Robert closed his eyes and tried to relax, but images of the plane plunging to the ground kept filling his mind, so he forced his eyes open and tried to focus on the clouds outside his window and pushed his mind to think about what Carl had to tell him. Robert hoped and prayed, as he snuck another huge gulp of bourbon, that it was just about a woman, for if the truth had come out about the fraudulent audits they had overseen and signed off on in the Sprigg merger, his ass would be hung out to dry along with Olin’s.
ERIC GRUNTED AS HE rolled his large frame over to reach for his buzzing Blackberry on the nightstand. He grimaced at the time, realizing that he and Nicole would be late for work. Good thing we are partners and don’t have to answer to anyone, he thought as he cursed under his breath, quickly scanning the incoming emails that he had yet to answer. “Nicole, it’s 9:00, we have to get going now.” he whispered to his slumbering bedmate.
“Son of a bitch!” came Nicole’s screeching response. “I have a meeting at 10:00!” Nicole flung back the silky sheets and burst out of bed, full of just as much energy, despite her sixty years, as any thirty-year-old woman. Eric had always found it amazing how she could put in sixteen-hour days, seven days a week, and still find time to fuck his brains out. Her lithe, muscular frame, still hard as a rock from years of running, made his heart race as she flew around the small room like a crazed cat high on catnip, mumbling, “Shit, shit, shit!” and frantically snatching her clothes up and heading to the bathroom.
Eric smiled and leaned back on the pillows, knowing Nicole would commandeer their only bathroom for at least the next thirty minutes, which would give him ample time to peruse all of his emails and make a few phone calls. He scrolled through the mundane, boring ones, briefly noting most of them were the same old bullshit as the day before, until he found one marked URGENT from Carl with a cryptic message about Olin. What the fuck is going on now with that crazy bastard? Eric thought to himself as he dialed Carl’s number.
Eric and Olin had worked together for over twenty-five years at the firm and had both bought in as equity partners around the same time. As young bucks, each possessed huge egos that did not mesh well when forced to be together in the same room because eventually, their combined testosterone levels would combust into an explosive outburst, usually over fresh meat that had just been hired or the direction the firm was headed in. Sixteen years ago, when the founder of the firm, Ralph Winscott, blew his brains out late one night at his desk as the truth about his sexual preferences with men, including several pictures and one grainy video, was about to be made public, Olin had been enraged that Eric was the one voted in as managing partner. Ever since then, Olin had gone from moderate dislike of Eric to extreme hatred.
While Olin’s demeanor was brash, cocky, and had undertones of anger mixed in, Eric was the quintessential party jock that women flocked to because of his easy smile, twinkling eyes, and muscular frame. At fourteen, he reached his full six foot four frame and had been blessed with incredible athletic abilities, which ended up giving him a full ride to college on a football scholarship. Eric lived life large every day and tackled it with the same exuberance that he had on the football field. His bulging muscles made him popular with the girls, and he’d had his choice of any female that looked his way ever since he had hit puberty, as young girls and eventually women threw themselves at him, and Eric had no qualms about obliging them in the sack.
He married his sweet but utterly dense wife years ago after meeting her at college, just as he was supposed to do; he was the star quarterback and she was the bouncy, effervescent head cheerleader. She came from a well-to-do family that had extensive and wealthy social contacts in Scottsdale and was at least pretty enough to hold Eric’s eye for a short time period. After becoming a father soon after their marriage, Eric’s sexual appetite had initially slowed down, but about the time the “seven year itch” hit, he was back to his old ways again. He didn’t exactly feel remorse over his infidelity—after all, the women sought him out and he was a man with an insatiable libido—but he tried to be as careful as possible because he didn’t want to hurt anyone, especially his wife and precious daughters, in the process.
His philandering soul was just made worse when he started working at the firm, since there was a constant supply of young, hot-bodied gals prancing around the office in short skirts and low-cut blouses, willing to work late in his office on any project he deemed necessary. He smiled when he thought about those days when the sex was abundant and was just an expected part of the job. God, how he missed the eighties and early nineties!
Even though he was now past sixty and walked with a slight limp from his recent car accident that broke his leg and required numerous surgeries, women still gave him the ol’ “double take” when his lumbering frame walked into a room. Eric smiled as he thought about that, knowing full well that Olin hated him for being able to command a room with just his physical presence alone and not his money or power.
When Carl finally answered, Eric only got in a “Hey, Carl” before he was lambasted with questions.
“Eric, where are you? Are you on your way in? We really need to talk,” Carl said, his voice full of dread with a slight tinge of excitement. “Olin has really stepped in it this time, and unfortunately, the shit is now covering not only his feet, but ours as well!” Carl spat out, his anger obvious to Eric.
“I’m running a bit late today, but I will be in shortly, so unwind that noose you seem to be yanking tightly around your neck and tell me, calmly, what is going on? Wait, let me guess. Olin fucked another staffer who is now pissed and ready to file an EEOC complaint, and we need to throw some money her way?” Eric said, imagining that Olin had finally conquered Mt. Gabrielle, and now it was time to pay the travel bill. Thank goodness, because maybe Olin wouldn’t be such an obnoxious ass at work now that he had released all that pent up testosterone.
“Oh, you are a real riot, Eric, but that little problem is only the tip of the iceberg. This isn’t about some whore that’s upset because Olin threw her aside after screwing her. What I am talking about affects us all, deeply. You know how we all were looking forward to having an early retirement? Well, that’s not going to happen, get my drift?” Carl said, lowering his voice to a quiet rumble. “We need to call an emergency partners’ meeting as soon as possible—without Olin. I’ve been in touch with all the others except Nicole and Robert. Robert is in the air right now, on his way back from Texas, and is scheduled to land around 10:30. If at all possible, it needs to happen today if I can ensure that Robert will be there. I assume you will tell Nicole?” Carl rambled, obviously upset.
“Carl, don’t play games with me, just spit out what you are trying not so well to hide! If it isn’t some scorned female, then what is it?” Eric questioned, sitting up in bed as his interest in the conversation turned more serious. “What has he done that is so bad that we won’t be able to retire early?”
“You obviously have been otherwise engaged and have yet to read any news this morning, haven’t you?” Carl sneered, referring to the long-standing affair that Eric and Nicole had going on. For the past twelve years, Eric and Nicole had been an item. Originally, when that muscular fireball with her long, curly blonde hair and dark tan had strutted into the firm in her spiked heels and short skirts, the sexual tension between the two of them filled the air with something like static electricity, and although every man at the office wanted her, including Olin, it was Eric that she had been drawn immediately to, and thus began their torrid affair. Eric unknowingly let a snide grin cross his face at that thought, since it was yet another reason that Olin hated him so much, for not only had he been sitting in the office that Olin had coveted for so long, but he was banging the hottest woman that had ever stepped foot into the firm.
After a few years of rolling around in the sack, Eric realized Nicole was not just another “bump and grind,” but that he actually had real feelings for her, which truly surprised him. He liked to keep his sexual escapades on the lig
hter side, letting his women know up front that he wasn’t looking for anything more than a good time, but Nicole had gotten under his skin as no other female ever had, including his wife. She was the most intelligent woman he had ever met, and she knew the tax industry better than anyone else he had ever come across, including himself. Her sexual appetites were only matched by her intensity to outwork, out-bill, and outsmart every single man around her and remain the best in her field. That intellect, coupled with her unadulterated sexuality, was a rare and lethal combination, and it drove Eric absolutely wild. In the beginning, Nicole had wanted him to leave his wife and marry her, for she had fallen deeply in love with him even though she had promised herself after her first disastrous marriage that she would never do that again. God knows they’d had numerous conversations about it over the years, but Eric had always been able to convince her that the fortune he had worked so hard to amass was worth too much to give up to an ex-spouse, so money won out, and marriage always remained out of the question.
Eric knew she wanted to press the issue a bit more, but he surmised that deep down inside, Nicole knew that he would never be completely true to her, so she didn’t. And she was right; Nicole had been so busy for the last two years with her new obsession to double her billing hours and put all the men to shame that Eric’s bored, wandering eyes had landed on an old flame from the past to keep himself busy, and he was doing his best to juggle a wife and two mistresses at the same time. He smiled to himself at that mental image, thinking that for an old man, he was still able to pull off what some younger studs weren’t able to accomplish, all without the help of Viagra! Thank God Nicole’s office was on another floor, and she hadn’t noticed that his presence at the office had dwindled because he was well aware of her prowess as a hellcat and knew she would come after him with claws exposed if she ever found out!
Tired of sneaking off to overpriced hotels for their trysts, Nicole had convinced Eric six years ago to form a dummy company together, and they purchased a small efficiency apartment not too far from their office where they would meet up on nights Eric told his wife he was working late. Their little apartment gave Nicole, even for the briefest of time, the feeling of living together as man and wife, which was all she truly required. She had the chance to play house without all the strings attached. Although they tried to keep it discreet, all of the partners and some of the staff knew what was going on since a janitor had caught them one night years ago on Eric’s couch as they moaned and groaned together. It took less than twenty-four hours for everyone in the building to hear about it. Eric shook his head at that memory, trying to erase it like an Etch-a-Sketch wiping away a bad picture. He didn’t want to think about how much hush money he had expended buying silence for that little fiasco.
Now that they had their secret hide-a-way, they never had to worry about being caught with their proverbial “pants down” again, although at his age, Eric really didn’t give a fuck who knew about their affair, but he knew that if his wife found out, it would break her heart as well as his bank account. Eric may have been many things, but a cold-hearted bastard was not one of them. It was at Nicole’s insistence they kept up the pretense that they were just friends. Eric could only assume it was part of her old-fashioned, Southern Georgia upbringing, which made him appreciate her all the more.
“I will email you the link. Read it, and try to get here as soon as possible, please,” Carl said, hanging up quickly, the sound of the click snapping Eric out of daydreaming and back to the discussion at hand. Within seconds, Eric had another email from Carl with nothing but a link to a news article from CNN.
What in the hell is going on? Early retirement isn’t going to happen? What the hell does that mean? Eric wondered as he clicked on the link from Carl. He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his reading glasses, and as he started to read, his heart fluttered and skipped a few beats. He forced himself to read it again, carefully, to make sure he wasn’t either interjecting something that really wasn’t there or missing some important component.
“That sorry motherfucker!” Eric roared as he lurched out of bed, throwing his phone down on top of the mussed covers as he frantically yanked his pants on. “I’m going to kill him! Rip his blackened, infinitesimal heart out of his chest through that lying mouth of his and then force feed the dried up piece of meat back to him!” Eric bellowed, on a tear now as he tried desperately to get dressed, his shaking hands faltering with his zipper as sweat formed on his brow and under his arms, his breath coming in great, heaving gasps.
Nicole finally heard his ramblings from the shower and popped her towel-covered head out of the bathroom, body still dripping. “What, babe, did you say something?” she chirped as she vigorously rubbed herself dry. “I couldn’t hear you with the water running.”
“I knew this was a mistake! I told you the day that sonofabitch yanked the firm out from under me that we would regret it, and I was right! God, I hate being fucking right all the time! We were perfectly fine before with absolutely no need to be in the top fifty firms! I knew that Sprigg was a shady place, but to this level?” Eric yelled, and Nicole realized that something was terribly amiss. She stopped drying herself and padded over to the edge of the bed, worry etched across her clean face.
“What are you talking about? Babe, please calm down, your blood pressure is soaring. Honey, you are sweating! Are you all right? Tell me what is going on!” Nicole drawled, her sweet Georgia accent pouring out as it always did when she was upset. “What did Olin do?” Nicole tried to keep her voice as level as possible and not betray the sudden fear she felt wallowing in the pit of her stomach.
“Read this,” Eric spouted as he handed her his Blackberry over his shoulder, not even looking in her direction. Confused, Nicole glanced down at the screen and started reading as Eric raced to get his shirt buttoned and his socks on. After a few seconds, her golden brown eyes grew huge, and the fear she had felt moments earlier in her stomach came roiling forward. She looked over at Eric, now fully dressed and tying his shoes, but she could sense that his anger had overtaken him, and it would be fruitless to try talking to him at this point. Suddenly, she dropped the phone and ran to the bathroom, holding the vomit down as she fled.
THE COOL TILE FLOOR on her long, bare legs helped to assuage her queasy stomach as she leaned against the tub for support. God, how she hated throwing up; it always sent her into a hot flash which just made her all the more clammy and sweaty and put her back on the verge of vomiting again.
Nicole heard the front door slam and knew Eric was finally gone. Thank God! As much as she loved that man, he was a wild beast when he was angry, and it reminded her of her ex-husband; the only difference between the two was that Eric had never hit her or directed his anger at her. There were only a handful of times when she had seen him this angry before, the most recent one almost six years ago when Olin had successfully convinced enough of the other equity partners to vote him in as managing partner, and Eric out. God, what an awful day that had been, and Eric’s anger would forever be memorialized in the body of Olin’s Mercedes, had he still owned it; Eric’s formidable fists had pounded into the hood and door panels as he unleashed his anger at Olin’s car, rather than his face.
While she had been violently retching, Eric had been ranting and rambling on and on about Olin, fielding phone calls from other partners and then yelling at her through the bathroom door to hurry up and get to the office, for the emergency meeting was now scheduled for 11:30. At least with him gone, she could attempt to collect her rampant thoughts and finish getting ready.
Nicole closed her eyes and tried to clear her throbbing head. So many things to think about and so many things to consider! She couldn’t believe that they all had been so duped by Olin. Sure, he was a lying, cheating, arrogant prick, but he was also a brilliant businessman. All of the partners put the firm and their professional reputations and money on the line with wooing this new client. Of course, the millions they all stood to make if the merge
r with Sprigg went through was his lure, his “brilliant” idea. She wanted to kick herself now for not listening to her internal warnings the day Olin approached them with his concept on the deal, for she knew that Sprigg Oil & Gas had a terrible reputation. She had just been so overwhelmed with other, more pressing issues that she had just glanced at the potential dollar figures and voted yes so she could just get out of there and finish the mammoth projects that were looming over her night and day. Something had nibbled at the back of her mind that day, but she overrode the nagging irritant and went back to focusing on the tasks at hand.
And now they were screwed.
She stood up and grabbed a washcloth and ran it under the cool water, holding it to her head and neck. She had to calm herself down and think about what the next, and right, steps should be. Obviously, all the partners had read the article since an emergency meeting had been called. But did Olin know that they knew? Had he been expecting this? Was he ready with some type of contingency plan? Now that this reeking can of worms had been unleashed, how were they going to field the hordes of reporters that would be barging in like a flock of hungry vultures, demanding answers from their bleeding corpses? Oh God, what about all their clients? How much revenue would this cost them when they inevitably found out and decided to seek services elsewhere? And how in the world was her reputation going to remain intact when her own business was on the verge of collapsing over an obvious oversight on her part?
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Nicole screamed, throwing the rag at her gaunt reflection in the mirror. “Two more fucking years, and I would have been able to retire!” She held back a sob that desperately wanted to burst forth from her, but years of training herself to hold back sorrow and release it as anger won out as she proceeded to throw a raging fit.
Eviscerating the Snake - The Complete Trilogy Page 6
