Page 38 of Let it Breathe
14
Donovan
The ringingin my ears wouldn't stop. I growled and reached for it, but when all I felt was the bed, I sat up. Big mistake, I realized as my head pounded. I squinted at the clock on the nightstand. It was nine am. We got back to the hotel around four, and five hours sleep wasn't nearly enough for the amount of work we put in yesterday.
I reached out with my hand. Chai lay on her side, away from me. Her ass pressed up against my hip. I ran my hand over her curves, and she reached back and squeezed my hand and then pushed it away.
"Make them stop," she said in a sleepy annoyed tone.
She covered her head with the blanket and groaned.
I leaned over and kissed her on the shoulder and crawled over her to get out of bed.
My phone was on the floor near the door. I’m glad I didn't drop it outside the door.
I unlocked it. I had two missed calls from Calvin.
I leaned against the small couch in the suite and called him back.
"Donovan, my man. Did I wake you?" Calvin's well-rested voice sang through the phone. He called to torture me.
"Yes, you woke me. It's early," I whispered. My head hurt.
"No, it's not. What did you do, stay up all night?" He chuckled.
"You know JJ. When you're out with him, he won't let you leave." I grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and downed half of it.
"Bet. Listen, how did your new girl fare? They showed you guys all huddled up looking cozy."
"She's perfect, as a matter of fact."
I grinned as I watched her sleep. Sprawled out on the bed, her thin tank top and boy shorts doing little to hid her gorgeous body. I wasn't that hungover.
"Listen, she there? We can talk about this later."
Calvin's tone dragged my attention away.
"Talk about what? What's wrong?" I asked.
"No, man. Shh," Calvin said. "It can wait until you get back."
I peeked at Chai and then went into the bathroom.
"No. It’s fine. Tell me. I'm alone."
"Looks like vineyard deal isn't going to work out. I found some discrepancies in the books, in the numbers. It looks like they have been losing more money than it appears, and it has some huge debt that would make it difficult to get out of in the short term. The long term, there was some mismanagement, and I would suspect it was CJ. Anyway, some money is unaccounted for and when you invest in a family business with shares owned by estates and ancestors over one hundred years, Donovan, man, it’s not worth it."
"Is this something Chai would have known about?" I asked, knowing the answer.
"No. I doubt it. As of late, he's been trying to put money back into it as quickly as he can, but he hasn't even made a dent yet. Must be why he's so anxious to sell it outright. For the right buyer, he could get it cheap and split it up and make his money back tenfold."
"Shit. She doesn't know anything about this." My heart broke for Chai. This would devastate her. "Fuck."
"If I were their business manager, I would advise them to sell, too," Calvin said. It was a simple business equation except it wasn't. For Chai, this was personal.
"Listen, thanks for looking into it. I'll hit you back when I get home."
"Okay. Safe flight. And Donovan?"
