Daring Play (Dangerous Book 3)
Page 19
It didn’t take me long to look up a William J. Rogers in listed Fort Worth agronomy sales. Twenty-five years old and very “beautiful on the inside”, judging from his dorky website headshot photo.
It was also easy to call his direct number and mention that I had a business proposition for him…to be delivered in person, over lunch. Naturally, it was an offer Billy, or his superiors, couldn’t refuse…especially when they heard my name.
I stand up to meet Billy and shake his hand, giving him a congenial smile that suggests I have absolutely no interest in his personal life. But something David always told me still rings true…sometimes business must become personal.
I told Billy to meet me at Jerry’s Deli, for a brief chat. I stand up and welcome him to his seat across from me. As I sit down, I focus my wrath upon his gerbil eyes. His docile posturing and moronic smile instantly put me in a bad mood.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Mister Troy,” Billy says energetically. “When they told me I was actually meeting with YOU and not some sales rep, I was floored. I tell you what…this is kind of a dream come true.”
“Oh yes, for me, too,” I say mindlessly. “Well, more like a daydream than a lucid dream.”
“Well heck, I know you’re doing us all the favors. But just the honor to work with you is all that matters to me.”
“Yes. And I wonder…are you a self-starter, Billy? Do you mind if I call you Billy?”
“No, that’s fine,” he says cluelessly. “Well yeah, I’m a go-getter. I own my own small business even though my top clients keep me in business. But I found those clients working my butt off. Being a self-starter is just—?”
“Yeah whatever, that’s great. So if you were to receive a large amount of money, such as…I don’t know…a non-repayable grant…what would that do for business?”
Billy stares silently until he erupts into laughter. “Well…now I’m thinking I’m the one dreaming. I mean is this a prank? Am I on America’s Funniest Videos?”
“What is that? America’s what?”
“Oh it was a…just a show from the 1990s. Not sure why I keep talking about it since it was like twenty years ago”
“No, Billy. Bad move. Don’t be talking about shit from the 1990s. Think modern. Think contemporary, the zeitgeist of TODAY!”
“Right! You’re right.”
“Today it’s all about the VINES. Have you seen those vines on YouTube?”
“Oh yeah, that shit cracks me up-”
“Billy, don’t swear. It’s not professional during an interview.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“I mean, I’m the client, I could say whatever the fuck I want. But you need me, so you need to play it safely. You feel me?”
“Right. Yeah I’m learning stuff from you already!”
“You know what I like the most, Billy?” My disposition sours as I feel my blood pressure spike. This bastard is not going to take away my Maya. “Those funny YouTube videos where the birds are misbehaving. Yes…the chicken videos. Chickens chasing cats, chasing dogs. Chasing people. It’s quite poetic in a way. Very mollifying.”
“Ummm, yeah, I guess so. Very fowl behavior, right?”
Billy laughs but I stare him down in snarling rage.
“Sorry. I know a few chicken jokes. Want to hear them?”
“NO, I don’t, you fucking inbred hick!” The very idea of Maya choosing HIM over ME is making my skin crawl. Who does this dickhead country-bumpkin Romeo think he is?
“Excuse me?”
“You dishonest, lying scumbag chicken-farmer shit-kicking dildo!”
Billy smiles in confusion. “Am I being pranked? Is this a Logan Paul thing or…”
“The only PRANK is that Maya likes YOU when she could have a real man like me.”
My nostrils flare as my hand grips the table.
“Ohhh…” Billy says, scratching his head. “Ohhh!” he says with an inappropriate smile forming on his face. “I get it. You’re the psycho ex Maya keeps talking about.”
“EX? No, I’m NOT her ex.”
“Yeah, you’re not her ex,” he agrees. “Because she friend-zoned you before you got anywhere near her, that’s what she told me. Damn, partner, that must hurt to have a cute country girl like Maya dump your billionaire ass!”
“NO, she didn’t dump me. We are going to be together. That’s why I’m here.”
“Dude, I’m not going to fight you. And if you think Maya’s going to respect you just because you’re trying to alpha cock your way into her life, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Alpha cock? Is that an agronomy expression?”
“Cock as in a rooster. Not as in your anatomy, weirdo. Look, I’m not going to get into a pissing contest with you. Let Maya make her choice. But if you feel the need to come here and make threats, I suspect you’re losing and I’m winning.”
“On the contrary, BILLY, I came here not to make threats, but to make peace.”
I grab my wallet and pull cash out like I’m throwing bread for the birds.
I throw down a stack of bills on the table.
“What is this?”
“Your ‘grant’ money, Silly Willy. I want you to leave Maya alone. Voluntarily.”
He laughs and stares at me in disbelief. “I can’t be bought. Neither can Maya.”
I slap down more bills. “Count it.”
“What…it’s twelve grand. I make twelve grand in a few months. What do you think this is, some fucking…fucking…”
Billy flinches as I slap down another hundred grand. Dirty, filthy cash, pulled straight from a hooker’s tits. So reject my money, then, if it’s such a bane to your heroic existence.
“How much is that?” he asks.
“Over a hundred grand. I believe that’s the most dirty money any man has ever paid another man to simply walk away from a conversation.”
“No,” he says proudly. “I’ll make that in two years. And in two years, I know I can win Maya’s heart. Some people can’t be bought, you know.”
“Yes, well, some people are stubborn, aren’t they?”
“Yes, you are!”
“Have you gone to bed with her yet, Billy?” I ask with a wicked grin. “Don’t lie. She’s friend-zoned you just the same. The only difference, Billy, is that you will never bed Maya. You don’t have that special SPARK that she needs to feel horny. I do. I’m already halfway into her. She will come around sooner or later because no woman ever says no to Zander Troy. No woman can resist the touch of royalty. I just need YOU to stop fucking up my timeframe.”
He shakes his head…
I slam down another wad of cash on the table equaling one hundred grand. Cash bills.
“You’re going to lose anyway. Girls like Maya never go for the nice guy. I’m offering you money for you to lose. Money that can jumpstart your business. This is the best exit strategy in the history of civilized humankind.”
Billy sighs. He grabs the money and looks at it. “You know, Mister Troy, I’d like to think there are some things in life money can’t buy.”
“Like what? God? You’re right. God has no price. I was raised Catholic and the first thing I remember asking my mother was whether God was for sale. She said no. Lucky I didn’t live back in the day of papal indulgences, eh?”
“I have no idea what you just said, Mister Troy,” he says in resignation. “Look, I’m a simple guy. Your offer is tempting. But my business will be fine without a grant. My marriage to Maya will be fine without you.”
“I’m finished slamming down ten-grand dollar bills, Billy.”
“Good.”
“But you’re wrong. With the exception of God, everything else on earth can be bought. Acts of charity? Justice? Women? Love? All of it can be bought. Money is nothing, paper money is non-existent. Gold price fluctuates. But trade? Worth? That’s real. Power is the only currency, Billy.”
Billy stares helplessly as I grab a small billfold from my coat pocket. He looks at me as if he’s
seen the Devil himself. A story he will no doubt tell his grandchildren someday, his lovable and heroic grandchildren descended from his lovely daughter, descended by some other woman who is NOT my Maya.
“Case in point, the largest bill that the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing ever made was the $100,000 gold certificate. Printed in the Great Depression, with the portrait of Woodrow Wilson on the front.”
I slap down one Woodrow and look at Billy’s face in admiration. “These bills were so absurdly huge they were never issued to the general public. They were only used by the Federal Reserve. But through very tight connections, my family managed to secure a few of these babies. Worth more than the currency printed on them because of their historical value.”
“Mister Troy…”
I slap another Woodrow down. “There is no price beyond my reach. I will never stop fighting for Maya. Never. And at some point, she will realize that the more a man has to give, the more that man truly loves her. There is nothing more valuable than…resources, Billy.”
He grumbles and does a double take on the money. “Fine. You want me to walk away? I’ll walk. Let me just tell you something, Troy. I was never chasing after Maya just because she was a virgin. That’s…that’s juvenile. What I really loved about her was how pure her heart was. And that IS something that can never be bought.”
“Then perhaps we have at least one thing in common. To see this sick, cruel and depraved world through a virgin’s eyes…is the cure for all our depression.”
“You know why I’m taking this money?” Billy says, getting up from the table.
“Because you’re a good poker player, that’s why.”
“Because I pity you, Troy.”
“Oh?” I laugh at the very idea.
“It’s pretty obvious even to a dumb southern boy like me…you’re not chasing Maya. You’re trying to buy back your soul. What a sad man you must be, even with all that money. I hope you do win Maya’s heart. Maybe she’ll be the one thing in your life that’s worth a damn.”
I don’t argue with anything Billy says. I wait patiently as he throws his tantrum and then takes the money and leaves, never turning back once to reconsider.
Why would he? He NEVER loved her as much as I do and I just proved it. For a simple man like him, there’ll probably be a hundred Mayas that will soothe his broken heart. Sweet, injured women who fall for his starving poetry, his loyalty, his charm. There are so many of them, I see them every day, in every city.
But for me, there is only one who can stop the bleeding. The one who hasn’t been poisoned by the air we all breathe. That’s Maya. My pursuit of her is directly connected to realizing who I am as a person. I want to be the person Maya sees when she sees me. I’ve never felt more at peace with myself, than when I look at myself through her eyes. Every man wants a woman who sees him in the best light. I need to see myself in that light again…and she is the guiding light I need to know my true self.
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Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Daring Play. I hope you had fun reading the story as much as I did writing it.
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About the Author
Romi writes steamy contemporary romance with hot alpha rugged bad boys and their strong heroines. You'll love her if you like reading books with passion, love and HEAs.
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