Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 69

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Thursday, September 12th, 2:34 pm

“Hey, Boss.”

That voice—the moment I heard it, it was like a balm for my soul.

I tore my eyes from the window to look into my assistant's rich, brown eyes.

She was so goddamn beautiful that I felt like my heart might break just looking at her.

Erin didn’t look at Emily or Natashya. She didn’t even acknowledge their presence. She simply ignored them as she slipped into my lap, straddling me and cupping my face in her hands as she often did.

“I think we’ll give you two some space,” Emily said, grabbing Natashya’s hand. The two of them got up and retreated from the area, disappearing around the corridor to God knows where.

It was just me and Erin.

She leaned in and placed her lips on mine. The kiss was closed-lipped, soft, and full of sympathy and a promise of more when I was in the mood.

Whatever you need—whether it’s someone to fuck raw, or to hold you while you cry—I’m that someone. I always have been, and I always will be.

That’s what her kiss said.

Placing my hands lightly on her hips, I pulled her into me, and the kiss deepened. My way of returning the message: Thank you.

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Wednesday, September 11th, early afternoon

“You are the biggest fool I’ve ever met,” Ryo Tanaka said as he leveled his gun at me.

Tanaka had been trying to hunt me down for days, and I had no clue what he looked like. My imagination kept running wild, picturing him as some kind of impeccably-dressed young Asian man with styled hair. He was probably a smooth talker with a charming smile.

Reality was a huge disappointment.

Sure, Hiro was a small-framed man, but I thought that might have something to do with his age. Looking at Ryo, it was probably more of a genetics thing.

Ryo Tanaka was a man roughly Erin’s height and build. He was far from dressed to impress, wearing a simple pair of jeans and an oversized graphic T-shirt. His hairline suffered from premature baldness, and I could see his scalp shining beneath the thinning patch on top of his head. It looked like he might end up with a fringe of hair and a shiny pate like his father. His face was a ruined battlefield that told of a lost war with teenage acne.

Fucking Christ… this was the man who had been after me for the past four or five days? I was positive that a single good punch could down this guy.

I almost felt insulted. No punching, though.

Ryo had a gun in my face, and his two goons had their rifles trained on me. That wasn’t nothing.

“Yeah,” I said in response to his insult. “I’ve heard that before.”

“You say you have the place surrounded. Why would you just walk through the door?”

“Because I don’t want any more of the hostages hurt,” I said. “I’ve got enough blood on my hands without you adding to it.”

I glanced down at Shea, who stared up at me with those big, dark eyes. She looked calm at a glance, but I could see concern leaking through that facade. A strip of white cloth had been tied around her head and forced between her lips. She looked relatively unharmed, save a large, dark bruise under her left eye.

I wanted to kill Ryo Tanaka for that.

My glance at Shea didn’t go unnoticed, and Ryo looked down at her and said, “That one… she’s yours?”

“She works for me, yeah,” I said.

“She’s been a pain in my ass. We almost killed her first, after what your man did to my helicopter,” Ryo said. He looked back at me, “I should kill her right in front of you for the trouble you’ve caused.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Do that, and the deal’s off. She’s the main reason I’m here.”

Of course I didn’t want anyone else to die! There were supposed to be others in the house, but Shea was the only one I could see, and she was the main reason I walked through the door. I would have mourned the loss of anyone killed in the crossfire between me and the Tanakas, but Shea was one of mine.

Ryo stepped forward until he was well within my personal space. He was almost a foot shorter, so instead of putting the gun to my forehead, he pressed the barrel under my chin, and I could feel the gun metal dig into the soft part of my jaw just under my tongue.

He glared up at me. “I have a gun to your head. What do you have to offer?”

My stomach twisted into knots at the notion that it would be all over with a twitch of his finger. I could feel my bladder suddenly clench, begging to expel fluids. In Vegas, I had been blind, or left in the dark… confused. When Chloe showed up, everything just happened so fast.

This was different. I'd never been so viscerally aware of how close my life was to ending. Thank God I managed to keep my bladder in check, and I think I did a credible job of keeping the terror off my face.

I couldn’t help swallowing, pushing my throat into the pistol’s barrel.

“I have a way out of here,” I said, casting my eyes down at him without moving my head.

“What do you mean?” Ryo asked, squinting up at me.

“My men showed up with a chopper. It’s yours for the low-low price of releasing the hostages. I’ll let you and your men walk out of here free and clear.”

“Bullshit!” he exclaimed, shoving the barrel even harder under my chin.

“I swear!” I said, tilting my face back a fraction.

“How do I know they won’t try to stop me the moment I release everyone?”

I was afraid he would ask that. I didn’t want to make the following suggestion, but that question was inevitable. I closed my eyes and tried to steel myself.

“You can keep me until you’re safely on the chopper.”

Tanaka’s eyes darted back and forth, and I pushed it a little harder when he didn’t have an immediate objection.

“I pay all the men out there. I'm way more valuable as a hostage, and they’ll be a lot less trigger-happy if I'm in the way.”

He still didn’t respond.

“The hostages go free, you get a way home, and my men get to bring me back to the US and get a big payday. Everyone’s happy.”

I felt the pressure of the gun barrel loosen. “What about our negotiation?”

I blinked at that. “You can’t be serious.”

“I came out here to negotiate a deal with you. I can’t go home empty-handed.”

“You tried to fucking kill me!”

“I’m considering your offer, you fuck!” Ryo snarled, the pressure of the pistol under my chin returning with a vengeance.

“Fuck! Okay!” I said, putting my hands in the air out of reflex. Tensions were high, the henchmen were getting fidgety, and I was afraid bullets were about to fly.

“Good,” the little Asian man said, completely removing his gun from underneath my chin. “Let’s make a deal!”

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Thursday, September 12th, 2:47 pm

Our lips moved against each other, tongues playfully caressing. The heat between us was of the quiet sort—comfort, care, and compassion.

That’s all I wanted.

She broke the kiss. Since I wasn’t done, I immediately sought out her neck, laying kisses along it and down to the hollow beneath her throat… then trailing my lips down to her chest. Anything exposed was mine to explore in a lazy, luxuriant fashion.

Straddling my lap while facing me, Erin rested her chin on top of my head and hugged me to her. Her fingernails softly raked across my scalp as she played with my hair.

“Astrid called me,” Erin said.

I paused mid-kiss and then backed up to look at her. “Why’s she calling you?”

“Well,” Erin said, “I am your secretary.”

“Which would be fine if it were anyone other than her. Did she ask to speak to me?”

Erin shook her head. “She asked to speak to Bobbi.”

“No,” I said and buried my face in Erin’s chest again.

“That’s what I said,” Erin agreed. “I told her that unless you say otherwise, she can’t have access to anyone on your staff.”

“Good,” I said, my voice sounding muffled. I inhaled deeply, enjoying her scent, and Erin hummed in pleasure once she realized what I was doing.

“What did you say to each other?”

“In the woods?” I asked.

“This morning. In her room.”

I looked back up at her, contemplating whether I wanted to tell her or not. I decided I didn’t want to get into it. “It doesn’t matter. She calls? Don’t answer. You hear her voice? Hang up before she finishes the sentence.”

Erin reached down to take my face in both her hands. “Are you sure? She’s powerful and could make your life really easy or difficult.”

“She’s a wild card,” I said. My voice sounded as hard as my feelings toward the heiress. “She almost got me killed. She almost got Shea killed. That bridge is burned.”

“You can’t know that for sure,” Erin said. “There are a lot of scary people out there.”

“And I’ve already got great people,” I said.

“You can’t afford to alienate all the other wealthy people, Marcus.”

I snorted. “I can’t?”

“You know what I mean! If enough of them come together, they’ll have more money than you… and wealth isn’t the only power out there.”

“She’s crazy, Erin,” I said. “I can’t trust her.”

“I’m not asking you to date her. I’m just telling you to give it some time and then reconnect.” Erin pulled me back into her chest and sighed. “Just think about it, okay?”

She started running her fingers through my hair, and I felt her press her lips into the top of my head. “I was really worried, Marcus,” she whispered.

“So was I,” I breathed into her chest.

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