A Million Guilty Pleasures: Million Dollar Duet (25 page)

“Everything in place?” I asked Mason when we walked inside.

I sat Lanie in the chair behind my desk, and Polly took the one on the opposite side. Like they were planning some undercover sting operation, Mason called Polly’s phone and ran a check to make sure everything was a go.

“Yep. You ready, man?” Mason asked me.

I nodded and looked down at Lanie. “Here goes nothing. Can I get a kiss for luck?”

She rose to stand on the tips of her toes and tugged at the lapel on my suit jacket to pull me to her. Her lips found mine and she wrapped her arms around my neck. That kiss was chock full of words that didn’t need to be spoken. When she pulled back, she pressed her forehead to mine and looked me
in the eye with certainty. “You don’t need luck,” she told me, “but I’ll take any opportunity I can to taste your lips”—as if she didn’t have free access to them anytime she got a hankering.

“We’re meant to be together,” she continued. “So I have no doubt in my mind that everything will fall into place. Besides, you’re Noah P. Crawford, and that name screams success.”

“God, I love you,” I told her, and I fucking meant it.

She smiled, triumphant. “I know, and I love you, too.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Mason lean over and kiss the top of Polly’s head. “Let’s go, man. Don’t want Stone to get suspicious.”

“Knock ’em dead!” Polly said with an encouraging smile. Our own personal cheerleader.

I kissed the tip of Lanie’s nose and turned her loose so I could grab my briefcase. With a wink, I walked out of my office, Mason close behind.

Part of our master plan was to have Mason call Mandy Peters, David’s secretary, to inform her that the meeting had been rescheduled for an hour earlier than originally planned. He’d done that this morning. David would have to rush around like a madman to get ready, but he’d do it, of course, because this was his big chance to bring me down. What he didn’t know, however, was that the earlier meeting wouldn’t include any of the actual Scarlet Lotus board members.

Mason and Polly had handled the setting up of the boardroom, instead of allowing the administrative assistant whose job it usually was to do it. It was essential to the plan that there be no interruptions. Plus we didn’t want to run the risk of someone else overhearing all our personal junk.

Once we got to the boardroom, I saw my plan B sitting in the waiting area outside the door and gave her a nod.

“He’s already inside,” she told me.

“And our guest?”

“Waiting in the empty office down the hall.”

“Good. Keep your ears on in case I need you.”

“Will do,” she said. As I started to go inside, she stopped me. “Hey, handle that shit in there, or I will. You feel me?”

Plan A was to confront David with all we knew and the proof that could ultimately destroy him. If that didn’t work, plan B would go into effect. There was also a plan C, but it was a last-ditch effort, a desperate move that we didn’t want to make unless it was absolutely necessary. I hoped like hell it wouldn’t come to that.

A simple nod of my head in understanding was all the exchange we needed. Turning the handle on the door, I stepped inside.

I had to hide my snicker when I saw David’s bruised and battered face, and I wondered what kind of story he’d made up to explain it away. He was already situated toward the front of the table, next to where his father, Harrison, used to—and sometimes still did—sit at its head.

Harrison had turned his control of Scarlet Lotus over to David, and although he sometimes showed up at the board meetings, it was on very rare occasions and only when something big was on the agenda. I had a sneaking suspicion David had insisted he be present for this one because he really thought he had some shit on me that might finally make him look better in his father’s eyes.

I almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

I took my seat across the table from David with Mason at my side. David, the smug bastard, shot me an I-know-something-you-don’t-know grin that looked mighty painful considering the split in his lip (courtesy of
moi
), but other than that, he kept his trap shut. It was probably the smartest thing he could’ve done. I, on the other hand, found it extremely difficult not to launch myself across the table and kill the fucker with my bare hands. In my mind, I kept seeing him hovering over my girl, trying to take something that didn’t belong to him, something she had no intention of giving freely. But I kept myself in check. It was time to get this shit over with for good.

His assistant was there, of course, but she shouldn’t have been. At least not for the purpose of this meeting. “Get out, Mandy.”

She and David looked at each other and then at me before he guffawed. “Did you bump your head or something this morning, Crawford? Mandy is my assistant. She doesn’t take orders from you.”

I gave him a stone-cold stare. “You and I need to have ourselves a little chat. You like chatting, remember? Only I don’t think you’re going to want witnesses around for this one.”

He laughed. “Have you been smoking crack?”

“Nope,” I said, relaxing back in my chair. “Haven’t been snorting anything, either.”

He flinched, although it was barely perceptible.

“Fine, Mandy can stay. How’s Izzy?” I asked with a smirk.

There it was. The slight widening of the eyes, the straightening of his posture, and then the look away. “The board meeting didn’t get moved to an hour earlier, did it?”

“Nope.”

David cleared his throat and turned to Mandy. “Give us a moment.”

Confused
wasn’t even the word for the expression on Mandy’s face. I’d say
clueless
fit it to a T, as that was what she was most of the time, but she got up and did as she was told, like a good little assistant.

“And what about your boy?” David asked, clearly indicating Mason’s presence.

“Mason already knows everything. He stays.”

“How about you tell me what this everything is?”

“Gladly. But first, do you have my contract with you?”

He grinned and sat back. “That’s what this is all about?”

“Wasn’t that exactly what you planned to make the board meeting all about?”

“If you pulled this stunt to try to talk me out of it, then you’ve wasted your time and mine,” he said. “But if you’re here to wave a little white flag and hand over your half of Scarlet Lotus in lieu of your total annihilation, I might be convinced to accept.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s going to go down like that at all. In fact, I think you’ll be the one handing over your shares before we’re done here.”

“What do you know about Izzy? Better yet,
how
do you know about her? Have you been talking to Scott?” He couldn’t have believed Scott Christopher would rat him out any more than I did. On the other hand, when a ship is sinking, rats tend to hop on board any flotation device they can find to save their own hide. Christopher wasn’t plan A, though.

“Show me your hand and I’ll show you mine,” I challenged.

David sucked at his teeth as he met my stare. His fingers
drummed on the table before him until finally he slid his briefcase in front of him, popped it open, and took out a single sheet of paper. After closing the briefcase, he held up the contract for me to see.

“Here you go, Crawford. Proof that my dick really is bigger than yours,” he said with a smug grin.

I’d seen his dick when it was ramming away into my slut of an ex-girlfriend’s ass. Not even close.

“So what is it that you think you have on me?” he asked.

“I know you’re using cocaine.”

David chuckled, the relief in the sound revealing his nervousness about what I’d had to say. “Prove it.”

“A mandatory drug test from the board will handle that.”

He shrugged. “Fine, but it’s nothing more than a slap on the wrist and my promise to get help for my addiction. I’m still sitting pretty, but nice try.”

“You tried to rape Lanie.”

Again he shrugged. “Her word against mine, and I have proof that she’s a whore. Which means all I have to do is tell the police and the board that she told me she’d make that claim if I didn’t pay her money. Simple case of blackmail. I’m the victim. What else do you have?”

I had plan B.

“Mason,” I said without averting my attention from David.

Mason opened up his laptop, picked up the remote to the projector, and pushed a button. The white screen on the opposite wall lit up with the images of the video Lanie and the girls had recorded from the closet next to Scott’s office at Foreplay.

David broke off our staring contest when he heard his own
voice claiming a kickboxing accident as the reason for his ugly mug. I chuckled because that shit was funny.

I looked at Mason and jerked my head toward the door. He nodded and went over to stick his head out into the waiting area. A couple of moments later he swung the door open wide, and in sauntered Dez with Scott Christopher in tow.

Scott came to an abrupt halt just inside the door, his attention immediately taken by the giant white screen playing an action-packed movie with all the right ingredients of a blockbuster: highly illegal business dealings mixed with very amateurish porno action.

Mason closed the door behind Dez because we were way past the line of inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Scarlet Lotus didn’t need sexual harassment charges on top of the scandalous activities already well under way.

David bolted out of his chair when he saw Scott. “What the hell are you doing here?” I think it was safe to say he was surprised. And maybe even a little pissed.

If the flexing of his jaw muscles and the clenching of fists at his sides were any indication, I’d say Scott was just as stunned and every bit as pissed. The tension between the two of them was so thick it crowded in like the cramming of a dozen people into a phone booth.

Scott looked at David and then jabbed a finger in the air toward the Oscar-winning performance. “What the fuck, Stone?”

Plan B was looking very promising.

“You tell me! I thought you said your place was secure!”

Scott glowered at Dez, and I wasn’t about to have that shit, so I stood up and pulled her behind me. Of course, Dez wasn’t going for any of that damsel-in-distress stuff. I’d swear the
chick was a dude under that skirt if it weren’t for the fact that she clearly was not.

She stepped around me and lifted her chin in defiance. “I recorded that video. Did a pretty good job of it, if I do say so myself. Oh, and I quit. By the way, I’m not scared of you, so if you come after me, you better know I’ll monkey-stomp your goddamn ass.”

Scott waved her off like she was an annoying gnat. I was pretty sure he actually did consider her to be another inconvenience, one he didn’t have time to worry about, which was a good thing. With any luck, he really would leave her alone. The same would not be true for Stone.

My guess was that Scott knew David’s arrogance was what had gotten Scott into this predicament in the first place. Scott had to remedy that right here, right now, or else be prepared to go to war with the drug dealers and influential people he was involved with. It was a given that the suppliers of his cocaine were ruthless killers when it came to protecting their commerce, but he couldn’t discount the high rollers to whom he sold not only cocaine but pussy as well. Their hands might have been baby soft and clean as a whistle, but their money allowed those same hands to stretch far and wide and hire another pair willing to get dirty for the right price.

“Do you have any idea what will happen to both of us if this gets out? Fuck that. I’m not going down with you. You better fix this shit. Pronto!” Scott turned toward me and put his hands on his hips. “What’s he got that you want?”

“Half of my parents’ company … and Delaine Talbot’s contract.”

I’d never seen a person’s face turn that shade of red before.

Scott’s head did this really slow turn toward David that sort of reminded me of Linda Blair in her most infamous role. “You stole the contract?” he yelled.

Naturally, I couldn’t have all the yelling. “I’m going to need you to keep your voice down, Christopher. There are other employees here, and the walls aren’t really all that thick. Speaking of which, I’m told yours are pretty thin as well. Might want to get that fixed,” I said with a wink that went unnoticed because he was still glaring at David with murderous intent in his eyes.

“Oh, stop being so dramatic,” David told him, smug as you please. “The contract is safe, and nobody is going to see it as long as Crawford hands over his half of the company. Relax.”

I laughed. “Perhaps you missed the memo, David.” I lifted my hand toward the screen. “Clearly, I’m in a better position than the chick getting cocaine snorted off her stomach while you stuff your clumsy fingers inside her sister’s pussy like she’s the Thanksgiving turkey at the crack house down the street.”

David smirked. “I’m calling your bluff. We may not be best friends anymore, but we were once upon a time. I know you. You’re too sweet on that little girl to let me make a fool of her publicly. Hand over the company and destroy all the copies of this goddamn video, or I’m exposing you
and
her.”

He was right. I would do anything to keep the secret of our relationship from the public eye, even if it meant watching Scarlet Lotus be run into the ground by the likes of David Stone. But I still had one more trick up my sleeve.

Plan C it was, then.

“Mason,” I said for a second time.

Again Mason got down to business with his laptop, and the
video from inside Scott’s office stopped, only to be replaced with a different scene. This one did more than make my skin crawl. It made something not altogether human take shape inside me. I couldn’t watch, but there was no escaping the sounds of the conversation that had taken place right before the assault. At first Lanie was pissed and David was smug. When she laughed at his proposal, he was the one who got pissed. And then he tried to force himself on her.

My body shook, fists clenching, jaw ticking, leg bouncing. I wanted to kill him. He was in my sights, a big fat-ass bull’s-eye practically tattooed on his already battered face. The worst part about that moment was watching him sit there expressionless while taking it all in. There wasn’t an ounce of remorse in his whole body. When Lanie screamed, I couldn’t take it anymore.