Bel-Air Dead (Stone Barrington 20)

“Yes, to your first question; no, to your second. My life isn’t here anymore. I would still enjoy visiting, but having a house in his new hotel would make me feel at home when I’m back here.”

“All right, let me make a suggestion.”

“Again, shoot.”

“Sign the contract, and let me decide tomorrow afternoon whether to tear it up or go through with the sale, depending on circumstances.”

“I trust you that much,” she said. “After all, if the sale doesn’t go through, I can still build my own hotel on the property.”

“Woodman amp; Weld could partner you with the right hotel group on that. You’d need professional management, anyway. You don’t actually want to run a hotel, do you?”

“Oh, God, no! I just want to be able to complain about the service and get instant results.”

“I think we can guarantee that,” Stone said, laughing.

“What if I end up in business with Prince?” she asked. “Am I going to like that?”

“You’ll never have to see or speak to him,” Stone said. “I’ll take care of that. Also, I’ve been on his hotel company’s website, looking at his properties, and they’re all top-notch. I’ve stayed at two or three of them, and they were all beautifully run.”

“Okay. You decide tomorrow.”

Stone handed her the document and a pen, and she signed it. “He’s put in an early closing date of this Friday, noon, and if he misses that, his twenty-five million are yours.”

Dino came out of the guesthouse and joined them. “Witness this, will you?” Stone said, passing him the document and the pen.

Dino signed the document with a flourish. “There you are.” “What does your day hold?” Stone asked him, slipping t

he document and the check into his briefcase.

“Rivera and I are working on something,” Dino said.

“What are you working on?”

“It’s a secret for the time being,” Dino said smugly. “You’ll know when you need to know.”

“You’re very mysterious, Dino,” Arrington said.

“Yes, I am,” Dino replied, smiling.

Stone’s cell phone rang. “Hello?”

“Stone, it’s Harvey Stein. I’m sorry, but I was down at Palm Springs for the weekend, and I didn’t get your message until this morning.”

“Thanks for calling back, Harvey. I’ve heard some rumblings about Jim Long’s trying to back out of our stock sale.”

“Well, it’s too late for him to do that, isn’t it? Mrs. Calder owns the stock now. What’s done is done.”

“Harvey, you know Barbara Eagle, don’t you?”

“I’ve met her a couple of times; she and Jim are close.”

“She’s back in town, and last night she had dinner with Terry Prince. You know anything about that?”

“Not a thing,” Stein replied.

“Did you speak with Jim over the weekend?”

“Yes, I called him yesterday from Palm Springs, just to see how he was doing, and he sounded much like his old self.”