Tempting The Mogul. Marcia King-Gamble

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      Tanner’s rich laughter rang out. “All of my executives have company vehicles or at the very least they receive a car allowance.”

      Yes! Kennedy covered the phone’s mouthpiece before she could say the word out loud. She exhaled the breath she didn’t know she was holding. Things were definitely looking up.

      After doing a little more digging, she’d learned her vehicle had been wholesaled out. Gone was the forty-eight hundred dollars she’d shelled out over the past year in car payments. The rental she was now driving was costing her a fortune, and to add insult to injury she hadn’t been able to use a credit card, and that meant more money coming out of her bank account.

      “There are several makes and models of cars you can choose from, but most of our executives drive a Lexus,” Tanner added. “Come by and get the contract from my assistant, Diane. You’ll need to sign it before you pick out a car.”

      “What’s my start date?” Kennedy asked, already feeling a whole lot better. She took long, steadying breaths and waited for Tanner’s response. She was just about to seal the most lucrative deal of her life that could very well help get her back on solid ground.

      “I’d like you to start yesterday,” Tanner Washington said. “My son, Salim, is going to be a challenge. He’s headstrong and not really cooperative when told what to do. I had to enlist the help of his mother to help him see things my way.”

      “You mentioned you were having surgery. When is it planned for?”

      “When you come in we’ll talk about it. I’ve got a meeting in exactly two minutes. Let me transfer you to Diane.”

      He didn’t wait for her to agree but simply handed her off to his assistant.

      “This is Diane,” a no-nonsense voice said into Kennedy’s ear.

      Kennedy tamped down on her excitement. She had a job and that meant income. Her credit had taken an enormous hit thanks to Marna’s irresponsibility and in a short time her previously orderly world had turned into a nightmare. Bill collectors had been calling, and she’d had to go to the various utility companies to pay her water, gas and light bills before they were shut off.

      Free yoga classes at her local community center were keeping her calm and she’d resumed her fast walking. The phone rang and Kennedy inhaled, anticipating another demanding creditor. It was not in her nature to dodge or use the answering machine to screen calls, but she was strongly considering that option.

      “Hello?” she said.

      Her mother’s breathless voice came at her. “Honey, I was so worried about you. Why haven’t you been answering your cell phone?”

      Her mother Taiko Myers, had been on her honeymoon in Hawaii when Kennedy returned to the States. This latest marriage would be her fourth. Kennedy hoped she’d made a better choice this time around.

      “I never got your message. I would have called you back. How was your honeymoon, Mom?” Kennedy prepared herself for the lengthy discussion that would surely follow.

      Ten minutes later she managed to get in the first word. Kennedy used that opportunity to take the conversation in an entirely different direction.

      “Have you heard from Marna, Mom?”

      “Not recently. She’s supposedly in Alaska with some guy she met in Seattle.”

      “She was supposed to be house-sitting for me and paying my bills with the rent she collected.”

      “Didn’t she turn that job over to her friend Summer?”

      Kennedy’s right eye began to twitch. “Summer? I’ve never heard of a friend Summer.”

      “Taiko!” a gruff male voice called in the background.

      “I’ll be right there.”

      “Taiko. I need you. Where’s my clean socks?”

      Kennedy hadn’t met stepfather number three, but from the sound of things, her mother had picked another winner. She tended to go for controlling, abusive types. Growing up, Kennedy had learned to insulate herself from the succession of men in and out of her mother’s life. More than one had been far too interested in her.

      The uncertainty of coming home and finding her mother in tears had made her wary and cynical of men in general. If this was what relationships were about, she wanted no part of them.

      “Who’s Summer?” Kennedy asked, focusing her mother back to the topic.

      “Summer is Marna’s best friend,” Taiko explained. “I may have her number somewhere. If I find it, I’ll call you back.”

      “Get your ass off the phone,” her mother’s latest screamed. “I need to get dressed.”

      Stepfather number three was shaping up to be just like the others.

      “I’ve got to help Jack find something,” her mother explained hurriedly.

      “Call me back with Summer’s number, Ma,” Kennedy reminded her before hanging up.

      “Okay, baby. I will.”

      Salim disconnected the call and clipped the phone back on his waistband. He cradled his head and groaned loudly. The airline had charged him a considerable penalty for canceling his ticket to Haiti. That one-hundred-dollar cancellation fee could have fed numerous orphans or treated HIV-positive babies. Wasting that money made him angry and thinking about what he would be responsible for in the next several months made him even angrier.

      He was not at all interested in the television business, nor was he cut out to be an executive. But now he was expected to step into his father’s shoes and make decisions that meant nothing to him. It seemed ironic that after doing everything he could to avoid the corporate trap, fate had dealt him this blow.

      Much as he despised his father, it was his father’s money that had allowed him to travel to third world, HIV-ridden countries. And no matter how much Salim disliked his dad, Tanner was sick and someone had to at least try and keep the company running. It was the whole family’s livelihood. But that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.

      The cell phone clipped to his waistband played a rhythmic jingle.

      “It’s Diane,” his father’s assistant said in her no-nonsense voice. “What’s your schedule like for Thursday this week?”

      “I was supposed to be in Haiti. Now it seems I am free.”

      “Good. I’m scheduling a meeting for 2:00 p.m. Please be sure to be on time.”

      “And the agenda is?” Salim probed.

      “That I don’t know, but the newly hired leadership consultant will be there, as well.”

      “Leadership consultant? Tell me you’re kidding.”

      “Didn’t you meet the young woman?”

      “If I did, she wasn’t very memorable.”

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