The media fixer swallowed audibly and shook his head.
Jeremy didn’t look too happy, either. He’d been too focused on using the current situation to bring his daughter into line, and had ignored the bigger picture. Something that was anathema to him.
“Your job is to protect the image of this company and anyone affiliated closely enough with it to impact our reputation in the financial community,” Viktor reminded Conrad in a hard voice.
“Yes, sir.”
“Maybe it’s too much for you. Perhaps you’d prefer to move to a PR position working for a nursing home?” Viktor allowed the implication that was the only type of job Conrad would be able to get to hang in the air between them.
The usually unflappable media fixer paled, showing the man still had some of the intelligence he had originally been hired for. “I’m on it.”
“You should have been on it at four-fifteen this morning after the scandal sheet went on sale.”
Conrad didn’t argue. He’d screwed up.
“I don’t know what you spent this meeting doing on your tablet, but whatever it was, it wasn’t as important as getting ahead of Madison’s situation.”
“I was writing the engagement announcement.”
“I see. Not nursing homes then. Maybe you should be writing puff pieces for online dating sites,” Viktor opined.
Nervous laughter filled the room and Jeremy made a sarcastic sound of approval, but it was Madison’s genuine amusement that Viktor enjoyed the most.
“I’ll need your signature on a civil suit against Perry Timwater,” Conrad told Madison.
“No.”
Viktor wasn’t surprised by Madison’s answer and forestalled any arguments from the media fixer or Jeremy. “The man was her friend. She’s not going to sue him.”
“Some friend.” Conrad snorted.
The tiny wounded sound that Madison made infuriated Viktor. “We have other avenues of influence to bring to bear. I want a retraction from Perry in time for this evening’s news. Play it off as a joke perpetrated by one friend on another.”
Viktor turned to Madison. “For real damage control, you are going to have to do an in-person interview for one of the big celebrity news shows and meet with a journalist with a wider readership than the original article.”
“Whatever I can do,” she said with more conviction and none of the disagreement he expected.
Viktor’s brow wrinkled in thought. Something about this scandal concerned Madison enough that she’d come to her father to ask for help.
While Jeremy might not see Madison showing up for this meeting as that, Viktor was certain of the truth.
Unlike her other escapades, Madison wanted this one cleaned up and her father’s refusal to take it seriously had bothered her. A lot.
Viktor needed to figure out why it meant so much to her.
He put his hand out to her again. “Come with me, we’ll talk your father’s plan through and make some decisions from there.”
She looked ready to argue.
He smiled at her. “Is that really too much to ask? I’ve got Conrad working on fixing this for you.”
“Are you going to tell him to stop if I refuse?”
“No.” Madison needed an act of good will.
It was important she realized that she could trust Viktor to watch out for her. He had to be the only candidate for her fiancé that she seriously considered.
Because her husband was going to take over AIH eventually and Viktor had every intention of that man being him.
Madison tucked her purse under her arm. “Okay.”
“Just a minute,” Jeremy said.
Viktor turned to face him. “I know what you want.”
“But—”
“Have I ever neglected your interests in a negotiation?”
“No.” Jeremy got that implacable look he was known for on his face. “Just remember that Madison’s cooperation isn’t the only thing on the line right now.”
Viktor wasn’t surprised by the threat, or even bothered by it.
He’d spent ten years working for this man and his ultimate goal was finally in reach. Viktor wasn’t about to let it pass him by.
MADDIE FOLLOWED VIK into Le Mason, not at all surprised when the maître d’ found them a table in a quiet corner in the perpetually busy restaurant, popular with tourists and locals alike.
“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.
She shook her head, not even pretending to herself that shredding Romi’s offering of chocolate pastries counted as actually ingesting calories.
He ordered the restaurant’s specialty pancakes for her and coffee for himself.
“Did you bring me here to remind me of friendlier days?” she asked, sure she knew the answer.
“I brought you here because you used to crave their banana pancakes and I hoped to tempt you to eat.” His six-foot-four-inch frame should have looked awkward in the medium-sized dining chair, but he didn’t.
With his dark hair brushed back in a businessman’s cut, his square jaw shaved smooth of dark stubble and a body most athletes would be jealous of covered in a tailored Italian suit, nothing about Viktor Beck could be described as awkward.
Doing her best to ignore his sheer masculine perfection, Maddie adjusted her napkin over her lap. “How did you know I hadn’t already?”
“I guessed.”
“I used to stop eating when I was stressed.” She was surprised he remembered.
“Are you saying that’s changed?”
“No.” Too much was the same, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.
She had to remember that Vik’s interests here were aligned squarely with her father’s. Not Maddie’s. He’d made that clear six years ago and nothing had changed since.
Yes, Vik had gotten Conrad focused on curtailing the media frenzy around Perry’s supposed breakup interview, but he’d done it for the sake of the company. Again...not Maddie.
Whatever his agenda now, it had the welfare of AIH as the end goal, she was sure of it. And if she got swept along with the tide, so be it.
“Give me the bullet points of the contract.” She was morbidly curious about what her father had done to entice a man like Viktor Beck, or Maxwell Black for that matter, to marry her.
Vik’s dark brows rose. “You trust me to tell you everything important?”
Answering honestly wouldn’t just make a lie of her earlier words, but it would make her a fool. “I’ll read it later to make sure.”
“Your father accepts that you will not be his successor.”
“What was his first clue?” She’d refused to get a degree in business and had fended off every request, demand and even plea for her to take a job at the company.
“Do you really need me to enumerate them for you?”