by Jamie Knight
And that was when it hit me. I was done living a lie.
“I think I’m done at McKenzie Tech,” I whispered to Kane.
He leaned towards me. “What?”
“I’m done being a CFA. I can’t sell off all of Ronnie’s holdings. I’m going to keep everything and start running things myself.”
Kane looked me in the face and raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure, man?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be. I understand. You’re still one of my closest friends, Ray. That won’t change even if you’re no longer my employee.”
I nodded, looked away from him and back at the casket. “Thanks, Kane. Plus, we will still see each other at the club.”
“That we will.”
Kane sat back in his chair and we both relaxed. I felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. Like that, I was no longer an employee. I was the CEO of Silver, Inc. and I never had to follow another order again. I would be giving the orders in all aspects of my life now. It felt good; it felt right.
Ronnie was right.
The sermon was over an hour long and it started to rain partway through. But no one left. Someone had brought a bunch of black, leather umbrellas which were passed out among the guests. The priest’s eyes bulged a bit when he saw but he didn’t skip a word.
Once the sermon was done, we all stood, and they started lowering down the casket into the grave. I looked around one more time at the cemetery and talked to my Uncle Ronnie in my mind. I knew he didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits, and I didn’t either, but still I told his spirit that if he was unhappy here to tell me somehow and I would have his body moved to someplace more fitting. Maybe a nude beach somewhere.
I dropped my black rose onto the casket and moved forward to let the next person do the same. My heart was numb. This was goodbye.
I stumbled forward blindly a few steps until something got in my way. My eyes fell onto a terribly disformed face. Mr. Pugsly yipped at me and broke into a big doggy grin.
Breathless, I looked up. Eileen was standing, shaking, in front of me holding a black umbrella in one hand and the leash in the other. She was beautiful, even with her mouth pulled down in a frown and tears in her eyes.
“I came as soon as I could,” she told me, sniffling. “I didn’t listen to your messages until today and no one at the office knew where the funeral was. I got a cab and had him drive around to as many cemeteries as I could think of. Luckily, you’re easy to recognize from the street. I was so stupid. I should have been here for you. Are you okay, Ray?”
I rushed forward, took her into my arms and showered kisses all over her face. “No,” I whispered in her ear. “I’m not okay, but it helps that you are here.”
Eileen wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my head down to her shoulder. I breathed in her scent: vanilla and lavender. She was so warm and perfect in my arms. I never wanted to let her go.
“I need you, Eileen,” I whispered. “Please don’t leave me.”
She ran a hand over my back and patted me gently. “I’m so sorry, Ray,” she whispered. “I’m here for you and I’m not going away again. I promise.”
Mr. Pugsly wound his leash around both of our legs, trying to find some way to comfort his humans. We were bound together, and I wanted to stay that way for the rest of our lives.
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Ray
After the funeral was over, I held a small reception at Ronnie’s townhouse. Everything was as my uncle had requested from the types of flowers in the displays to the odd ice sculpture, he had left a drawing of. Jensen and I stood next to the table with the catering on it and looked up at the depiction of Zeus taking Leda. It was oddly graphic.
“Hmm,” Jensen grunted with a frown plastered to his face. “I never knew that your uncle was a fan of Greek mythology.”
I turned an eye towards Jensen. The manager looked pretty decent in his new designer black suit. He wore a blue tie that somewhat matched his eyes. I was pretty sure that the suit was tailored, such an expense wasn’t usually something Jensen bothered to do. Maybe he felt that he was representing my uncle and The Dark Club today and wanted to look the part. The thought made me respect him a little more. Maybe I would give him a raise.
“Ronnie wasn’t a fan,” I told him, “but my grandmother’s name was Leda. Perhaps Ronnie is implying that he was a son of a god?”
Jensen laughed. “That sounds about right.”
Eileen found me and wrapped a hand around my arm. Her presence was so comforting and my relief to have her by my side again was huge. She tugged at me a little bit then pointed to a man who had just come in the door.
“Ray, this is Alex Whitfield. He’s one of Jake’s assistants. He’s here to read the will.”
“Your brother isn’t coming?” I asked keeping my voice low.
She shook her head. “No. Honestly, I’m surprised that Jake even worked on Ronnie’s will. It’s not exactly his field of law anymore. I was surprised when Ronnie told me but figured that there was some loyalty there.”
I nodded. “I suppose we should get this over with.”
I announced that the will was about to be read and ushered everyone in to Ronnie’s library where we could all take seats. Mr. Whitfield stood at the front of the room. He said a few nice things about my uncle as an opening to his speech, but it was obvious that he hadn’t really known Ronnie. Then the reading of the will started.
It was in depth and long. Ronnie had left little tidbits and oddities to almost everyone he had ever met. From a favorite hat to one of the bouncers at the club, to a specific bottle of bourbon to Vanessa, his hospice nurse. It was oddly sweet, personal, and surprising for my uncle, who I had always thought of as a distant man.
Finally, his stock and holding in Silver, Inc. his sex empire, came up.
“My majority share in Silver, Inc. including the title to The Dark Club, goes to the one man who has always been there for me,” Alex read in a monotone, “Mr. Jensen Michaels.”
What?! All my breath came out in a huff. I thought I had proven myself to my uncle. I performed at the Leather and Lace Ball as he requested. He had said he was proud. Ronnie couldn’t have changed the will on his deathbed when I came clean about lying and he didn’t seem mad at me at that point. I just didn’t understand.
Eileen held her hand up to her mouth as she looked at me. Her golden eyes were wide with shock. I stood, upsetting her hand on my arm, and walked to the front.
“Let me see that,” I snapped at the lawyer, taking the will in hand. I glanced over the neatly typed pages. My name wasn’t anywhere on the document. It just didn’t make sense.
“Ray?” Eileen’s voice wavered. I shook my head. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Line by line, I read and re-read the will. The Dark Club wasn’t mine. The websites weren’t mine. Even Ronnie’s townhouse was left to Jensen.
“There has to be a mistake here,” I said to Alex.
“No, sir,” he told me. “This is how Mr. Silver wanted things. You can see his signature here at the bottom.”
That was it then. All my efforts had been for nothing. I crossed out of the library, suddenly aware that everyone was gawking at me, and fled to the bar in the living room. I poured myself a few fingers of what was now Jensen’s scotch and took a big swig.
I tried to get my head together. Yes I was disappointed, hurt, but I still had my own money and earlier this morning I had been thinking that the money didn’t matter at all. It did sting that Ronnie had left me nothing—not even the few family photos that he had. Perhaps Jensen would sell them to me. I downed my drink and poured myself another.
A few minutes later, Jensen joined me at the bar. He looked nervous and kept his hands clamped into his pockets.
“Ray,” he started, “I hope you don’t hate me. This is a very awkward situation. I have always considered us friends and I would hate for you to no longer
patronize the club. I was hoping that you and your pet would be willing to do a show there on Saturday nights.”
My head was slightly spinning, but I managed to smile at the man. “Of course, Jensen.” I clapped him good-naturedly on the shoulder. “I’m glad that you were there for my uncle, thank you for that.”
Jensen stepped back out of my reach, looking awkward. “Of course,” he stammered.
Our uncomfortable moment was broken up by his phone ringing. Jensen nodded at me, but he didn’t step far away, and his phone was a little too loud. I could overhear the woman on the line.
“Hey, Big Daddy,” she chimed in a high squeaky voice. “How did the funeral go?”
I chuckled to myself. All this time I had been thinking that Jensen was too ugly for a pet, but he had a girl. A girl with a high squeaky voice.
I was mid-drink when my body froze. Big Daddy.
I dropped my drink which crashed, shattering on the floor. I grabbed Jensen’s phone with one hand and his shoulder with my other. He struggled in my grip, but I ignored him as I put the cell phone up to my ear. The woman was still talking.
“Valerie?” I asked.
“Mr. Silver?” she squeaked in surprise, then gasped and hung up.
Valerie from McKenzie Tech’s mailroom was Jensen’s pet. That’s how the envelopes with the pictures got into the office. That was how he got access to Watercooler to threaten me. He had tried blackmail and when that didn’t work, he had changed the will. I was sure of it.
I dropped the phone. Jensen was still caught in my grasp and I pinned him up against the wall. “How the fuck did you do it?!” I snapped, working my way up until I had him by the collar.
“Let me go, Ray,” the shorter man hissed. “You’re in my house now. I can have someone call the police and have you arrested.”
I pulled him away from the wall a little and then slammed him back into it, hard. Jensen’s face grimaced and he bared his teeth.
“How the fuck did you change the will?” I yelled.
People rushed forward, but it was Alex, the lawyer, who put his hands on me. I tried to shrug him off, but Kane came to help. He got Alex into a headlock and drug the struggling man to the opposite side of the room.
“The will is correct,” Alex yelped. “It’s correct.”
Everyone stood watching as I held Jensen against the wall and shook him. There were hisses behind my back. One of the bouncers from The Dark Club, Billy, came up and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I know you’re upset, Mr. Silver, but this isn’t the way to show it. It’s not Jensen’s fault that Ronnie took you out of the will.”
I shook Billy’s hand off my shoulder, but kept my hands clamped on Jensen’s collar.
“Ronnie didn’t change his will last minute,” I hissed.
“Actually, he did.”
Everyone’s heads swung around. Jake Davies was standing at the door with his sister. Eileen was holding a hand over her mouth again and staring at me in shock. She must have called her brother as soon as I had left the library.
Jake crossed the room, a confident presence even though he was wearing the most gawdy golf pants I had ever seen. He was carrying a laptop bag. Everyone in the room was watching him, especially Alex.
Jake gave his assistant one look and Alex stopped fighting Kane.
“Ronnie changed his will last minute, but he didn’t take Ray out of it,” he explained. “He added in Eileen. I oversaw the changes personally. I have a digital copy on my laptop with a timestamp, reuploaded on Monday.”
Jake placed his bag on the table and opened it up. “I have called the police and I intend to show them this evidence when they get here.” His eyes found Alex again. “Mr. Whitfield, you are fired. I hope the amount of money Mr. Michaels gave you is enough for a good lawyer because we will sue, and I am positive that you will be disbarred.”
When Kane dropped the headlock, Whitfield fled the room. I kept Jensen trapped to the wall; I had no intention of letting him get away until the police cuffed him. They arrived a few minutes later and led the former manager away.
With the drama over, guests started leaving. Billy, the bouncer apologized for putting his hands on me. I told him it was okay and assured him that he still had a job. He had been doing what he thought was right.
After a while, it was just Kane, Jake, Eileen, and I standing around Ronnie’s living room trying to relax. I looked around, not sure if I wanted to sell the place or not.
“What did I get?”
We all turned and looked at Eileen. “What?” I asked.
“What did Ronnie leave me in the will?” she asked quietly.
Jake looked down at the computer and cleared his throat uncomfortably. “He…ah…left you a sex yoke.”
Eileen’s hand shot up to her mouth. She started giggling and I joined in. Jakey paled.
“I don’t even want to know what that is,” he muttered.
Eileen grinned. “Oh, come on, Jakey. It’s an antique; a family heirloom.” Her hand found mine and she squeezed it gently. “Ronnie knew that I would love it and I do.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Ray
My newly-bought, gray limo pulled up to the chain-link fence that surrounded the baseball diamond. It was Tuesday evening and the game had already been going on for twenty minutes, but that was okay. Once the night was done with, I figured that the players would forgive me.
I got out of my limo, straighten the cuffs of my designer pinstriped suit, and made sure my hair was perfect. I checked my pocket for the thousandth time to make sure the box was in there. It still was and I was ready. There was no doubt in my mind that I was ready, now to see if she was.
When I stepped into the dugout, Mr. Pugsly had his leash tied to one of the benches and Mr. Davies stood with his arms folded over the railing watching the game. Pugsly grunted at me and wandered over for me to scratch his neck. He seemed to accept me, I just hoped the rest would.
“Mr. Silver,” Eileen’s dad grunted. He sounded a bit like Mr. Pugsly. “You didn’t come here to play. You’re wearing slacks again.” He didn’t look at me, so I moved to his side and put my arms over the railing too.
Eileen was on the pitcher’s mound getting ready to strike out another player from a team of lawyers from a different firm. These guys actually looked to be in good shape, and she was sweating a bit with the tension. I was certain that she knew I was there, she was just trying to keep her mind in the game.
“I came to talk to you, sir, and if you will allow it, to ask your daughter a question.”
The old man nodded, but he still didn’t look into my eyes.
When he didn’t say anything, I felt the need to continue, “I love your daughter with all my heart, but I will not hide who I am or how I got my money. Did she tell you?”
“That you own a bunch of porn sites and a dirty club. No, but Jake did.”
“I realize that my line of work isn’t something that everyone can accept, but I love and need your daughter in my life. I can’t live without her. I hope you can understand that.”
Mr. Davies turned and looked me full in the face. His brown eyes were unreadable, and he frowned slightly.
“Ray, I don’t care that your money comes from sex work as long as everyone who works for you is a consenting adult. I’m a lawyer and I care that things are legal not that things are dirty.”
“I can assure you that Silver Productions, Inc. is totally legal, and we thoroughly check the ages of all the models or cam-girls we use.”
He waved a hand in dismissal and then put it up to his forehead. “Fine. Fine. Good. It doesn’t matter what you do, kid. As long as you are good to my little girl.”
The way he said “kid” startled me and it took me a moment to find my breath again. It was like hearing my uncle talk to me again.
“I will treat Eileen like the queen she is. Any other rules or demands?”
He raised one dark bushy eyebr
ow at me. “Can you get her to stop dressing so skimpy?”
I found myself laughing. “Hell no. I love to see her finally accepting herself and her beauty.”
Mr. Davies snorted a laugh too. “Good point. You know, her mother was a fashion model. She used to dress as skimpy as possible everywhere we went. I knew she liked the attention, so I never objected. I tried to raise Eileen to know that she is just as beautiful as her mother was, but I didn’t always do the best job.”
“She’s just now realizing who she is, and I think we are all lucky to see that.”
He nodded and reached out to shake my hand. “Indeed. You have my blessing. Are you going to do this now?”
I looked over to Mr. Pugsly, who was panting and watching the game beside us. His oddly-shaped face gave me an idea. As I pulled the ring box out of my pocket, I told Mr. Davies, “I’m ready. I’ve had this question on my lips for ages. I just need an answer.”
He grunted and turned back to the field, draping his meaty arms over the railing in the same pose as before. The pose he always seemed to be in.
“Go get your answer then, kid.”
I started up the steps and on to the dusty field, leading Pugsly with me.
“Oh, and Ray?”
I turned back and met Mr. Davies’ eyes.
“Next time come dressed to play. All of my family plays, not matter how bad they are.”
I nodded and grinned at him.
There was a pause in the game, the Davies and Sons’ players were running in from the field for their turn to bat, but Eileen stayed frozen on the pitcher’s mound as Pugsly and I approached.
The other players caught sight of me, slowed to a walk, and then stopped to watch.
Eileen knelt as Mr. Pugsly hobble up to her and yipped for attention. That’s when she saw the large square-cut diamond ring with canary-yellow accent diamonds I had tied to his collar. Her honey-colored eyes went wide, and she stammered a bit.
Not caring about the dust, I knelt down on one knee and looked up to her beautiful face. Her hands rose up to cover her cheeks, which were starting to blush, but she quickly put them down.
