“Another time definitely.” Perry finished his scotch and grinned at me. “But for now, I need to work on some follow up stuff for tomorrow’s late-night edition. The key to this is the follow through. We need to saturate the airwaves so that everyone sees this. Right now? We’re just a bunch of late night news, and not many people watch that comparatively.”
“Makes sense, but it makes me sad.” I finished my scotch and put the glass down. “What will I do with myself?”
“Well, I’d be happy to go to dinner with you,” Missy said while batting her eyes at me. “I never pass up a free meal.”
“Sounds like a blast!” Perry gave me a knowing wink. “You two should go.” He took my hand and gave it a firm shake. “We can catch up another time.” Those words had a lot more weight than I expected, so I was almost glad when I let Missy pull me away.
“You know, I’ve really enjoyed spending time with you, Missy,” I said as we made our way to the elevator. “I’m glad you decided to have dinner with me.” I glanced at my watch, noting it was almost two in the morning. “Assuming we can even find a place that’s open now.”
“I’ve enjoyed spending time with you too, Roger.” Her cheeks flushed as she looked me up and down. “Have you not seen yourself?” She bit her lip. “The moment I saw you, I was like, ‘there’s a guy who has a dick I need to suck.’” She clapped a hand to her full lips. “Whoops, did I say the voice in my brain out loud again?”
“Um … you’re quite forward,” I said, watching her carefully, and admittedly, it wasn’t hard to imagine her naked with her mouth … I mean, I’d watched the news before once or twice, just saying.
“It’s one of my charms.” She pulled me into the elevator and kissed me. “I see what I want, and I get it.”
“Wow, you’re really good at that,” I said when the elevator doors opened at the bottom, and I realized we’d been making out like teenagers the entire ride down.
“And I’m at least twice as good at giving head.” She took my hand, dragging me toward the doors where my limo waited. “Let’s go get fucking hammered and make bad decisions.”
“I hear that,” I said, and as we got into the limo, she already was tugging my shirt up and running her hands over my abs.
“How about we start with some shots?” she asked as she dropped to her knees in front of me, pretty much guaranteeing I’d agree to do whatever she wanted.
“Sure,” I said and then frowned slightly.
Only, instead of undoing my pants, she grabbed the bottle of Patron from the center of the limo’s console and poured us each a shot.
“Ready? ’Cause I know I am,” she said, handing me my shot, and then instead of reaching for the second one, she put her hand in my pants. “Oh, wow. The rumors are true.”
“Damn straight,” I said as she grabbed her own shot with her free hand and held it up.
“To taking down that douchebag,” she said, and we clinked glasses while she continued to stroke me. “Go!” We downed our shots and then she tossed her glass to the side and practically climbed into my lap. “I’d love to do more here,” she said, leaning in close so that her breath was hot on my cheeks, “but then we’ll never get out of your limo, and I really want to see the Medallion’s penthouse.”
“I think that can be arranged.” I smiled at her, before keying the intercom so I could call to the front, “Hey, Brant, can you take us to the Medallion and make sure the penthouse is ready?”
“My pleasure, Roger.”
“There you go,” I said right before she kissed me.
“Sir, we’re here,” Brant said through the intercom, and honestly, I was kind of surprised because the whole trip seemed to have passed in a blur.
“Finally. I’m so horny I don’t know if I could take much more,” Missy said, practically dragging me out of the limo and into the casino.
Honestly, I was surprised I still had my shirt on as we stepped into the elevator. Though it was totally unbuttoned, as was Missy’s, by the time we got into the room. Neither piece of clothing lasted much longer than that, and I have to say that the sight of Missy Moppet naked was one I wasn’t prepared for.
She was attractive in that real woman sort of way that I’d grown to appreciate over the last few months, and yet, at the same time, she radiated power and sex in a way that made me smile because, in a moment, she would be mine.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked as her bra hit the ground beside the bed, revealing her firm breasts and dark nipples. She took a step forward, pressing her naked chest against mine. “In charge or submissive?” She took my hand, pressing it to her soaked panties. “Or both?”
“Both sounds good,” I said, right before I tossed her on the bed and began kissing my way up her tan legs.
28
The banging on the door of my penthouse room in the Medallion woke me from a deep sleep in which I was learning the ways of the woman from a reporter turned fairy princess sex god creature in a forest.
Worse, Missy was nowhere to be found, and in addition to the pounding on my door, my phone was buzzing like crazy from the floor. I’d remembered putting it on the dresser, but it must have vibrated off somehow.
And it was pitch black in my room.
Sure, part of it was the blackout curtains to keep out the sun, but it was darker than it should have been because there were none of the weird LEDs and stuff on the various gizmos around the room. No, the only source of light came from my stupid buzzing phone.
Yawning and stretching as the pounding on the door stopped, I rolled over to grab the phone, and was surprised to see I had over a dozen missed calls from Perry as well as another dozen or so from Shelley, Skye, and Amy. That … was not good.
That’s when the phone started ringing again, Shelly’s picture popping up on the screen and letting me know it was her who was calling.
“Time to bite the bullet,” I said, answering as I swung my legs out of my bed and headed to the door clad in only my lucky platypus boxers. “Shelley, what’s up?”
“It’s about time you answered your fucking phone. We needed to find out where you were, and Brant didn’t answer his fucking phone either because it’s his day off,” Shelley snarled, and I could hear her from the other side of the door as well. “We’re in so much trouble there isn’t even enough shit in the whole world to properly describe how deep in it we are.”
“Take a deep breath and explain it to me,” I said as I pulled open the door and saw her standing there. She had deep bags under her eyes and looked like she had been up for hours pulling her hair out.
“There’s no power to the whole building.” She gestured at the darkness beyond. “The power company cut it off, said there’s a problem with our contract—”
“The power to the Medallion is restored.” The lights flickered back on in an instant, but because it had been so dark, I hissed and covered my eyes. “The light, it burns.”
“Good.” She crossed her arms. “Now if you’d done that twenty minutes ago, we’d be better off.” She squared herself before marching past me into the room and moving to the window. “That’s not going to work for long though. Chet owns the power company. The power will come down again unless you go down there and make him stop.”
“Why don’t we just buy it from him?” I asked, processing that little nugget. “And how can Chet do anything? His name is mud.”
“You haven’t seen the news. Missy, Perry, all those experts? Their reputations are already being tarnished. They’re saying its all fake and a stunt. Additionally, all the papers and magazines have been recalled, pending lawsuit.” She shook her head. “For every expert Missy put up, Chet had ten make a statement about the photos and about those guys in particular.” She shook her head. “And he knows it’s us. We’ve been getting hit with a smear campaign unlike any I’ve ever seen.” She pulled open the blinds. “Look.”
I did as she asked and found myself staring at a sea of protestors unlike any I’d seen before
. It was like the entirety of a fucking football stadium had surrounded the building, and even from here I could tell they seemed non-to-pleased.
“Inspectors?” I looked at her, and she nodded.
“That’s why I came up here when I found out where you were from Missy and called a dozen times. They’re going through everything, and I think they’re dirty.” Shelley put her face in her hands. “And it’s not just here. Amy is at Modi trying to keep the Justice Department from not absolutely fucking us. Gail has taken over trying to get our assets unfrozen again, and Skye is helping Missy try to dig herself out of the metric ton of suck that she’s gotten heaped on her. Also, Ronnie has been barred from talking to public officials. Not officially … she just has.” She threw her hands up in the air. “It’s all just fucked.”
“Okay.” I scratched my chin as I tried to process all of that. “How could this all have happened overnight?”
“Roger, it’s almost three PM. In Vegas.” She shook her head. “This has been going on all day.” She met my eyes. “Who sleeps until three PM?”
“That seems a bit off …” I took a deep breath. “The last thing I remember was leaving the after party in the newsroom with Missy. That’s why we were here, she wanted to see the penthouse.” A lightbulb went off in my brain. “Did Missy drug me?”
I spun on my heel and made my way to the dresser where she’d fixed our drinks and stared at the glasses we had drunk from the night before. They seemed normal enough, but they were also empty.
“I doubt Missy drugged you, but I can have them tested if you want. I doubt that would help her anyway,” Shelley said, grabbing my shoulder and turning me to face her. “Because, right now, we need you to come to the command center and unfuck us.”
“Right.” I grabbed my shirt off the closest chair and slung it on before pulling on a pair of jeans. “Let’s go.”
29
“Okay, lay it on me in order of urgency,” I said as I sat at the large round table in the middle of the command center deep beneath the Medallion casino.
“Okay, well, the first things we need to deal with are the power issues and the inspectors. Both of those are keeping people out of the casino which our main source of cash flow.” Shelley pointed to the first two bullet points on the board. “After that, we need to get the Justice Department off our asses, so they stop trying to break up, fine, and otherwise fine Modi.”
As Shelley made this point, Amy, who was on conference call, made a harrumphing noise. “That seems like it should be point number one, but I agree that it is definitely harder to do,” Amy sighed. “Or have our assets unfrozen. Like, that’s pretty important.”
“That is important,” Gail said, looking flustered as she scrambled to go through her notes and forms. “We’ve gotten hit with six separate investigations, which means six different government agencies are trying, at this very moment, to take all our things—” A ping from her laptop made her stop as her mouth fell open. “And now we’re being audited.” She put her face in her hands. “We’re supposed to surrender all our books to an independent authority.”
“Okay …” I frowned. “What about Missy? And the hospitals? And Ronnie?”
“Missy is drowning along with Perry and the others who broke the story. If blacklisting is a thing, these guys are ‘blacker than Satan’s hairy ass’ listed.” Shelley made air quotes. “And almost all traces of what happened have vanished, so they can’t even compare it. Everything is just now hearsay from douchebags on the air.”
“What about the power company?” I glanced at the phone like Amy could see me. “Do we own anything there?”
“Only five percent, but I suspect that’s not the problem really, because Chet only owns five too. I think if you go down there, you can fix that. The bigger issue is that with everything frozen, I can’t just buy a bigger stake and force his ass out.” I heard her slam a fist on her desk in frustration. “I have almost five billion dollars in fucking cash, and I can’t touch any of it.”
“Okay, I think I’ve got a handle on it.” My phone started to ring, and everyone frowned at me. “Sorry.” I went to put it on silent when I realized it was Beau calling. Surprised, I glanced at Gail. “Do we have something with Beau and his wife I’m not aware of?”
“Not at the moment.” Gail bit her lip and thought for a moment. “I don’t know what it could be about. Did you miss a yacht racing date?” She tried to smile but just wound up looking tired.
“Right, give me one second.” I glanced around the room, and when Shelley gave me an exasperated nod, I answered. “Hey, Beau, how’s it going?”
“Roger, what in Sam Hill did you do?” Beau exclaimed, and before I could inquire further, he continued, “I have Chet McMahon breathing down my fucking neck because he heard I knew you.”
“I went to war with that smug child-molester,” I growled. “I launched my opening salvo, and now he’s trying to crush me, but I think it will be fine—”
“Roger, he’s got senators in his fucking pocket. He’s no doubt called in every favor in the book. What he’s hitting you with now will be nothing compared to what he can do.” He let out a loud sigh. “I can’t help you either unless I want to lose everything. No one can. You’re like fucking kryptonite.” He sighed again. “That said, if you need me to do something, I will. Everything is just money, and I own my fields and refinery outright. Fucker can’t touch me. Probably.” There was a pause as the Texas Bravado rang in my ears. “This is why I told you to do this sort of thing on the sly.”
“I know, Beau, but I found some pictures …” I sighed. “He has to be stopped.”
“You mean those are real?” He sounded like he couldn’t believe it.
“Yes.” I was suddenly so angry I couldn’t stand it. This fucker had done the wrong thing, and now was trying to throw it back on me so he could keep up what he was doing? That wasn’t happening. “And I’m stopping him, come hell or high water.”
“Well, that changes things. Look, let me call some favors in and see what he’s planning. I’ll call you back in an hour, but Roger, be careful, okay?” Beau sounded angry too now. “And make sure you cut off his head and put it on a fucking pike in your lawn, so the next fucker who comes after you knows what he’s coming against.” He was getting louder now. “It’s why I took a two-hundred-million-dollar bath on that refinery when those corporate raiders came at me. They thought they could push me around by driving down my stock price, and I didn’t care because if I bent, they’d just keep coming. Instead, they realized I cared more about winning than money, and these guys usually care way more about money. You don’t seem to have that problem, so let them know it.”
“Don’t worry, Beau. I’ll make sure I put those clowns’ heads on pikes.” I smacked my fist into my palm. “That’s for damned sure.”
“Good. We’ll talk soon. The missus is gonna make her famous blueberry pie. You better be around to try some because I don’t feel like having to buy a prison just to see you.” With that, he hung up.
“Well, that was intense,” Gail said after a moment.
“I think he’s one hundred percent right,” Shelley said, meeting my eyes. “We need to put this guy in the dirt right fucking now. Before this gets too hard to recover from, even with your pen.” She gestured at me. “It’s great for loans and getting the power back on intermittently, but the bottleneck will always be you.”
“I hear that,” I said, pulling out my pen and staring at it. “But for now, let’s make this work.” I nodded to the whiteboard. “What do I write first?”
“The inspectors need to go, and I need access to funds,” Amy said from the phone. “I know Skye has more specifics …”
“Where is Skye?” I asked, glancing around the table.
“With Missy at the station,” Gail said, looking to me. “She said to come there because she has a plan, but it’s labor intensive.”
“Okay.” I pulled out my pen and tried writing a few lines, only even as I wrote
lines like The inspectors find nothing, they were already starting to fade. That wasn’t good, but for the moment, our assets were unfrozen, and we had some breathing room. That done, I turned my attention to Gail. “Can you get with Skye and get me a pathway of exactly what to write down to get?” I stopped for a second, an idea hitting me. “Um, Amy, you there?”
“Yes,” she said, “but I need to go in a minute. Now that our assets are unfrozen, I’m gonna move on that power company. There is a sizeable chunk of debt in addition to stakes owned by other entities. I think I can grab it all easily enough. We’ll see, why?”
“I had a terrible, awful idea.” I grinned around the room.
“Well, this I want to hear,” Shelley said, giving me her full attention.
“Chet’s company is publicly owned, right?” Everyone gave me confused looks.
“Yeah, well, he still owns most of it. We can’t buy it though, the stock price is too high.” Amy tapped a few buttons. “It’s nearly $500 a share, and he’s issued about ten or so million shares. That accounts for roughly sixty percent of his company. To buy it would take almost all our cash.”
“What if it didn’t?” I asked, thinking back to what Beau had said on the phone with the raiders. “What if we drove the stock down?”
“To do that, we’d have to short the fuck out of him, and I don’t know that we could make it work enough to buy everything given everything that’s happening.” She sighed. “I’d thought about that.”
“How quickly can you buy the stock, given our resources?” I asked, and as I spoke, I readied my pen. “Because his stock is about to drop to zero.”
“Roger, what do you mean?” Amy seemed really confused, though she probably shouldn’t have been.
To Vegas with love Page 14