those of you whose schedule is nine to five, so I’ll get right to the point of my visit.” A perfectly timed dramatic pause. “I hope you’re as optimistic as I am about the new state of affairs, and will find working under the Balducci umbrella a rewarding experience, scientifically and financially.”
He spread a prompting smile around the room and Lili saw everyone grin back at him like hypnotized fools.
Without taking his eyes off the assembly, he gestured to someone she realized had been behind him all along. The shorter man in turn directed four people behind him to come forward. They had piles of folders, which they passed around the room. When it was her turn to receive one, she stared down at the inch-thick glossy volume graced with Balducci’s distinctive serpent logo.
“In your hands is comprehensive info on Balducci’s operations,” he explained. “As well as the mission statement for its new merger with your facility.” Merger, huh? Big of him to call his incursion that. “Until you read everything in detail, let me give you a brief summation.
“I founded Balducci R & D to furnish the world with visionary medical solutions. A dynamic, adventurous and fast-paced researching, manufacturing and distribution organization specializing in state-of-the-art products and technologies in a number of leading medical fields. My aim remains to provide the medical community with unparalleled clinical products that set the trend in medicine. For six years, Balducci has been the primary supplier, to hospitals, clinics and research institutions, of advanced medical solutions in a variety of fields. With a constantly growing global team of the best the world has to offer in their disciplines, which I’m proud for you to be a part of now, we provide exceptional value, service and support much above the industry standard. And we achieve the highest customer retention rates in every market we currently dominate. But there are new frontiers I aim to conquer.” Yeah, just what she’d figured. “And this is where you come in.”
Everyone sat up, taking even closer notice. The man really had masterful timing and delivery.
When he’d made sure everyone was hanging on his every breath, he went on, “I don’t need to tell you that your team is composed of some of the most avant-garde researchers of our time. I have no doubt you’re well aware of your individual and collective worth. I certainly am best equipped to know it. I’m still suffering from the very sizable hole in my assets it took to acquire your services.”
As chuckles of pleasure spread through the room, Lili’s hackles rose higher. What was wrong with her colleagues? They were proud they had a price? Sure, he pretended “acquiring their services” had taken a toll on him, but they all knew this was untrue. The man was worth over a dozen billion dollars!
Then he spoke again, dousing her new spurt of irritation.
“The methods and results you’ve contributed to the medical community working with limited funding and resources is nothing short of astounding. Each and every one of you is exactly the kind of unique-approach, enterprising scientist that Balducci covets. As you’ll see from the documents you have in your possession now, each of you has been assigned to a project I believe you’re most suited for, where you’ll have anything you could possibly want to make progress in it, and hopefully reach a breakthrough. And let me be clear. By anything, I do mean anything. My assistants will be available to provide any of your needs. But my own door is always open if what you need is too ambitious, as I hope all your work with me will be.”
By the time he finished, she was gaping again.
The man was overpowering. Velvet over steel over an enigma. Not only the most magnificent male she’d ever seen, but the most persuasive, too.
What he’d outlined was every scientist’s fairy tale come true. Unlimited resources to be as adventurous as they wished, caring only about the work, while funding and feasibility were being taken care of by dedicated experts with access to bottomless pockets and powered by limitless ambition. His.
He’d almost convinced even her. Almost.
But if she had to fight his hypnosis with all she had, she had no doubt the others were already in his thrall. A darting glance noted the glassy eyes of those who no longer questioned that his decreed path was the one to tread. Even Brian had a budding hero-worship expression on his face.
“That would all be well and good, if you were offering to fund our projects, not yours.”
It wasn’t until everyone swung to gape at her as if she’d thrown a grenade on the table that she realized she’d spoken.
And she did it again, without intending to.
“In your R & D career, you’ve consistently ignored basic research, what has produced centuries of history-changing breakthroughs, spawned whole industries and disciplines in medicine. You’ve also ignored the kind of research we do, of untrendy ailments that don’t provoke public or market interest. You’ve overlooked necessary research for a jumble of popular, feel-good, cash-cow fields like the cosmetic and weight-loss industries.”
The elusive smile that had been hovering on his lips suddenly froze.
All her blood followed suit.
Her heart thudding, she wished for some cosmic rewind button so she could erase what she’d just said.
Why had she spoken at all? She’d already found out her worst-case scenario would come to pass and they’d be herded wherever he wished. She didn’t do posturing confrontations. She knew her power, or rather, lack thereof. So why hadn’t she kept her big mouth shut and just tendered her resignation in silence?
Before she could draw another breath into her constricted lungs, he turned his head in her direction and impaled her on the lasers he had for eyes.
And all she could think was...uh-oh.
Lili’s heart plummeted as the world emptied of everything but this overwhelming entity who had her in his crosshairs.
Before she obeyed the flight mechanisms that screamed for her to run, tossing a “Don’t bother firing me, I quit” over her shoulder, Antonio Balducci started talking, pinning her down even more.
“As my reconstructive surgeries do incorporate an aesthetic element, I do invest in the development and manufacture of all aesthetic disciplines and products.”
His voice. That perfectly modulated melody of cultured lethality. A glacial sound of hair-raising beauty. Pouring all over her like a freezing/searing deluge.
Oh, crap. She hadn’t thought this through. Hadn’t thought at all. That bitter outburst had just...well, burst out of her. What if he got verbally combative?
She’d flay him right back, that was what. Before she ran.
But before she snatched the next breath, still transfixing her with that impossibly blue stare, he went on, serene and far more menacing because of it, “As you’ll see from the info I provided, only twenty percent of my operations focus on the ‘popular, feel-good, cash-cow’ side of my specialty.”
Whoa. He was quoting what she’d said. When she’d thought he’d only realized she’d been talking—and criticizing him openly—just before her tirade ended.
But he hadn’t only heard her, he’d memorized what she’d said.
