by Abby Angel
There’s no other way to put it; this isn’t business anymore.
This is war.
24
Ares
Have you ever wondered how the dinosaurs felt when they realized they were about to go extinct? Yeah, me neither. But now I think I know how they’ve felt. And it isn’t a good fucking feeling; if you ask me, they went down kicking and screaming, fighting however they could. Which doesn’t really amount to much if you’re about to be wiped off the face of the earth by a fucking monstrous asteroid, but anyway.
News channels all over the world have latched on to this scandal, and they’re spinning the story in such a way that Strong Capital itself is at stake. My lawyers have gone into a frenzy with rumors that the government is about to cast its all-seeing-eye over both Carter Jeffries and Strong Capital. Can you believe this fucking bullshit? The government wants to investigate my company because of ‘ethical and moral’ reasons. What the fuck does that even mean?
You know, everyone likes to talk about how politically correct we are in the U.S., how open-minded and virtuous. But when something happens that doesn’t conform to random moral standards, whatever they are at the time, everyone grabs their torches and pitchforks. Fucking lovely, so much for tolerance.
“Hey, are you with us?” Samantha, my head publicist asks me, her worried eyes finding mine from across the table. Fifteen minutes after the news broke I called for an emergency meeting, and what I like to call the war room is now packed with lawyers, accountants, publicists, and I guess there’s even a cleaning lady in here. It’s all hands on deck, folks, we’re being torpedoed.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I nod, rubbing my forehead and looking across the table. I might be worried about the whole thing, but my whole team looks as if they’re about to be beheaded by the fucking President of United States himself. Well, they’re right to be worried, but I’m the fucking CEO and I have to keep my head on my shoulders. Panic is fucking useless.
“Maybe … maybe we should talk with the government representative, Seymour Lee,” Samantha starts hesitantly, peering at me over her horn-rimmed glasses, her disheveled hair just a reflex of the fucking state of chaos Strong Capital is in. She looks at me apprehensively, but that’s no wonder; she already knows what my answer is going to be.
“Fuck, no. If we bend our knees to the government, they’ll never let go of us. These assholes will play us, and we’ll dance to their tune forever. ”
“Well, the thing is … the whole company is in danger. And this scandal keeps on growing into epic proportions. If we remain still … if we don’t do a thing, I have no idea what might happen. Talking to Mr. Lee won’t hurt.”
Fuck, what do I say to that? Even my fucking lawyers are nodding, and she’s only the head of my PR department. I guess that she’s right; Strong Capital is in danger, and it’s my fucking fault. If that government bastard can help, I guess it won’t hurt to give it a try. Yeah, I’m always wary of dealing with the government, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I know, that’s a fucking cliché, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
So, yeah, I have no choice but to meet that guy.
“Get me Seymour then.”
Guys like Seymour Lee are the reason I can’t trust the government. Those shark eyes look like they were designed to hunt, and his huge briefcase seems more apt to carry torture instruments than legal briefings. He’s a weird looking guy, and he talks even weirder than he looks. Seriously, sitting across from a guy like him is fucking torture.
“Are you following me, Mr. Strong?” he asks, drumming his fingers on my desk and grinning. He’s been droning about the government demands for five minutes now, but all his fancy words really boil down to one fucking thing. Unsurprisingly.
“Yeah, I’m following. You want me to give up on Union Airlines… and, somehow, all this bullshit will blow over. Tell me, Mr. Lee, why am I under the impression that you have something to do with all this?”
“Ah, Mr. Strong, I’m a busy man. My fingers are in many pies at the same time. Do we have an arrangement then?” Great, now aside from being a fucking weird asshole, he decided to become a quizzical bastard. Beautiful, just what I need right now, fucking riddles.
“No. I won’t let the government strong arm Strong Capital into giving up on this deal. I’m sorry I’ve made you come all the way here, but if that’s your only suggestion … well, I’m not interested.”
“What if I, ah, tell you something that you don’t know?” His shark eyes seem to gleam, and his grin seems to be overflowing with a kind of exultant malice. “Maybe I can sway you, Mr. Strong.”
“Amuse me.”
“Oh, I will,” he whispers, leaning over my desk. He remains in silence, though, looking straight into my eyes, almost as if he’s trying to read my fucking soul. He’s trying to build the suspense, but what the fuck can he know that I don’t?
“Ms. Kane has already cut a deal with Mr. Blake,” he says, his high-pitched tone replaced by a devilish tone. Now that I wasn’t fucking expecting. “You’ve been played, Mr. Strong.”
I open my mouth to speak, but my jaw just hangs open while the words remain trapped in my throat. No, it can’t be. After what happened between the three of us, and after what happened between Lucas and I … no, I don’t fucking believe it.
“I don’t buy it. Why would they do that?” I start, my heart stabbed by doubt over and over again, long thorns tightening up around my mind and enclosing my thoughts in a cage of fear.
“Ah, Mr. Strong, you’re a very honest man. Straightforward, wouldn’t you say? You like to take things at their face value. And so you’ve trusted Ms. Kane and Mr. Blake … well, let me assure you, they enjoy your straightforwardness—makes you easier to predict and control. While you were having your little meeting, my sources have informed me that Lucas and Daphne were already meeting with an all-star team of lawyers, trying to bulletproof a deal before either you or the government has the chance to make a move.”
“No… it can’t --”
“Oh, it can, Mr. Strong. It can and it is. And now the ball is on your side of the court.” With a satisfied grin, fully aware that his words were like a punch in my stomach, Seymour lowers his voice and continues, going straight for the kill. “I’ve heard you were a winner, but right now you’re on the losing side. What are you going to do?”
This can’t be fucking happening.
25
MarketWatch Journal
All the money news you can pay for…at your fingertips.
I’ll Show You The Money
In a stunning development to an already sensational story in the history of Wall Street, CEO and Founder of Strong Capital, Ares Strong, has announced that he will testify as a state witness in front of the Federal Reserve Investigation Committee that is looking into any improprieties that may have occurred in the negotiations for the buyout of Union Airlines.
Union Airlines, as of now, remains unsold, with a combined $1.123 trillion offer put up by Carter Jeffries, and Strong Capital having recently collapsed once allegations of sexual impropriety came to the forefront.
The United States Government had also offered up to $1.1 trillion. However this offer has been retracted as well in light of the sex scandal that is rocking Wall Street. Experts believe that the Government believes that it will soon be able to purchase Union Airlines for substantially less than it was prepared to pay.
Union Airlines, which has been at the heart of the drama that has gripped Wall Street and Main Street alike, has been a privately held old aviation company for almost a century. A sale to the government would make it the largest company ever to be taken over by the government, and would most certainly herald a new era of government takeover of large corporations. It's a fate that many agree is not seen as ideal by the CEO of Union Airlines – Daphne Kane. Indeed, it's a fate that would've been incomprehensible just a few short years ago, as Union Airlines posted record profits. Many point to the forced ejection of a passenger
from an airplane and the ensuing media firestorm and PR nightmare that turned the company’s fortunes and prompted a revolt from passengers, which eventually contributed to emptier planes and lower earnings. It was this death spiral that prompted the board of Union Airlines to invite Daphne Kane, a celebrated Chief Executive, into the role.
After a year of failed attempts to restore the former glory of the airline, the only option left to Ms. Kane was to put the company up for sale.
At the time, the move was derided as a failure on her part and the end of the airline. Those objections stopped once two of Wall Street’s largest investment firms – Carter Jeffries and Strong Capital – began locking horns and driving their bids for the airline higher and higher.
“Apparently, somewhere along the line of all that bidding, there was a whole lot of sex involved,” a source commented under condition of anonymity due to the face that they were still close to the negotiations. “And now, Ares Strong is going to testify and let the truth out.”
The date for Ares Strong’s testimony has not yet been set, but it will most likely severely complicate things for both Ms. Kane and the third part of the trio – Lucas Blake.
Observers are curious what will be revealed about the relationship between Mr. Blake and Mr. Strong – two men who have very rarely seen eye to eye unless it was at the end of a fist, until recently.
It's inevitable now with the decision by Ares Strong to protect himself and ask for immunity in exchange for testimony that the Federal Reserve will begin its own investigations, and that both Ms. Kane and Mr. Blake will be called on to testify. Should either fail to cooperate, they could lose their broker's license, and their companies could be subjected to massive penalties, up to and including losing the right to do business and raise capital in the United States.
It's a fate that raises the stakes for both individuals, and guarantees that they'll do anything to prevent it.
26
Daphne
One57, the billionaire’s den. That’s where Lucas lives, and that’s why I’m heading there right now, my limo fighting its way through the afternoon traffic. Swear to God, it’s in moments like these that I wish I could simply grab a helicopter and fly around New York City. Still, even though I’m the CEO of a company that earns its money by carrying millions of people over the air, there are some limits to what I can do.
But no matter, I can already see the rising silhouette of the monstrous building at the end of the street. “I’ll walk the rest of the way,” I say to my driver, pushing the chromed button on the intercom.
“Yes, ma’am,” is his formal response, and he pulls the limo toward the side of the road. I jump out of the limo the moment it stops, not even waiting for the driver to come around and open the door for me; I never cared for stuff like that and, besides, I’m in a hurry right now.
I’ve been hearing rumors about a possible deal between Ares and Seymour Lee, and I need to get to the bottom of that as soon as possible. Ares isn’t picking up his phone, and he isn’t at the Strong Capital building, and that’s why I’m meeting Lucas right now. If anyone knows what’s going on, it has to be Lucas.
“Ms. Kane,” the One 57’s doorman greets me politely, tipping me his hat and opening the door for me. I thank him briskly and then cross the hallway in a hurry, heading toward the elevators. I press the button over and over again, as if that somehow would make it work faster, and almost jump inside the damn thing the moment the doors slide open.
The ride up seems to take forever (although I’d wager not even thirty seconds passed), but now I’m finally standing in front of Lucas’ door. I raise my hand to knock, but I guess he was already waiting for me because he opens the door before I even have the chance to rap my knuckles against it, and pulls me into his embrace fast.
Our lips meet right away and, for the first time since I heard about Ares’ possible involvement with Seymour, all the stress of the day seems to melt away from my body.
“God, I needed that,” I whisper with a smile as he finally pulls me inside his apartment.
“So did I,” he smiles, guiding me toward his living room. The apartment is huge, even by a rich man’s standard, but it’s impeccably decorated. Unlike other billionaires, Lucas doesn’t seem to have a snobbish penchant for modern art that no one understands; instead, the walls are decorated with old signed vinyl records from the jazz legends of old, and a grand piano dominates the whole room, its sleek black frame making it look like something straight out of a movie from the 50s.
“Jazz fan, uh?”
“Is it that obvious?” he smiles again, sitting down on the piano bench and lifting the lid. He runs his fingers over the keys casually, the lines of some music I recognize but can’t quite name filling the whole room.
I look at him for a moment, just enjoying the moment and his off-the-cuff playing; a few seconds later, though, he lifts his fingers off from the keyboard and turns to me, dropping his smile.
“So, I take it you’ve already heard about Ares,” he says, diving straight into the subject.
“Yes … but it doesn’t make any sense. A deal? What kind of deal? And why would he do something like this to us?”
“I know… but I’ve been in touch with my lawyers, and they heard through the grapevine that yes, it’s quite possible that Ares has sided with Seymour.” He looks down at his shoes, stopping for a moment in complete silence, and only then turns his gaze toward me again. “I don’t know what kind of deal they’re planning, but according to my lawyers … well, let’s just say that the most obvious outcome is that the government will use Ares’ company to buy Union Airlines, which means that they’ll own Union Airlines outright.”
“Oh, shit. This isn’t good. Are you sure?”
“ Yes, I’m sure; and no, it isn’t good,” he whispers, his voice strained and cracking. “I can’t believe he did this … I trusted him, and he betrayed me. He betrayed us.”
I look at him in silence for a long while, realizing that there’s something that he isn’t telling me. His words tell me that he’s hurt, that there’s real sorrow inside of him, and it goes way deeper than this whole situation.
Walking toward the piano, I sit on the bench by his side and lay my hands on top of his.
“What happened between the two you, Lucas? I know that there’s something you’re not telling me…” I start, feeling as if I’ve just stepped onto thin ice. I have no idea what it is between these two, and I never like to feel uncertain and insecure. “Tell me, I… I want to know. I want to understand.”
“It’s a long story. One that I don’t really like to remember,” he starts, but then takes a deep breath, almost as if he’s readying himself for something extremely painful. “But you deserve to know. You see, Daphne, Ares and I go way back… We met at Harvard when we were just freshmen, and we became like brothers. Inseparable.”
“What happened…?” I ask him with a whisper, repeating my question from before and urging him to go on.
“There was a woman. Joanna, Joanna King. We both wanted her and… We both loved her. But we were idiots back then. We simply couldn’t accept that we had feelings for each other as well; and we didn’t understand that love doesn’t submit to someone who wants to own it.”
“You fought because of her…?”
“We did,” he nods. “But more than that, we forced her to choose. And she couldn’t, Daphne, she couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to do it. But we pressed the subject, you see? We wanted—we demanded—a choice. She ran away from us that day, tears in her eyes. We dashed after her but we were too late… She ran across the street and she wasn’t looking. She wasn’t looking and she…” I squeeze his hand in mine, my heart tight inside my chest. It’s his pain, but I feel tears stinging my eyes. “She was hit by a car. She entered a coma and died two days later. That was when Ares and I went our separate paths.”
“I… I’m sorry, Lucas. I really am.”
“Yeah…” he whispers softly, turning towar
d me and offering me one sad smile. “But that was a long time ago. I just thought that I could trust Ares, that we were starting anew … but I was wrong.”
“Maybe … maybe it isn’t as it seems,” I try, even though I’m not sure if I believe my own words. “I simply can’t believe that he --”
“Daphne,” he says, cutting me short as he lowers his voice. “ You don’t understand. I met with Ares a few days ago, when we finally decided to stop all this bullshit between the two of us. We were together… Just like that time at your office. And now he’s backstabbing us.”
“You were… together?” I ask him hesitantly, not sure if I’m grasping the meaning behind his words. I already knew how badly they wanted each other (I mean, remember what happened inside my office? Of course they want each other), but I had no idea that things were progressing without me to serve as a … facilitator. Now this is a surprise.
“We were.” He brushes the back of his hand on my cheek, pushing a stray lock of hair away, and then smiles. “I was surprised too. I wasn’t … I wasn’t expecting it.”
“What happened?” God, maybe this isn’t the best time to act like a curious kid, but I simply can’t help it. My blood boils just by imagining them together, their hands wandering over their bodies and exploring what I’ve already conquered …
“Well, you know,” he chuckles, the heaviness in the air around us being replaced by a kind of lightness. “A lot happened.”
“Tell me,” I ask him in a husky voice, almost too desperate to hear all the details.
“Well,” he smiles, “aren’t you the curious one, uh?”
“I am.” I place my hand on his knee and run it up to his crotch, allowing a smile to take over my lips as I realize that his cock is already hardening up. I guess that even Ares’ supposed betrayal isn’t enough to cool down Lucas’ desire.
