“We should start a podcast,” Sabrina said.
I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t have time to sit around recording stuff.” I did my fair share of callouts for jobs, plus at night I had to stay on top of the business-side of the store.
“Fine, fine.” Sabrina leaned against the counter and eyed my jeans. “Damn, I hate you for being tall, long, and gorgeous. You’re going to look way too beautiful as my maid of honor.” She waved a hand between us. “You’re all tall, sleek, and dark-haired, and I’m…the opposite.”
I had some distant Black Irish ancestor to thank for my pale skin and ink-black hair. Growing up, I wanted to be short, blonde, and tanned. I snorted. “Beauty comes in all different forms, Sabrina.” I gripped her shoulders. “You are so damn pretty, and your fiancé happens to think you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Andrew is gaga over you.”
Sabrina sighed happily. “He does and he is.” A pause. “So, do you have a date for my wedding yet?” My bestie’s voice turned breezy and casual.
Uh-oh. I froze. All the wedding prep had sent my normally easygoing best friend a bit crazy. And I knew very well not to trust that tone.
I edged toward my office. “Not yet.”
Sabrina’s blue eyes sparked. “It’s only four weeks away, Monroe. The maid of honor can’t come alone.”
“I’ll be busy helping you out—”
“Find a date, Monroe.”
“I don’t want to just pick anyone for your wedding—”
Sabrina stomped her foot. “Find someone, or I’ll find someone for you.”
I held up my hands. “Okay, okay.” I headed for my office. “I’ll—” My cell phone rang. Yes. “I’ve got a call. Got to go.” I dove through the office door.
“I won’t forget,” Sabrina yelled. “I’ll revoke your best-friend status, if I have to.”
I closed the door on my bridezilla bestie and looked at the phone.
Maguire. Finally.
I stabbed the call button. “Where have you been?”
“We have your brother,” a robotic voice said.
My blood ran cold. My chest felt like it had filled with concrete.
“If you want to keep him alive, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
Zane
God, this party was boring.
Zane Roth sipped his wine and glanced around the ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental. The party held the Who’s Who of New York society, all dressed up in their glittering best. The ceiling shimmered with a sea of crystal lights, tall flower arrangements dominated the tables, and the wall of windows had a great view of the Manhattan skyline.
Everything was picture perfect…and boring.
If it wasn’t for the charity auction, he wouldn’t be dressed in his tuxedo and dodging annoying people.
“I’m so sick of these parties,” he muttered.
A snort came from beside him.
One of his best friends, Maverick Rivera, sipped his wine. “You were voted New York’s sexiest billionaire bachelor. You should be loving this shindig.”
Mav had been one of his best friends since college. Like Zane, Maverick hadn’t come from wealth. They’d both earned it the old-fashioned way. Zane loved numbers and money, and had made Wall Street his hunting ground. Mav was a geek, despite not looking like a stereotypical one. He’d grown up in a strong, Mexican-American family, and with his brown skin, broad shoulders, and the fact that he worked out a lot, no one would pick him for a tech billionaire.
But under the big body, the man was a computer geek to the bone.
“All the society mamas are giving you lots of speculative looks.” Mav gave him a small grin.
“Shut it, Rivera.”
“They’re all dreaming of marrying their daughters off to billionaire Zane Roth, the finance King of Wall Street.”
Zane glared. “You done?”
“Oh, I could go on.”
“I seem to recall another article about the billionaire bachelors. All three of us.” Zane tipped his glass at his friend. “They’ll be coming for you, next.”
Mav’s smile dissolved, and he shrugged a broad shoulder. “I’ll toss Kensington at them. He’s pretty.”
Liam Kensington was the third member of their trio. Unlike Zane and Mav, Liam had come from money, although he worked hard to avoid his bloodsucking family.
Zane saw a woman in a slinky, blue dress shoot him a welcoming smile.
He looked away.
When he’d made his first billion, he’d welcomed the attention. Especially the female attention. He’d bedded more than his fair share of gorgeous women.
Of late, nothing and no one caught his interest. Women all left him feeling numb.
Work. He thrived on that.
A part of him figured he’d never find a woman who made him feel the same way as his work.
“Speak of the devil,” Mav said.
Zane looked up to see Liam Kensington striding toward them. With the lean body of a swimmer, clad in a perfectly tailored tuxedo, he looked every inch the billionaire. His gold hair complemented a face the ladies oohed over.
People tried to get his attention, but the real estate mogul ignored everyone.
He reached Zane and Mav, grabbed Zane’s wine, and emptied it in two gulps.
“I hate this party. When can we leave?” Having spent his formative years in London, he had a posh British accent. Another thing the ladies loved. “I have a contract to work on, my fundraiser ball to plan, and things to catch up on after our trip to San Francisco.”
The three of them had just returned from a business trip to the West Coast.
“Can’t leave until the auction’s done,” Zane said.
Liam sighed. His handsome face often had him voted the best-looking billionaire bachelor.
“Buy up big,” Zane said. “Proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Clubs.”
“One of your pet charities,” Liam said.
“Yeah.” Zane’s father had left when he was seven. His mom had worked hard to support them. She was his hero. He liked to give back to charities that supported kids growing up in tough circumstances.
He’d set his mom up in a gorgeous house Upstate that she loved. And he was here for her tonight.
“Don’t bid on the Phillips-Morley necklace, though,” he added. “It’s mine.”
The necklace had a huge, rectangular sapphire pendant surrounded by diamonds. It was the real-life necklace said to have inspired the necklace in the movie, Titanic. It had been given to a young woman, Kate Florence Phillips, by her lover, Henry Samuel Morley. The two had run away together and booked passage on the Titanic.
Unfortunately for poor Kate, Henry had drowned when the ship had sunk. She’d returned to England with the necklace and a baby in her belly.
Zane’s mother had always loved the story and pored over pictures of the necklace. She’d told him the story of the lovers, over and over.
“It was a gift from a man to a woman he loved. She was a shop girl, and he owned the store, but they fell in love, even though society frowned on their love.” She sighed. “That’s true love, Zane. Devotion, loyalty, through the good times and the bad.”