by KT Strange
I’m not who they think I am. And these three men, I know they’re monsters… even… I glance at Kai. He’s looking at me. My breath stutters in my chest and I rip my gaze away. No. Even if he didn’t know that I’d been set up the night we were together… he’s still not someone I ever want to see again.
It has to all be a mistake. My mother was dirt poor when she died. We struggled a lot after her second husband passed away, and I never knew my real father. But she said he was a drifter. Some good for nothing guy who just rolled through town, got her pregnant and left. I barely even knew my stepfather. He was gone by the time I was four years old. It was just mom and me for the longest time, until then, one day, it was just me.
“Our record keeping is accurate,” Lansing says patiently, “to be fair, you should have been paid a monthly stipend. So we’ll have to rectify that immediately…” He sighs and shakes his head. “I’ll need to talk to accounting…” He taps his finger on the screen and a number flashes across it.
That’s not… he’s not talking about my stipend. Even if I am the Olivia Copper they’re looking for. That can’t possibly be the amount of money I’m owed.
It makes my gut swoop and I have to grab onto the edge of the table, feeling faint again.
That's a lot of zeros. I feel sick. And a few steps away, Everett makes a noise.
“Well, it's not retroactive,” he says, “so that's just too fucking bad. It's not our fault that her father never made arrangements properly.”
So… I should have been paid… how much? It's a gross amount of money. I feel pretty ill about it.
Vince snorts, glancing over at me with an easy smirk. He can see the shock on my face… since he thinks I’m a whore, he’s probably amused at me feeling like I’ve gone rags to riches.
God. That’s two men in this room that think I’m a prostitute. I feel so dirty, like mud is caked under my nails and to my skin.
“That's a year,” he says. My stomach dips and I sit, hard, my spine rattling from the force of it.
Seriously, if that's what I should have been paid on a yearly basis… that number flashing on the screen. No way. It’s not possible.
My mind races, and I’m trying to breathe through it.
I never would have had to work at the coffee shop. I never would have had to deal with Mariah. I never would have had that run-in with Kai that led to our… ‘night’ together. I glance over at him. He's not looking at me for once, instead staring at Everett, a malicious smile on his face. I wonder what he's thinking.
“So this is the arrangement,” Lansing says, interrupting my thoughts. “You control 1% of the company. The rest of these three degenerates control the remaining 99%, split three ways.”
Vincent sighs like he's bored at the back of the room. And I wonder why he's even here. How he came to be here. In fact, the three of them are so unlike each other. I don't understand it. They can't possibly be brothers. They’re definitely not related.
“So my father, you're saying my father invested in this company, and owned a part of Arion?” It sounds too unreal to be true. Lansing smiles at me gently, like I’m slow and he has to explain this again which is exhausting for him.
I’m too… whatever, to be mad.
“I believe he knew that you were safe and that you had a new father-figure in your life and didn't want to interrupt that. So he set up the trust for your percentage to be held. And your entire stipend.” He shoots a look at Everett that says, Don't try me, son. “However, there are strings attached. The former owners of the company knew that there was always a possibility their three sons would not get along. It was for that reason your father bought in at 1% a much lower investment, and guaranteed, since he already had a daughter, that she would be the 1% owner able to perform a tiebreak by aligning herself with one or the other brothers.”
Owners. I inhale. Suddenly it all makes sense. The three of them hate each other. I can see it in their expressions. Vincent doesn't want to be here. Kai looks like he wants to throw something at Everett's head. And Everett is carrying himself like there's nobody else in the room but him. He's the only person that matters. The only person that counts. The rest of us are just wallpaper, invisible.
I'm the tiebreaker. I'm the paperclip that holds this together. And I don't even know what this company does. I'm assuming something to do with real estate since it owns the building.
“But I'm not sure… that's a lot to take in,” I say, controlling my breathing as best as I can. That number still flashes on the screen. That money is mine.
And Vincent said yearly. So that times… my thoughts trail off. I can’t even calculate it.
“I’m practically seeing the dollar signs in her eyes,” Everett says, “are you sure there's not some way around this? I'm fine to do a buyout.“ Lansing gives him a look of derision. It's so painful and strong, it could peel the paint off of a car.
“There's no way around this. Either all four come together to run the company or it dissolves and is sold off for assets and parts. I can't explain why your parents thought that was necessary. And to be honest, it’s a little upsetting considering all the work I've put in building this organization. But that's where we are.” He looks at me straight on.
“You can walk away. You won't get your money. The only way for you to get that is if you stay on to control your 1% share.”
Everett smiles, like a viper.
“Don’t look so pained. You’re going to get a bigger payout for having done nothing your entire goddamn life,” he says, smooth voice dripping with hateful poison. I swallow and Lansing nods, not bothering to call Everett out for being a dick. Kai is tense in his seat, but he remains silent.
And Vince?
His eyes are dark, unreadable. I look away.
Lansing purses his lips.
“And it won’t be forever,” he says, glance swinging away from me to look at the other two men. “There is an out.”
“We do have a merger due in 90 days,” Everett says, chin lifting, like he arranged it himself, “after that it won't matter. The four of us can go our separate ways. The three of you can fuck off out of my life forever. You just have to stick around to see that through.”
I say nothing. 90 days? I lock eyes with Everett. He looks like he’s pissed at even having to breathe the same air as me. He’s the usual hot guy rich bastard. Thinks his shit doesn’t stink, and that he’s too good for everyone except a heroine-thin model.
Across from me, Kai won’t even look me in the face, which is a good thing, because every time our eyes accidentally meet, I get a hardcore case of the shivers. That night… his hands… the way he called me baby like it meant something.
And Vincent King. The pimp. He’s tapping a box of cigarettes on the edge of the table, looking like he wants to bail out the window and go way down-town. Anything rather than sit in here with us.
90 days. With the three of them. Doing whatever… business-y things I have to do to fulfill my obligations, in a world that I have no experience with?
It’s like a crashing tidal wave, rushing up toward me, threatening to drown me.
But all those zeroes. Those commas. A backdated stipend. I swallow hard. It won’t be that difficult. I only own 1%. I’m not like these guys, not a majority stakeholder. They’ll barely even notice I exist. I just need to not and go along with things.
“I can do 90 days,” I say, and try not to wilt as four pairs of eyes swing toward me and stay.
I can totally do 90 days.
And just like that, I seal my fate.
Nine
Olivia
I'm suddenly in a world that I never anticipated living in. It's not just out of the blue being a 1% owner of a multi billion dollar company, which is still sinking in by the way. It’s that I’m given a key and an access code for the elevator. And all of the sudden I'm in my brand new apartment. My own full-sized, not a tiny box, apartment. With a massive bathroom, and it’s own kitchen, and a separate room for sleepi
ng in, and everything. This sudden change in my social standing has my head spinning.
The Arion Tower isn’t what I thought it was back when I worked at the coffee shop, much to my massive surprise. I thought it was just corporate suits and entertainment industry companies calling it home, but that isn’t the case at all.
This isn't just an office building. No, it's an entire living and working complex. There's apartments just like mine apparently, occupying the top floors, along with a common floor just for us with some amenities like a communal kitchen, a media room, the conference rooms… the works. It’s surreal. And below us are all the offices of different companies, going about their lives. I don’t even know if they realize there are residences up here for their real estate overlords.
But the apartments! Unreal apartments. It’s beyond me though. I look around the room and try to take a deep breath that isn’t shaky.
I never could have imagined this. It’s like the kind of places you see in Home & Garden Mag, with some vampy looking actress telling you how she decorated everything with Llama toe fur. I’m standing in the middle of my place right now, and it takes my breath away.
The best part is, this space, this place, this is all mine. One of the perks of being a part-owner, I guess. I stare out the windows, floor to ceiling and the view is breathtaking… just like in the boardroom.
It’s is unbelievable, the size of it, too. It's got to be five or six times the size of my little studio apartment on the other side of the city. Marble flooring ushers me in from the entryway where I’ve left my shoes. I didn't want to track dirt and grime over the pristine plush white carpets. I glance down and dig my bare toes into it. I've got to get a pedicure. There's no way I can just be plain and un-polished in a fancy place like this. I spin around and look at the open plan living and dining area. It's stunning white marble, white walls. White everything. A shiver runs through my shoulders. It is a little cold and could do with some color. I wonder if I'm allowed to paint?
I could do a gigantic Mandela mural on one wall. I smiled to myself to think I would do something so hippy and boho here in this palace to upscale luxury. This absolute shrine to upscale luxury. It's ridiculous.
I walk over to one long low leather couch, white of course, and sit on the edge of it. It's so silent in here, the thick glass windows cutting out any noise from the street so far below.
It feels like I'm inside of an ice cube. I take a slow, uneven breath. I really wish I understood more of what that lawyer had said, because it still feels like it’s all flown over my head.
But I'm not stupid. I'm being offered an escalator up in the world. And unless I can find another coffee shop gig soon, because there's no way I ever want to go back and work with Mariah, this is my best option. This is better than my best. This is an unreal fairytale. I only wish my parents were alive so I could ask them how this happened. And why they'd never said anything to me when I was little.
I guess my mom didn't know. If she had, we wouldn't have suffered so much, maybe.
A knock on the door jerks me out of my thoughts and I get to my feet. It swings open before I can get to it and Kai pokes his head in. Immediately my heart starts hammering in my chest and I try to swallow around the lump in my throat.
“Hey,” he says lifting a hand in greeting. Just the sight of him sends all my nerves buzzing.
He stands in the entryway, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, looking like a Calvin Klein ad. His hair is tumbled over his forehead, tousled and looking finger raked.
“I was hoping we could talk,” he says, and glances around the room. “Nice digs. I've never bothered to look at mine, I’m sure it’s mothballed by now.” I blink in surprise.
“You have a suite here-“ I pause as he interrupts me.
“Yeah, I do. We all do. Even Vince, although he's the same as me. I think he’d rather sleep on the street than be here. Honestly, it's kind of where he belongs.” There's a cold way he says the last few words that sets me on edge. It doesn't do anything to diminish that weird fizzing feeling in my belly as he walks closer, though. His eyes are dark and intense, and I can feel the pressure as they train on me.
My stomach clenches, and I remember the way he held me, pinning me into that door in the green room. The paint biting into my cheek cold and unforgiving hot slide of his cock thrusting in and out of me. I close my eyes for a moment. I need to stop remembering that. I need to be here, not in the past.
Every time I do all I can ask myself is why I'm not angry at him. Why the sight of him doesn't repulse me. I should want to slap him. Instead I'm filled with this unstoppable urge to grab him by the collar and lean up and kiss him.
Maybe it would encourage him to pin me down again. There's something really messed up and wrong with me. I’ve never felt like this before, about anyone.
“So,” he says, “I guess this is pretty awkward.” I bite my lip. And I don't really know what to say to that.
I'm pretty sure he still thinks that I'm a prostitute. Just someone who turned a trick with him. He doesn't know that I'm not that person, but for a fleeting second I want to tell him, confess the truth so I can see if he feels guilty about it.
The front door swings open and the moment is stolen from me.
“Well, this is not a fucking surprise,” someone drawls. It's Everett as he walks in while Kai glares at him.
“At least I knocked,” Kai says.
“That's sweet. It's almost like you guys are dorm room buddies,” Everett mocks. “Does this mean you're going to be around the tower a lot more?” He raises an eyebrow at Kai. “I guess it's nothing compared to that 7000 square foot mansion you've got up on the hill.” Everett swings his gaze from Kai to me. “Did he tell you about that? He's got three cars. It's quite fancy. A little bit above your pay-grade but I'm sure you could do a good job of the house cleaning. I heard he's looking for a new girl after he fucked his maid.”
Kai's face goes flushed red and he looks furious. My gaze ping pongs between the two of them, waiting to see who’s going to break and bite first. Kai’s hand is flexing, fingers trembling as they clench up into a fist.
“Just get out,” Everett says, “I’ve got some private business to speak with Miss Copper about.”
Kai’s about to say something, but I lift my hand, urging him not to. He stops and I shake my head. I don't want him to step in. Everett spreads his hands and gestures to the two of us.
“I mean, the alternative is that you could always get on with it. In fact, in front of me isn’t a bad idea. I could use some entertainment.”
My stomach swoops at how ballsy he is, and I choke up, making a sound that has Everett smirking at me. Kai shakes his head
“You’re a fucking pig,” he mutters before walking out of the room, glancing back at me. “I’ll see you later Olivia,” he says. And then he's gone. Leaving me with this guy. Abandoning me with the wolf.
I turn to Everett, my mouth open. I'm about to tell him to get fucked as well.
“One million,” he says that stops the short in my tracks. W-what? Is… is he asking me to… with him? For a million?
Does he really know that I slept with Kai? Does he think that I'll sleep with him too?
He frowns at me.
“One million,” he repeats, “that's my first and final offer. One million. You give me your share of the company and leave.”
Oh.
Oh.
My brain fizzes over and I try to make sense of what he just said. My emotions are jerking me back and forth from being panicked for a minute that he was trying to solicit my, uh, attentions. But now, he's just trying to get rid of me. I’m not sure if I’m more or less offended by that than him trying to buy sex from me.
“So what, you can screw over your two friends?” I ask, not that I care deep down, but I really don’t want to see him getting what he wants. He’s a prick. And true to form, he laughs. Yep, prick.
“Don't be ridiculous. They aren't my friends and neve
r have been. You think I associate with them? Vince is a backstreet brawler with a shitty attitude. I wouldn't even let him valet my car. My least favorite car at that. Now you take the one million and you can still have your back stipend if you really want it. But how much does your life run you anyway?” He gives me an assessing look, clearly taking in the value of my clothing, which isn't much. Everything is secondhand or thrifted. He looks like he's the kind of guy who wears a pair of underwear once and tosses it out.
“Well, why don't you think about it,” he says, “since you clearly need to write down my offer. So you can get your tiny little brain wrapped around it.”
I make a choked sound of rage and he grins at my reaction.
“What,” he murmurs, “are you that easy?”
“Easy?!” I breathe, squeakily and he bites his lower lip, his teeth chasing the blood away from the flesh.
“To get a rise out of,” he clarifies, “although you look like it’s easy to get into your panties all the same.” He leans in close, and I can smell expensive cologne. Just barely there on his skin. It's warm. And I can't help it. I inhale.
His eyes darken, pupils expanding as he sees me stumble for breath.
“That's right,” he says, “every girl loves a good roll in the sack with a rockstar. But they're not the real money. They're not the real power. It's men like me that really get women off, that make you feel good. He’s nothing like it would be with me.” I exhale and take a step back.
“Fuck off,” I say, and he raises an eyebrow. He’s quiet, doesn’t even look offended at me cursing him out.
He’s… waiting.
“I’ll think about it,” I sputter. But I won’t. I’m not selling out. 90 days. That’s it. And the payoff is going to be worth way more than what he’s offering me right now. I’m not stupid. I can split a tip-pot eight ways with a coffee crew with just a glance into the jar. I can add up what he’s planning to give me for this little deal, versus what I’ll get if I stick it out.