I do that now. Follow the dream? Briana is my dream. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
She shakes her head, as if still reeling from shock. “Curtis brought me.”
Mr. Knapp looks pleased with himself. “She’s going to be at auction tonight.”