The Love Of Money - S01 E209

Story 4 weeks ago

The Love Of Money - S01 E209

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 209

"Okay," I said, "what if you pitched him the idea?"

'I've already given him the basics, Chandler said, his tone clipped. "Tanaka isn't much for small talk, so we've been discussing some of the details, but he wants to hear from you since you're the architect of this scheme."

I was so frustrated that I wanted to chew my arm off. On one hand, this plan had been in the works for nearly as long as I'd been a billionaire. On the other hand, I'd been waiting to get my hands on Ashlee since I woke up back in my house."Ashlee's here. She had something to do with my kidnapping, and I need to talk to her."

"That can't wait half an hour? What is she going to do? Evaporate?"

I will fucking end you, you fucking Harry Potter cartoon character!

Fuck. Chandler didn't deserve that, even if I was just thinking that.

"Fine," I growled through gritted teeth. "Give me two minutes."

"Very good, Chandler said and hung up.

I whirled to face the two ladies. "I have something I need to take care of. I pointed at Ashlee and said, "You! Don't you dare move from that spot. Ashlee tugged on the collar of her shirt and pulled it over her nose as she blinked at me through tearful eyes. She nodded hesitantly in response.

I pointed at Erin, "You! Make sure she doesn't leave that spot."

"Uh..." Erin said.

I had already turned toward the door and ripped it open. Chloe was standing beside the door, leaning on the wall. "Good. If Ashlee steps one toe out this door, shoot her."

"Got it," was all Chloe said, and I stalked away, moving down the hall and toward my study as quickly as possible. I arrived in just under two minutes, as promised.

Chandler hadn't exaggerated. Hiro Tanaka was polite enough, but I could tell he was annoyed when I entered the room after making him wait for more than twenty minutes. It took me a good ten minutes to ease the tension from him. I wanted to fling Kwan and Carla out of a window for driving me to call Hiro down early - especially considering I had a hysterical Ashlee waiting in another room while my house was filled with party guests. Of course, I couldn't forget that one of those guests was Roger VanCamp. How would he react if he found out Ashlee was in my house about to spill the beans? Maybe he didn't have anything to do with this whole thing. After all, if Ashlee hadn't returned to her house as soon as she got back into town, there was a chance Roger hadn't been involved, but I wasn't ready to put money on it.

There was only one thing to do-get through this conference with Hiro as quickly as possible.

The plan for Monday was simple. There would be a new vote for an official CEO for VistaVision, and almost everyone who held voting power wanted Maddox to take over the position. According to Chandler, Wayne Pruden held five percent of the company and didn't like Kelly. If I recalled Wayne's exact words as reported by Chandler, he would rather suffocate in a bag of his ex-wife's queefs than vote Kelly back into a position of leadership in any company he was invested in.

Wayne and Chandler gave me forty-seven percent of the vote, which wasn't quite enough. Since ninety-eight percent of the shares were held by investors with voting power, I needed forty- nine percent to make it a tie, which triggered the tiebreaker-the sitting CEO got the final say

Hiro Tanaka owned another seven percent of the company, which got me to the forty-nine percent without Wayne, but he didn't have the same hatred for Kelly that Wayne and Chandler shared. I had to buy his votes. Paying attention to the conversation was difficult as I gnawed at the mystery sitting in Erin's office. I was almost willing to give the Japanese man anything to make the deal quick so I could get back to Ashlee.

Who was supposed to call her back? Roger? That couldn't have been right, or she wouldn't have stayed away from him all week. No, it had to be Cartwright. She'd been meeting with him, after all. I hadn't considered the possibility that he'd been in Vegas, but it made sense. Had he been the mystery man beating on me? I remember hearing him speak, but everything that happened during that time was fuzzy, and when I tried to recall it, the memory of his voice was strained and distorted as if he'd been speaking through pool water. Besides, Cartwright had only said two words to me, and I'd been beaten unconscious since. I barely remembered what he sounded like.

As much as wanted to return to Ashlee, though, Hiro's demands increasingly pulled me out of my reverie. He started the negotiations by asking for another ten percent of my shares and the CEO position. Wayne, who had called from Texas, and Chandler were both ready to go to war with him over the CEO position, and I wasn't prepared to let go of a quarter of my shares in VistaVision... not when I barely knew what I'd be giving up. As good a teacher as Chandler was, I could barely wrap my head around what VistaVision encompassed or how much income it brought me. Chandler almost seemed offended by the amount of my shares Tanaka asked for.

During the negotiations, I got a text from Chloe that simply said, 911. Hardly one for drama, I knew she wouldn't text something like that unless it was important.

"Excuse me for one second. I need to take this," I said, throwing the pair of them an apologetic look.

Chandler looked like he wanted to protest but held back. Hiro simply frowned.

"Look here," Wayne drawled in his Texas accent over the intercom, "I get wantin' your plece, but this ain't it. You..."

I approached the door to my study and stepped just outside. Three people were playing pool and looked at me as I exited the office and dialed Chloe. Two more looked like they were coming from down a hallway where the dungeon was, and I hoped Erin had secured all the rooms didn't want anyone to enter. The idea of my parents or Richle seeing that room horrified me.

"Hey," Chloe said, and I could detect the stress in her voice.

"What's up?"

"I don't know how, but VanCamp knows his daughter's here and is demanding that he take her and go."

"Shit. Is he in there?"

"No, but he really wants to be," Chloe said.

"Is that Marcus?" I heard Roger from the other end of the line.

"Marcus, you had better let me collect my daughter, or I'm about to make a scene!"

"Put me on speakerphone," said.

A moment later, Chloe said, "Kay."