I almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
I took my seat across the table from David with Mason at my side. David, the smug bastard, shot me an I-know-something-you-don’t-know grin that looked mighty painful considering the split in his lip (courtesy of moi), but other than that, he kept his trap shut. It was probably the smartest thing he could’ve done. I, on the other hand, found it extremely difficult not to launch myself across the table and kill the fucker with my bare hands. In my mind, I kept seeing him hovering over my girl, trying to take something that didn’t belong to him, something she had no intention of giving freely. But I kept myself in check. It was time to get this shit over with for good.
His assistant was there, of course, but she shouldn’t have been. At least not for the purpose of this meeting. “Get out, Mandy.”
She and David looked at each other and then at me before he guffawed. “Did you bump your head or something this morning, Crawford? Mandy is my assistant. She doesn’t take orders from you.”
I gave him a stone-cold stare. “You and I need to have ourselves a little chat. You like chatting, remember? Only I don’t think you’re going to want witnesses around for this one.”
He laughed. “Have you been smoking crack?”
“Nope,” I said, relaxing back in my chair. “Haven’t been snorting anything, either.”
He flinched, although it was barely perceptible.
“Fine, Mandy can stay. How’s Izzy?” I asked with a smirk.
There it was. The slight widening of the eyes, the straightening of his posture, and then the look away. “The board meeting didn’t get moved to an hour earlier, did it?”
“Nope.”
David cleared his throat and turned to Mandy. “Give us a moment.”
Confused wasn’t even the word for the expression on Mandy’s face. I’d say clueless fit it to a T, as that was what she was most of the time, but she got up and did as she was told, like a good little assistant.
“And what about your boy?” David asked, clearly indicating Mason’s presence.
“Mason already knows everything. He stays.”
“How about you tell me what this everything is?”
“Gladly. But first, do you have my contract with you?”
He grinned and sat back. “That’s what this is all about?”
“Wasn’t that exactly what you planned to make the board meeting all about?”
“If you pulled this stunt to try to talk me out of it, then you’ve wasted your time and mine,” he said. “But if you’re here to wave a little white flag and hand over your half of Scarlet Lotus in lieu of your total annihilation, I might be convinced to accept.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s going to go down like that at all. In fact, I think you’ll be the one handing over your shares before we’re done here.”
“What do you know about Izzy? Better yet, how do you know about her? Have you been talking to Scott?” He couldn’t have believed Scott Christopher would rat him out any more than I did. On the other hand, when a ship is sinking, rats tend to hop on board any flotation device they can find to save their own hide. Christopher wasn’t plan A, though.
“Show me your hand and I’ll show you mine,” I challenged.
David sucked at his teeth as he met my stare. His fingers drummed on the table before him until finally he slid his briefcase in front of him, popped it open, and took out a single sheet of paper. After closing the briefcase, he held up the contract for me to see.
“Here you go, Crawford. Proof that my dick really is bigger than yours,” he said with a smug grin.
I’d seen his dick when it was ramming away into my slut of an ex-girlfriend’s ass. Not even close.
“So what is it that you think you have on me?” he asked.
“I know you’re using cocaine.”
David chuckled, the relief in the sound revealing his nervousness about what I’d had to say. “Prove it.”
“A mandatory drug test from the board will handle that.”
He shrugged. “Fine, but it’s nothing more than a slap on the wrist and my promise to get help for my addiction. I’m still sitting pretty, but nice try.”
“You tried to rape Lanie.”
Again he shrugged. “Her word against mine, and I have proof that she’s a whore. Which means all I have to do is tell the police and the board that she told me she’d make that claim if I didn’t pay her money. Simple case of blackmail. I’m the victim. What else do you have?”
I had plan B.
“Mason,” I said without averting my attention from David.
Mason opened up his laptop, picked up the remote to the projector, and pushed a button. The white screen on the opposite wall lit up with the images of the video Lanie and the girls had recorded from the closet next to Scott’s office at Foreplay.
David broke off our staring contest when he heard his own voice claiming a kickboxing accident as the reason for his ugly mug. I chuckled because that shit was funny.
I looked at Mason and jerked my head toward the door. He nodded and went over to stick his head out into the waiting area. A couple of moments later he swung the door open wide, and in sauntered Dez with Scott Christopher in tow.
Scott came to an abrupt halt just inside the door, his attention immediately taken by the giant white screen playing an action-packed movie with all the right ingredients of a blockbuster: highly illegal business dealings mixed with very amateurish porno action.
Mason closed the door behind Dez because we were way past the line of inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Scarlet Lotus didn’t need sexual harassment charges on top of the scandalous activities already well under way.
David bolted out of his chair when he saw Scott. “What the hell are you doing here?” I think it was safe to say he was surprised. And maybe even a little pissed.
If the flexing of his jaw muscles and the clenching of fists at his sides were any indication, I’d say Scott was just as stunned and every bit as pissed. The tension between the two of them was so thick it crowded in like the cramming of a dozen people into a phone booth.
Scott looked at David and then jabbed a finger in the air toward the Oscar-winning performance. “What the fuck, Stone?”
Plan B was looking very promising.
“You tell me! I thought you said your place was secure!”
Scott glowered at Dez, and I wasn’t about to have that shit, so I stood up and pulled her behind me. Of course, Dez wasn’t going for any of that damsel-in-distress stuff. I’d swear the chick was a dude under that skirt if it weren’t for the fact that she clearly was not.
She stepped around me and lifted her chin in defiance. “I recorded that video. Did a pretty good job of it, if I do say so myself. Oh, and I quit. By the way, I’m not scared of you, so if you come after me, you better know I’ll monkey-stomp your goddamn ass.”
Scott waved her off like she was an annoying gnat. I was pretty sure he actually did consider her to be another inconvenience, one he didn’t have time to worry about, which was a good thing. With any luck, he really would leave her alone. The same would not be true for Stone.
My guess was that Scott knew David’s arrogance was what had gotten Scott into this predicament in the first place. Scott had to remedy that right here, right now, or else be prepared to go to war with the drug dealers and influential people he was involved with. It was a given that the suppliers of his cocaine were ruthless killers when it came to protecting their commerce, but he couldn’t discount the high rollers to whom he sold not only cocaine but pussy as well. Their hands might have been baby soft and clean as a whistle, but their money allowed those same hands to stretch far and wide and hire another pair willing to get dirty for the right price.
“Do you have any idea what will happen to both of us if this gets out? Fuck that. I’m not going down with you. You better fix this shit. Pronto!” Scott turned toward me and put his hands on his hips. “What’s he got that you want?”
br />
“Half of my parents’ company … and Delaine Talbot’s contract.”
I’d never seen a person’s face turn that shade of red before.
Scott’s head did this really slow turn toward David that sort of reminded me of Linda Blair in her most infamous role. “You stole the contract?” he yelled.
Naturally, I couldn’t have all the yelling. “I’m going to need you to keep your voice down, Christopher. There are other employees here, and the walls aren’t really all that thick. Speaking of which, I’m told yours are pretty thin as well. Might want to get that fixed,” I said with a wink that went unnoticed because he was still glaring at David with murderous intent in his eyes.
“Oh, stop being so dramatic,” David told him, smug as you please. “The contract is safe, and nobody is going to see it as long as Crawford hands over his half of the company. Relax.”
I laughed. “Perhaps you missed the memo, David.” I lifted my hand toward the screen. “Clearly, I’m in a better position than the chick getting cocaine snorted off her stomach while you stuff your clumsy fingers inside her sister’s pussy like she’s the Thanksgiving turkey at the crack house down the street.”
David smirked. “I’m calling your bluff. We may not be best friends anymore, but we were once upon a time. I know you. You’re too sweet on that little girl to let me make a fool of her publicly. Hand over the company and destroy all the copies of this goddamn video, or I’m exposing you and her.”
He was right. I would do anything to keep the secret of our relationship from the public eye, even if it meant watching Scarlet Lotus be run into the ground by the likes of David Stone. But I still had one more trick up my sleeve.
Plan C it was, then.
“Mason,” I said for a second time.
Again Mason got down to business with his laptop, and the video from inside Scott’s office stopped, only to be replaced with a different scene. This one did more than make my skin crawl. It made something not altogether human take shape inside me. I couldn’t watch, but there was no escaping the sounds of the conversation that had taken place right before the assault. At first Lanie was pissed and David was smug. When she laughed at his proposal, he was the one who got pissed. And then he tried to force himself on her.
My body shook, fists clenching, jaw ticking, leg bouncing. I wanted to kill him. He was in my sights, a big fat-ass bull’s-eye practically tattooed on his already battered face. The worst part about that moment was watching him sit there expressionless while taking it all in. There wasn’t an ounce of remorse in his whole body. When Lanie screamed, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Turn it off,” I told Mason, who did so as quickly as he could, but not before the scene where I burst through the door and grabbed David to throw him off my girl.
“Kickboxing accident, huh?” Scott asked. “Dude, you’re sick. I can’t believe you did that.”
“Oh, don’t act all self-righteous with me, you prick!”
“What the bloody hell have you done now?” A new voice entered the conversation, and we all whipped around toward the sound. Harrison Stone stood in the doorway with that authoritative look that said we were all in trouble.
In front of his iconic father, David gaped like a fish out of water. “Pop, it’s not what it looks like.”
Harrison waved his cane at his son. “Oh, save it. I already saw everything. Drugs, whores, attempted rape … Jesus, son. What do you do for an encore?”
“I, um …” David paused for several seconds then finally closed his mouth. No way was he going to be able to talk his way out of this one.
I wished I could’ve claimed Harrison’s early arrival as part of my plan, but I couldn’t. As Robert Burns said, the best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. Sometimes we just need to leave it all up to the universe to right the wrongs.
Just then Harrison turned toward me, a wide smile on his face, and took my hand in a firm grip. “Noah, my boy! How the hell are ya?”
I couldn’t help the affection I felt for the man. He was my father’s partner, his best friend, and he was family. How he had spawned someone as devilish as David was beyond me.
“I’m good, Harry,” I answered, and because I just couldn’t resist, I added, “Finally met the woman of my dreams and somehow managed to convince her to be my wife.”
The look on David’s face was priceless. He hadn’t heard about our impending nuptials.
“Well, ain’t that a kick in the pants! Congratulations, son!” Harrison clapped me on the back a couple of times, and his strength would’ve knocked me on my ass had he not had a death grip on my hand still. “I damn sure better be on that guest list,” he warned.
Then he said more soberly, “It’s no secret my boy’s been trying to pry your parents’ legacy from your hands. I haven’t exactly been an avid supporter of that, but he’s got a thick skull,” he said, knocking on his own. “Can’t get a lick of sense through to him.”
David growled in frustration. “You founded this company. It’s my legacy, too.”
“Shut up, boy. Noah senior and I founded this company together. It was all his idea. And I can see you’re busting at the seams wanting to tattle something on Noah, but I think I’ll let him tell on himself.” He turned back to me. “What’s he got on you, kid?”
As embarrassed as I was to admit the truth, I knew it would eventually come out anyway. Better it be to Harrison than to the whole board, shaming the memory of my parents.
“I bought a virgin, and then I fell in love with her.” The admission was quick, like yanking off a Band-Aid. And you know what? It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would.
Harrison didn’t look thrilled, but he didn’t look disappointed, either. Kind of indifferent, in fact. He shrugged. “And?”
“And isn’t that enough?”
“Let me ask you something, son. Is she worth all this?” He waved his cane around, indicating the shit I was having to put up with from his son.
“Yes, sir, she is,” I said, meaning it. I’d endure David Stone on a daily basis for her if I had to. And then it clicked, as if I’d just put the last piece of the puzzle into place. I didn’t have to. Lanie was all that mattered. My happiness was the only thing my parents ever wanted for me. And it was probably something David Stone would never have. With that realization fresh in my mind, I turned to David. “You can have—”
“Hold on, now,” Harrison said, interrupting me. “Don’t be so quick to throw in the towel, Noah.”
“What are you doing, old man?” David asked, flabbergasted. “You don’t have a say in any of this.”
“The hell I don’t. I still control those shares when you get right down to it. All it takes is an announcement from me to the board and you’re out of here. You’re an embarrassment to the company, and you’re an embarrassment to me. I won’t stand for your shenanigans any longer. Grow the hell up.”
Harrison leaned over the table and took the contract from a stunned David, who couldn’t react fast enough to stop him. He looked it over for only a second before handing it to me.
“Do you have any other copies?” he asked David, who did nothing but shake his head. “Good.” Then he turned toward Scott. “Why the hell are you still here?”
“I have a stake in all this, it seems.”
“And what would that be?”
Scott nodded toward Mason’s laptop. “A video that can never see the light of day. If it does, me and your son are dead.”
“If I can guarantee it won’t, will you swear not to ever have anything to do with my son again?”
“I can do that. I don’t want any trouble. I have my own business to tend to.”
Harrison turned to me with his brows raised in a question. I nodded my acquiescence. I wasn’t going to get everything I wanted out of the deal. As long as I had Lanie safe and sound, I’d let karma handle the rest.
“The video will be destroyed. Now get out of here, you’re stinking up the place.”
/> Scott wasted no time finding his way out. I didn’t blame him. Harrison had this Clint Eastwood type of way about him that dared you to overstay your welcome.
“It seems the scales are now all tipped in your favor, Noah,” he said, turning back to me. “What is it that you’d like to do now?”
“He bought a whore!” David yelled, clearly agitated by the turn of events.
Harrison lifted his cane to silence him. “One more word and I’ll disown you.” He turned back to me. “Noah?”
I looked up at the ceiling, seeing way past that to whatever great beyond was out there. This was for my parents. All of it. Because of the relationships they had forged in life, they were still looking out for me even in death. I would not allow their memory to be tainted, and that included their legacy.
I dropped my head to see David Stone in a whole new light. I almost felt sorry for him. Though his father was one of the greatest men I’d ever know, David had never seized the opportunity to learn from him. But he’d threatened everything I held most dear, so I couldn’t pity him.
“Listen to me, David,” I seethed quietly. “Not only do I have the ability to release your little personal porno to the public and destroy you, but that video shows evidence of drug and human trafficking, and let’s not forget the other video of an attempted rape. You could spend a very long time in prison.”
Dez leaned in and added, “And FYI, a big Mexican named Chavez already has you on reserve, bitch.”
Harrison had apparently just noticed her for the first time, but judging by the look on his face, he was impressed. Dez had that effect on people. No doubt he’d be asking her out.
The expression on David’s face reminded me of a cornered rat who had nowhere to run, no hole to dive into. “What do you want?” he spat through clenched teeth, clearly not liking the fact he had no other option than to admit defeat.
I gave him the same smug smile he had been wearing every day since I’d found him in my bathroom with Julie. And then I metaphorically reached out and snatched the little bit of cheese his tiny paws had been clutching. “Not much, just your half of the company. Seems like a small price to pay for your freedom. Don’t you think?”