Free Winner Takes It All by Karen Mason Page B

lot cheaper and easier to convert
this place than the department store, but Alex just couldn’t summon
up the enthusiasm about it that she felt for the shell in Church
Street. She could just imagine how Michael would laugh at her
taking on such a huge project when he was already setting up a deal
with Georgiou Dimitrious to buy a cheap airline called Wings that
was dying on its feet and ripe for reinvention.
    They left the hotel and
Roy Reid once again shook hands with everyone, thanking them for
their time.
    ‘ I’ll be in
touch,’ Alex said. ‘I’m off to Spain to view some land but when I
come back I’ll let you know of my decision.’
    ‘ The Staples
is a more expensive proposition,’ Reid said. ‘But the conversion
costs will be much less.’
    ‘ I know. As I
said, I’ll get back to you.’
    Reid left and it started
to rain. Jack, Alex and Mel darted into a nearby pub. The girls
found a table, while Jack fetched the drinks.
    ‘ What do you
think?’ Mel asked.
    ‘ I like the
first one,’ Alex said.
    ‘ It’d cost
millions to smarten that place up Al. Are you mad?’
    ‘ Maybe, but
there was something about it that just grabbed me. I’ve got thirty
million to play with. It won’t take ten million to do up that
hotel, surely.’
    ‘ Close to I’d
say. If I was you I’d go with the other one.’
    Jack returned with the
drinks and this time sat next to Alex. She shivered girlishly as
his meaty leg brushed against hers. He didn’t even seem aware that
it had happened.
    ‘ So what one
did you prefer?’ he asked her.
    ‘ The shell,’
she smiled sheepishly. ‘I bet you think I’m mad too?’
    ‘ Not at all.
You can make your mark on it.’
    ‘ What do I do
now?’ she asked.
    ‘ Well you need
to buy it for a start. Get a proper survey done; find out how much
it’s really worth. Then we need to make plans about what to do with
it.’
    ‘ Okay, well
I’m appointing you Project Manager,’ Alex said. ‘I’ll arrange for a
proper contract to be drawn up while I’m in Spain.’
    ‘ I’m very
flattered,’ Jack smiled. ‘But I’ve still got my own business to
run.’
    ‘ I understand
that, but do you think you could find time to help me
too?’
    ‘ How could I
refuse?’ he smiled enigmatically. ‘Let me get the ball rolling for
you, we’ll go from there.’

    Six
     
    As Tom drove down the A23
in the brand new Alfa Romeo given to him by Jackson, he
contemplated his new life. Sorcha had let him move into a little
flat she owned in Knightsbridge, leaving his old house alone to his
lodgers. Jackson had given him a crash course on all the right
designers to dress in and a big allowance to go and buy their
clothes. Then had come the car and also Sadie. As soon as she’d got
back to England, she’d stopped by and started their relationship
where they’d finished it in New York. She was kinky and passionate
and even though she wasn’t the nicest of girls, Tom realised that
if he was to inherit his true worth, he’d be expected to marry
someone like her.
    And today he was to begin
his mission to destroy the branch of his family that had ruined the
Sheridans. The more he looked at it, the more unfair it all seemed.
This Louisa O’Connell had apparently pretended to be friends with
his great aunt Briggy and all the time schemed and plotted behind
her back to buy the company off her just so she could put her
Cusack son in at the helm. This may have happened back in the early
1970s but that was irrelevant, her actions still had an effect on
all of their lives today. Well, Tom hoped he could help put things
back in their right order.
    Tara Eades had agreed to
interview him after some heavy PR work on his behalf by Tarrant
Hanratty. They’d warned him that she was a rather difficult girl
but this didn’t come as a surprise to Tom. From what he’d been told
about that side of the family, it seemed they all did whatever they
could to create trouble. Sorcha put it down to them having