Resist Me

by Samantha Lee

  Antony tuned back into her speech when he heard, “I am available on demand.” He turned his gaze toward her and found her staring at him. He cleared his throat again, “Thank you Areyanna, I will make sure to remember that.” Antony smiled at her. She was beautiful but not his type. He preferred women of color. But he was a man and could plainly see that Areyanna was a ten on any man’s scale.

  Antony knew Areyanna was looking at him as if she was ready to devour him in front of everyone in the room. If she wasn’t his employee and it was any other place or time, he would have considered it. But it wasn’t so he couldn’t.

  Antony looked at the empty chair next to Areyanna and clenched his teeth. That woman really didn’t come back, and that grated his nerves. He needed to end the meeting, “Thanks everyone, I am excited to be here and to work with all of you. It will be a difficult journey to the top but we will get there.” Antony smiled. He decided to go with the warm and welcoming smile. The one that said you can talk to me about anything and I’ll understand. “Now, let’s get back to work and don’t hesitate to stop by my office with questions or concerns.” He looked down the long executive table. “Areyanna,” he called out, she was about to get up but stopped halfway to standing. “Yes, Mr. Carbonaro.” Antony quickly gathered items into his briefcase. Sandra, his executive assistant was still in the room waiting to walk out with him. He turned to Sandra. “I’ll catch up with you.”

  “Yes, Mr. Carbonaro.” Sandra said and walked out of the conference room.

  Antony watched Areyanna fix her shirt to show more cleavage, she obviously wanted his attention there. Her breasts were nice, he had to admit. He smiled when he glanced up from her breasts and saw her watching him intently. He had no designs to do anything but ask her a few questions, but she must have seen things differently.

  “What can I do for you Mr. Carbonaro.” Areyanna said with a voice made for the bedroom.

  Antony smiled seductively, “Call me Antony, my father is Mr. Carbonaro, try it.”

  Areyanna ran her tongue over her lips, she smiled when she noticed his eyes were on her mouth, “Antony,” she breathed out.

  Antony leaned against the table in front of her chair. “Who was the woman that left early? She sat next to you.”

  Areyanna’s brows furrowed, “Oh, that was Yvette, she’s your President. Her office is literally right next to yours.”

  Antony shook his head, “Really, I should have known that. I should have taken the time to meet her prior to the meeting.”

  Areyanna shook her head, “No, I’m sure she understands that you have been busy with other things.”

  “True, and I still am, but I’ll make time to greet her properly now.” Antony said as he stepped back and put an arm out signaling for Areyanna to stand up to leave. She stood up and shimmied her skirt down, which made her breasts jiggle, he tried to ignore it and continued their conversation, “Thank you for your time Ms. Oliver.”

  She picked up her portfolio and gave him a devilish grin, “Call me Areyanna. My mother is Ms. Oliver, try it.”

  Antony smiled, “Areyanna.” She giggled like a schoolgirl, “Good,” she said and winked at him.

  Areyanna exited the conference room before Antony. He needed to get his body under control. He wasn’t interested in fucking her but his dick had other thoughts. He exhaled and inhaled a few times, adjusted himself in his pants to relieve the pressure, and walked back to his office. Antony approached his office door, he hesitated, his hand hung loose on the knob. He glanced at the closed office door next to his, read the sign, President. He dropped his hand from his door and turned toward Yvette’s office when Sandra called him.

  “Mr. Carbonaro, your CFO is waiting for you in your office.”

  Irritated at the interruption Antony forgot to put his charming mask back on and snapped out, “Why?”

  Sandra nervously shuffled papers around on her desk, and avoided holding his eyes. “He told me that he has some papers you need to sign.”

  Antony sighed and gave her one of his comforting smiles. “Thanks Sandra.” He opened the door and walked into his office. The balding man who sat upon his hideous sofa jumped from the sound of the door. Antony looked at him, his skin was pale with a pasty parlor, his eyes darted around, and his hands shook uncontrollably. Antony knew those symptoms. He grew up in a family that dealt this slow death to others. Antony knew without doubt his CFO had a drug problem.

  “Mr. Carbonaro, I was told to wait in your office by your assistant.”

  Antony’s calm and soothing persona disappeared and his true hardened nature slipped into place. It was never too far from the surface. If people truly paid attention to his eyes and his movements they would see it. They would see the predator that hid behind the smile. He took a seat across from Jim. “You didn’t steal anything out of my office did you?”

  “No sir, why would I steal from you?” Jim asked.

  “Stealing is a common trait for the addicted.” Antony leaned forward. “But if you steal from me, you will regret it.” Antony held Jim’s eyes for a full minute before he sat back and asked. “What are you on? Heroin, coke, pills, meth? What is it?”

  “What! No sir, I don’t do drugs.” Jim said vehemently.

  “If you don’t do drugs, I’m Santa Claus and we are both on a fucking sleigh right now.”

  Jim wrung his hands in his lap. His eyes darted all around the room.

  “Focus, I asked you a question. What drug are you on?”

  “What’s going to happen to me?” Jim asked. “I can’t lose my job. I have a family.”

  Antony laughed mirthlessly. “Were you thinking about your family when you started doing drugs? Have you been thinking about your family enough to try to get some help?”

  Jim began to stammer, “I-I want to get help Mr. Carbonaro but I don’t know how to stop.”

  “I won’t ask again. What fucking drug are you on.”

  “I can’t tell you if that means I will get fired. I can’t get fired.”

  Antony looked at him with an expression that read are you for real? “I can fire you whenever I feel like it, I don’t need your permission. I am asking you a question and you haven’t honestly answered it, and until you do, I am leaning toward firing your ass right now.”

  Jim slid off the sofa onto his knees. His hands rubbed together in a reverent prayer, as he pleaded for his job. “Please, please, you can’t do this to me.”

  Antony looked at him, he had no remorse for this kind of human, but he did have compassion for his family. “Then tell me!”

  Jim nodded his head, “I have a problem with cocaine and pills. I can’t stop. Help me, please help me.” He was rubbing his hands together furiously pleading.

  “Get up.” Jim didn’t get up instead he brought his head closer to the ground like he was going to kiss Antony’s shoes. My god how far had the man fallen, Antony thought. “Get. The. Fuck. Up. NOW!” Antony roared. Quickly, Jim got up and sat back down on the couch. Antony took a deep breath to calm down, “Tell me how this happened.”

  Antony watched Jim run his hand through what little hair he had left a couple of times before he started talking. “I was at a company party in Uptown. We all stopped at a lounge in a fancy hotel. There were a lot of beautiful women. One approached me and we started to talk. I couldn’t believe she wanted to talk to me. I mean look at me. I am a balding middle-age married man. I was flattered. I wanted her to want me. I would have done anything to feel like I was still attractive to someone young and pretty like her.” He ran a shaking hand through his hair again. “She took me upstairs to a room, she had some cocaine. She said it was nothing and that everyone did it every now and again, and it would make the sex better. I didn’t want to do anything to scare her off.” He looked at Antony, “You may get gorgeous women all the time but regular men like me don’t get the opportunity often.” He chuckled. “I should have passed it up.”

  “Keep going Jim.” Antony was starting to get the full pictur
e of how fucked Jim was.

  Jim breathed deeply. “She put a line on the dresser in the room, and I snorted it after she did.” His head rose to look at Antony. “I hated it at first. I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest. Everything felt unnatural. Then after a little while it felt good. I felt confident and relaxed. I didn’t feel like myself. I felt better. I liked the feeling. After I came down from the high, I wanted to go back to that.”

  “Did you sleep with the woman?” Antony asked.

  Jim put his head down in his hands. “I did and I am, and I want to stop that too, but she threatens to tell my wife of our affair every time I try to break it off.” He looked into Antony’s eyes. “Please help me, I don’t want to lose my family.”

  Antony tapped his finger on his thigh. “What do you have to give her in exchange for the drugs and sex?”

  Jim’s head fell again and he began weeping. “I have been giving her information about the company. She wanted to know about shipments and accounts. I had to do it. I had to.”

  Antony rolled his eyes. Gorgeous women, drugs, and blackmail. This pencil pusher hadn’t stood a chance, but who was behind his extortion? It had to be another Family.

  “I get it. I will help you but you can’t keep your job. I will set you up at a nice rehab facility and give you a generous severance package. I wish I could do more but I can’t have someone working under me that I can’t trust.”

  Jim jumped up. Antony was alarmed and ready to fight at Jim’s sudden movement, but Jim just paced the floor biting his nails. “If I go to rehab, I will need to tell my family about my drug problem and affair.” He shook his head. “No, no, I can’t do that.” Jim was burning through Antony’s patience fast. He’d seen this happen before, time and time again being in the Family. If the addict didn’t want to admit to their addiction, then there wasn’t much anyone could do for them. They had to be open to change, ready for it, and the hardships that came with it. Addiction was a monster living within that was never satisfied and always wanting, needing, more from the host. Eventually, Jim’s monster would overcome him and take everything, maybe even his life. Antony didn’t know Jim, but he didn’t want to see that happen to his family.

  Antony stood and walked to his desk. He picked up his phone and scrolled through the contacts until he found the number he needed. Kelly Grace was a childhood friend. She had lost her brother to addiction when the two of them were teenagers. She made it her mission to save as many as she could, she may be Jim’s only hope. Antony looked at Jim, “Look, I don’t know your situation at home but I know how drugs work. If you refuse to get help, you will lose everything anyway. You can’t keep a habit like yours a secret much longer. If I had to guess your wife is probably suspicious about something even now.” Antony tore a piece of paper off the pad of paper in front of him. He wrote Kelly’s name and number on it. “Now, that I found out and I am terminating your employment with B&E, the woman who has been supplying your drugs will disappear. She was only using you to get to my company, and I will deal with that issue myself, but think it through. What are you going to do without her? Who will give you drugs? Will you try to find another junkie or drug dealer? Will you become that desperate? Or get fucking help?” Antony folded the paper and held his arm out for him to take it. Jim walked to him and with shaking hands took the piece of paper. “She will help you and with any luck she will be able to help get your family situation sorted out. I will pay for your treatment services as long as you attend regularly and graduate from the program.”

  “Thank you Mr. Carbonaro.”

  Antony nodded. “Leave the paperwork and go clean out your office. You need to report to that treatment facility this week Jim. If you delay, you will convince yourself that you don’t have a problem.” Antony paused. “And trust me, you have a problem. See Sandra before you leave so she can provide you with information on your separation from the company.”

  Antony waited for the door to close. He picked up his phone and pushed dial. The phone rang twice before a familiar husky voice answered. “Hello Antony. What can I do for you?”

  “Hi Kelly, I referred a former employee to you, he should be stopping by in the next few days. His name is Jim Stafford. He is in bad shape, can you take him in?”

  “Of course Antony, you do own half of this business. I would say as a perk you can refer people for treatment.” She laughed.

  “I know but I don’t interfere in how you run your business, sweetheart.”

  “Our business,” she countered.

  “No, it’s yours, I just helped pay the bills for a while but I didn’t do that to be a part of operations, I did that because we are friends and that is what friends do for each other. Look, I have to go, tell me when he checks in.”

  “After he signs a release of information, I will do just that.” She said before she hung up.

  Chapter Three

  Antony smiled. Kelly had always followed the rules. It’s unfortunate he couldn’t say the same. He wasted no time with his next call. The phone rang once, “Boss.” Antony said.

  A commanding voice answered, “Figilo mio, how are you?” Antony smiled. His father, Pio Carbonaro, the boss of the Carbonaro Family, had two fierce personalities, one for his family and the other was for the Family. When he called Antony Figilo mio, he was being his papa not his boss. “I am fine papa. How are you?”

  “Your mother wants to see you come home more. You live too far away. I told you to move closer to home. There are some nice houses near ours, we can acquire if you want.”

  “Thanks, papa but I am happy with where I live.”

  “Where you live doesn’t have enough security.”

  Antony sighed, “Papa, I own the building and the entire building is secure and locked down. Listen, I will come to see mi madre on Sunday. But I called because I have another issue.”

  Antony heard shuffling, his father was sitting up, his voice changed to all business, all signs of familial sentimentality was gone, and what was left was the cold awareness of the Carbonaro Family boss. “What is it?” he asked.

  “One of my employees was being blackmailed.”

  “Did you take care of him?” Pio wasn’t an easy man. You mess with his Family or his money and there was only one solution in his mind, and it was irrevocable.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “You should have. Do you want me to get someone to do it?” Pio asked.

  “No, listen, he was told to give up account numbers, and shipping information. The way it all played out makes me believe another Family is involved.”

  Antony’s father’s hand slapped the table, the sound was clear over the phone, “Another Family dares to fuck with my business? Find out who it is and report back to me. Get the capo’s involved so we can speed things up. Nobody fucks with my Family, nobody.”

  “Involving the capo’s may make things messier than it needs to be. This was an in-depth long con that took skill and finesse. If we bring in the Capo’s and their soldiers, we may end up with a bloody war when a quiet execution would be better. I will handle this but I wanted you to know, and I wanted to find out if you had any conflicts with another Family.” Antony tried to sound humble and convincing. If it were up to his father, the Carbonaro Family would wipe out every other Family and take over the coast. Antony didn’t want to spark his father’s interest any more than he had to.

  “I don’t have anything going on but I will talk with Torre and ask him if he has heard anything.” It grated Antony’s nerves to hear his father say he would talk to Torre. He wanted to tell him not to, but all he had was his gut intuition that told him Torre was not to be trusted. Unfortunately, Antony knew his gut wasn’t enough for his father, he would need something concrete, if Antony was going to ask him to forego the relationship he had with Torre, his consigliere his most trusted man in the Family.

  The silence between him and his father stretched, “When you find who did this, you take care of this one, they know too much,
they have done too much.” His father said solemnly. Antony knew it was hard for his father to send him out to kill. Nobody wanted their child to be a killer and nobody wanted to know their child was good at killing.

  “I will take care of it.” Antony hung up his phone and sat in his chair contemplating everything that transpired over the last two hours. He needed a starting point--a place to focus his thoughts, he pushed his fingers through his hair, sighed and let his head fall back onto his headrest. He hoped the shift in position would ease the migraine starting at the base of his neck.

  A few minutes passed before Antony stood and walked to the table where Jim left a stack of paper. He picked them up and walked back to his desk. He turned the first page over and stopped. These reports made little sense. He flipped through a few more to discover they were bleeding money, shipments were late, some accounts were inflated and this was supposed to be the legal front company. Who was signing off on this shit? Antony wondered.

  With Jim gone and apparently not much help when he was here, he needed to find someone who had some answers. He thought of the leggy blond with the smart eyes. She would probably know. He started up his computer. The company’s intranet popped up as his home screen. He looked in the global contact list for Areyanna, he must have spelled it wrong, because he didn’t get any results. Then he remembered his President was next door. He would go ask her what the fuck was going on, and for her sake she had better have some damn good answers.

  Antony grabbed the stack of papers and walked out of his office. He knocked on the door of Ms. Yvette Bradford, President. “Come in,” she said. The sound of her voice was muffled by the door.

  Antony walked in, Yvette stood up, walked around her desk, and escorted him to one of her large brown sofas. She took a seat across from him. “Mr. Carbonaro, what can I do for you,” she asked.