He shook his head. “Kit, this sucks. You know this sucks and I hate doing this, right?”
She chuckled. “Yes, I do know that, Jon. And I agree that it sucks. I would be doing the same thing if I were in your shoes. You have my word. I willingly let it go, just tell me what I need to do.”
He went into detail of the procedures that were to come and the paperwork she would be signing the following week that would be messengered over to her house. He then smiled. “Now for the good news. I get to recommend my replacement. The board has required I have a short list of three candidates for CEO. They’ve all been vetted. You are my top candidate. You’re my frontrunner. If you want it.”
The smile was slow to spread across her face, yet in a knee jerk reaction, she found herself blurting out, “Yes, I want it,” without taking much time to consider what she was jumping into. The moment the words left her lips, she felt her stomach knot up, twisting and turning, raising guttural red flags that immediately elevated her anxiety and startled her.
She laughed nervously and continued seeing that Jonathan was eagerly awaiting her next question. “When does the position start?”
She desperately wanted to deflect the conversation now, feeling suffocated and very confused as to why her intuition was negatively heightened over a discussion of her being the CEO of Diamond Records. It’s what she had been aiming for since she landed in L.A. Even Joe had seen it in her future.
She urgently found a suitable direction change. “You didn’t mention when you’re making the move over to Diamond Pictures.”
He took a sip of his water. “Q1. This is contingent on things staying as proposed. Like you mentioned, there are rumors.”
She nodded. “Q1 makes sense. That gives you roughly two quarters to tie things up and transition. Makes sense. So are these the rumors of Diamond Entertainment being acquired by Majestic? How would that work?”
He shook his head. “I don’t exactly know, but there are bigger fish than us in this industry and they could acquire us and absorb it with no problems. It would be a massive buy out.”
She frowned. “But I thought Lew said he would never sell.”
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows. Chris has been in his ear a lot lately. I don’t know what that’s about. There have been offers over the last few months. Little nibbles. Chris has more controlling shares than me in the company. In a shareholder vote, he and my dad have more weight than me and my dad.”
Kit chuckled. “How the hell did that happen?”
Jonathan rolled his eyes. “He’s ten years older than me. He’s technically my step-brother. His mom was Lew’s first wife, not Sherri, who you know and who’s my mom. His first wife died in childbirth. He raised Chris with nannies for several years and then he met my mom and she stepped in as his new mom.
He surveyed the room before continuing. “Chris has his own finance company. Out of grad school he worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years. You knew that, didn’t you? Hell, his finance company puts up serious cash for Diamond Pictures. He moves a lot of capital for both entities. His company goes out on the limb for us quite a bit.”
He paused and took a sip of his water. “That being said, he is a king asshole and his net worth is ten times what mine is, but I respect him. He has helped my dad make a lot of money with this company being structured properly and doing highly strategic investments, mergers and acquisitions in the right timing, previously. Diamond Entertainment wouldn’t be a quarter of its size if he hadn’t stepped in. He just doesn’t have much of a heart or one iota of creativity. He’s a money and power hungry hard facts, logical to a fault, numbers guy. Anyway, with my dad heading into chairman position, they’re really crunching numbers and Chris is getting aggressive.”
Jonathan was about to continue when the hostess approached and brought the phone to the table, indicating that he had a call. He exchanged a look with Kit and took the receiver.
Kit watched him carefully, noticing an immediate shift in his demeanor from normal to uneasy. He wiped his brow and closed his eyes, shaking his head. He rested his forehead on his thumb and forefinger speaking in hushed tones that were inaudible to Kit. The only phrase she heard was “how much?”
He hung up and seconds later, the hostess appeared removing the phone from their table. He forced a grin. “Sorry.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Are you ok, Jon? You don’t look so good.”
He let out a long sigh. He shifted in his seat and met her eyes. “C’mon, let’s go. I’ve already paid the check. I’ll tell you in the car, away from ears. This town talks and this is one of those restaurants where there could be someone lurking, just waiting.”
She nodded and moments later, the valet had retrieved Jonathan’s Mercedes S-Class. They both remained silent as he made his way back up to Kit’s estate.
Once settled in her entertainment room, scotch in hand as prepared by Ariana the moment they arrived at Kit’s immediate instruction, he took a sip and looked at her. “This cannot leave this room. At least, not yet.”
She nodded. “Of course. Jonathan this isn’t the first time we’ve traded secrets. My assistant is out to lunch and my housekeeper is sworn to secrecy. You’re safe.” She patted his knee. “What’s up?”
He swallowed hard. “I may lose almost everything.”
Kit was taken aback
