The Love Of Money - S02 E188

Story 1 month ago

The Love Of Money - S02 E188

Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 188

Within fifteen minutes, Venus joined us on the rooftop, taking over from the girl Vikram had been dancing with. Jonah and Honey were dancing with their arms around each other as if no one else existed. Kwan and Saskia were sitting at the far end of the table, drinking beers and talking. My friend had her thick braid cradled between his fingers, thumb sliding up and down its ridges as their heads were close together. Derek and his partner were nowhere to be found, and Richie was in deep conversation with the cute girl with the pixie cut.

Now that she was freed up, Vikram’s original dance partner returned to me and plopped down in my lap.

“Lost your partner?” I asked.

“If you want to look at it like that,” she purred. “Oooorrr, you could say I found the right one.” She traced a finger across one of my collarbones until it disappeared under my shirt.

“Not sure I really feel up for dancing,” I said.

Her amber eyes sparkled. “Honey said there were all kinds of things to do. I hear you have a beautiful hot tub.”

“Did you bring a swimsuit?”

“From what Honey described, swimsuits were optional,” she said, taking my hand in hers and guiding it to her midriff. Her belly was soft, with firm muscle just underneath. She coaxed it up, my fingers slipping beneath her shirt and trailing up her smooth skin.

She placed her fingers under my chin and tilted my face up just a bit more as she leaned forward. Her lips found mine, and she initiated a warm, soft kiss.

The soft underside of a bare breast met my fingertips as I explored higher, and she moaned into my mouth. I started to explore further when she broke the kiss, and then stood up, grabbing my hand as it slid from under her shirt and dragging me to my feet.

“Come on,” she coaxed as she led me toward the gardens.

I glanced at Richie as she led me past the two of them, and my little brother gave me an awkward thumbs up, which caused the pixie-haired woman to look over at us, her eyes watching closely as we approached the garden.

Then I turned back to my Latina beauty, and realized something…

“Hey… I don’t even know your name.”

Her fingers tightened around mine as she glanced at me with a wicked smile on her lips. “Make me scream yours, and I’ll tell you mine.”

***

Friday, September 27th, 2:03 pm

“Marcus?”

My eyes fluttered open, and it took me a moment to remember where I was.

After a night of heavy drinking, even Erin’s special drugs didn’t seem to stave off the effects of alcohol as much as I would like. The resulting hangover had pressured me to hand over any immediate responsibilities to Erin and take it easy.

I’d ended up having a light breakfast and a discussion with Charity about the nature of public relations, which had ended with both of us getting naked and fucking in my garden before napping in a hammock.

And that’s where my assistant found me—the garden.

The early afternoon sun filtered through the canopy, dappled against my skin. I blinked, brushing strands of black hair from my face, then peered over the head they belonged to.

Erin stood beside me, barefoot on the stone path. One hand twined gently through my hair. The other held her phone.

As I peered up into her face, I saw the strain on it—a tightening around the corners of her eyes and jaw. She held her phone in her hand.

“Hiro Tanaka’s on the phone. He wants to speak to you.”

I eased myself out from beneath Charity. She stirred against my chest as I slid my arm free and sat up. Fortunately, she didn’t wake. Charity was a real cutie when she slept and disturbing her felt like a crime.

I stood, leaving the hammock relatively undisturbed, and took the phone from her hand. As I walked away, I could feel her attentive gaze on my back.

Stepping out of the garden, I let the sunlight wash over me. For a moment, it felt good against my skin, but the warmth didn’t last. Without the trees for cover, the breeze reminded me that it was late September.

I snapped my fingers, pointing back toward the hammock, mouthing shirt to Erin. She moved quickly.

“Hello?” I said, putting the receiver to my ear.

“Mr. Upton.”

There was no mistaking that thin, brittle voice, reminding me of the worn elastic from an old balloon.

“Mr. Tanaka.”

“I received your message. You wanted to talk to me. Well, here I am.”

“Took you long enough.” I felt fabric brush my back and raised an arm so Erin could slip the shirt over my shoulders. “You’re a bad dad.”

“Hm… and how is business?”

I gritted my teeth. Not only was he ignoring my use of his son to get his attention, but he knew damn well how business was! Over the last week, he’d cost me billions—tens of billions. I’d lost most of my influence in Asia and much of my credibility in Europe. None of my people could leave my building without armed escorts.

Psalter and Hannon had intervened in three separate incidents, preventing my employees from getting hurt, or worse… killed. Natalie had been one of the targets. Neither of the perpetrators could be traced back to Tanaka, but I knew better. He was biding his time and spending millions to make me suffer.

Marduke, my professional home for the last year, had gone bankrupt overnight, dragging two associated companies down with it. Gerald, my old office neighbor, had lost the job he’d held for twenty years. He had called Natalie in tears, terrified about his future, with only six years left until retirement.

Of course, I wasn’t going to leave Gerald to that fate. He was a good man who had always offered to fill my coffee cup whenever he was going to make a trip for his own.

But for every Gerald or Natalie, there were hundreds more affected by this war. The only difference was that they didn’t have the good fortune of knowing me.

I wanted to curse Hiro out and tell him to go to hell again, but that’s what he wanted—a reaction.

I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

“Oh, you know. Business is hard, but we’re managing. Some asshole wrecked half the world’s economy, but we’re working with Interpol to get to the bottom of it. Maybe we’ll find a few new sectors to move into once we rebuild some goodwill.”

Chandler had coached me for this call. I wasn’t sure if what I was saying even made sense, but it sounded convincing enough to me.

“I had a visit from a detective with the NYPD,” I added. “Didn’t appreciate some of the implications he was making.”

“Then you should not have committed murder.”

I froze midstep, only just realizing that I’d been pacing.

“Excuse me?”

Why would he accuse me of killing Rajesh when he knew damn good and well that I was innocent?

I turned toward Erin, searching her face for some clue, but she only stared back. Then it hit me.