by Julian Bloom
“What is it?” Juanita asked in a whisper.
“There’s a light over there, look!” Allison pointed to it. “We have to find a way inside. I know something’s going on here. I’m pretty sure they had the vehicle I was in parked somewhere around here when I had heard them talking,” Allison remarked. She had her cell phone out, using it for a bit of light.
Allison peeked through one of the old windows in a garage that was attached to the warehouse and her jaw dropped open in awe. She motioned for Juanita to come over to the window. She shined her cell phone inside of the old dilapidated garage and Juanita’s eyes widened in shock. The two women were staring directly at the dark-colored car that had hit Juanita several weeks ago.
“I knew it!” Alli whispered harshly, narrowing her eyes. She pulled out her camera and took a few photos of the car and the garage it was sitting in.
Just then, Juanita noticed a broken window on the back of the warehouse that had a loose board hanging over it.
“Alli, help me pull this board open! I know one of us could fit thru here!”
The two women pulled on the loose board until the bottom part of it finally came loose. Juanita hoisted Allison carefully up through the cracked window and Allison landed on the warehouse floor with a thud.
“Alli! Are you okay?” she asked in a loud whisper.
“I’m fine,” Alli replied. “Now go around to that door we saw. I’ll open it.”
Alli opened the locked door near the cracked window and let Juanita inside. Then, the two of them made their way over in the direction to where the dim light seemed to be coming from, maneuvering cautiously and quietly through the dark warehouse. Soon, they came to a door that had a small window on it. Alli peeked through the window and saw that the dim light was coming from beyond it. Looking down at the door handle, she noticed that it had a padlock on it.
“Shit!” she hissed in a frustrated tone. “It’s locked! Dammit!”
“Maybe we should just go, Alli,” Juanita suggested. “The photos of the car should be enough evidence to get Officer Holt out here. And since they don’t know we were here, they’ll be taken by surprise.”
Alli knew that her lover had a point, but she felt too close to redemption to quit now. She stood up on her tiptoes and peeked into the small window. What she saw caused a shiver to creep up her spine. She gasped and quickly put her phone up to the window.
There was a flight of old stairs behind the door, and at the bottom of the door she saw a chain connected to the wall. It looked like someone was chained to the wall by their feet. The rest of the body was out of her sight range. She quickly snapped several photos with her cell phone camera.
“What is it, Alli?” Juanita asked. “What do you see?”
“We have to go straight to Officer Holt!” Alli said, finally. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”
The two women hurried quietly through dilapidated old warehouse, back the way they had come. Alli didn’t say another word until they had made it safely back to Juanita’s SUV and were on their way to the police station.
“There was someone chained to a wall in the basement of that warehouse,” Alli finally admitted as Juanita drove downtown toward the police station. Alli dialed the number on the business card that Officer Holt had given her as they drove.
“Officer Holt here,” he answered, in that same deep, raspy voice of his.
“Officer, this Allison Manning. I apologize for calling you so late, but I need to see you and it’s urgent. Can you meet us down at the station? We’re going to be there in about 15 minutes.”
“This better be worth it,” he warned.
**
Allison and Juanita waited in the SUV outside of the locked police station until Officer Holt finally pulled up in an unmarked squad car. He led them inside the station and back to his office.
“Now, what is it, ladies? And this better be worth my time. My wife and I were on date night,” he stated, clearly aggravated.
Sir, we took these photos about 30 minutes ago out at the old Winderton Warehouse on the Southern end of town.”
Allison pulled up the photos she had taken at the old abandoned warehouse and handed the phone to him. As he scanned through the photos, his facial expression became more and more intense.
“How long ago did you say you took these?” he asked, staring intently at the last photo in the bunch.
“About half an hour ago,” Alli reiterated.
“Wait here, please,” he said firmly and took Allison’s phone out of the room.
A few moments later, he returned and thanked both Allison and Juanita for their help.
“I want you ladies to stay in a hotel tonight, just in case you were spotted out at the warehouse. I just called for backup and we’re going to go investigate that place immediately. I’ll need to keep your cellphone overnight and return it to you in the morning so that I can make copies of these photos for evidence.”
Allison and Juanita agreed to stay in a hotel for the night and thanked him for his prompt attention to the situation.
**
The next morning, Allison and Juanita were both awakened by a knock on their hotel room door. Looking through the peephole, Juanita saw that it was Officer Holt and she quickly opened it and greeted him, inviting him into the room.
“Good morning, ladies. Sorry to wake you so early, but I needed to return this to you and I wanted to be the first to give you the good news.”
“What good news?” Allison asked curiously.
“The person who was chained in the basement of the warehouse was a man named Andrew Gusslin. We uncovered a big conspiracy last night, thanks to you brave young ladies. It was one of the biggest cases of my entire career.”
Officer Holt explained to them that Elaine and Walt Fanning were involved in a conspiracy to commit murder, and they had kidnapped and held Andrew Gusslin hostage with illegal drugs, because they were planning to frame him for the crimes.
The plan the police uncovered included Elaine and Walt’s intention to kill Juanita and to make it look like Gusslin had done it. They wanted to obtain Juanita’s store and merge the business with Walt’s. Walt was going to sell the two stores to a black-market mob boss for $750,000 and split the profit with Elaine. They uncovered the van that had hit Allison, as well as the car that had struck Juanita down, in one of the old garages at the warehouse. Both vehicles were being swept for DNA and other evidence. Andrew Gusslin was currently being treated in a hospital and under 24-hour police witness protection. Elaine and Walt were both back in jail, and this time, they were being held without bail until their trials.
Juanita and Allison were overjoyed! They hugged and cried and hugged and kissed one another over and over again. They hugged Officer Holt and thanked him for his great work.
Finally, the two women could be together and put the past safely behind them. Allison eventually recovered from her injuries and went back to work, doing the work she loves as a professional nurse at the hospital. Juanita was able to keep her store and with her strong sales and business skills, started doing better financially than ever before. Eventually Allison and Juanita married in a small intimate ceremony and moved in together. The two women enjoyed a blissful life together until one day, Juanita’s mother called and said “she was coming for a visit…”.
The End
Serving the Billionaire
The Seduction
Gay Romance by Julian Bloom
Prologue
Alex was fast losing hope of ever building his own dynasty in the Fashion business. An investor would definitely be his ticket to success, but he was still a small fish in a big pond.
When big time billionaire Ethan Carter walks into his life and offers to invest, how could he say no, especially when the attraction he feels for him is so arresting.
Ethan takes a liking to Alex but is too shy to make advances as he has not yet “come out”. As they both fight their personal demons, will they come together and allow
love to reign?
Chapter One
Let’s face it, Monday mornings suck. Big time.
How is it that it’s not quite twelve o’clock yet and I’ve already gotten shit on by more than one cranky employee? ...thought Alex as he stared at an email on his screen. Being an assistant to the manager of one of the major fashion brands in the city has a lot of perks, however some of the coworkers are not pleasant to work with.
“Alex! Get in here.” His dragon of a boss–Maggie–shouted through the intercom. Alex rolled his eyes. He didn’t mind the work environment, but was the money worth it? He had applied for a raise earlier this month, and had just gotten abruptly shut down this morning. Hence his extra annoyed mood.
We regret to inform you that you do not qualify for a 25% salary increase at this time. However, your job skillfulness will be evaluated at the end of the working year and will be reflected on your bonus.
He read the line again. He had been working at Lena’s designs for over four years now, he contributed, shared his ideas, shared his designs and got shut down for a raise? What the fuck! He needed to get more serious with starting his own company, he couldn’t do this forever.
His phone beeped:
Thanks for last night honey, will I be seeing you again tonight?
-Andrew.
At least one part of his life wasn’t totally shitty. His sex life. He liked it hard and fast, but once he had it, it was then time to move on. Poor Andrew would have to nurse a broken heart for a while because Alex was never going to see him again.
“Alex you dick head, where are you?”
“Coming!” He replied standing up from his desk. He walked the distance to the front of Maggie’s door–which wasn’t much of a distance to begin with– and carefully knocked. He didn’t always knock before he entered, until the day when he walked in and caught her spread-eagle on the desk with a very young boyfriend. He has since started knocking because the scars remain permanently burned within his memory.
“Come in.”
“What do you want that you can’t tell me over the intercom?” Anybody else that talked to Maggie like that would have landed out on their ass, but not Alex. He got away with a lot and he knew it wasn’t just because he was the best assistant that Maggie had ever had, but because of the friendship they had cultivated through the years. She shared her most personal fears with him, and he with her. In a way for him, she was like a best friend and a mother figure.
One good thing that had blossomed from this job was meeting and getting to know her, but Alex would rather drown than let her know how much he cared for her.
“We need to talk about your new designs.” She said.
“Yea, I’m not doing that again.” It was decided, he wasn’t giving anymore of himself to this company. Not even if Jesus Christ came down and instructed him to–well maybe he would if that happened. Alex was a devoted Christian, which a lot of his friends didn’t understand because he was gay and the church was so opposed to same sex anything.
“Why not? We already talked about this, what’s changed?” It was almost fall season and they needed to release their fall pieces soon. Typically, the company depended on his designs but now they shut him down for a raise.
“Nothing, just don’t feel like sharing my intellectual property this season.” He sounded gloomy, even to this own ears. He never sounded gloomy. What was wrong with him? He scrubbed his face with his hands in a bid to get his nonchalant self back.
“Alex.” Maggie was showing real concern now, and he hated it. “What’s wrong, talk to me.” She took her glasses off her face and placed them on the table, a habit she did when she was preparing for a serious conversation. He knew she would keep at it until he said something.
“Fine. I got shut down for a raise, the bank won’t give me a loan because of my bad credit score, and I’m fast losing sight of why I started here in the first place. I’m losing sight of my goals, and I’m not getting any younger.”
“You are 24!” She said astonishingly.
“I thought by now I would have my own line at least, that’s not happening.”
She pursed her lips as if in thought, a hand came up to brush the blond hair from her perfectly botoxed face. “How about an Investor?” Maggie said. “That would speed things up considerably.” Was she kidding? Did she think he hadn’t thought about that? “No one invests in a rookie in this business, you should know that.” He scowled at her.
“Well you are not a rookie.” She said, “And it so happens I have someone that might be interested.”
Really?
“Really?” his mouth echoed his thoughts. He didn’t dare hope that this was real, that he might at last be given a chance, a chance at his dream. “I will have to make a few calls, but it should be fine.” She smiled. He knew Maggie could do almost anything for him, and this alone proved it. His long legs took him to the back of her desk before she knew what was happening. “What are you… no! ... Alex stop! ...” she protested as he lifted her off her chair and into a bear hug. He couldn’t express his gratitude any other way.
“Muaahhhh.” He kissed her cheek. “You are the best Maggie. Thank you.”
“Let me go moron.” She giggled like a teenager as he set her back down. “Set up a meeting for me and Dolce sometime this week, we want to talk collaboration.”
“Yah!” He said still smiling as he walked out of her office.
Monday just got a whole lot better.
***
He loved Mondays! There was nothing he loved more. The hustle and bustle of people going to work, the meetings, the long hours. For Ethan; the CEO of Teckit Management, Mondays spelled big money and he loved making money.
"Are you listening to me dear?" A voice came from the iPhone 7 he had placed firmly near his ear. Well he wasn't making money now, was he? He thought.
"Yes mother." Ethan said in an exasperated voice. He had a meeting any minute now, but his mother thought it was a nice idea to call him this early and rant about giving her some grandbabies? Sigh. "You need to find a good girl and get married this year" Her voice reached out to him through the speakers. “You are not getting any younger you know, right?” What? He was barely thirty, what was she talking about?
"I know mother." He agreed rolling his eyes. Another day, another blind date set up by his mother. When the hell are you getting married? We need an heir. Remember what your father said before he died. And on went Mom's usual banter concocted since his father’s passing. It didn't matter that his father's five other wives had produced more than seven children between them, no. His mother had been the first wife to the Sheik and she needed a grandchild to ensure that the line didn't pass on to the other wives.
There was a tap at the window of his Royce. He rolled it down while still holding the phone to his ears, his mother’s voice trailed on. "Sir, it’s almost 10 Am." he said motioning to her watch. That’s right, he thought. The meeting. "Mom I got to go." He listened. "Yea, I love you too.” And he did. The only person he had ever truly loved in his life was the reason he hadn’t gotten angry when she had first started setting him up, even after he had told her he wasn't interested. He didn't care what his father had said in his will, the old man was dead and he wasn't going to do anything he didn't want to do. Not for him.
But his mother.
He wanted desperately to give her what she wanted, even if what she was asking for didn’t sit right with him.
As Ethan stepped out of the car, he breathed in deeply, a technique he had taught himself a long time ago to clear his head when making decisions. It was time to make some money. As he entered the big complex that housed the Lena’s designs company, he thought back to a few weeks ago when his high school best friend Maggie Piper had contacted him and asked him if he was interested in a wonderful investment opportunity in the fashion industry. He had jumped quickly at the idea because of his immerse love of fashion.
His phone beeped.
The Grand Slam Hotel, 10pm.
She'll be the one in red.
His date. Great, he thought sarcastically. He didn't need this right now, especially not on a busy Monday morning.
Chapter Two
He was all long lean muscles, chiseled jaw and deep dark hotness. From his Rolex watch to his Versace suit he smelt of money. Alex had met more than his fair share of hot godlike men–being good looking himself– but this one topped the list. He had never met anyone that kept a full beard and still managed to fit into a corporate environment. His dick was practically begging him to tent in his jeans.
That's him, Ethan Carter, your investor man, he told himself, keep it in your pants! He would just get some tonight, his friends were throwing him a birthday party and that would ease the intensity of this need, at least for a while.
"How many months did you say this usually takes?" The hottie...Mr. Carter directed the question at Maggie. He had totally ignored him since they started the meeting--well he acted like he was ignoring him--- but Alex had caught his eyes more than once casually sweeping over him.
"If we start making these pieces this fall, they will be ready to launch by summer.” She said. "This line is new and something that hasn't been seen in the market for a while," Mr. Carter was flipping through his sketches as Maggie talked, a blank expression on his face. What was he thinking?