by Hamel, B. B.
I run downstairs. The driver smiles at me and holds the door. I hop in and we take off.
Jacob’s staying at a hotel called The Premio. It’s a big building in downtown, one of many I’ve always just basically ignored. I get out and head inside, hop in an elevator, and hit the button labeled “Penthouse.”
It rides to the top and stops, but the doors don’t open. An intercom turns on. “Yes?”
“It’s me,” I say.
Something dings and the doors part. Jacob’s standing there wearing his customary suit, looking absolutely perfect.
“Welcome,” he says.
I step into the room. The first thing I notice is how big and airy it is. The main room is basically one large living room with multiple couches, chairs, even a fireplace and a bar. There’s a little kitchen area, and a hallway that probably goes back to the bedroom. The walls are big and glass, and the view is absolutely incredible.
“Wow,” I say, laughing. “Holy shit.”
“I know.” He sighs like it’s a pain in the ass. “It’s absurd.”
“It’s amazing.”
“Glad you think so.”
“Seriously. It’s incredible.”
“Well. It’s a hotel.” He walks over to the bar and opens a bottle of wine. He pours two glasses without asking and hands me one. I take it and sip, walking over to the windows to look out at the city.
I feel him lingering behind me and can see his reflection in the glass.
“It’s gorgeous,” I say.
“I know. Pain in the ass during the day, though. I lower the shades to keep the sun out.”
“Oh, yeah. I could see that.”
He steps up behind me. He presses me up against the glass. I can feel his body against mine, his lips on my neck. “Anyone could see us right now,” he whispers. “At night, the light from inside makes us shine. Makes us visible to anyone down there.”
I bite my lip. “Yeah? We’re pretty high. I don’t think anyone can see.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He kisses my neck. “Would you let me fuck you right here, Valerie? Would you press your breasts against the glass and let me sink my cock deep between your legs?”
I bite my lips and close my eyes. “Yes. But I didn’t think that’s why you had me come over here.”
He steps back and drinks his wine. “It’s not.” But his eyes are blazing.
“Well then.” I turn back to him, leaning against the glass. I stare, daring him to touch me again… begging for him.
He walks away instead. He sits on a couch, legs spread, leaning forward. “I want to talk about Darin.”
“Okay.” I take a deep breath. “Don’t rile me up next time.”
“Sorry.” He gives me a little smile. “Can’t help myself with you.”
“What do you want to know?”
I perch on a chair near him.
“What does the SEC have?” he asks.
“I’m not totally sure,” I admit. “I know you won’t really believe that.”
“They had to have prepped you before throwing you into the lion’s den.”
I nod a little. “They did. I know his basic bio. I know what to look for in the data.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Things that looks too good to be true.” I hesitate. “Things that maybe aren’t getting reported properly. It won’t be a lot. Just little issues here or there. Things that could easily be explained away as nothing, but if they were all added up, come out to be a big number.”
He frowns into his wine. “Darin was the first person that was nice to me at boarding school.”
I blink a little. “Really?”
“Really.” He clears his throat. “In the circles I ran in, my family name carries weight. A lot of weight. And that makes it hard to live up to sometimes. Even if it gives me certain advantages, it also means that most people around me are either only interested in me for my family, or looking to cut me down because of them.”
I cock my head. “That sounds hard.”
“Darin was the first one that had no clue what my name meant and didn’t care. He just wanted to hang out and play Xbox.”
I laugh at that. I can’t picture Jacob playing video games. Not this Jacob, the filthy rich financier, living in a penthouse hotel room, wearing incredible suits. But he was young once, I guess.
“Did you ever ask about his family?”
“Sometimes,” he said. “I’ve met them actually. They seem normal.”
“But very rich.”
“You have to understand.” He stands up and paces away, sipping his wine. “Everyone I know is rich. Having money is just… normal to me.”
“So you never questioned it.”
“I never did.” He winces slightly. “Until we got older, at least. After we had already started the partnership.”
“You’ve seen something.”
He looks at me and I can see the pain in his eyes. “Little things.”
“And they add up.”
“I don’t know.” He clenches his jaw. “I don’t know what it means.”
“Listen, Jacob. I know this is hard. But I think… I’m sure that Darin is involved with something bad. You told me yourself, you had a meeting with—”
“I don’t know who those men were,” he says quickly, then stops himself. “But they did want to do business off the books. And they said Darin had promised we’d be able to accommodate them.”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Jacob. That has to be a mafia thing. Is that normal otherwise?”
“No,” he says. “I walked out of the meeting, actually. I had no clue what was happening. Darin seemed a little upset when I told him about it.”
“Have you heard anything about them since?”
“No,” he says.
“Okay. Okay, that’s good.”
“But when I do, I’m going to take them on.”
My eyes go wide. “Wait, what?”
“I’m going to take them on and take their money. And figure out who they are.” He steps toward me. I can see the tension in his body. “I’m not going to let Darin use me like this. If he actually is what you think he is…”
I stand up and go to him. I put a hand on his chest and kiss him gently. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” He steps away and refills his glass. “If there’s more, I need to know it. Any evidence the SEC has on Darin, I need to know it.” He pauses. “But I can’t have you reporting back.”
I stare at him. “What?”
“You can’t report back to them.”
“But… why? If you want to investigate him, they can help.”
“They’re going to get in the way. The feds are compromised, as hard as that might be to hear.”
“No. I mean, there’s corruption, but that’s not an issue here.”
“Valerie.” His voice moves lower, harder. “I need you to help me. We need to work together, but we have to hide it from both Darin and your bosses. If they know something’s happening, it could leak out and tip the wrong people off. Or if Darin finds out, he could blow it all up and ruin things before we can nail him down.”
“And if he’s not guilty?” she asks.
He looks away. I can see it all over him.
There’s no part of him that thinks Darin is innocent anymore.
Clearly, he’s been thinking about this. Of course he has. I bet he’s been doing a little digging and he already convinced himself, at least to some degree.
And it hurts. It kills him. And it kills me to see him so torn.
“We’ll figure that out,” he says. “I don’t want to lose a friend if I don’t have to. Just… thinking about this is bad enough. I don’t want him finding out if he does happen to be innocent. I want to clear his name and move on. Or I want to give him the punishment he deserves.”
I nod slowly. “Okay. We can do that.”
“You won’t report to your bosses?”
“I have to give them something.”
“Then we’ll figure out what together. For now, it’s all onboarding and data crunching, but nothing of interest.”
“Okay,” I say, and as I say the words, I know I’m staying far off the path. “I can do that.”
“Good.” He steps toward me. “Come here.”
I go to him and tilt my chin up. He kisses me softly. “Are we making a mistake?” I ask. “Getting involved. And doing this together. It has to be…”
“Dangerous?” He smiles. “Don’t worry. You’re mine now, little Valerie. And I don’t let people break my favorite toys.”
I bite my lip. His toy… his favorite toy, but still a toy. I don’t know what it means… or why it seems to excite me so much.
He puts his arms around me and hugs me close against him. I feel his weight, his power, pushing down on me and I think I love it. I don’t know what it is about this man, but his magnetism pulls me closer and closer and I feel like I can’t stop it. I’m stuck in his riptide, getting pulled into his depths.
And I don’t want to fight it. That’s what they say, right? Just give in. Let it take you.
“Before we go further,” I whisper, “I need to know something.”
“Go ahead.” He pulls back and looks into my eyes. “Ask me.”
His face is hard, like he knows what I want to ask already. “Are you involved at all?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Did you know? About Darin?”
“If it’s true, no.”
“Am I going to find anything… anything about you?”
He leans closer to me. “No,” he says.
I feel relieved. I know he might just be lying to me, but I’m not so sure. I don’t think he’d look me in the eye like that and make things up. I have this strange trust for him already, even if I shouldn’t, even if he doesn’t deserve it yet.
“But despite all that, I’m still his friend,” he says. “I’m still loyal to him, even if I’m not sure he’s loyal to me.”
“I understands.”
“I’m going to be honest with you. I’m going to look into him. But I still very much want this to turn out to be nothing.”
“I know you do.” I touch his face on a whim. He smiles as my fingers slowly move down his cheek. “I’m afraid it won’t be, though.”
He catches my hand and holds it tight. “I’m afraid of the same thing.”
We linger there for a moment. My body aches for him, my heart racing, my muscles tense. I want him to kiss me so badly it almost hurts. He leans down and his lips brush against mine just as his phone begins to ring.
It vibrates on a glass table, making a horrible grating sound.
He hesitates. “I should—”
“I know. Go ahead.”
He looks back at me and I can tell walking away is the last thing he wants to do. But he pulls back and grabs the phone before it can go to voicemail.
His face looks pained and he glances at me as he answers it. “Hey, Darin,” he says.
I go still. I suddenly feel exposed, standing in front of all these windows. I know that’s silly, since Darin isn’t even in the city, or at least my boss didn’t mention it. And that’s something they’d tell me.
Still, Ficino is connected. I don’t know what kind of men he has watching Jacob or Jacob’s hotel room. Maybe Ficino knows who I am somehow. I can’t say how, but it’s possible he figured it out. Now he’s calling Jacob to warn him… or to do something worse.
“You’re doing what?” Jacob asks. He frowns a little. “Oh, yeah. Look, about that.” He listens for a little bit. “Well, it’s an unusual arrangement.” Jacob looks tense and uncertain. I pick up my wine and drink it, unable to help myself. “Fine. I can take care of that. But Darin—” He listens for another moment. “Darin. Who are these guys?”
I go still. I know what they’re talking about. I motion for him to put the phone on speaker. He hesitates but does it.
“—totally above board,” Darin says. “My father put me in touch with them. They’re just private people.”
“Doing this stuff off books is a little more than just about privacy.”
“Look, I get what you’re saying, but we have clients that make all sorts of requests. We accommodate most of them.”
Jacob frowns. “Most of them. Not all. I just want—”
“Look, man, you gotta trust me. My dad wouldn’t send us a bunch of assholes for clients, you know what I mean? These guys have money and they’re looking for a place to grow that money. That’s what we do, right?”
“Right. But we do it—”
“So we’ll take their money.” Darin’s talking fast, like he doesn’t want to hear Jacob’s replies. “We’ll grow it, make our commission, everyone’s happy. Why does it matter who they are? I’m not asking questions.”
“Come on, you have to know how strange that looks.”
“You never pressured me on this before.”
Jacob winces. “I was never sent to a meeting before.”
“True. Maybe that was a mistake.”
“Darin, I have a right to know about these things.”
“Yeah, yeah, of course you do, brother. I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. Been a long day.”
Jacob lets out a breath. “Look, give me their details. I’ll research them and see if they’re legit. If they’re good to go, we’ll move forward. Is that reasonable?”
“All right. Okay, yeah, fine. I’ll make that happen.”
“Good. I appreciate that.”
“Cool. Okay. I’ll email you the info. I gotta call my dad and all that first.”
“Right. I’ll talk to you later then.”
“And hey, good job with the office. I hear it’s going great so far.”
Jacob looks at me, a little smile on his face. “So far, so good. I’ve recruited some solid talent.”
“I bet you have.” Darin laughs. “All right, man. Talk to you later.”
“Later.”
They hang up the phone. Jacob stares at it for a long moment.
“He didn’t want to tell me who they are,” he says.
“I’m sorry.” I linger a few feet away, cradling my wine.
“And when I pushed, he tried to dodge even harder.” He looks at me. “You heard him. He almost… threatened to cut me out.”
“I know.”
“He’s never done that before. I don’t understand it.”
“They’re mafia.” I stare at him. “You have to realize it.”
“I understand how it looks.”
“Jacob—”
He shakes his head and puts up a hand. “No more,” he says. “Enough of this for tonight. Please, I’m exhausted. We can talk about it more later.”
I stare at him for a moment and nod slowly. “Okay, yeah. This is a lot. I shouldn’t have dropped it all on you. I shouldn’t have asked to listen in.”
“It’s fine. I don’t regret that. Darin’s just not normally so… evasive.” He sighs and rubs his eyes. “Look, I’ll walk you out.”
“Sure.” I put my wine down and he comes over, but the intense warmth we felt a moment ago seems to be gone. I can feel how conflicted he is, how angry he feels.
I can only imagine what he’s going through. Finding out that his best friend is connected to the mafia and potentially bringing in bad business behind his back can’t feel good. In fact, it must be a pretty horrible revelation.
But just because it’s horrible doesn’t mean it’s not true. And fortunately for me, he’s strong enough to face it instead of running away.
We walk to the elevator and he hits the call button. We linger there, him leaning against the wall looking exhausted.
“Just so you know… I want him to be innocent too,” I say.
He looks up. “Oh, yeah? You and him go way back?”
I shake my head. “For your sake, really. It doesn’t matter for me personally either way, although it would be nice to know that someone isn’t out there laundering
money for the mafia.”
He laughs a little. “Yeah, true.”
“I just, I know I dropped this on you. I don’t want this to hurt you.”
He shakes his head. “I can handle this. Believe me. I’m dealing, and I’m going to deal. If Darin’s doing something shady, I’m going to find out.”
“I believe you.”
The elevator arrives and I step on. He lingers in the door, keeping it open. “Come here.”
I step close to him. He reaches back and grabs my hair gently, pulling me close. He kisses me. “Night, Valerie.”
“Good night.”
He lets me go. I step back in and he steps back. The doors slide shut. I see him smiling slightly just as they close.
The elevator shifts and begins to descend.
I lean against the wall and close my eyes. This is so complicated already. I don’t know how I got myself in this position, why I ever said yes to this assignment. It was a stupid mistake, letting them talk me into coming here.
But I’m happy they did. If Mr. Gauge hadn’t chosen me for this, I never would’ve met Jacob… and I never would’ve felt this way.
It’s a double-edged sword. But god, does it feel good anyway.
8
Jacob
I spend the rest of the night and all the next day mulling over my problem. It’s late in the day and nearly everyone has left for the night. Val glances at me before she heads home, and I can read the uncertainty and worry in her eyes. I don’t return her gaze.
I need to think first.
I know I’m going to do the right thing. I’m going to look into my partner and best friend, even if I don’t like what I might find. I’m going to help the feds, even if that goes against everything I believe.
But I don’t know where to start. I’ve been his friend for so long and yet I feel like I don’t know him at all. I’m starting to look back at previous moments with him, at things I shrugged off at the time or just ignored completely, and it’s starting to look strange.
The money thing, for example. How does his father make so much money just from being a lawyer? But beyond that, there are the vacations to private islands, the invitations to important events, the power and influence and connection. None of that makes sense for just a small-time lawyer. Even a successful lawyer doesn’t get nearly so many accolades or attention.
