by Dark Angel
“Penny, this is Laurel Trask, the mayor,” my mother introduces her (as if someone like Laurel Trask needed an introduction), and the mayor gets up from her seat with a polite smile and offers me her hand. I take it in mine, still surprised, and shake it.
“It’s an honor,” I say, and I mean it. It takes a tough woman to get to mayor in this city, and Laurel Trask is all that, and some more. No wonder, though; it seems that there’s a do-or-die quality in her family. She is, after all, the sister of the former mayor, Parker ‘Pleasure’ Trask, now a senator (and right on his way to the presidency).
I was still months away from graduating when Parker Trask entered on a collision course with the Governor, and I still hate the fact that I wasn’t yet a journalist when that battle for New York began. Can you imagine how exciting those times must've been for a journalist? I can.
“Likewise,” Laurel replies, shaking my hand firmly and yet softly. She’s still young, probably in her mid-thirties, and she looks as beautiful as any catwalk model. I guess the Trask family seems to be on good terms with the genetics of beauty. “It’s also an honor to meet the daughter of the woman who turned the New York Daily Journal into what it is today. Your mother tells me you show great promise.”
“Thank you, you’re very kind,” I respond with a smile as my mother waves us both to the seats in front of her desk. “So, to what do we owe your visit?”
“Well, Laurel here has read your latest article about Magnus and his antics at the Nailers’ last game.”
“I did, and from that piece alone I can see you’ll make a name for yourself if you keep at it, Penny,” she adds, crossing her legs and staring at me.
“Thank you, but I still don’t understand what --”
“You see, Penny,” Laurel cuts me short, reaching for me and placing one of her delicate hands on top of mine, “some men are more dangerous than what they seem to be, and Magnus is one of these men. While the public loves him, he’s like a disease that has settled deep inside the bones of New York, and it’s my job to stop him before he rots this whole city.”
I nod, looking straight into her eyes and seeing a pleasant fierceness burning there. She doesn’t like Magnus, that much I can see. But, then again, how can anyone like someone as self-centered as Magnus? He’s a disgrace to this city.
“We can’t have him profiting off our city while he steps on our morals and values,” she continues, and I find myself nodding at every word she says. “As it is, I want to ban him from doing any construction business in the city going forward.”
“Even the Equinox Tower?”
“Even the Equinox Tower, Penny.”
“Well, that’s not going to be easy,” I whisper, more to myself than to Laurel. The Equinox Tower is supposed to be the tallest building in the world, and Magnus managed to secure the contract for it—a $120 billion dollar contract. Yeah, $120 billion dollars, feel free to reread it. Aside from the legal implications, the city has also fallen in love with this playboy wannabe, and so taking him out is going to be an uphill struggle.
“No, it’s not going to be easy. And that’s exactly why I’m here. His last stunt at the Nailers’ stadium has caused a few of my fundraisers and people whose money I need to start questioning him and his methods, and now is the right time for us to make our move. If we manage to bar him from building the Equinox Tower, his business is going to be crippled … and he’ll have no choice but to fade away into nothingness.”
“Where do I fit into all this?” I ask Laurel, but it’s my mother who answers.
“Well, I rely on my fundraisers and high net worth individuals for the money to become governor,” Laurel says. “And we’re relying on you to show the world what they already know.”
“You’re the key to all this, Penny. You’re probably the best reporter I have, and we need you to do some digging on him. If we find something juicy enough, the public will turn against him and it’ll be a walk in the park for the city to pull his eligibility for all future contracts.”
“He has slept with a lot of women, so maybe this won’t be hard. Maybe a sexual harassment suit? That’d be enough to get the ball in our court. You’ll probably have to find a way into his personal life, and I know you probably don’t want to, but --” I don’t let Laurel finish her sentence, determination welling up to the surface and turning into sound as it climbs up my throat.
“Yes,” I simply say, looking from Laurel to my mother, “I’ll do it.” If they need my help to bury Magnus, they’ve come to the right person.
Now, there are two things you probably need to know about me, and I’m going to tell you what they are. The first one is, I hate Magnus with a passion. The second is that he’s my stepfather.
Yes, you read that right: Magnus Davion is my stepfather.
My father died when I was only three, and it took my mother long enough to find love again. I was over the moon when she told me she’d be remarrying. I was eighteen at the time, and I barely knew the kind of man she had decided to tango with. You see, even though their marriage didn’t last for long, he still managed to hurt her badly. The bastard cheated on her at every opportunity he had, making her life a living hell. He was lucky I was away for college at the time; I’d have kicked him in the balls so hard that he’d still be whimpering now.
So, yeah, if I’m offered a chance to make Magnus Davion feel all of the pain he caused my family and New York, there’s only one possible answer: a resounding yes.
“We’ll get him,” I tell both Laurel and my mother, a deep certainty making my heart pulse steadily.
I’m coming for you, Magnus.
Magnus
“Fuck, where is it?” I grumble under my breath, trying to find my boxer briefs. I know they’re somewhere in these sheets, but I can’t seem to—ah, here are the fuckers! Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I put on my boxers and then bend over to pick a pair of discarded jeans from the floor. I wriggle myself into them and then go around the bed, grabbing my phone from the bed stand.
Fuck, I overslept. It’s already 9:30, and I was supposed to meet my lawyer at 9. I’ll never hear the end of it now. Joyce is always harping about punctuality, and she lives and dies by it. That woman needs to get laid, that’s my two cents on the whole punctuality debate.
“Alright, ladies,” I say to the three naked woman sprawled on my bed, their curves calling to me. “This breaks my heart, but I gotta go.” One of them stirs in her sleep and rolls to the side, and I feel my cock twitch as I see her large tits coming into sight. My fingers twitch, and I’m already walking toward the bed when a moment of clarity suddenly grips me.
I’m late for the meeting, which means …
“No fucking pussy for breakfast,” I whisper regretfully, and make my way out of the bedroom, careful enough to shut the door softly. They might be strippers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need a restful sleep. Especially after last night—I really fucked them to exhaustion. Maybe I should’ve brought one or two extra strippers home with me last night. At least that way I could’ve kept the party going for an hour more.
Hey, I can hear you fucking snickering right now.
You’re probably thinking that I’m too full of myself, aren’t you?
Well, you’re welcome to pay me a visit, and then we’ll see who’s too full of himself.
Hint: it’s going to be you.
Oh, don’t make that face; you’d love it, you just don’t know it yet.
“It’s 9:30, Magnus!” I hear a woman’s voice yell at me from the living room, and I almost have a heart attack as I see the two women in there. Joyce Walker is standing right by the couch where her assistant, a young hot brunette, is sitting.
“Jesus fuck, what the hell are you doing in here?” I groan, making my way into the kitchen still half-asleep. The living room opens into the kitchen, and the two women stare at me as I pull a bottle of thick green juice out of the fridge and take long deep gulps out of it. Yeah, these rock-hard abs don’t co
me easy, and a healthy diet and all that shit is a necessity. Sure, there’s nothing I’d love more than to down two glasses of whisky for breakfast, but let’s face it: I’m not a fucking 18 year old anymore. I’m a respectable businessman (well, I try) and I need a clear head to slay down the long line of assholes that want a piece of my company.
“You were late,” Joyce states matter-of-factly, her arms crossed as she taps her foot against the floor.
“I’m never late, babe,” I turn to her and show her my multi-million dollar smile, but she just rubs her left temple.
“I told you not to call me that. I’m your lawyer, Magnus, for God’s sake!” she breathes out, but I can tell by the slight red coloration on her cheeks that she wouldn’t mind being more than just my lawyer. I wouldn’t mind either: Joyce looks fine as fuck, her red hair and tight body making her look fierce and untamable … two qualities I love when it comes to the bedroom. But, whatever you may think of me, I have my limits. And I don’t mix business with pleasure: nothing good ever comes of that.
“Anyway, what are you doing here? I gave you a spare key so that you could come here in case there was an emergency, not for you to wake me up whenever I’m late. You’re too expensive for that, you know?”
“Emergency, uh?” she asks, a frown making a few creases show on her forehead. She takes two steps toward the kitchen counter and slams her briefcase on top of it; she opens it and then fishes out a newspaper from the inside. “And what do you call this?” she hisses, opening the newspaper and heavily stabbing her finger over the gossip column.
“Harmless fun?” I shrug, looking away from the blurred picture of the Jumbotron, my naked body glued to the cheerleader. Ah, the memories.
“Harmless fun? Harmless fun?!” she repeats, completely exasperated, her high-pitched voice making my head hurt.
“I’m not deaf, Joyce,” I groan, and then she narrows her eyes at me, leaning over the counter.
“Are you hung over?” she asks me, making me feel as if I’m being cross examined on the stand. Thankfully, the bell saves me, or rather, I’m saved by the three half-naked strippers coming out of my bedroom.
“We left our number in the bedroom,” one of them giggles, still pulling down on the hemline of her tight-fitting dress.
“We wrote it down on my panties,” another one says, her disheveled dark hair making me smile; it felt glorious to pull on that hair as I rammed her from behind, her screams of harder, harder filling the whole room. Oh, man, that was so much fucking fun.
“Call us!” the last one laughs, and then takes her hand to her mouth and sends me a kiss. The three of them stumble to the door, laughing and giggling, and I realize they’re still half-drunk from last night. No wonder: you could probably float the Titanic on the amount of alcohol the four of us downed.
“Be safe, girls,” I wave as I watch them leave, and they slam the door behind them.I offer Joyce a smile as the strippers’ giggles start fading away as they enter the elevator.
“Homeless girls, I took them in. They were starving. It was charity, really,” I grin, a vein in Joyce’s temple pulsing angrily. Behind her, the young brunette’s face has turned into a violent red. I guess she isn’t used to a conga-line of half-drunk strippers in the morning. Well, her loss.
“You’re incorrigible,” Joyce says, and all that’s left is for her to throw her hands up in the air in complete exasperation. I almost insist that I’m telling the truth, which is that these girls were really starving for my cock, but I decide against it. Lawyers are like bears: you shouldn’t poke them when they’re angry.
“Incorrigible, but just on Thursdays,” I shrug, downing the rest of my awful-tasting green juice. Swear to God, this thing could use some whisky in it.
“Magnus, this is serious. You need to get your shit together. We need to do some damage control, and we’ll have to change the image you present to the public.”
“Yeah, yeah … I know about all that,” I wave at her, going around the counter and walking toward the couch. I sit down next to Joyce’s assistant, and her pretty eyes seem to widen so much I wouldn’t be surprised if they jumped out from their sockets. She turns her head slowly, her eyes roaming over my naked chest; I stretch then, offering her a nice view of my washboard abs. I know Joyce is off limits, but what about her assistant?
“I’ve set up that $1 million dollar donation you asked me to do,” Joyce sighs, following me all the way to the couch and sitting between her assistant and I. Which is a good thing, or else I’d probably end up making a move.
“Which one?” I donate so much fucking money that I lose track of these things. One day it’s the refugees in WhoFuckingKnowsLand, the other it’s the whisky draught or some bullshit like that. And then there’s the fucking polar bears, and whatever animal is close to extinction this week.
“The one to the children’s wing of the NYU,” she replies patiently, cracking open one of her folders and balancing it on top of her knees. “You’ll deliver the check at a fundraiser tomorrow, and you’ll be the keynote speaker.”
“Hey, slow down. Fundraiser? Keynote? What are you going on about? I told you I wanted the money donated anonymously.” That’s the trick when donating money: always do it anonymously. If you don’t, people will hound you for interviews, prop you up as some messiah, and then tear you down the moment they find out you also donated to some animal rescue center while being an animal eater.Trust me, if you ever find yourself with a million to spare, don’t donate and brag about it. It’s not worth it. If I didn’t have such a soft heart, I’d just blow it all on strippers.
“Yeah, you told me you wanted it done anonymously. But you pay me to do what’s right by you, so I ignored you. That anonymous shit needs to stop, Magnus. We need to get the city behind you, and this donation will be a huge step in that direction.”
Well, not much to argue there.
“Fine, I’ll go to that stupid fundraiser.”
“You’re finally being rational --”
“You better make sure there are hot women there.”
Penny
Good reporting is as much about stealth as it is about moving quickly. And today’s a day for a frontal assault. Guerrilla style.
Magnus is going to be at the fundraiser gala for the NYU children’s wing, and that’s exactly where I’m heading right now. I’ve bought a new dress (and an expensive one at that), one that’s the perfect blend between classy and slutty, and I’m wearing my favorite Jimmy Choo heels. I've spent close to two hours in front of the mirror, trying to get the makeup just right. It’s femme fatale hour.
By the time my taxi stops in front of the Four Seasons, the place where the gala is being held, the whole thing is already halfway through. That’s on purpose; being fashionably late should always be part of a woman's arsenal, and it’s a weapon I’m not afraid to use.
I stroll inside the hotel with my head held high, and I approach the receptionist with an easy smile. Laurel Trask has secured me a place on the guest list, and all I have to do is give the receptionist my name before she points me to the room where they’re holding the gala.
The place is packed with New York’s finest, the crème de la crème; there’s Parker Trask, the former mayor, more than a dozen billionaires and a few of the major political players in the city. All told, I should be the only person in here whose net worth doesn’t break the one million mark. But I have my Jimmy Choo heels on, and these shoes are even better than having a few million in the bank, so I’m not particularly concerned.
I scan the room, trying to find Magnus, and I find him leaning against the bar, nursing a glass of scotch and looking as bored as one would be at a funeral. He’s taking a deep breath. I make my way toward him and lean against the bar casually, trying hard not to make eye contact with him. He looks more roguish up close, even more so than when I've seen him on TV. And, as much as it pains me to say it, he really does look devilishly handsome. Even though he’s in his mid-thirties, young men in their tw
enties wouldn’t stand a chance against him—either in a fist fight or in the bedroom. It isn’t hard to see why women seem to drop their panties when around him.
“Whisky, neat,” I ask the bartender, and I feel him turning on his stool to face me. I ignore him all the same, sitting on a stool of my own and looking around the room as I wait for my drink. Parker Trask is on stage now, giving a heartfelt speech about making a difference and whatnot, words carefully designed to part rich men with their money.
“Whisky, uh?” I hear Magnus say as the bartender slides me my drink over the counter, and I repress a smile. He swallowed the hook.“I figured you’d go for a Sex on the Beach.”
“Is that what you drink when you’re picking up girls at the bar?” I shoot right back at him, turning on my stool and flashing him a smile. I hold his gaze for a few seconds, expecting him to recognize me any second now, but that doesn’t happen. Unbelievable—the bastard doesn’t even remember his own stepdaughter!
“I love Sex on the Beach,” he replies with a grin. I grit my teeth, realizing that I dived headfirst into this verbal trap. Magnus is an experienced man, and he’ll run circles around me if I don’t step up.
“Does your boyfriend know about that?” I say, perhaps more haughtily than I should. Any other man would be stammering right now, but he just laughs at my words.
“Cheeky. I like that,” he chuckles, and then offers me his hand. “The name’s Magnus. Nice to meet you.” I stare down at his hand, but I don’t reach for it.
“I know who you are,” I merely say, feeling the blood run cold in my veins. I lock eyes with him, once more waiting for a spark in his eyes as he remembers I’m his stepdaughter, but that moment never comes.
“Oh, I see. Have we fucked before?” he throws at me, and I feel my blood unfreezing and starting to boil; it rushes straight to my head, and I feel my cheeks burning up. Did he really ask me that?
“So it’s true, you’re as much of an asshole as everyone says,” I sigh, picking up my whisky and taking a gulp. The amber liquid burns its way down my throat, and I struggle against the avalanche of indecent thoughts filling my mind. The moment I heard the word fuck on his lips, an image of his naked body pressed against mine flashed right in front of my eyes, and now my heart’s racing because of that.