Chapter 26: Uninvited Guests

"I'm so nervous that my hands are shaking." Francie told Sydney.

"Hey, don't be. This place is great." Sydney assured her best friend. Tonight was the night of Francie's restaurant opening and reception. So far it was going very smoothly but then again they were only 15 minutes into the opening. Only 10 guests had showed up so far which wasn't bad since only 30 people had been invited.

The restaurant was sectioned off into three parts, the waiting area, the bar, and the main eating section. It was decorated with tastefully with a Eurasian fusion look that would reflect the style of the food. There was a four string quartet that was playing softly in the corner of the eating section. Francie, who had been banned from the kitchen by the temperamental French chef earlier that day, stood with Sydney stood in the reception area to greet guests.

"How do I look? Do I look professional?" Francie asked frantically.

Sydney looked at Francie puzzled, professional usually wasn't what Francie wanted to look like. It was usually, good, sexy, hot, or F-able. "You look great, will you stop worrying!"

"You don't understand, you know the silent partner I was telling you about?" Seeing Sydney's blank look Francie continued. "Remember when I told you that I wouldn't receive the loan for the restaurant unless I had a more established financial partner? Never mind, he's coming in!"

Sydney turned toward the door and almost fainted. Sark and Yon Hee were entering the restaurant. What the hell were they doing here? Sydney thought shocked. When Francie rushed over to them Sydney realized with a sinking feeling that Sark was the silent partner Francie had just been talking about.

"Sydney, this is Mr. Sark and Ms. Larsen." Francie said making introductions.

"Please let's dispense with the formalities, you can call me Yo." Yon Hee said smiling and giving Sydney a hug instead of the usual handshake. Sydney had to bend down slightly because she was so much taller then Yon Hee. Yon Hee gave her a wink and a mischievous smile to signal Sydney that her secret life would be kept a secret from Francie.

"It's nice to meet you Ms. Larson." Sydney looked pointedly at Sark and said. "I've already had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sark. In fact there's something I need to discuss with him right now. If you two will excuse me. She grabbed Sark's arm and dragged him into a small office in the back of the restaurant. When she had the door closed she rounded in on Sark.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked him angrily. "Do you have any idea what you've done? I promise you Sark I'm not going to let you use Francie for whatever purpose you have in mind, I'll shoot you first." Sydney warned.

"Are you finished?" Sark asked as if he hadn't heard her threat.

"Do you have any idea how much this restaurant means to her? Why did you do this? Do you get some sick pleasure ruining my life." Sydney said starting to pace the room. "I can understand you wanting to get retaliate for the injecting you with the virus, but I thought we were past all that. Francie hasn't done anything to you. So why Sark?"

"Mason Philip." Sark said simply interrupting her endless scenarios of why he would decide to go into the restaurant business.

"Mason Philip as in the hotel mogul?" Sydney said confused.

He didn't continue until Sydney prompted him with a go ahead nod of her head. She leaned on the office desk and steeled herself for bad news.

"The previous owners of this restaurant were the Keeling brothers. When Mason Philip approached them to buy the restaurant they refused. Two days later they mysteriously disappeared. A week later their bodies showed up on the Florida coast. The restaurant passed onto a younger sister who knew how much the restaurant meant to her brothers so she only sold it to someone who would keep it as a restaurant, your friend Francie. Mason scheduled a meeting to meet with Francie under the pretext of being a business partner. He was going to sabotage the success of the restaurant and then buy Francie's share of the restaurant when it went under. Since he already owned the rest of the block, he was then going to tear everything down then build a hotel, restaurant, and shopping center in it's place. This location is ideal because it's in the center of the four of the largest business buildings in the city. He would make millions. Through the bank I found out when Francie was going to meet Mason and made sure I met her first. I then made her a business proposal that she couldn't refuse."

"But what's in it for you?" Sydney asked looking for a hidden motive.

"Money." Sark said simply.

"If Mason was willing to kill to get the restaurant, how do you know he'll stop now? Sydney asked worrying about Francie.

"I made him a proposal he couldn't refuse." Sark said as a glint of something dangerous flashed in his eyes. Sydney's eyes widened and she tried to remember if she'd read anything regarding Mason's death. "I didn't kill him. I bought him out, the entire block." Sark said wryly seeing Sydney's expression.

"Oh!" She said and got to her feet, she was satisfied. She was about to open the door when realized that something wasn't quite right. "How did you get him to sell to you?" She said turning around to look at him.

Sark smiled, surprising Sydney. "I had evidence to prove that he was involved in the death of the Keeling brothers."

"You blackmailed him?" Sydney was disappointed; it was the first time that Sark had lied to her.

"I blackmailed him into selling to me." Sark stated clearing up the misunderstanding. "I paid him top dollar."

"So this guy kills two people and gets off scott free? Sydney said shaking her head at the unfairness of it all.

"Not quite." Sark said slyly. "I knew that if I handed the evidence to the police, the man's lawyers would get him off in a month on some technicality. I'm going to get him where it'll hurt him most, financially. In 2 years, he's going to be bankrupt and he wont even see it coming."

"Were the Keeling brother's friends of yours?" Sydney asked wondering why Sark would make so much effort to bring the Mason down.

"They were someone's family." Sark said grimly. "Shall we join the party?" He said doing a lightning change in mood.

Sydney and Sark found Yon Hee, Francie and Will laughing together. When Will saw Sark he paled, when he saw Yon Hee go to Sark's side, he looked like he was going to faint.

"Darling, you have to meet Will, he's such a flirt. If I hadn't met you first." Yon Hee said innocently not seeing Will's reaction.

Will was nervously coughing. "You're Mr. Sark's date?" Will coughed out. "I wasn't, I mean, I didn't mean.."

"You look like you could use a drink." Sark said gesturing to a nearby waiter.

"Ummm, I think I see a friend waving to me, I'm going to go. See them I mean. Not that I'm trying to get away from you or anything. I'm going." Will said backing away and almost running into a waiter carrying a tray of appetizers.

"I'm going to check on him." Francie said.

"Wait, Ms. Calfo." Sark said stopping her.

"Please call me Francie." Francie said halting.

"I wanted to let you know that the mayor and a few of my acquaintances will be arriving shortly. I hope that is fine with you. I notified the chef several days ago when I couldn't reach you over the phone." He looked pointedly at Sydney. Sydney had hung up on him several times when he'd called over the last week. She'd even erased a phone message on hearing his voice.

"You invited the mayor and he's going to come here?" Francie said trying desperately to hide her panic. "It's fine, everything fine. If you'll excuse me."

When Francie was out of hearing range, Yon Hee hit Sark hard in the arm. "How could you do that to her! You could have left her a message, you stupid man! Poor Francie, I'm going to see if there's anything I can do." Yon Hee stalked off after Francie after rolling her eyes and sending a 'what am I going to do with him' look to Sydney.

"You can erase the smirk on your face." Sark told Sydney.

"Was I smirking?" Sydney said innocently. Maybe having Sark around wasn't going to be all bad.

"Yes, you were smirking." Sark said slightly smiling.

Sydney's expression changed when she saw Francie, Yon Hee, and Will together laughing in the back. For once Sark misunderstood her expression.

"She won't tell them anything." He said trying to reassure her.

"I'm not worried about that, it's just that I should be the one there." She said forgetting for a moment it was Sark she was talking to.

"You're jealous!" Sark said surprised.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Sydney said knowing that he was right. This woman shows up out of nowhere and is automatically liked by everyone including her father. Especially liked by Vaughn who'd only met her for only 12 hours and he'd been singing her praises and asking when she was going to come visit. "I just don't want her to lead Will on. Just look at the way she's hanging all over him. Don't you think you should get her away from him?" Sydney said trying to urge Sark into action.

"Yo and I have an understanding. We don't tell each other what to do and who to see or not to see. Besides, I all I see is Yo trying to make your friends feel at ease." Sark said enjoying Sydney's discomfort.

"What is your relationship with her? Is she you're girlfriend?" Sydney asked going on the offensive.

"That my dear Ms. Bristow is none of your business." Sark said giving her an infuriating smirk.

"Does she know about Sarah?" Sydney said wanting to erase the smirk off his face. She succeeded; there was only a look of coldness in his face, which sent a chill through her body. He grabbed her arm in a tight grip.

"No, and she won't be finding out from you either." Sark warned.

"I wasn't going to tell her anything." Sydney said pulling her arm away and rubbing the red mark left on her arm. "Do you think that we will ever have a civilized conversation without trying to kill each other?"

"I was under the assumption that that's what we were doing." Sark said politely.

Sydney let out a snort.

"If you'd like to talk about he weather or what I think about the geopolitical ramifications of the end hunger policy written by the UN, I could be persuaded to have a polite discussion with you." Sark replied amicably.

"Ummm, you start." Sydney said.

"What great weather we've been having." Sark said overly polite.

"Yes, it's been refreshing to have.oh, this is ridiculous!" Sydney said. "Why didn't you talk about the end hunger policy?" She asked miffed. She was smart, she'd read about it in the newspaper. Did he think that she was stupid?

"I didn't want to take the chance that if you didn't know about it you'd take it as a ploy I'd devised to make you seem less intelligent." Sark explained. "I assumed the weather was a safer topic."

There was silence for what seemed like hours. They were saved why the ringing of their cell phones.

"Yes?" They both said into the phone.

"When?" They said in synch again.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes." Yo, Francie, and Will came up just as the calls were disconnected. "Sydney, please don't tell me that you're going to leave." Francie said disappointed.

"God, Francie, I'm so sorry but I have to go." Sydney said.

"Let me guess some really important contract came up and you're the only one in that entire company that has to be there. This is a big night for me Sydney and I need you to be here." Francie said a little angrily.

"You know that you're a thousand times more important then my work." Sydney said.

"Then stay, they can wait." Francie said simply.

Will came to Sydney's rescue. "Come on Francie, I'll be here with you. You know that Sydney wouldn't go unless it's really important. Hey, as far as we know, it may affect thousands of people. This deal may insure that these thousands of people and their families will be able to eat the next day. She'll try to make it back before the party ends, right?"

"Yes, I'll try to make it back as soon as possible." Sydney promised.

"Alright, but you are going to owe me big." Francie said grudgingly.

Sydney gave her a kiss and ran out the door, waving goodbye to Will. Yo and Sark were outside saying their goodbyes.

"Be careful Sark." Yon Hee was saying. "Don't take any stupid chances."

"Go back inside and have some fun, I'll call you when I get back." Sark told her giving her a kiss.

"I mean it Sark, come back to me alive." Yon Hee said before going inside, she didn't see Sydney in the shadows.

"Would you like a ride Ms. Bristow?" Sark asked as a black jaguar convertible pulled up and the valet handed him the keys.

"Do you know where I'm going?" Sydney asked.

"They didn't tell you?" Sark asked.

"Tell me what?"

"That I'll be sitting in on the meeting tonight."

"Do you have a death wish?" Sydney asked shocked. She got into the car wondering how he was going to get in without access cards or codes. They drove in silence and reached the Credit Suisse building in less then 10 minutes. They got into the building in less then five minutes, which made Sydney rethink her previous view that it was one of the most secure buildings she knew. Sark walked inside as if he knew where everything was. The highlight of the evening was seeing Sloan's face when on entering the conference room, Sark walked in after her.