The Love Of Money - S02 E155

Story 3 months ago

The Love Of Money - S02 E155

Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 155

But then it hit me—Carla could provide some insight into Tanaka that could be useful.

“Yeah,” I said, whirling on Chandler. “Tell her to meet me in that small conference room across the hall from your office. I’ll be there shortly.”

“Thank you, Marcus,” Chandler said, looking a little relieved.

I stepped out of the conference room, already searching for the number Tanaka had called me from the other day, Chloe hot on my heels. I could feel her watching me.

“What?” I asked as I found his number.

“Why are you really calling him back?”

“Because I don’t want that fucker thinking I’m afraid of him. Who knows… maybe I’ll straight-up ask him if he killed Rajesh.” I said.

“You might offend him.”

I pressed the call button next to his number. “Then he needs to put on his big girl panties.”

I only hoped she couldn’t tell how nervous I was.

The phone rang as we began meandering our way down the office hallway toward the small conference room. One ring.

Two rings.

On the third, someone picked up. “Hello?”

It was a female voice with perfect English, which threw me off, considering it was Hiro’s phone number. “Hello?”

Silence on the other end.

“Uh… this is Marcus Upton, calling for Hiro Tanaka?”

There were a few moments of silence accompanied by some shuffling. I could hear something rustling in the background, and then what sounded like a door shutting. Finally, the person on the other end said. “Yes… Mr. Upton…”

“This is Hiro’s phone, right?”

“It is, but Mr. Tanaka is not available right now.”

“I just got called from this number. Where is he?” I almost asked if he was still washing the blood off his hands but decided against it. It was one thing to ask Hiro personally, but if I started randomly throwing accusations at some of his minions, who knew what he might do to an innocent secretary who just so happened to answer the phone at the wrong time.

“Forgive me,” the woman said. “My father is indisposed right now. I was the one who called you.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” I said.

“It might prove fruitful for both of us.”

“Doubt it,” I said. “Who am I speaking with?”

“His daughter. Sachiko Tanaka.”

I stopped in the middle of the hallway, stunned. This was something I hadn’t expected.

“I was hoping we would get the chance to talk,” she said in a lowered voice.

“We’re talking now,” I said.

“Not on the phone,” she replied. “In person, perhaps?”

Glancing at Chloe, I said, “I’m not really interested in showing up to your lair. Your family and I aren’t exactly on good terms.”

“In a neutral place, then. Would lunch work?”

“Would your dad be there?”

She didn’t immediately respond, and just when I was about to ask if she was there, she said, “No. It would just be me.”

I sighed, still watching Chloe. She seemed to get the gist of what was going on and was eyeing me.

“There’s a sushi place on Eighty Fourth,” I said. “Sushi Smash… want to meet there?”

“American sushi?” she asked, a hint of dryness in her tone.

“The best American sushi,” I clarified.

More hesitation, then she said, “I can do one o’clock.”

I repeated the time for Chloe’s benefit, “One o’clock…”

My bodyguard seemed to do some quick math in her head and then nodded.

“Yeah. I can do that. I might be ten minutes late.”

“One-thirty then.”

“What’s this about?” I asked.

“We can talk at the restaurant, but in short, it is about my brother and father.”

“I’m not letting your brother go without some kind of deal,” I said.

“I understand.”

“Okay,” I said. “But just a heads up… my security will probably check you out before I come in.”

“Considering that my family and you are not on good terms, I would expect as much,” she said.

The way she tossed my words back at me caught me off guard enough that I almost gave her a weak chuckle. “Alright. Talk to you soon.”

She hung up without another word, and I blinked at Chloe. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“The Tanaka daughter is supposed to be smart,” Chloe said.

“Yeah. I remember,” I said. She’d been briefly mentioned on the way to meet Ryo.

“She’s going to use her femininity to appeal to your sense of mercy,” Chloe said as we continued down the hall.

“You think she’ll try to seduce me?”

“Or just express some vulnerability,” Chloe said.

She had a point. Sometimes, a pair of big doe eyes was just as effective as a pair of bedroom eyes. “What are you suggesting?”

“Bring Helen with you.”

“Not Erin?” I asked, a little surprised.

“Erin, too,” Chloe said, “but Helen should be there.”

“Why not just Erin?”

“Because Erin’s almost as bad as you are,” Chloe said. “And I wouldn’t care if it were anyone else, but this is a Tanaka.”

I gave her a look.

“I’m not saying you guys are helpless, but Helen has more control over her libido than you two.”

Maybe she was right. Helen certainly enjoyed sex as much as I did, but she did seem a little more level-headed when it really counted, and she’d also known Tanaka for a long time. “Okay.”

We continued down the hall toward the conference room, where we ran into John standing at the door.

“She in there?” I asked.

John nodded. “She and the room are clean.”

I glanced at Chloe, “Does that mean I can go in by myself? She seems a little more forthcoming when it’s just me and her.”

Chloe nodded. “I’ll be here in case you need anything.”

“Thanks,” I said as I opened the door and stepped inside, keeping my eye on her as I began to shut it. “I’ll be fine.”

I shut the door the rest of the way and turned around to see—

“Jesus Christ, Carla!”

Carla Tanaka wasn’t sitting in one of the three chairs surrounding the round conference table. She was sitting on the table. Wearing a dress… a dress which was currently bunched around her thighs.

And she clearly wasn’t wearing underwear.

Her frosted, bottle blonde hair hung over her shoulders. One shoulder strap on her dress had ridden down and rested on her forearm. Her palms were pressed into the table between her spread legs, gripping the wood’s edge… her baby-smooth pussy peeked at me from between them.

Carla bit the corner of her lip as she grinned, staring at me with those smoldering brown eyes.

“Hey, stud! Did you miss me?”

“No!”

“No!?” She repeated, her smile immediately replaced with a pout. “Why not!? It gets cold in Europe!”

“I managed,” I said dryly.

Her pout intensified. “Well, this isn’t the reunion I expected.”

“What did you expect!?

Carla put her hand to her chest and feigned a conversation— ”Carla! My precious gem! I haven’t seen you since that night we shared! How have you been since I hid you away in my building to protect you from your mean husband!?”

She pivoted to the other side, pretended to blush as she held her hand to her cheek shyly, and said, “Marcus! You’ve been gone for so long, travelling beautiful Europe without me, while I’ve been imprisoned in this dreary castle without you! I’ve not been with another man since we were last together. Come! Make love to me!”

Leaning forward, she spread her legs a little wider, giving me a clear view of what was between them. The look she gave me would have had a lifelong priest blushing as he undressed.

“I can’t believe you abandoned me here,” she said, “while you galivanted around Europe with half a dozen women. Then you waited four whole days after your return to see me! You even had a party and didn’t invite me!”

“Last time you came to my party, you slept with one of my best friends.”

Her lips curled into a sly smile. “Nuh-uh! It’s not technically sex. The President said so!”

“I don’t need the details.”

“Aw… what’s the matter? Are you jealous?”

“No! I just don’t want Kai to end up dead because he couldn’t resist a pretty woman!”

Her predatory look melted into something a little more genuine, and a slight blush—a real one—crept across her cheeks. “It’s nice to hear you think I’m pretty.”

Fucking Christ. This woman made me miss Astrid.

The brief thought of the Nordic woman made me touch my phone, remembering the image she sent yesterday.

“I missed you,” Carla said, drawing me back to the present. She actually sounded sincere.

Part of me felt sorry for her. Nothing interesting had happened to her since she moved into my apartment and started working for VistaVision. Once a week, I heard the same thing from Chloe—Carla was escorted to work by my security, and she was escorted home by my security. When she did eat out, it was by herself. Apparently, she’d been stood up by her friends twice. She’d literally had zero visitors since everything went down between me and Hiro. Her one, single saving grace was her time at VistaVision, where she got the most human interaction.

And according to Chandler, most of them only tolerated her.

“I…”

I started to say it back because I knew it was something she wanted to hear, yet I couldn’t bring myself to form the words. I didn’t miss her. She was a pain in my ass and much of the reason I was in this hot mess.

But she could also prove to be useful.

“It’s good to see you again, Carla,” I finally said. That was at least partly true. I was happy to see she wasn’t dead. No one deserved what I imagined Hiro had in store for her.

She brightened. “Please tell me you brought me here for a little workplace fun.”

“Uh… no… that’s not what this is.”

“Marcus! It’s been ages!” She slid off the desk and took a couple of steps toward me. A hand slid to the strap on the other side of her dress, and she began to slowly work it down her lovely, tanned shoulder. “I have needs, you know.”

Oh boy, did I! Carla Tanaka was a hellcat in the bedroom. She’d given as good as she got, and there was not a single area in the sexual arts where she didn’t excel. If she’d gone a month without… I could only imagine what my back would look like the next day.

“I’m here to talk about your husband, Carla,” I said, taking a single step back.

“Ugh,” she groaned, any sexiness fading from her demeanor. “Ex-husband.”

“I don’t care what he is,” I said. “He killed Rajesh Desai last night.”

The bratty, seductive trophy wife routine vanished as her brown eyes grew wide. “What?”

“He came to see me Friday night,” I said. “He threatened me on behalf of Hiro unless I gave up you and Ryo.”

Carla took a couple of steps back and fell back until her perfect ass hit the conference table. She started idly playing with her hair as she stared at me.

“The cops found him hanging in his hotel room this morning,” I said. “They’re suspecting suicide—”

“No,” Carla interjected. “Rajesh wouldn’t kill himself.”

“They haven’t ruled out anything yet,” I continued. “But my people are pretty sure Hiro did it.”

Carla eyed me carefully. “How are they so sure?”

“Because Rajesh just threatened me the night before and seemed really upset when he didn’t get what he wanted,” I said. “I talked to Hiro earlier the same day, too. He sounded pissed.”

I eyed Carla, noting that she looked more disturbed than concerned that someone had been murdered. “Besides… from what I hear, he’s capable of it.”

Carla shook her head, staring at the space behind me. “Yeah… he is.”

“I called him on the phone,” I admitted, “just before coming in here.”

Her gaze turned back to me, sharp. “What did he say?”

I shook my head. “His daughter answered the phone. She said he was busy.”

Carla blinked. “Sachiko is in town?”

“Guess so,” I shrugged. “I called this number, and she answered.” I pulled up the phone number on my phone and flashed my screen at her.

“Yeah. That’s his personal cell.”

“Does Sachiko being here mean anything? I barely knew he had a daughter.”

Carla crinkled her nose, and despite myself, I couldn’t help finding it cute.

“He doesn’t utilize Sachiko much unless he feels…”

She crossed her arms over her chest and remained silent, once again staring at the wall behind me, seemingly lost in thought. The strap on her shoulder, which she’d been working on, rode a little further down, on the cusp of slipping free and succumbing to gravity.

“Carla,” I said, tilting my head to the side in an unconscious effort to gain eye contact. “I need to know everything you can tell me about Hiro. People are dead because of him, and more people might die.”

She looked up at me, her brown eyes like stone. “What do I get out of it?”

I blinked. “What?”

“What. Do. I. Get?”

I wasn’t quite sure what to say. Carla knew I’d been protecting her from the man, and now I’d just let her know that he’d killed one of his own for failing him. She had to be scared out of her mind.