Hudson

by Shayne McClendon

  She nodded, unable to hold back her laughter.

  They sat at the formal dining table and conversation didn’t lag. They were all unique but blended beautifully. Most of the time, Brie was more interested in listening to them than adding to the conversation.

  Nuances of personalities and backgrounds always fascinated her. She liked to know things, even if she couldn’t share them with anyone else. Her mother called her Nosy Nelly when she was a child and she owned the trait, though she was better these days about hiding her nosiness.

  Zach and Quinn ran a chain of coffee houses that were giving Starbucks a run for their money. For a good half an hour, they discussed market projections with the M’s and Brie was fascinated.

  Her curiosity about the behind-the-scenes decision-making spilled out and she started asking questions about the marketing aspects of their business. They answered with surprised looks on their faces.

  Zach said, “You know, you could work in our corporate offices. You’re obviously very bright. Did you take any college courses?”

  With a smile, she nodded. “I have a Masters in sales and marketing from Washington State. I’m interested because your individual businesses are on a much larger scale than I’m used to.”

  Everyone at the table went silent.

  Riya put her hand on Brie’s arm. “Honey, why are you taking a job as a maid?”

  “The people in this building are the only people I know out here. I had so many hopes for what it was going to be like and I feel off-balance.” She sat back in her chair. “I’ve worked hard all my life. My sister, too. I’m not too good to clean until I get my confidence back.”

  Quinn said gently, “I’m sorry for what happened to you, Brie. I understand your reasons but if you change your mind, the offer stands. We could use a work ethic like yours.” Zach agreed.

  Max added, “Micah and I both have sales and marketing departments in our companies. Should you want to stretch your legs, working for any of our companies would guarantee that you still know some of your co-workers.”

  “My mom and dad made us work our way up. We started with picking up trash and cleaning toilets at the companies where we interned. We spent enough time in each position to learn it well. Then we were promoted or moved to another department. I like that method of learning.”

  She folded her arms on the table. “This building has a lot of moving parts and I’ve never lived in a city this large before. It will give me time to stabilize, get accustomed to the city, and learn something new.”

  They were looking at her with a touch of pity but she knew they meant it kindly.

  “I’m excited so start climbing through the different positions here. Don’t think of me as settling. Don’t feel sorry for me if you see me cleaning. Life works that way. I’m good with it.”

  Tawny grinned. “I like the way you think. If you start feeling stifled or feel like you need more earning potential, you talk to any of us.” Picking up her wine glass, she added, “I for one, no matter the circumstances, am glad you made it to Manhattan. You’re a breath of fresh air.”

  The others agreed and conversation turned to the upcoming holidays.

  When Brie started yawning, Tawny and Riya walked her to the lobby to get a suite key. Carlo had it ready and took them up.

  “Don’t worry about anything. You don’t start until midnight tomorrow and I’m sure there are errands you need to run for your new place. Make yourself at home and get some sleep. Buzz the front desk if you need anything.”

  She told everyone goodnight, took a quick shower, and changed into clothes from her luggage that Henry sent up.

  It had been a long day both emotionally and physically. She was excited but a little sad. Fortunately, her mind didn’t keep her up with racing thoughts.

  The moment her head hit the pillow, she was out.

  Chapter Four

  Hudson’s phone rang and he smiled when he saw who it was on caller ID. He didn’t even have a chance to say hello.

  “She is lovely. Nicest young woman and so grateful and enthusiastic. I could tell she’d had a little crying jag before but the moment she saw the apartment, she lit up from the inside out. She’s all squared away and I think this may be the first time she’s lived alone. There was a sort of awe when I handed her the keys.”

  While the manager of the very first property he’d ever owned chatted away, Hudson walked through the rooms of his home, ensuring the women packing Christina’s things didn’t miss anything.

  Occasionally, he found something random and took it to them to be included in the boxes they filled. All of her jewelry was sealed in a security bag.

  He locked her fake ID’s, drugs, and cash in his office safe. He still wasn’t certain how to handle the criminal aspect since he didn’t need the bad press but he couldn’t allow her and her partner to get away with what they’d done either.

  “Hudson, are you listening? I wanted you to know I was going to charge your furniture account for a mattress set. Considering, I think it’s the right thing to do. Oh! Sounds like the Asawa family across the hall just returned from their trip. I have to run. She’s all right and tight.”

  “Thanks, Mom. I appreciate your help.”

  “It makes me happy to help you when I can, Hudson. You do so much for me. Okay, have to go.”

  Hudson closed the phone slowly and smiled at how cheerful his mother had been for almost two decades now. She ran his building like a well-oiled machine and the tenants loved her. She went to yoga four days a week, belonged to a book club, and donated her time and money to various charities.

  There was a time when she’d been unable to get out of bed.

  As a young woman from North Carolina, her well-to-do parents sent her to Philadelphia to go to school. The aftermath of Vietnam had the country in turmoil. The southern states were reeling from the ongoing violence of the civil rights struggle.

  Bright and naturally beautiful, Camille Truing settled easily into the college environment that was rapidly becoming more open to female students. Good grades made her a favorite of her teachers and her outgoing personality won over her peers.

  In her sophomore year, she began dating the captain of the rowing team. She fell in love for what she believed would be the first and last time in her life.

  Noah Winters swept her off her feet and they talked often of their bright future together. They were going to marry when Cami, who was a year behind him, earned her degree.

  Six months after his graduation, he was killed in a plane crash. Three days after his funeral, she discovered she was pregnant.

  Noah’s family refused to speak to her and her own parents were so scandalized that they cut her off without a penny.

  When college administration discovered she was pregnant, she was forced to leave school just four credits shy of her business degree despite the fact that her final semester was paid for in advance.

  She moved into a halfway house for unwed mothers on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Sunk in deep depression, Cami was unable to care for herself or her newborn child. The nun who ran the home stepped in to help.

  Slowly, Sister Dana got the young woman back on her feet and Camille tried to take back her life. She was hired as a secretary at a local accounting firm and the nun watched Hudson during the day.

  When he was six, his mother’s married boss raped her in his well-appointed conference room and threatened to accuse her of embezzlement if she reported her attack.

  Cami became pregnant again, this time with twins. She was fired from her job when she told her rapist what he’d done. He looked at her smugly and told her she was a woman known to have loose morals so no one would ever believe her story.

  Once again, intense sadness overtook her, though Sister Dana did everything possible to help. When his brother and sister were born, it was Hudson and the elderly nun who cared for them.

  Cami slept all the time and rarely remembered to eat or shower.

  A group of churchwom
en petitioned to have the halfway house shut down a few months later. They told the city council that the place was morally bankrupt and encouraged promiscuous behavior.

  Hudson discovered many years later that the primary force behind the closure of the home was the wife of the man who had taken so much from his mother. There was no doubt that Camille had been depicted as a whore by her upstanding rapist with strong ties to the community.

  Dana moved them into a small home where Hudson shared a room with his siblings so he could tend to them during the night. She slept on the sofa in the tiny living room. Without the stipend from the church, they were barely able to keep the power on and food on the table.

  Hudson worked odd jobs to make ends meet and swore there would come a day when the people he cared about wouldn’t have to worry.

  Driven to succeed, he bought his first business with money saved from one of the two full-time jobs he held in college. By the time he walked the stage with a degree in business, he owned two businesses in the black and his first residential property.

  He took care of Dana until her death and busted his ass to get his mother back. The corporate powerhouse he became was due to the bad hands she’d been dealt in her life.

  When he was thirty and putting his siblings through school, he tracked down their biological father. A bit of digging revealed that his mother had been neither his first victim nor his last.

  Hudson explained who he was and Camille’s rapist began to sputter and accuse her of lewd behavior that drove him to do what he did. With a predatory smile, he silently listened to how his beautiful, fragile mother had all but asked for her rape.

  When his prey finally pissed himself in fear, Hudson carefully outlined how he planned to destroy him. He left the office without once raising his voice.

  Inside one year, he ruined him financially and personally. The day the creditors took his house, he killed himself in his garage.

  Hudson never said a word to his mother or the twins and he never lost one minute of sleep.

  As for her parents and his father’s parents, he made sure to send them photos of still-stunning Camille as well as newspaper clippings of his successes. He especially loved sending photos of them on vacation in exotic locations.

  He never used a return address. It gave him intense satisfaction to imagine them regretting the way they’d tossed their family away.

  The fact that he was the spitting image of his father was icing on the cake.

  The brownstone was his first residential property and he lived in it for several years after graduating college. He fixed it up in his spare time – mostly as a stress reliever – while he bought and sold millions in assets in the northeast.

  When he bought the fifteen-story residential tower, his mother asked to stay where she’d become so comfortable over the years, and he put her in charge of running it.

  He converted the entire fourth floor for her personal use and created individual living spaces on the second and third floors. The first floor was devoted to common areas that included a large kitchen and formal dining room, a gym, a game room, and laundry facilities.

  Hudson was picky about who lived in the brownstone because of Camille. Gabriella Hernandez would be a nice addition and another woman for his mom to socialize with.

  He called the driver he hired for Christina and asked where she was. He was informed she’d been shopping and was currently at the spa. She had plans to visit Trois later in the evening.

  “Excellent. Don’t mention my call.”

  “No, sir.”

  Two hours to get her moved out of his apartment.

  He didn’t understand why she spent so many of her evenings at his best friend’s private club. The majority of the members were in exclusive ménage relationships – hence the name.

  When Natalia came to him with the idea after spending time with two men searching for the woman they could take care of together, he wondered how profitable it could possibly be.

  Still, he hadn’t hesitated in giving her the start-up funds because she was brilliant, she was his friend, and she represented one of a handful of people in the world who never judged him.

  Natalia accepted him for who and what he was.

  Six years later, he knew he was right for never doubting her. She paid him back with interest and presented him with a lifetime membership that he, surprisingly, used.

  Different from swinging, nowhere near as seedy as porn-popularized cuckolding, ménage existed on the fringe. Most of the relationships consisted of two men and one woman and though it didn’t turn him off, Hudson didn’t believe he had the personality to share his woman with another man.

  He was too selfish, a trait he recognized and accepted in himself. His ego barely tolerated other men in his orbit – much less while fucking the same woman.

  Still, he made many business contacts through the club and it was a good place to wind down with a drink occasionally.

  In the two years he’d been involved with Christina, she’d started going to the club more and more often. Since Natalia couldn’t stand the woman, she kept an eye on her. She racked up enormous bar tabs and his friend wondered why he let her get away with it.

  It was quite simple really.

  He traveled all the time. When he walked into the mess with Gabriella Hernandez earlier, he’d been fresh off the plane from several days in Chicago to finalize a deal for a restaurant chain he had his eye on.

  When he came home, he wanted someone to fuck that didn’t expect conversation.

  Christina was no better than a call girl in his opinion. After he fucked her, she expected gifts, and he dutifully delivered them. It was the main reason he didn’t feel bad about using her.

  She was spoiled, selfish, and cold but one thing she didn’t do was complain about how he fucked her. The woman took whatever he dished out and begged for more.

  Sexual satisfaction made him generous.

  Thinking with his dick never worked out well but he was tense all the time. A demanding professional life and high sex drive guaranteed he pretty much walked through the world hard.

  His girlfriend made out far better on the deal than he did.

  Until today.

  Naturally, he’d had her checked out before moving her in. She had a record for possession of stolen property and check fraud.

  As a hustler, she was a long way from her poor beginnings outside Birmingham. There was only so much damage she could cause in his life so he shrugged his shoulders and moved her ass in.

  He never considered what she might do to other people with the resources he provided her.

  One of his diehard rules was that he didn’t share his toys. Knowing she’d likely been fucking the loser she was running the con with made him see red.

  Christina’s circumstances were about to change drastically.

  When the women Carlo sent him finished packing, they supervised the movers who came to pick everything up and transport it to the Hyatt. The locksmith finished his work a few minutes after security removed all of Christina’s access to his building.

  It was well after dark when he found himself alone in the apartment. It was time to visit Natalia’s club. Christina made an extreme tactical error involving his name in her little scheme.

  He was about to dust the little bitch off his shoes.

  Hudson didn’t say anything to Natalia when he entered the club. She’d know there was trouble soon enough and he’d fill her in on the details later.

  He walked into the main room and immediately spotted Christina laughing and drinking with several women who didn’t look amused.

  Riya and her friend Tawny were among them. The two of them were facing the door and the first to see him make a direct line for his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend.

  Christina turned at their expressions and her eyes went wide. The moment their eyes met, Hudson knew she was aware she was busted.

  “Hey, baby. You’re back from Chicago. I missed you.” Her voice was deliberatel
y seductive and she was one woman who should know that shit wouldn’t work on him.

  Wrapping his hand around her upper arm, he pulled her away from the group. He faced her with a look on his face that should have terrified her.

  “What have you been up to, Christina?” The waterworks began right on cue and Hudson internally seethed. He hated few things more than emotional terrorism.

  “Why are you always so angry, Hudson? I haven’t seen you in days and you walk in like this? I don’t understand.”

  He saw Tawny head to the front and Riya moved a bit closer, her men behind her.

  “Christina, cut the bullshit.” She reeled back as if he’d slapped her, one hand going to her throat. “Your belongings were removed from the penthouse. I cancelled your credit cards but arranged a suite for you at the Hyatt. You have one month to make other arrangements.”

  “Baby, don’t do this,” the blonde whimpered with tears in her eyes. “Whatever you’re so mad about, talk to me. I’m sure I can explain.”

  “You can’t explain shit, Christina. I know everything. All of it.” He stood to his full height and put his hands on his hips. “You had to get greedy. You couldn’t be satisfied.”

  Peering over his shoulder at Riya and her husbands, he said quietly, “I may look like the bastard now but for once looks can be deceiving. I apologize for the drama.”

  The moment he said it, the people around them moved away to give them privacy. When they were alone, Christina turned those tear-filled baby blues on him. Hudson watched in disgust as her lip trembled convincingly.

  “Hudson, please talk to me.”

  “We have nothing left to talk about.”

  “How can you say that? After all we’ve been through together?”

  He couldn’t help a small laugh at that one. “Christina. Listen carefully. When I tell someone that I know everything – you can fucking guarantee I know everything. I could have you prosecuted. Jailed, Christina.” It was still likely to happen but he didn’t want her fleeing the country.