The Player + The Pact = I Do (New York City Billionaires #2)

Chapter 1

ONE

Leo

I’m laughing so hard I almost miss the call I’ve been waiting for since I started my career. I don’t recognize the number, but something makes me swipe accept. I push my seat out from the table where I’ve been sitting with my five best friends.

“Just gotta take this,” I say as they ignore me. I step away but don’t leave the private room Worth has arranged for tonight’s dinner.

“Leo Hart,” I say as a pretty waitress enters carrying some of our appetizers. She’s cute. Blonde. Short. Full red lips and a nice arse. I make a mental note to find her later and see if she wants to get a late-night drink, and by drink, I mean come back to my place and get naked.

“It’s Jonathan from Property International ,” the caller on the other end of the phone says. Property International is a trade journal for people in the real estate business, and Jonathan is the longtime editor. They’ve done some interviews with me, but I’m not expecting a call from them .

“Hey, Jonathan,” I say, flashing a smile at the waitress. She smiles back and the glint in her eye tells me I know what—or rather, who—I’ll be doing later. “It’s been a while. How’s things?”

“I’m going to cut to the chase. I know you’re a busy man. As you know, the Property International annual awards are coming up next month.” My mind races ahead. He wants to tell me I’m nominated for Developer of the Year. Because I’m always nominated for Developer of the Year. I’ve won it more times than I’ve lost it.

“Awards season,” I say with a chuckle.

“We’re awarding you Developer of the Decade. Thought I’d give you plenty of warning so you can get your speech prepared.”

My breath catches for just a second, and I compose myself. “Wow,” I say. “Is this a new thing? I’m not sure I remember a Developer of the Decade award before.”

“Ten years ago, you weren’t a thing.”

It’s true. Ten years ago, I was buying and flipping one-bedroom apartments in New Jersey. Life looks different with a bit of runway in front of me and a few risky decisions that paid off behind me.

“Well, I’m very flattered. When’s the ceremony?”

“October,” Jonathan says. “It’s at the Plaza. We’re expecting it to sell out. Only 600 tickets and we have a new lead sponsor who’s really publicizing to their connections.”

Of course the announcement of my award comes with a not-so-subtle sales pitch. This awards ceremony is a money maker for the magazine, because everyone who’s nominated will buy a table for the low, low price of ten thousand dollars.

“Well, sign me up for a table of ten as usual.” I always bring members of my team .

“Great news,” Jonathan says. “And congratulations. You’re doing amazing things.”

“Er, thanks.” What other reaction is there to praise like that? I might have lived in America for nearly twenty years, but the British inside me still can’t take a compliment. I know I’m good at what I do. I know I started with nothing and now dominate Manhattan real estate development. I’m not quite sure how to react when someone plays that back to me.

We hang up and I go back to the table.

“Everything okay?” Bennett asks from beside me.

“Yeah, that was a guy who organizes the property industry awards. He called to tell me I’m going to be awarded Developer of the Decade.”

Bennett pats me on the back. “Congratulations, my friend.”

Fisher’s on the other side of me. “It’s not Hotelier of the Decade, that’s for sure. Bennett is whipping our asses at the moment.”

“He was living in the fucking hotel for months,” Jack says. “We still haven’t decided whether that was a breach of competition rules.”

I chuckle to myself at the lack of airtime my award gets me among my friends. It’s oddly comforting to know that nothing any of us can do will leave the others in awe. We’re equals. We don’t pander, we don’t flatter and we don’t lie to each other.

The six of us met at business school, where we set up an app to deliver prescription medicines to people’s homes as part of a group project. It made each of us a literal fortune. It meant I went from flipping tiny apartments in New Jersey to building tower blocks in Manhattan. When we sold out, we each bought a hotel as a side hustle so we had a continued connection and a way of competing that kept us bound together.

Problem is, Bennett’s hotel has been dominating for the last few years. I need to switch out the manager at my place. He’s old and tired. But he’s a safe pair of hands and I’m so busy, I don’t want to spend precious time overseeing someone new who’s more of a risk. It’s a problem for another day.

“That’s great,” Worth says. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I say.

“You taking a date?” Bennett asks.

I know he’s low-key worried about me since the last woman I dated turned out not to be who she said she was, but I’m more than over it. I’m not lacking for female company.

“Nah, it’s a work thing. I’ll take the team.” And I doubt I’ll leave alone , I don’t add.

“What’s that?” Byron calls from the other side of the table, where he’s been engrossed in his phone. “I feel like I missed something.”

“Leo is being awarded Developer of the Decade at the Property International Awards,” Bennett says.

“Leo,” he says in a chastising tone. “Did you create these awards?”

“You’re a bloody comedian, Byron,” I answer. “You should actually give up your day job and start touring with that act.”

“Looks legit,” Jack says, holding out his phone to the table. It’s the awards web page. “Wow, the sponsor is Hammonds.” He shoots me a glance. I try to ignore the shiver that passes through my body every time I hear that name.

Hammonds is the new sponsor ?

Why would they sponsor the awards? Frank Hammond never spends money on stuff like that. He’s an archetypal Scrooge. I unclench my jaw and shrug. “They try to win my business from time to time,” I say.

“Do you laugh in their face?” Jack asks.

I shake my head. “I enjoy their wasted efforts.”

Bennett chuckles.

“Have I missed something?” Fisher asks. “I feel like I’m not in on the joke.”

“Well, first, it wouldn’t be the first time,” Bennett says. “And second, it’s not a joke.”

I see Jack nudge Fisher, but he doesn’t get the hint that he’s meant to be shutting up to spare my feelings. But it’s fine. I think. It’s been a long time. I don’t need my feelings spared.

“Hammonds is Caroline Hammond’s father’s real estate agency,” I say to Fisher.

“Ohhh,” Fisher says. “Sorry, mate. I didn’t do the math.”

“It’s fine.”

“You won’t have to deal with them, will you?” Bennett asks.

I shake my head. “No, they’re just the sponsor. And anyway, I run into Mr. Hammond every now and then. He has no clue who I am.” Or maybe he does and he likes to pretend he doesn’t. I might have dated his daughter for two years but we were never officially introduced.

“Really?” Bennett asks. “You ever want to tell him?”

I think about it for a second. “No. I’d much prefer he thought I was a developer he or his firm might do business with at some point. I quite like the way he sucks up. It’s not subtle.”

“The ultimate revenge,” Fisher says, grinning.

But it doesn’t feel like revenge. There’s no satisfaction in seeing the man who made me feel two inches tall from my current vantage point. Despite dating his daughter for nearly two years, I never met him when I was younger. The closest we ever came to a face-to-face meeting was when I told his minion to fuck off after he offered me money—on Frank’s behalf—to get out of his daughter’s life.

Now, whenever I run into him, I still get a physical urge to punch the man. But it wouldn’t achieve anything. All I’d prove to him is that I’m still the boy he thought I was at eighteen. And I’m not that boy. I never was. I was better than Frank Hammond then, and I’m better than him now.

And his daughter never deserved me.