by Stone, M. T.
“What went on between you and Tommy?” I ask, knowing there is more to the story than what she is telling. “The night Tyler was poisoned he left me a message and he said, first Vanessa and now the company. What did he mean by that?”
Vanessa sits silently, shaking violently and trying to hold back her tears. “I was so lonely, Trey. Tyler had been so miserable for so long. I was weak and you know how persuasive Tommy can be when he wants something.”
“You slept with him?” I ask, thinking it has to be the only thing that makes any sense. “And you thought that if Dr. Potaturri could make him forget what he knew about the Firefly Media deal, he might also forget the fact that you are carrying Tommy’s baby.” I speculate, sitting back in silence as she closes her eyes tightly and shakes even more violently.
“I never wanted to hurt him,” she finally whispers. “Tommy promised that Dr. Potaturri wouldn’t do anything to hurt him, but Tyler kept getting more and more angry. If he would’ve just let things go, everything would have worked out just fine.”
Wow! I don’t even know what to say. She allowed her fiancé to be drugged in order to make up for the fact that she slept with an old boyfriend and got pregnant. “I feel sorry for you,” is the first thing that falls from my mouth. “I honestly can’t believe you would do something like that. I don’t even know you anymore.”
“Trey, would you please keep this to yourself,” she pleads, looking at me with bloodshot eyes. “Please, give me a chance to work things out.”
“I don’t think I can do that,” I reply, rising from the chair and stepping back from the bed. “I mean, Tyler was poisoned and nearly died.”
“I had nothing to do with that! You have to believe me, Trey,” she pleads. “I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, but I had nothing to do with it.”
“I want to believe you, but I can’t right now,” I reply, moving toward the door. “I think Tyler would be better off without you for now. He needs some space to work things out and seeing you obviously stirs up deep seated anger.”
“I know, but what am I supposed to do?” she looks up at me looking as if the entire world is crashing around her.
“I honestly don’t have an answer for you,” I reply in disgust. “Does Tommy know you are pregnant with his child?”
“Yeah,” she gasps. “He offered to pay child support, but that’s not the point at all. I wanted my son to have a father in his life, but at this point it looks like I’ll be going it alone.”
“I’m not going to say anything to Mom or Tyler right now, but I’m going to insist that you lay all the cards on the table and let them decide for themselves if they can deal with it,” I tell her giving her an ultimatum. “You also have to answer my first question.”
“What question?” She looks up, gazing at me through all her tears.
“Mandy and I were nearly killed yesterday when we came out of the SEC office,” I inform her. “I need to know why you told Tommy that we were going there.”
She continues staring at me as if she is unable to even comprehend what just came out of my mouth. “He tried to kill you?” she asks, falling over onto her side. “He said it was all Carly. That he had nothing to do with any of it. I’m so fucking stupid.” She begins to shake violently once again and continues to babble incoherently.
“I’m going to be gone for a few days, in the meantime I expect you to have that talk with Tyler and Mom,” I tell her before exiting the room. She is such a basket case right now and I don’t have time to deal with it.
Walking straight over to the other unit, I need to have a quick talk with Mom about Vanessa. “Come here for a minute,” I say, coaxing her out of Tyler’s room.
“If this is about Crusher,” she says defensively. “Its nothing.”
“It’s not about Crusher,” I reply with a chuckle. “But at least you know how to break the tension.” I walk over to the couch and plop down at the end of it.
Mom takes the seat next to me, giving me a concerned look. “What’s going on then?”
“I want you to keep an eye on Vanessa,” I tell her. “She and Tyler need to spend some time apart, so please make sure that happens. But, I think she’s going to need someone to talk to as well. Maybe you can get her to open up about what has been going on.
“I’ll talk to her,” Mom says patting me on the knee. “Also, I’ll have you know that I haven’t had a single glass of wine in the past two days.”
“Is that because there isn’t any wine here?” I give her a smartass grin.
“Yeah, but I could’ve easily ordered some from downstairs and I didn’t,” she replies, looking for a little recognition.
“Mom, I just want you to be happy. If wine makes you happy, you should drink wine.” I place my hand on hers and look into her eyes. “You have been unhappy long enough.”
She begins to shake her head and a sad look fills her eyes. “Wine doesn’t make me happy, it just makes me temporarily forget the fact that I’m totally unhappy.”
“Mandy and I are flying to Lynchburg tonight, would you like to come with and visit Ray?” I ask, knowing that he has been a major source of her sadness over the years.
“No. I need to stay here and keep an eye on your brother,” she says taking responsibility. “I’ll have a talk with Vanessa too.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” I tell her, patting the top of her hand. “You and Ray will have the rest of your lives to do whatever you want.”
“Yeah, you tell him to hang in there and we’ll see each other soon,” she tells me with a restrained smile. “You don’t need to mention anything about Crusher.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” I give her another chuckle. “I know how little you two have in common, so I wasn’t too worried about him being my new step father or anything.”
“Thank you for stepping up and taking care of things, Trey,” she adds as we rise from the couch. “I don’t know what we would’ve done around here without you.”
“From now on, you will always be able to count on me,” I assure her. “But right now, I’ve got to go take care of Tommy.”
“You be careful,” she replies stepping toward me. “I need you in one piece.”
“No worries, Mom. Anthony isn’t going to let us out of his sight. He’s made that very clear.”
After exchanging a hug, I’m off to hook up with Anthony and Mandy. I know I should tell her about the close call Mandy and I had the night before, but I choose not to. The only thing it would do is cause her to fret and she already has enough to worry about.
Chapter 19
Mandy
While Trey was talking to Vanessa and his mother, Anthony and I were taking care of business as well. Bolt has the new case file and is already on his way to Tommy’s office to meet us for the big confrontation. I just touched base with Agent Mitchell who let me know that the Russian man who was killed was not actually a foreign diplomat. He was on both the FBI and Interpol Most Wanted lists and was known for using false identities and fake visas. That bit of news made Anthony feel much better about taking him out.
“Let’s go do this,” Trey says as he emerges from his Dad’s place. “I’m ready to kick some ass and take some names.” He gives Crusher and Gator a wink as we turn to head for the elevator.
“You badass,” Crusher sneers, winking back at us.
“Romeo, what’s going on down there?” Anthony asks, after taking his call. “Okay, well that’s what we expected. Just turn everything over to the local authorities and send a copy of the details to Agent Mitchell. There isn’t too much more that we can do.” After a few more seconds of listening he adds, “Tell the boys thank you and I’ll have their money wired later this afternoon. You might want to just hang tight for a couple of days, until things sort out down there. I’m going on a quick jaunt to Tennessee with Trey and Mandy, so I’ll be out of town for a bit.” He bobs his head and a half smile hits his lips. “I’ll go easy on them. Hit me back if anyth
ing changes.”
“What’s going on?” Trey asks as the elevator stops at the lobby and we exit the building.
“The blood and DNA samples from the scene match Carly,” Anthony informs us.
“So they assume she’s dead?” I ask.
“I assume she is either dead or she was determined to look dead,” Anthony says with a glimmer in his eye. “If I had just committed a crime spree like that, I would want people to think I was dead too. Only if we can find her dead body will we know for sure.”
“What are the odds that they find anything?” Trey asks suspiciously.
“Probably close to zero, unless somebody wants us to find her.” The valet sees us coming and immediately sprints into the garage to get our vehicle. “Now that’s the kind of service I could get used to,” Anthony says as the kid hands him the keys. “Make sure you tip him well,” he tells Trey. As if Trey needs any prompting in that regard.
“Will do boss.” He pulls out a hundred-dollar bill and lets him know that he has impressed a man who is not easily impressed. The kid stands there beaming for a moment as Anthony pulls away from the curb.
“There are still a few good kids in this world,” he grumbles, changing lanes and weaving into traffic.
Trey
By the time we arrive at Addison Media, Bolt is already waiting for us in the lobby. We all board the elevator as a group and ascend to the executive suite. After the events of yesterday, I can tell Mandy is apprehensive about seeing Tommy again. At this point, I’m honestly ready to go a few rounds with him. I can’t wait to see his face when we lay this case file on his desk and hit him with our demands.
“Need us to do anything?” Anthony asks once we reach the C-suite.
“Nah, you guys just make yourself comfortable. Mandy and I will talk to him,” I tell them, confident that we have all the ammunition we need.
“Can I help you?” a new temp asks us upon entering.
“We’re here to see Tommy,” Mandy says, displaying the case file.
“Who may I tell him is calling?” she asks.
“I’m Trey Addison,” I tell her, but it doesn’t click for her. “Addison as in Addison Media, I reiterate, pointing at the sign on the wall.
“I’m so sorry,” she exclaims, suddenly realizing who I am. “I’ll tell him you are here.” She quickly announces our arrival through the intercom and after another minute or so Tommy opens the door.
“Come on in, guys,” he says, gesturing for us to enter his office. Walking toward his desk I immediately notice all the magazine and newspaper clippings that he has put up on the wall behind him. Most of them are articles about his Reality TV show and the companies that were part of FireFly Media. “Each of those twenty-seven companies has the potential to be a billion dollar company within the next five years,” he spouts egotistically. “And yet, I sold the whole empire for a mere eight hundred million. It’s sad really.”
“The sad part,” Mandy replies, opening up the case file and pulling out the cover letter. “Is that, due to the dilution and fraudulent accounting, those companies were only worth about half that.” She hands him Vicky’s letter.
“With a capital infusion from Addison Media, most of those situations would turn around in the first twelve months,” he counters, tossing the letter onto his desk. “That’s the problem with this company, there are no fucking visionaries left. The board is about as progressive as the fucking SEC.”
“Is that why you didn’t follow through on the deal once you became CEO?” I ask, wanting to hear his version of the story.
“Partly, but Bill didn’t help anything,” he scoffs. “He got cold feet as soon as the accountants found a few little accounting irregularities. Big fucking deal… in the end, none of it would’ve mattered.”
“That’s not how Bill conducted business,” I inform him. “Most Fortune 100 companies tend to have pretty clean accounting, otherwise things go downhill pretty fast. Remember AIG, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual before the bailout?”
“Totally irrelevant,” he retorts. “Those companies were all dinosaurs, these companies are the future.” He turns and waves his hand across the wall.
“I hope you’re right,” I reply, wanting to tell him my plans to bring in a couple of business development and turnaround specialists to turn them around. Instead, I decide to focus on his resignation and getting back as much money as possible for the FireFly investors. “I have a document for you as well,” I tell him, pulling it from my leather binder and laying it on the desk in front of him. “This is your resignation letter.”
“You must be a mind reader,” he says with a sneer. “There isn’t much I can do for this stodgy old company now that all of this is officially off the table.”
“That leads us to one more document,” Mandy adds, pulling a second document from the case file. “This is a case settlement agreement,” she tells him, pointing to the details that pertain to a negotiated settlement with FireFly investors.
“You really think I have access to three hundred and fifty million dollars?” he asks with a look of sheer disbelief. “You might as well ask for the full eight hundred.”
“This is negotiable, but I can guarantee if you can’t come up with a meaningful chunk of it, they will pursue a criminal case against you,” she informs him.
“Okay, first of all, I had already planned on turning in my resignation.” He opens his main drawer and pulls out his own version of a resignation letter. “You two can serve as my witnesses and you can take it to the board personally,” he says, scrawling his name at the bottom and dating it. “As for this settlement offer, I am going to take this to my attorney and let him handle the negotiation process. One hundred million might be feasible, but beyond that would be like getting blood from a turnip.”
“That will be between you and the SEC, I guess,” Mandy says nonchalantly. “I’ll leave this case file with you, just in case you didn’t receive the one that The Ghost stole from me yesterday.” She slides it across the desk to him.
“Who stole what from you?” he asks, his pupils obviously dilating. “I have no idea what the fuck are you talking about.”
“Oh I know,” I take over the reigns from Mandy. “You know nothing about us being attacked or Bill or Tyler or Dad… It was all orchestrated by Carly and now she is dead too.”
“Carly’s dead?” he asks with a convincingly shocked look on his face. “What happened?”
“Seriously? I’m not stupid,” I snub him. “If you seriously don’t know, then you’ll have to give Agent Mitchell a call at the FBI. I know he’s planning on following up with you anyway.”
“Hey, I know you think there is some kind of conspiracy going on between Carly and me, but you’re wrong!” He runs his hand through his hair and begins pacing behind his desk. “She went off the fucking rails after Victor cut her out of his will and had that ludicrous pre-nup drawn up. I didn’t have a fucking thing to do with any of it.”
“I know,” I reply condescendingly. “All the payments came from her account and now she’s dead. Case closed.” I pick up the resignation letter from his desk and turn toward the door. Mandy gives me a puzzled look, but follows me in silence.
“I know you guys don’t believe me, but its true,” Tommy reiterates, seeming to need some type of acknowledgement from us. “I had nothing to do with any of the attacks.”
Placing my hand on the door handle, I look back at him one last time. “Just like you didn’t abandon Liv in Monaco or get Vanessa pregnant or fuck over Bill and his family?” I pause to let me words sink in. “I know you are completely innocent, Tommy. What’s done is done.”
With that, I pull open the door, allowing Mandy to exit ahead of me. “I honestly wish I never had to see your face again.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” he hisses at me like a wounded alley cat. See you on the other side, Tommy.
Mandy
Part of me is elated by the fact that we rendered Tommy nearly spee
chless. I know Trey is glad to have his resignation letter in hand, but I can’t help feeling that he is getting off way too easy for all that he has done. I know how backed up the SEC is right now and even though this is a big deal for Bill’s family, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the multitude of cases that are already pending at the agency. Everything else seems to have been neatly pinned on Carly, who is now missing.
“Based on what I heard, I’ll give you the knockout,” Anthony declares, slapping Trey on the shoulder. “Where to next?”
“I just have to drop off his resignation letter and then we can skip town for a few days.” We walk right past the receptionist, whose jaw dropped from Trey mentioning the resignation letter.
“You and I have to sign this quick and then I can leave it with Tabitha in HR,” Trey says, pulling out a pen and handing it to me. “I’ll have to set up a call with the board to see if they have any ideas for an interim CEO. Investors aren’t going to be happy to hear about another shakeup at the top.”
After signing, we wait in the hallway while Trey goes in to drop off the letter. I glance down at my phone and see it’s just past one o’clock. “Shit! We forgot about Marvin!” Anthony gives me a funny look not immediately placing the name. “Marvin Lewis, the guy from the bench in front of the bank,” I reiterate.
“Oh shit, I forgot all about that dude,” he replies, scrunching up his face. “We’ve had too much going on since then.”
“We have to go to the bank,” I tell Trey as soon as he returns. “We forgot about Marvin and I feel really bad about it.”
“I knew there was somewhere we were supposed to be at noon, but between Vanessa and Tommy, my mind has been mush,” he replies, taking me by the hand and leading us to the elevator.
“Who’s Marvin?” Bolt whispers as the elevator doors close.
“Yesterday, these two were acting like they had huge problems because of all the money that is being forced upon them, so I told them to go talk to a middle-aged black gentleman who was sitting on a bench outside the bank,” Anthony explains. “I thought if they gave him a little cash and saw his face light up, it might do them some good. They were supposed to meet him there at noon today, because he needs to get a safe deposit box.”
