Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 277

“Then can we get to the point? I’m not in the mood.”

“Amber Bell was most definitely in Alexandria, Virginia,” he said.

“Huh?” The sudden change in subject required me a moment to catch up. “Oh… wait… what?”

“The weekend that you were kidnapped, Amber Bell was in Alexandria giving a presentation to some of Brantwood’s shareholders of a company not affiliated with you. I have hotel reservations. Her credit cards were used at two restaurants and a coffee shop two blocks from the convention center where she performed the presentation. Brantwood posted the presentation online for members who weren’t present for the live event. I’ve even acquired CCTV footage of her pulling cash from an ATM near a hot dog stand that didn’t accept credit cards. So much of her time and activity is accounted for that there’s no possible way Amber Bell could have been in Alexandria and still be in Vegas during the times you and Miss Tanner specified. Whoever you saw, it wasn’t Amber Bell.”

“Fake news,” I said.

“I’m afraid it isn’t.”

Turning to look at the funeral attendees in the distance, I sighed in frustration, ran my fingers through my hair, and glared back at Henry. I stared at him in silence for several long moments. Then simply shouted, “FUCK!”

Neither of them reacted to my sudden outburst.

“I swear to god, that woman in the meeting was at that fucking warehouse! Chloe!” I said, looking at her, “You were there! You saw her!”

Chloe shook her head. “Too many bullets. By the time it was over, she slipped away with the other man.”

She was talking about the man who wanted to kill me.

“Fuck!” I spat and kicked at the ground, launching a small tuft of grass into the air.

“Now that I’ve delivered the bad news,” Psalter said, “Here’s the good news. I’m ninety percent certain that Roger VanCamp was in Vegas the same weekend you were kidnapped.”

“What?” I asked, looking up at him. The memory of my would-be killer's voice was fuzzy in my mind. I’d taken quite a few blows to the head, after all. Still… I kept having the nagging sensation that his voice was familiar, and Roger’s presence had been agitating me since I got back. I’d just assumed it was because of Helen, but…

Psalter continued, “He never used any cash, and there’s no record of him flying out there, but I couldn’t find any record of his travel to the UAE, which is where he claimed to be. That doesn’t mean he didn’t go… it just means that he flew privately and that the flight plan was either scrubbed from the records or was falsified. My contact with INTERPOL says there was no record of passport usage either.”

“So, he was in the States,” I concluded.

“I don’t have any relationships in Vegas,” Psalter said, “But I used discretionary spending to acquire a phone recording from a taxi company.”

He held up what looked like a phone, opened an audio player app, and hit play. The three of us stood there in silence as we listened to the recording of a man telling someone to hold on before asking someone else where they wanted to go. A different, more faint voice responded, but since I knew what I was looking for, I identified it as Roger’s… or someone who sounded an awful lot like him. Like every other time, hearing him speak raised my hackles, and now that I had another possible reason for that, it made so much more sense. It also made much more sense why Helen backed off after the party. She must have known her husband had played a part in almost getting me killed, or at the very least suspected it.

Nothing had changed, though. Amber had been there, and Henry Psalter’s proof didn’t do a damn thing to convince me otherwise. However, there wasn’t anything I could do about it at the moment. Without any evidence of her crime or knowledge of who she was, going after her would have been pointless at best and deadly at worst.

Roger, though… he was a different story. I was fairly certain I knew everything he was capable of—he had some dirt on me and was using that to keep Helen in check. He’d been using Ashlee as a distraction and to keep tabs on me. He was jealous and petty but had also demanded to be the one to kill me, which made him dangerous and capable of things most people weren’t. He was also influential, well-connected, and knew the law.

He just had two problems—I had more money than him, and his wife liked fucking me.

“Fuck Roger VanCamp,” I said.

“Marcus?” Chloe asked.

“What would you like to do, Mr. Upton?” Psalter said.

“I think I need to have a talk with Karl Yunger and William Price. If they want to continue our relationship, then they should reconsider having a partner who’s responsible for kidnapping and beating me.”

“I don’t think he engineered the kidnapping,” Chloe said.

“Doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “The guy pissed on me.”

“He has some powerful friends out there that we don’t know about,” my bodyguard pointed out.

“He has Helen,” I countered. I turned my attention back to Psalter and said, “Henry, I want you on a full-time retainer. I’m your only client now. Can you make that happen?”

Henry removed his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt as he considered. “I’m expensive,” he finally said.

“I can afford it.”

“I suppose you can,” he said as he finished his glasses and replaced them on his face. “I have no commitments I can’t bring to a sudden end if that’s what you’d like. What are you thinking?”

“Not sure, yet,” I said. “I want to talk to Yunger and Price first, but what are my options?”

“A man with your resources… your imagination is the limit.”

“You mean I could make Roger disappear?” I asked.

“If that’s what you wanted,” Psalter confirmed.

That would certainly solve a lot of problems. The man couldn’t talk if no one could find him. That also meant Ashlee would lose his protection, allowing me to finally get whatever answers she held. Helen would be free. God… it was all so neat and tidy.

“I should warn you,” Psalter said. “If Amber has any ties to the kidnapping that we haven’t unearthed, that means she has some sort of arrangement with VanCamp. If he goes missing, you’re the likely suspect. Not only that but she is also connected to Kelly Maddox.”

“Hiro Tanaka and Kelly have some kind of understanding. Your relationship with Tanaka has soured after everything that transpired on Monday. If you engage in a battle with Bell and Maddox, it’s even more reason for Tanaka to come after you.”

I considered that, remembering Chandler’s warnings regarding Hiro. “What can you tell me about Tanaka?”

“He has ties to Big Energy and Big Pharma. He’s friends with the Desai family. He’s influential with multiple governments and has ties to several of the world’s largest criminal organizations. Everything from the Taliban and ACP to the Solntsevskaya Bratva and Yamaguchi-gumi.”

“Jesus,” I said, unfamiliar with almost all those organizations, but based on the context, I got the idea. Hiro Tanaka’s influence was far-reaching in legal and illegal networks, and all I had was a fat wallet, a security force, and a retired spook. Maybe that was enough. Perhaps I could buy off some of Hiro's more unscrupulous associates.

“Indeed,” Psalter confirmed, and then he hesitated. “May I be frank, Marcus?”

“Please,” I said, noting that he’d used my first name.

“I’m happy to work for you full-time, but you must realize this is a highly dangerous game. The people you’re engaging with are the tip of a dark, dangerous iceberg. You should know what you’re getting yourself into before proceeding. You could simply wipe your hands of everything, go into hiding, and spend the remainder of your days on a remote island beach with a bevy of beautiful women and the choicest foods.”

“On the other hand,” he continued, “If you pursue this course of action, there is a very real possibility that you and others around you will end up dead… or worse.”

“What’s worse than death?” I asked.

“The intrigue, carnage, and chaos you're considering engaging in can tarnish the soul, Marcus. In pursuing one’s enemies, it’s easy to lose sight of who you are. I can think of little worse than becoming the very thing you hate.”

He was right. I could just take my people and leave. I couldn’t run out of money if I lived five lifetimes, let alone one. Living on a beach or a mountain somewhere, eating good food, and having orgies with beautiful women for the rest of my life sounded amazing… and it was a very real option.

“Just… stay by the phone,” I told Henry. “I’ll let you know if I need anything.”

“Very well,” he said. “I stand ready to slip the dogs of war.”

Wednesday, 12:30 pm

After leaving Psalter behind, I needed a distraction, so I chose the worst one possible. Trudging back toward the dwindling group of funeral-goers, I read Natalie’s text message for the fourth time. Then, the fifth, and the more I read it, the more it bothered me.

Thanks to the board meeting, the fallout with Emily, and Carla Tanaka, I didn’t have a chance to give Natalie all that much thought in the last few days. The text she sent this morning opened the floodgates of emotions I still had for her, and a huge part of me wanted to just… try with her. I didn’t know what that meant for me and Danni, but that was a bridge I needed to cross when I came to it. Natalie was leaving today. I had a deadline.

I told Jon to drive to the Dunbar building.

When Erin asked where we were going, I redirected the conversation by asking her to schedule a meeting with Price and Yunger, making sure they left Roger off the invite. Erin could tell I was in a mood because she kept herself busy while I stared out the window and stewed over Natalie leaving.

This is dumb. This is dumb. This is dumb. This is fucking dumb…

I hesitated outside the door and checked my phone one last time, looking through pictures of Danni. Fuck, she was gorgeous, with her dark raven hair, pale skin, green eyes… that fucking gorgeous, sweet smile…

I recalled all the times I’d been with Danni—dousing her with champagne, taking her ass, participating in a six-person orgy. Our first time together was with Helen and Erin in the house I purchased a few hours later. She was cool, sexy, slutty, classy, and a pure soul who wanted to date me while letting me fuck other women. She was literally the perfect girlfriend.

So, why the fuck was I standing outside Natalie’s office door?

I didn’t have any guarantees with her that I did with Danielle. I didn’t know how Natalie would feel about me fucking other women; there was a chance she might be okay with it, given how she knew about Bobbi, but there were no hard guarantees. Sure, she was gorgeous, with that caramel skin, generous mouth, plush lips, dark eyes, and large breasts. We were great together, and there was undoubtedly chemistry between us.

But she’d found someone else.

“Fuck,” I breathed, glaring at the doorknob I held in my hand. I had enough to worry about without making trouble with Natalie and her boyfriend.

But I had to know, right? I had to try. For my own fucking sanity.

I glanced back down at the picture of Danni that she’d sent me on Monday. How would she feel knowing I was on the verge of throwing a Hail Mary to try to make something happen with Natalie? She was the one girl Danni asked me to keep off limits.

Go home, invite Danni over, fuck her brains out—possibly joined by Erin, and forget about Natalie. Or… walk in there and ask her to stay with you. Just choose something, Marcus.

The decision was taken from me when the door opened, and Natalie stared at me, eyes wide in utter shock.

“Marcus! What’re you doing here?”

With my decision paralysis no longer part of the equation, I swallowed and said, “I was hoping to catch you before you left. Can we talk for a few minutes?”

“Um… sure. I was just about to go grab some lunch. Do you want to come with?”

I shook my head and said, “This will only take a few minutes.”

She stepped aside, giving me the space to walk into her office, and closed the door behind me. “Is everything okay?”

I huffed, ran my fingers through my hair, and decided to throw it all out there instead of trying to work up to it. “No. Everything isn’t okay.”

All the trouble with Hiro, Roger, Maddox, the kidnapping… I wanted to tell her about all of it… to tell her what kind of stress I was under. She’d been a wonderful friend and confidant for so long, and I felt like I really could have used it right about now. That could have been all this visit was about if that’s what I chose, or I could confess that I still wanted her.

Then I looked back at her and wanted to kiss her all over again. My decision was made for me.

“Don’t go.”

To Be Continued....