Lonzo: Book 1 (Tycoon Series Book 1) (18 page)

Blackwell, a former Navy SEAL, was able to put two and two and finally pieced together how the pictures got leaked to the media. The origin of the pictures were traced from a post-office near the hotel where the Jordana was currently staying. But the most damning evidence was an actual log of a call she made from her hotel room to the offices of the tabloid which got the scoop on the story.

According to the editor who got the call, an unidentified woman called to ask if the paper was already in possession of the package containing the pictures. When the man gave the affirmation, the woman hung up.

That call led to the trace.

Lonzo recalled the things she said the last time he saw her. She sounded so outraged that she convinced him enough to drop his plans of reprisals. He almost apologized to the chit!

As he continued to read the dossier, he delved more into her beginnings—the unfiltered life history of Jordana Almueda.

She was rescued from her father by authorities after an anonymous tip came and alerted the police about a white slavery ring. Her father was arrested and she became the ward of the state. Her father later died in prison when he attempted to escape.

Jordana’s long-standing friendship with Leandro Bastian also became clear. Theirs was a partnership which began when they met in the government-ran orphanage in Sao Paolo.

Bastian was fourteen and Jordana was nine years old. The orphanage arranged for Jordana to live in a foster home. She stayed with her foster parents for almost a year until she was returned to the orphanage. The administrator was reportedly disappointed because the couple seemed keen to adopt the girl in the beginning. She was never placed in a foster family again.

The two became inseparable. Bastian acted as her protector until he turned seventeen. He left the orphanage with Jordana. The two lived off the streets of Sao Paolo and stayed in an abandoned warehouse with other kids from the favelas. They fed themselves by selling stuff to tourists and when times got really desperate, they would shoplift bread and fruit from the local market. Whenever they got caught, people would take one look at their malnourished bodies and forgave the two of them. No charges were ever filed during this period.

A policeman caught the two while Bastian was trying to teach Jordana how to hot wire a car. The policeman took them under custody but took a pity on them, especially Jordana.

The officer erroneously thought they were related. Under this misconception, the enforcer requested the juvenile judge to be lenient with Leandro. Surprisingly, the judge agreed and Leandro escaped jail time and rendered community service and voluntary work instead. While Leandro was paying penance for his mistakes, Jordana got hired as a waitress in a popular seaside café frequented by wealthy Brazillians and tourists.

This was where she caught the eye of Spike Fulton, a famous fashion photographer.

Fulton was still reeling from his recent and nasty divorce and went to Brazil for a vacation. He was also looking for a new muse to spark his artistry. His latest work was getting a lot of flak from fashion editors.

One look at Jordana that fateful day and Spike found his creative nirvana.

Unknown to her, he followed and shot pictures of her at the beach she frequented. He sent the pictures to his contacts in the States. Fashion scouts were very interested to meet the new ‘Ipanema’ girl. This didn’t surprise Spike at all. He knew Jordana had the x factor.

He finally approached her and asked if she would like to become a model but Jordana didn’t take him seriously. She declined countless of times. She thought he was a child pornographer, as there were a lot of exploitative characters in Rio de Janeiro. He managed to convince her when he showed her pictures he took of celebrities and models. She wouldn’t agree to go anywhere without Bastian, so Spike offered to take him with them .

Jordana went to the States first. She resided with Mel in his apartment in Manhattan. Leandro got his visa a few months later and all three lived together.

It was Spike who showed her the ropes in the very cutthroat world of fashion. He mentored her and shot her first editorials to build her portfolio. Jordana was a quick study. She had a signature walk and the camera loved her. Within a few months, Jordana was signed up by Ford and got enough bookings for her to start on her own. At the same time, his discovery of Jordana renewed Spike’s zeal to take beautiful pictures. Fashion editors began to ask for his services again.

Bastian, according to the report, took on multiple jobs, saving pennies to send himself to school. After he passed his GEDs, he refused to take any more dole-outs from Jordana or Spike.The man’s high equivalency scores qualified him for a full university scholarship and the rest was history. He earned double degrees in business management and civil engineering. The man was obviously smart.

The report mentioned that Bastian had a financial planning/management company and a real estate firm. He had handled Jordana’s financial affairs even before he stepped out of university. For the most part, Bastian was a solid and reputable financial planner. He handled the portfolios of high-profile clients, several of whom were celebrities.

Lonzo surmised that the scheme was hatched by the two. Bastian probably saw the massive opportunities if Jordana played and manipulated the media to their advantage. When the “virginity” issue came out and was latched by the gutter press, her name became bigger and in spite of the notoriety, a lot more lucrative. The sheer number of magazine covers alone validated she was a very hot commodity.

As he continued to read the comprehensive dossier, he understood why Leandro was driven to pimp Jordana to the media. In the previous years, the guy made a huge mistake that threatened to wipe him out completely. Bastian invested a huge part of his clients’ money, Jordana’s included, into a financial instrument held by the swindler of the century - Bernie Madoff. In addition, the bad performance of the real estate sector came during the time when most of Bastian’s mid-scale projects were about to finish. The investors, because of the credit crunch, bailed out on him, leaving him with a huge inventory with no prospective takers.

Lonzo studied the attached financial statements of Bastian’s companies and he immediately saw that the man’s debt ratios were climbing as more and more creditors refused to give him an extension or declined to restructure his maturing loans. In less than six months, the man would be in the red. Unless someone bailed him out, Bastian was facing bankruptcy in the imminent future.

This gave Lonzo immense satisfaction. Now, he got all the ammunition he needed. He looked forward to exacting his pound of flesh. Yes, he would have the lovely Jordana Almueda begging on her knees for mercy.

He planned on enjoying her first. He would use her until Thio handed over those shares. Once he got what he wanted, he’d cast her aside. Sweet revenge will be his.

He dialed his mobile and asked his pilot to prepare his private jet.

It was time he paid Jordana Almueda a visit.

Jordana was worried when Leandro failed to show up the following morning.
She tried calling him but he wasn’t picking up. She left him a message. After an hour, he called her back.

“Dana—”

“Where are you? You all right?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. My flight got delayed because of this monster storm. How are you?”

“I’m holed up here at the hotel. I can’t leave or else the paparazzi will have a field day.”

“The weather will probably clear up by tomorrow—”

“Look, it’s okay. Stay put. I’m safe here and it’s good.”

Leando didn’t comment on the other line.

“We’ll talk about it when I get there.”

When she finished the call, she felt a little lighter. Probably because she had decided to own up to her mistake. She would arrange for a press conference and stop hiding once Leandro got here. At least, only compromising pictures were circulated. She’d probably die in shame if it was a sex video. Besides, there was a silver lining to all of these.

“Darling, you got off better than poor ole Kate Moss,” Francesca mentioned last night. “She got caught with her panties down and coke dust on her nostrils. Shoddy, shoddy pictures!”

“Right. And people would search me on Google until I have grandkids. Not to mention it will be mentioned at my Wikipedia entry.”

“Well, at least it’s not a sex video! Look at poor Kim…her douchebag ex gave her the proceeds of their home-made porn show as a wedding gift! And at least you scored a billionaire! That was a major touchdown if you asked me—”

“Francesca!”

Her booker chuckled.

Francesca had a point, what happened to her wasn’t as bad as Kate Moss’ scandal
.
The supermodel got caught while snorting coke.

“Sweetheart, career-wise, this v-card and sex scandal did more good than harm to you. I have to turn down new clients because your schedule can’t accommodate it anymore! So suck it up. This will eventually die down.”

Now that the big runway shows were over, non-stop photo shoots will eventually follow. Francesca was seeing dollar signs this early on.

“At least the guy you went to bed with and who rid you of that pesky cherry…I’m quoting the tabloids there…sorry…is the yummiest, most elusive, well-endowed guy on the other side of the Atlantic! Uber rich, too. They just don’t make them like that anymore,” Francesca continued in a wistful, envious note.

Jordana didn’t know what to say to that.

Whether he had a hand in the distribution of the pictures, she knew that butting heads with someone as powerful as Lonzo Vitale would be hard. It was a small consolation that the press had yet to hear a word or two from his camp.

Francesca was right. Kate Moss’ return strategy would be the perfect foil to resolve this mess. She’d make “peace” with the press. She would apologize for the irresponsible remark she made a few months ago—the one that started this brouhaha. The public would forgive her, after all, to err is human. Hopefully, this storm shall pass. People nowadays got bored pretty easily. She was banking on that.

It was also time to make several resolutions and changes. She had learned her lesson the hard way.

She vowed this would be the last time she’d ever run to Leandro for help. Relying on her childhood friend had become a bad habit which she had to break. She was a grown woman. She was strong enough handle anything or anyone, be it problems or a human force of nature like Lonzo Vitale.

No more candid answers to the press.

Check.

She’d focus her energies on her career and social initiatives.

Check.

She’d steer from brooding, paranoid guys. Especially billionaires.

Check

She would look and date a decent, nice guy from now on. She wasn’t a virgin anymore. She had sex and enjoyed it. She didn’t have to act contrite about it.

Check.

And enough of holing herself inside hotel rooms!

Check.

For the first time in days, she smiled.

Feeling suddenly spontaneous from her newly-found sense of self, she felt like having dinner at the swanky restaurant downstairs to celebrate.

She was about to get ready when she heard someone knocking at the door.

Drat!

She remembered she ordered room service and wasn’t able to cancel!

She expected to see her assigned hotel butler when she opened the door. Her eyes widened as her smile froze on her lips.

The man whom she hated but also secretly wanted with every fiber of her being stood outside. He wore a dark tailored suit which made his handsome features more pronounced. His wicked green eyes went over her like she was his next meal. The memories of that night rushed back. She could still feel him vigorously thrusting inside her.

Lonzo Vitale.

“Hello,
bella
,” he greeted, his deep voice cool as ice.

“What...are you doing here? How did you get through hotel security?” she blurted in alarm.

“They have no choice but to let me through,” he answered lazily. “I own this hotel.”

She mentally kicked herself. That information didn’t pop in the Google search.

“What do you want?” she asked next.

“You,” he replied.

The pent-up emotions that she suppressed for weeks boiled to the surface.

“You’ve wasted your time. Stay away from me!” she said vehemently.

The man looked more amused than insulted. He laughed in that low, sensual tone that made her skin shiver in anticipation.

Anticipation for what?!

She moved to close the door in his face but he was too darn quick for her. Before she could blink, Lonzo was inside her room and had backed her behind the door. He flexed his arms and placed his palms flat on either sides of her head, caging her.

Her blood heated up as her body began to pulse and tremble. She was sickened at her violent physical reaction to him.

His jaw hardened as he continued to look down at her.

She lowered her eyelids, unable to withstand his fiery countenance. She wouldn’t let him see her vulnerability.