Hudson (4 page)

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.

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 churchwomen 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 deliberately 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.”