“I might be a bastard,” Blair said. “But I’m not stupid. I’ll come out of this with my hands clean.”
“By placing all the blame on Stinger, I suppose?” Eleanor asked.
But Blair wasn’t listening. He was staring threateningly at Joseph. “There’s still the matter of your brother Ivan, isn’t there?”
“Ah, so you know all about that then?” Joseph said. “And what of him?”
He shrugged. “Well, I have a front page to fill tomorrow and my chief editor has just been arrested. Obviously I won’t be reporting that. It would be a pity if your brother’s secrets all came out by accident. We do have a duty to report the news, you know.”
“Are you blackmailing me?” Joseph asked.
“Retract your accusation. Say it was bullshit. And I’ll protect your brother. Do we have a deal?”
A huge grin spread over Joseph’s handsome face. He lowered his voice. “Actually, Blair, one of your private investigators told us all about your illegal immigrant parents. So I suggest you keep your information about my family to yourself, and I’ll do the same for yours. Do we have a deal?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Joseph straightened his tie and shook hands with the realtor. “Well, thanks for letting us have a look around.”
“No problem, Mr Quinlan. I’ll leave you and your brothers to explore. I’ll be back in an hour. I apologise again for the double-booking.”
“It’s no problem.”
The realtor left and Joseph grinned at Adam and Dylan. He felt as professional as them in his suit today. His royalties had come through yesterday and he was keen to buy this old office building on the outskirts of the city as soon as possible – where he planned to run his own record company and music academy. The building was on two levels – up here were the offices, and downstairs was a dance studio, which Joseph planned to turn into a recording studio. The laminate flooring gave it a modern feel, and the magnolia walls could be covered in photos of bands and cover-art from albums. It was in disrepair up here at the moment – the old carpet would need to be ripped out, and the old desks would be replaced with new furniture. But after that he planned to hire some top music tutors to teach aspiring talent, and set up funding for students who struggled to pay the fees.
“This place should be perfect,” he said. “Just needs a lick of paint. And some refurbishment.”
“You gonna take it, then?” Dylan asked.
“I want Ellie to see it first.”
“Speaking of Ellie,” Adam said. “I heard all charges have been dropped against Blair Robertson. I guess it was inevitable.”
Dylan shrugged. “Yeah, but at least the cops are finally doing a thorough investigation of News Scape. A proper one this time.”
“And corrupt journalists are being arrested on a daily basis,” Joseph said, feeling as if he’d won the gold medal in the game of life. “It’s far from over for Robertson. Ellie’s running late because she’s interviewing a guy who’s saying Robertson’s been suppressing negative stories about his advertisers for years. It’s all very well him throwing his staff to the lions, but he’ll get found out for all the shit he’s done eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Adam opened his mouth to reply, but all three men were distracted by the gorgeous blonde who breezed in and halted at the dilapidated reception desk like a sunbeam on a cloudless day. She oozed confidence, dressed in her two-piece pinstripe suit and heels. Her hair was scraped back into a bun and she seemed to radiate from within – knowing she was great at what she did, and confident that what she did was in line with her values.
“I’m looking for Quinlan Records,” she said coolly. “I was told I might find a good story here.”
Joseph smirked and shook his head. “The press just seem to follow me everywhere, don’t they?”
“At least she’s from a decent paper,” Dylan said with a smirk. “The New York Times, no less.”
Joseph gazed lovingly at his sexy fiancée. She smirked into his eyes and strutted over to join them. She halted beside Joseph and kissed him on the cheek. Then she inspected his brothers. “Hello, Dylan and Adam.”
Joseph was impressed by how much power she commanded. Somehow the sentence ‘hello, Adam and Dylan’ had translated in mid-air into ‘you two can get lost now I’m here’. And the most amazing thing was, they seemed to be succumbing.
Adam glanced at Dylan. “We’d better get back to work.”
“Sure,” Dylan said. “Don’t forget we’re picking up Ivan from the airport later.”
“How could I forget?” Joseph said. “I can’t wait for him to meet Ellie.”
Joseph watched his brothers leave, then he wrapped Eleanor in arms. “What do you think?”
She grinned. “Not bad – very kissable lips and a near-perfect body.”