So if she could just get one story, one fabulous report that would show her editor, as well as everyone else, what she could do, she would never have to report on the billowing folds of a wedding gown or the tantalizing curve of a tulip again!
This was her chance. And she was here tonight to hunt down her prey - none other than the elusive, illustrious and disgustingly wealthy Rocco Antoniv. He was currently in town, and Brianna was determined to reveal the real man behind the charming, suave billionaire. She’d been at his press conference earlier that afternoon, gritting her teeth as she watched him answer questions and charm the more hard core reporters with his wit and jokes. Sure, he might be an astonishingly handsome man with black hair and that scary, dangerous Russian allure complete with a sexy accent that probably sent shivers throughout other women’s senses. Not hers though! She’d been immune to that charm and sex appeal and his accent didn’t do a thing for her!
Okay, she might be lying just a tad. That accent had caused some flutters in her stomach every time he’d answered a question, but she’d just told herself it was indigestion.
She’d watched him carefully during the press conference earlier today, trying to understand his personality and give herself insights into his true nature. He was taller than the average man, but not scary tall like so many people asserted. Of course, she’d been in the back of the conference room and hadn’t been able to compare the man to another person since he stood on the make-shift stage, but he hadn’t seemed abnormally tall. As for the “buffness” everyone drooled over and talked about? Who knew? He was wearing an expensive suit that looked nice enough, but she had no clue if the man underneath the clothes was muscular or just thin and well built.
He did look impressive, though. He displayed charm and humor, answered all the reporters’ questions with intelligence, and controlled the room with ease. No one left offended and everyone seemed to think they “knew” Rocco Antoniv.
But she’d seen something in his eyes, something hard and unyielding. Even from a distance. As he answered questions about his latest project, she’d watched him carefully. He was hiding something. She just knew it!
There was more to this man than he was revealing and she was going to be the one to break it to the world.
She’d seen it in his eyes while he was talking to the others. There was something more to the reason he was here in Washington, D.C. – something he wasn’t telling the other reporters. And they weren’t seeing it because he had them all convinced he was just in town for a routine museum opening.
Okay, so it was his museum! And it was possibly the most impressive museum she’d ever seen besides the Smithsonian. The extraordinary pieces he’d donated were astonishing. Although he was only in his mid-thirties, clearly he had used his financial and business acumen to acquire not only wealth, but also many significant historical pieces. She’d researched his path to billionaire status and it was quite breathtaking. The man was ruthless in business, merciless about buying up one company after another and incorporating their products or intellectual property into his empire. Everything served a purpose, every purchase, product, or deal was another piece in the puzzle. When fully assembled, those pieces formed a truly impressive and multifaceted picture.
But she just knew that there was more, that something big was happening. She could tell by the look in his strange, golden eyes, he was up to something.* The museum opening was just a front.
She suspected that he was out to buy yet another company. And if that were the case, she was going to warn all the workers as quickly as possible about his eventual takeover. The man had come from nothing; the earliest records of him showed that he had been an orphan in Voronezh, Russia. Somehow, when he grew up, he had started buying up companies there, multiplying his wealth exponentially every year. No one could stop him. He came in, bought up a company that was hurting, fired half the staff and pulled all the others into his massive corporation.
If she could warn just a few of those people, then they wouldn’t be floundering to pay their mortgage next month. She had a duty as a reporter to not just report the news, but to help others with the information on which she was reporting. She’d seen firsthand what horrors could be wrought when someone didn’t have anything to live for. Her father hadn’t been able to handle life after her mother died of cancer and he’d lost his job. She’d only been five years old when he’d decided to take his own life versus….she stopped her mind from going down that path. She couldn’t think about her father tonight.
To that end, she found herself here, in this crazy nightclub where the women were showing more skin than they were covering. Men and women were writhing to the obnoxious music and drinking alcohol at a rate that would put her in the hospital if she were ever to try it.
As she looked around, her entire body was tense, feeling abnormally insecure and self-conscious. She desperately wanted her friends here. Just someone to talk to or, at a minimum, help her feel less conspicuous. She looked around and felt like she was wearing too much clothing even while she was painfully aware of how short her dress was and how much it revealed. She would never be caught wearing something like this if she thought she would run into anyone she might know.
“Can I buy you a drink?” a man said, leaning close and blocking out some of the irritating neon lights.
Brianna jumped slightly and moved away from the leering man, irritated that he would even dare to approach her. Men simply didn’t do that to her, so she wasn’t sure how to react when it happened. Men hit on Nikki and Rachel all the time. Nikki was the pretty one while Rachel was the sexy one. Nikki was the one men approached, asked out. Rachel was the one men ogled as she walked by with her red shoes and a smile that challenged men. Brianna, on the other hand, was the quiet, mousy girl who preferred reading a good book to glamming it up and hitting the town. Nikki never noticed any of the men trying to get her attention. And Rachel simply ignored most of the men who panted after her. Nikki was too busy barreling through life to notice silly things like men and Rachel couldn’t be bothered, too intent on her job and her clients. Well, and her wonderful husband now.
Brianna shook her head, trying to keep herself in the present, remind herself that she was just as strong and capable and she had a story to hunt down. “I’m fine,” she told the stranger, trying to step around the still-leering man.