Control - Noah's Rise Bundle (Books I-III): A Billionaire Romance Series

by M. P. Lodi

  Jen

  Jen and Jackson were sitting at their kitchen table, as had become their morning ritual. They each had one cup of coffee finished and were both sipping their second when another news program came on reporting the exploits of Noah Hood and his Merry Men.

  Jen put down her cup. “I still can't believe they killed a judge. The FBI tried to paint them as terrorists, but that's not working. You see the groundswell of support?”

  Jackson nodded.

  This Newsday article says that there was “a demonstration at the City Hall in Manhattan that stared with over 75,000 people. It kept growing and growing, swelling to over 150,000 until the police decided to break it up. How often do you see such support for anyone?” she asked..

  “Like I said, Noah is going to be in the news more and more. It’s barely begun. Look at how things are going on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the rest. He's becoming more popular than well-known pop stars.”

  Jen closed the paper and turned the volume up on the TV. News crews had interviewed neighbors of the judge, and it all came out that the judge had a pattern of releasing child molesters. Noah was being hailed as a hero by more than 70% of any poll taken. The Gallup organization said 73% of Americans support what Noah was doing.

  On FOX news, Hannity interviewed a mother and father who had begged the now-deceased judge not to be lenient with the man who raped their 3 three-year-old daughter. They had begged the judge, even knowing that he was lenient with molesters. The judge sentenced the man to a mere six months and just weeks after he was out, he raped three more children down in Georgia.

  Jackson took another sip, then reached for a chocolate donut. “Here's a toast to Noah; he loves these donuts.”

  He held the donut up and Jen grabbed one as well. “That's a toast I can do.” she said.

  As they tapped their donuts, a call came in over the intercom on the table. “Sir, there is a long package out here from a Mrs. Seclan. The courier has instructions that the package cannot be opened by anyone but you or Mrs. Russo”

  Jen and Jackson looked at each other, surprised that Emily would be so forward.

  Jackson instructed, “Bring it up to the front door.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I'm glad we dressed before we came downstairs. What do you think it is?”

  “I have no idea. It could be anything coming from either Em or Noah.”

  Jen and Jackson walked to the front door and waited by the window, Jen peering out from behind the curtain. A small, white courier van pulled up, followed by one of the Lincoln Continentals driven by Jackson's security team.

  The deliveryman walked to the back of the van, then his partner got out of the passenger side and joined him. They each took hold of one side of a crate that was about five and a half feet long. It looked to be made of some type of heavy wood.

  They carried the package to the door, and Jackson opened it to let them in. There were five security men there as well, and Jackson waved the deliverymen in to put the package on the floor right inside the door.

  His men remained standing nearby until Jen said, “OK guys, thank you all. We're good from here. I know all about it.” Jackson handed the men a tip. Jackson looked at his wife, who pointed to a sentence written in Seclan that read, “Open only when alone – Em.”

  Jackson waved everyone out. The security men escorted the deliverymen back to their vehicle. Jackson closed and locked the door.

  Jen seemed to grow more excited. “We need a crowbar. Quick!”

  Jackson ran to get one.

  “Em, are you in there? Can you hear me?”

  A muffled voice replied, “Yes... Get me out of here!”

  Jen teared up and yelled, “Hurry!” to her husband.

  Jackson ran back twenty seconds later with a crowbar. He positioned it in the crease and popped a small section up. He repeated his efforts a little further down the box. He did it a third time on the end and, between the two of them, and with a little help from inside the box, the cover was removed and slid over the side of the crate.

  Laying there was Emily, who took one look at Jen and started crying. Jen crouched down to hug her.

  “I'm so glad to see you,” Emily said, crying all over her friend.

  Jen rubbed her back and assured her, “It's OK, you’re safe now. We won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  Emily cried and cried. Almost five minutes passed before she calmed down enough to say, “Just wait until you hear the story I have to tell. I don't know how it ends yet, but I miss him already. I can't live with him, and I can't live without him. I really don't know what to do.” The tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Jen pulled back and finally insisted, “Let's get you out of there.” She held her hand as Emily stepped over the side of the crate. Jen looked at her husband and said, “Em and I are going to go freshen up. We'll be back in a little while.”

  “I understand. Nice seeing you, Em. Jen's been worried to death over your safety.”

  Emily looked at Jackson. “Me too. You guys have no idea about how far this is going to end up going. I tried to bring a little sanity to Noah, but I think he and his people are going to keep escalating what they're doing. I also think that they're backed by certain higher-ups in the military.”

  Jackson looked surprised and noticed one of the maids standing on the side of the stairs, pretending to not listen.

  Jen quietly said, “Shh,” her eyes telling Emily to stop talking. She held Emily's hand and the two of them started walking towards the stairs. Jen said softly into her left ear, “Wait until we get upstairs. One of the maids is right there, and she's a nosy one.”

  Jen looked at her husband and nodded toward the maid. Jackson started walking over to have a talk with the lady. This was a delicate matter, and now that Emily had been seen by someone other than Jen and Jackson, there could be trouble for them if it ever got out.

  Emily leaned into Jen and whispered, “I had a lot of time to think about Noah and his people. And his connections.” Jen and Em started climbing the steps. “I was stuck in that box for three hours. I really think that it's the military itself that wants this to escalate. They want the civilian government to crack down on Noah and anyone with firearms because there's no way they could ever move on the civilian government without the president making some dictatorial moves. Gun confiscation as a response to Noah and his actions is a logical next step if Noah keeps at this. Time is running out before the idiots in DC make such a move. They're playing right into the military's hands.”

  Jen said, “I remember you calling Noah the conspiracy wingnut. You know how you sound right now?” Emily shook her head and put her right hand to her eyes, rubbing them. The girl was a mess.

  Thanks to her talks with Jackson and Noah, Jen had paid attention lately to a few politicians calling for an end to civilian gun ownership. She also knows about the quick and adamant response by citizens vowing to never give up their weapons. A conflict was inevitable if the government ever tried to ban private ownership of firearms. Jen never owned a gun until she met Jackson, but she did know that, unlike most other countries in the world, in the United States the right to bear arms cannot be taken away by the government. It’s part of the Bill of Rights. It is the most important reason why we stayed free for centuries. The politicians in America were truly afraid of the people.

  Many times certain corrupt elements in government and the media and academia tried to reinterpret the Constitution of the United States. Some made incredible claims, ridiculous things like the 2nd Amendment only applies to a standing army or militia, completely side-stepping the fact that the Bill of Rights are rights that the federal government can never take away from private individuals and citizens.

  As Noah had said to Jen, Jackson and Emily on more that one occasion – it was almost as if those who want to destroy freedom seriously think that the nearly 100 million armed American citizens will simply wake up one day and somehow think that the entire Bil
l of Rights applies to them, except the 2nd Amendment. Even Jackson said that there would be blood in the streets if any politician tried to do away with the Bill of Rights, which is basically how gun owners viewed any gun confiscation.

  Emily was distraught, but Jen knew she must have been through a lot. She had heard a lot and might have seen a lot as well. Jen knew that Emily needed a bath to relax, and then a good night's sleep. She held Emily's arm all the way up to the second floor, as if Emily needed the support and would fall down without her help.

  At the top of the landing, Emily stopped to take a look around, then turned to Jen. “I'm so glad I'm home.” She hugged Jen, glad to be away from all of the things going on.

  In the past, it was always Emily who needed to console Jen, especially after Jen's parents had died. For years, Jen wept over losing her family. It wasn't until she was a teenager that the nightmares had started to come less frequently. Emily was always there for her. Now her blood-sister and best friend for life needed Jen more than ever. She would be there for her no matter what.

  She hugged Emily and rubbed her back. Tears fell onto Jen's shoulder.

  “Everything's going to be alright. I'll make sure of it. First thing we need to do is get you comfortable. Get you into a bath and relaxed,” Jen said.

  Emily walked with her into the master bedroom and stopped again in the middle of the room by their bed. “I'm serious, there's going to be major trouble. Noah killed a judge. There's always an excuse for why what they were doing is right. They're going to keep going. Noah was going to kill civilians and it was just me that stopped them.” Jen looked at her, finding it hard to believe that last statement.

  “Kill civilians? Why would they do such a thing?” Emily didn't answer, just continuing to cry.

  Jen consoled her friend. “Let's talk about this after you have rested a little and relaxed. I can see you're a stress ball. I have that Lavender Bath stuff that you love. Come on, let's go to the bathroom.”

  Charlotte

  Charlotte and Joshua sat on the long sofa facing the television. Jacob sat by himself on the loveseat. They were finalizing plans in the living room of the basement apartment at 143 Pine.

  They each had a can of Coke, and Jacob’s was almost finished. Noah, Mike and Caesar had to take care of a few things. One important thing was getting rid of Emily before she had a mental break-down. This life was too much for her. Noah's girl was one crazy-ass bitch as far as Charlotte was concerned.

  “I'm all packed and ready to go. My guess is that the Sarge will have us change to the Bravo location in the Bronx just to play it safe. Anyone want to take a bet where we go from here?” Joshua asked.

  Charlotte said “Hmmm... My guess is the Charlie location in Nassau County.” Jacob nodded, indicating his agreement with her.

  Jacob finished his can of Coke, then crushed it in his hands and stood up. “I think Charlotte's right. The Sarge prefers the Long Island location. It’s right near two major highways and easy to escape from if anything. Unlike this place. I've felt cooped up here for weeks now. Almost claustrophobic.” He walked to the fridge and opened it after throwing the crushed Coke can in the garbage.

  “Anyone want any of these Sprites? No one drinks them but Em, and we have like seven cans in here.”

  “I'm good.” Joshua replied.

  Charlotte smacked Joshua lightly on his right arm. “Tell me about that genius nonsense that Em said she still never spoke to you about. What was that about articles written on you when you were younger?”

  Jacob walked back over to the love seat and popped open his soda. “You don't know about our genius? That's strange. I thought you knew everything about your ex... er... current boyfriend.”

  “You can google it all. Nothing special.” Joshua answered. He glanced at Jacob with a 'whatever' look as he rotated his eyeballs.

  “Come on, we have some time. I want to know. The computer is way over there at that table.” She pointed to the computer in the corner of the room.

  Joshua said “If you google the title 4 Steps to Picking up Women like a Genius, you can read about it all as well as my teenage exploits.”

  “I tried to google it a few days ago when we were all taking. You'd have to go to the Wayback Machine to see the article now from 2008. But if you google what he said, you can see others talking about it all,” Jacob said.

  Charlotte snickered and looked at Jacob. “What the hell is a Wayback Machine?” She then slapped Joshua on his arm again. “Give me the lowdown will you, I don't want to bother doing internet searches. Tell me why you were a genius at picking up women.”

  “OK. I was a skinny kid like Jacob here. Awkward too. Women didn't want to look at me much. Then I thought about my brother who had an account at a virtual office company and heard how they took care of calls. I put two and two together and decided to do it for myself.”

  Charlotte closed both of her eyes, opened them and stared right at Joshua. “What was the company?”

  “The company gives customers toll-free numbers and has staff members to answer customer calls in the company name. That way, no one ever knew that they were calling a service. Say someone calls them to check on employment, they would transfer the call to a second rep, another employee who answers ‘human resources’ and then gives out information as requested. They only told callers what we wanted them to.”

  Charlotte looked over at Jacob, then back to Joshua. “And this has what to do with picking up women like a genius?”

  “I'm getting to it... So I had business cards made up for my fake company saying I was the CEO. Keep in mind I was 18 and told people I made 420K a year. I even put up a fake website, which is even easier to do today, including the part where you block your identity. I would go with friends to clubs and brag, handing out my card to sexy gold diggers. Usually the gold diggers are the hottest women in a club, looking to attract the wealthiest men. When they verified my details the next day, they almost always called me, asking me out. I had the sexiest women around asking me out on dates.”

  Charlotte smiled. “Wait... I'm still confused though. You make up a fake business card that women think is real since the phone number on it is answered by a human. You make yourself out to be some genius 18-year-old. But how did you pay for it all? Didn't the company charge you to do all of this?”

  “That's Joshua's true genius part in my opinion,” Jacob said.

  Joshua glanced over to Jacob. “Why thank you, brother.”

  Charlotte shook her head. “How did you pay for it? Come on! This is dragging!”

  “I sold references to high school and college kids. Kids who wanted to buff up their resumes and do their own ‘gold digger digging’ like me. I figured if I can fake it, then why not do this all for free by charging friends and their friends and so on? I charged them $75 up front and $10 a month for the reference. They would give me their Social Security numbers, salary and dates of employment. I would have my staff say whatever information they requested if anyone called my company. We all won. Before long, I had hundreds of employees, and all of them spread the word for me because I gave them six months free if they referred another customer to me. Every time a friend called and paid me, I pocketed $75 cash.

  “You can imagine how important a great resume is to graduating college students or a high school student with no experience at all. For a mere $75 investment, they had experience and a leg up over any competition getting jobs. And I got the cash – and lots of it – as well as women who thought I was wealthy. What more could a teenager boy want in life? Sex and money. The funny thing about it all was it was Noah's best friend Jackson's company that I used. They still do similar work. I know... I set my little cousin up doing the same thing. The kid is 19 at NYU right here in the city, and a major pimp now with women and lots of cash. One of Jackson's current sites is virtualofficestaff.net.”

  “Isn't that the building we had the meeting at in Brooklyn? For that ill-fated funeral op?” Charlotte asked.

/>   “Yup.” Joshua nodded .

  Charlotte had to admit, “Damn that is smart. Not sure if it's genius, but I have to hand it to you. I knew I saw something in you.”

  “You mean in between burning my clothes in piles and scratching up my car?” Joshua asked.

  “Yeah... of course. Keep it up and find out how I can really derail your life.”

  Joshua looked right into her face. “You scare the hell out of me, dear.”

  “Listen sweetie, when I’m about to die and my life flashes before me, I want to make sure it's worth watching.”

  Joshua exhaled noisily. He looked over to Jacob then back to Charlotte. “I've learned that the most important thing in the world when it comes to relationships... is that I love wine.”

  Jacob barked a quick laugh until Charlotte looked at him. Then, like a school kid caught passing notes, he froze and looked to the ground, his eyes darting between the floor and Charlotte.

  Charlotte focused on Joshua, who was smiling. “Very funny, you think you begging ‘please stop, your hurting me' like a little pussy was a turnon for me?”

  Joshua looked shocked that she would say that in front of Jacob. He glanced over at him and saw him holding in a laugh.

  “Don't mind me, I won't be repeating anything. Please continue. Best entertainment I’ve had all week,” Jacob said.

  Joshua stood up. “I need to take a quick shower and clean up. You two can have fun talking.”

  He walked into the bedroom.

  Charlotte grabbed the remote and unmuted the TV. She flipped to a channel that had wrestling.

  Jacob sighed. “If you're going to watch wrestling, I'm going to surf the net for while.”

  He got up and walked toward the computer. “Hey, you know of the Rock, right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, he's an actor too. He's been in a lot of movies.”

  “Well the Rock just had a daughter. Guess what he named her?” she asked

  “No idea. I really don’t care for wrestling. Or the Rock.”

  “Pebbles. He named her Pebbles, get it?”