Chapter Eight

Courtney looked at the door. This is it, my first meeting with the biggest tenant we have. She wasn’t nervous, really, although she was a bit anxious to see how the two men would react to having new stipulations put on the contracts. Then, she made split second decision to let them state the agreement on a separate sheet of paper and sign it, without being specific, instead of what she’d originally planned. What was she thinking? If she made them sign something that specific, they would think she was trying to trap them and that would not be a good idea. You didn’t need to have previous contact with the mob to know that.

The knock on the door came again and she looked up. You can’t put this off forever, she told herself. It’s just a business meeting.

“The door’s open.” Courtney stated, putting her pen down on the desk in front of her as the two men walked into the feminine office. Looking up, the first man she saw had light olive skin and the darkest eyes she’d ever seen in her life. He was dressed in a suit, which she assumed was his usual way of dressing since he looked so comfortable in it. This must be Mr. Corinthos.

Behind him stood a man not dressed in a suit, but instead jeans and a blue t-shirt, accompanied by a leather jacket. She knew instantly whom it was even before seeing his face and her heart nearly stopped. He was Jason Morgan, co-partner in Morgan-Corinthos coffee. Stay professional, she chastised herself. Get through this and then you can think about it later. Normally, she wouldn’t have to tell herself to do so, but this time she did and it was quite a change.

“Good morning. You must be Mr. Corinthos and Mr. Morgan.”

~*~

He’d walked into the room behind Sonny and found himself in her presence once again. Not that he minded. But, here she was, and she was the new owner and president of Phillips-Matthews. Oh boy, he thought to himself as he looked at her. He saw a glimmer of recognition spark in her eyes as the fell on him, but just as quickly as it’d come, it was gone.

Morgan, pull yourself together. Business first, personal life later, he said to himself again as he shoved his feelings so far down in his heart that he couldn’t feel. The way it should be.

~*~

“Ms. Matthews, nice to meet you.” Sonny Corinthos said, giving her his hand to shake. She smiled and said “Yes, you too.”

Just as confidently, she held her hand out to the other man in the room, and as he took it, an electric shock wove itself through her body. Ignore it, she said silently, only hoping that her body could do what the logical part of her was instructing.

“Please, have a seat.” She pointed them to the two leather chairs that sat in front of her desk as she walked around to her own chair. As she did so, she could feel Mr. Morgan’s eyes on her. This is going to be an interesting meeting. Courtney picked up the file folder on her desk as they took their seats, tentatively. She was in control, she was running the show and they were waiting to see what she would tell them concerning their contracts.

“As you know, I’m the new president of this company and my family owns it. I’m well aware that your coffee business has been using many and most of our piers for many years. Am I correct?”

Sonny Corinthos nodded his head, telling her that she was right on track. The woman didn’t seem to be too bad so far. He could even like her if she was this way all the time and kept herself out of his way and didn’t interfere with the way his business was run. If she did, they would have to do something about it.

This was getting off to a good start, she thought. Let’s just hope it stays that way. “I went over the contracts and found them to be satisfactory, for the most part.”

“For the most part?” It was Jason who spoke. What did she mean by that? A bad feeling had settled in his stomach and he shoved it away. No feelings allowed.

Courtney turned her gaze to the other man in the room, the man who held her heart. But, that couldn’t happen here. Not in her office. “Yes, Mr. Morgan, for the most part.” Taking the file and opening it, the blonde continued. “I’ve done my research since moving here and looking over the contracts for the first time. And, I’m sure you know what I discovered.”

Sonny knew precisely what the woman was talking about, and so did Jason. It wasn’t hard to figure out in this city, where everyone knew his name and knew about his suspected connections. But, would this woman take his piers and try to stop him? “So, are you going to pull the leases?” His voice was harsh and cold. The thought of that made him want to yell, but he had to keep his cool or else he’d lose them for sure.

Jason was relaxed and tried not to let this get to him. If Ms. Matthews pulled the leases, it would make it a lot easier for Faith Rosco to push herself in somehow and those results would be much harder to deal with. Please don’t pull the leases, he silently begged her.

Courtney sighed. Corinthos was pushing this at a faster pace than he needed to and she told him so. “And, as to your question, I am not pulling the leases but, I have two new stipulations for you. If you don’t agree to these then I will pull them.”

Courtney watched the men’s faces, searching for any sign of what their reaction would be. Morgan just kept his ice stare plastered to his features and Sonny Corinthos offered her a blank one, his chocolate eyes not even focused on her, even while he was looking at her face. “What are the stipulations?” he asked, hoping that they wouldn’t be a big deal and would be pretty basic.

She was relieved. It looked as if Corinthos was attempting to compromise with her, or was open to it. A very good sign. “Well, I know that you can’t just be shipping coffee through those piers, not if you’ve got mob ties. So, the first stipulation would be for you to tell me what you’re shipping besides coffee.”

“What?” Sonny yelled. “You want me to tell you if and what I’m shipping besides coffee? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Mr. Corinthos, I may be a woman but I am most certainly not stupid. That is the first stipulation. Tell me what it is and I will let you sign this contract as soon as you agree to the second one, also.”

Sonny stood and faced her. “You just get here and you’re already working with the police department? Huh? Already trying to bring me down?”

Courtney glared at the man with the most piercing stare she could ever remember giving anyone in her life. This wasn’t going as smoothly as she’d thought it would in the beginning. Of course, she had known that they wouldn’t be pleased about the conditions, but that she would go to the police?

“Mr. Corinthos, have a seat, please. I have no idea why you would think I’d want to turn you in to the police but, let me assure you, I have no desire to do so, nor am I working for them to bring you down.” Courtney informed him, a hard edge in her voice, clearly telling him that he was in her office and that this was where she was the boss, not him.

Jason sat back as he watched his partner and this woman exchange words. Of course, he saw why Sonny would be suspicious of this new ‘rule’. If anyone knew what they did, outside of the people in the business, they could easily go to the PCPD and Scott Baldwin at any point in time and get them locked up. Not even Carly knew what Jason and Sonny did beyond coffee. Hell, they were pretty sure that she didn’t know that the coffee wasn’t the only thing that they were involved in. But, the spiky haired, hard muscled man just watched as she battled with Sonny and he threw things back at her. He didn’t need to get involved, yet. Besides, he liked the view he was getting of his dream woman, even if his emotions were stuffed down.

“Why do you need to know what we import, hypothetically speaking?” Sonny inquired. The woman did seem as if she could be trusted, like she just wanted to conduct her business, but he wasn’t about to give in until he was completely sure. Morgan and Corinthos would have to consult before making any final decisions, no matter what they were.

Courtney continued to look Corinthos straight in his eye as she spoke. “Hypothetically speaking, if I am correct, I want to know because it’s my property and you lease it from me. I have a right to know what goes out and what comes in inside every single shipment that touches those docks.” She paused before continuing. “Do not mistake me for a weak fool, Mr. Corinthos, who doesn’t know how to run this company, someone you can push over. I ran the sister company in San Francisco from the day I turned nineteen to the day I left a few days ago. I know what I’m doing.”

Courtney was angry at the arrogance of the man who stood before her, wanting to sign another lease for the piers. She wanted nothing more than to pull the leases right then and there, but that would be an emotional decision, one that she knew could ultimately destroy the company. Emotional decisions and desires were not to be acted on when it came to business; she’d learned that from Perry as soon as she started working. And this was not the time to make one. If anyone’s decision affected whether or not the contracts held my Morgan-Corinthos coffee would be pulled, it would be the men themselves.

Courtney noticed how the other man, the man she loved, just sat in the leather chair and watched the confrontation between her and his business partner. IN a way, it annoyed her, but she knew that just by the way he acted that this was something he was letting Corinthos negotiate, for once in his life. From what she’d read, Morgan’s role was mainly to go to meetings on behalf of the both of them, among other things. But now, he was going to let the other man do the job.

“What’s the other stipulation?” Sonny requested, biting down on his bottom lip. Tings could get messy if the other condition was like the first. He had to know what it was before he decided.

“This one isn’t so bad, I wouldn’t think. I know that your business could cause violence. This stipulation is that there is no violence initiated by you on the-“

“What! You expect us to guarantee that?”

It took all Courtney had to restrain herself again from reaching over the desk and slapping the man across his face. “Mr. Corinthos, if you would have let me finish, you wouldn’t have even had to ask that. Stop interrupting before I throw you out of this office and negotiate with Mr. Morgan instead,” the blond threatened. Corinthos was irritating her even further with his pompous attitude. He was lucky that she knew how to keep her emotions in check when it came to decision-making.

The chocolate-eyed man glared right back at the tiny woman, incredulous that she could put such a condition in the contract when she claimed that she knew that they dealt with more than just coffee. “Fine, finish what you were going to say,” he responded at her harsh chastising. The needed to get done and over with as soon as possible so he and Jason could decide what they were going to do. This was one thing they didn’t want or need to get bigger than it already was, especially with Faith around.
“I don’t need your permission to speak. The stipulation is that you cannot initiate any violence on any of the piers. You cannot kill someone, shoot at someone or blow something up on that property. The exception is if it’s self-defense, as in if someone’s shooting at you and you have to shoot back to keep you life. That doesn’t mean that if someone blows up something on the pier, you retaliate the next day. No violence from you and your lease will be fine and will stay intact. If not, well, you’ll be shopping for new piers and I’ll do business with someone who is more reasonable. Are we clear on what the stipulations are?”

Jason Morgan was surprised at how vicious she was when it came to business. He hadn’t expected it, even if she was fiery. There weren’t very many people who would be able to stand up to his boss after he yelled at them, but she did. A glimmer of fear hadn’t even entered her eye or come across her face as he’d done so. Her face had remained confident and beautiful; nothing had changed with her and Sonny’s confrontation.

“I get it.” Sonny replied. “How about I agree to the second one and we forget about the first?”

Jason almost laughed out loud, but the situation was too serious. Sonny had absolutely no negotiating skills, or maybe he didn’t have any when it came to women who laid down the law for him and refused to budge. Either way, Jason was amused.

Courtney sighed, exasperated with the man. “Mr. Corinthos, no, I will not even think about allowing that. I think I have a right to know what you are working with on my piers. Obviously, if you get caught, you’d go to jail. If it’s that serious, I want to know what it is. It’s my right as the owner of the property.”

The room fell silent as Sonny sat down in the leather chair, completely unsure of what he would do about this. On one hand, if he signed that contract and whatever other paper he knew she’d want him and Jason to sign, they would keep the piers, but the downside would be that she would have enough information to turn them in to the police, even if that wasn’t what she wanted to do right now. On the other hand, if he didn’t sign, those piers would be lost and Faith Rosco could easily move in and he and Jason would have pretty much have helped her rise to power, not to mention that Morgan-Corinthos would also have to take the time to find new piers and that was something they just didn’t have with Rosco’s viper around.

But, the thought of this woman actually working for either the PCPD or the federal government would not remove itself from the front of his brain. Was he willing to take that risk?

Sonny finally looked up from staring at the floor to find Courtney sitting at her desk, staring intently at him as if she had been doing so to try to will him into looking up at her. Jason had gotten out of his seat and walked around the office, looking at all the random decorations that occupied the shelves and window ledges. Sitting in the chair had gotten boring for him,

“So, Mr. Corinthos, what’s it going to be? Accept or decline the stipulations?”