Back Room Deals

As soon as Valentina ran to her room, Kaiser unwillingly let Roman into the house. Roman immediately dashed inside before collapsing on the floor.

"Brother, how could you leave me out in the cold? What if I get kidnapped? And you changed the locks yet again? Do you not love your one and only brother?"

"Noisy. I'll kick you out if you don't shut up." Kaiser coldly told him as he examined this unwanted intruder.

"Hmph. Fine, where's sister-in-law? I brought flowers to congratulate her on releasing a successful project." Seeing that Kaiser wasn't playing around, Roman immediately stood up and dusted himself off before pulling out a small bouquet from his jacket.

Seeing it, Kaiser gave a dangerous smile before throwing his arms around Roman's shoulders.

"So, you're buying flowers for my girl before me hmmm? You've gotten bold Ro Ro."

Hearing the dangerous tone as well as the childhood nickname that brought on bad memories of a truly dark time in his life, Roman immediately straightened up in fear.

"No way brother how could I do such a thing? Please don't beat me up." the last bit came out as a squeak.

Seeing his fear, Kaiser felt he had teased Roman enough although he was actually tempted to beat him up. Maybe now he wouldn't insist on barging into his house uninvited.

"As long as you behave you won't be beaten. Valentina is upstairs and won't be joining us so pipe down. We can watch the video in the living room. Go set it up."

"Yes sir, of course, sir." Roman made to dash off but Kaiser called him back.

"Wait. Where's the hot chocolate I gave you?"

"Ahaha, somehow I dropped the cup when I was outside. I'll go pick it up right away brother." Roman awkwardly laughed before dashing outside again.

Sighing, Kaiser simply went to sit in the living room as he waited for Roland to load up the music video.

In a few minutes, the intro melody to 'Kill Your Love' sounded out. Both men watched with rapt attention as the scenes focused on 2 demons and 1 angel before the final angel appeared. It was Valentina, looking ethereal in white with her blond hair blowing in the wind. As she interacted with the other angel and demons, Kaiser couldn't keep his eyes from her noting every smile, laugh, and movement that she did. From her happiness to her rage and sadness to the final wistful look of longing as she gazed back at the demon. Kaiser could not look away for a single second.

It was the first thing he had seen her act in, and he was absolutely entranced.

Once the credits rolled, he could hear Roman clapping softly.

"Honestly she's a better actress than I thought. I was expecting utter rubbish but she's actually not bad especially since this was her first major work. With her looks and if she continues to improve, I'm sure she'll be a star in the future. Which makes it very interesting as to why her label is doing its best to suppress her."

"What do you mean?" Kaiser turned to him sharply.

"You asked me to dig into it before, so I've been quietly asking around here and there with my contacts over at Black Rock. That's why I came over in a hurry today. I wanted to ask if she offended somebody important? A casting manager that I asked to keep a look out for Valentina's name told me that an order came in today for a film we're partial investors for. Apparently, someone high up at Black Rock donated some extra money to have a say about the casting. Guess who they want to remove?"

Roman gave him a knowing look. Unfortunately, this was common in the industry. A lot of money was exchanged in the background and deals were made. Becoming successful through sheer will and hard work rarely succeeded. Connections were what made the world go around and it was even more true in the entertainment world where there were limited resources, and a pretty face was a dime a dozen.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Kaiser silently thought through the situation while tapping his finger on the table. He usually didn't interfere with the entertainment arm of the family business, but he felt tempted to. The question was how he could do it without violating the promise of no interference he had made with Valentina. He could do it without her knowledge, but he didn't want to break his promise to her so early in their relationship especially if they continued to pursue it further. And...she had been so happy when she found out she got the role. He didn't want to see her sad again.

"Do you know who donated the money?" Kaiser asked Roman.

"No, it's supposed to be hush-hush. They plan on announcing their extra investor at the opening ceremony next week."

Tap. Tap.

"...Why are we investing in a movie along with Black Rock? We're competitors and I know things have been getting tense lately with us grabbing a bunch of their top-performing actors, musicians, and directors."

"Eh, you know one of our cousins Jonathan Starling on Mom's side? That kid went behind his agent and auditioned for a drama at Black Rock. Since the paperwork was signed, we could only suck it up and invest to support him. Thankfully the director is solid, and the script looks good so we should get a pretty good return on our investment."

Hearing that they had a family member in the movie, Kaiser had never been so happy to have such a large extended family that was involved in a variety of things. He had found his legal 'in' to interfere as he wished.

"Good. Invest a little more, enough to give us a majority stake. You can buy the others out if needed just keep the price reasonable. Whatever the current cast is, unless somebody willingly pulls out, send the order to keep things the way they are."

"Do you want me to ask Jonathan to say anything to the director as well? He plays the male lead so he has a lot of pull and can watch out for Valentina as well. Although he is a bit arrogant, he's a good kid at heart"

Kaiser did his best to recall what Jonathan looked like before finally remembering. Like all of the men in their family, he was quite tall and favored Roman and their mother's side of the family, having brown hair and bright blue eyes. Since he was a popular actor, he was quite fit as well and knew how to dress to maximize his handsomeness. Although he could be a bit arrogant, he was charming and had quite a lot of charisma.

Thinking about it, he was close in age to Valentina, and they shared similar careers too.

"Bro? Should I ask him to look out for Valentina?" Roman blinked curiously.

"No. Don't tell him anything. Matter of fact, send me the script for the drama."

Although Valentina could choose whoever she wanted to be with, he would be damned if he would let a younger cousin of his get ahead with the girl he was interested in.

"Also.... send me a list of everyone working on the drama. From the cast down to the production staff. There's bound to be someone who benefits directly from removing Valentina from the cast. I intend to find them." And remove them. Kaiser calmly said while his aura turned cold.

Seeing the scary look on Kaiser's face, Roman couldn't help but gulp nervously. "Oh... okay. anything else?"

"Yeah. Get us two tickets to the opening ceremony. If you do that, I'll have Alaïa come dress you."

"Brother, do you really mean it? It doesn't matter, I'll hold you to it. I'm going to head back now since I have so much work to do. No need to send me back, my driver is waiting outside." Roman immediately hopped up and started heading for the door.

"I thought you said your driver had left and you would have to trek 10 miles home?" Kaiser asked in a dangerously soft tone.

"Haha brother, it was just a figure of speech. Please remember my good deeds for the day and forgive me!"

"Get the hell out of my house."

"Yes of course. Have a good night brother!"

Without waiting for a response, Roman immediately dashed out of the house, forgetting the flowers that he had brought.

Kaiser sighed and then picked up the bouquet. Staring at it contemplatively, he immediately dumped it in the trash.

It seemed that he would have to get her some flowers tomorrow.

**************