“Will you give me a couple of minutes with him before you barge in?”
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S t u a r t W o o d s
“Yeah, sure, but move your ass.”
Stone hung up and went into the kitchen, where something smelled good. “I have to go out for a few minutes. It’s business. Will you forgive me?”
“If you hurry,” she said.
He kissed her and ran for his car. Five minutes later he was walking into Louie’s. He looked around the restaurant but didn’t see Keating, then he walked outside to the bar area and saw him seated, alone, at a table by the water. He walked over to the table and sat down.
“Now listen …” Keating said.
“No, you listen.” Stone took a card from his wallet and wrote his cell phone number on the back. “Here’s how you can get in touch with me.”
Keating looked at the card on the table but didn’t pick it up. “I don’t want to get in touch with you. Now, leave.”
“How would you like to have twenty-one million dollars?” Stone asked.
“You’re going to give me twenty-one million dollars?”
“I think I told you this before, but your father is selling the company, and that’s your share of the proceeds.”
“That’s what my father says my share is?” Keating asked.
“It is.”
“Then it’s the wrong amount. My father is a liar and a thief, and if he’s offering me that much money, he owes me a lot more.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Why don’t you ask my Uncle Harry?”
“I didn’t know you had an Uncle Harry.”
“I don’t anymore; he’s dead.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mr. Barrington, my Uncle Harry is the one who made the company into what it is. My father had nothing to do with its success, and now that Uncle Harry is dead, he’s cashing in.”
“What about your grandfather? Can he still run it?”
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L o i t e r i n g w i t h I n t e n t
“My grandfather has Alzheimer’s; he’s in a home.”
“Do you have any interest in running the company?” Stone asked.
“Not in the least.”
“Then why don’t you just take the money?”
“I told you, my father is a liar and a thief. He made a drunk of my mother, and he probably murdered my Uncle Harry.”