The Willingness to Burn (12 page)

Chapter 21

“What’s new and exciting?” Jace asked as he walked into Dexter’s office. Dexter’s office was a large room with floor to ceiling windows on the 47
th
floor—a perk to coming with Jace when he made the jump from Shooter and McManus. Dexter was behind his desk wrapping up a phone call and extended a polite, “One minute” finger. Jace nodded and took a seat on his supple leather couch.

“Great, so we’ll see you on Friday then,” Dexter said into the phone. Dexter laughed. “I bet,” he said and hung up the phone.

“New and exciting? How much time ya got?” Dexter beamed proudly.

Jace smirked. “ I got all day.”

Dexter stood up and patted his tie down then rounded the desk and took a seat opposite of Jace. Jace was the boss, but he was not the boss when they were the only two people in the room. When it was just the two of them, they stood on equal ground. Two friends who had shed the bonds of their previous employment to build something themselves. Two partners with mutual interest, symbiotic beings. And it was a friendly informal meeting, as most of them were.

“All right, for starters, we got forty million coming in on Friday. You remember that guy who bought out all of those patents?”

“Yeah, Jerry, right?

“Yeah, that’s him. He said if we can really give him 20%, he’ll have another forty for us next year.”

“Patent business is good I guess.”

“The way he describes it, there’s next to no overhead. He doesn’t do production or manufacturing, anything like that, he just licenses them out and collects the checks.”

Jace leaned his head back. ”Really? Dex, I think were in the wrong business.”

Dexter chuckled. “Yeah, right?” So, anyway, he’s Friday. Next, two of our FNG’s are fucking killing it with cold calling.”

“Nice.”

“We’re locking down a few new small accounts every day.”

“That’s good, the small ones will take us to the bigger ones.”

“That’s what I told them, and they’re all accredited, so they have the money. Just have to show them what we can do.” Jace nodded. “We tweaked the script a bit at the end of last week and raised the minimum to ten thousand so were not getting as many, but I think they’re going to end up being better accounts.”

Jace nodded.

“Less buyer’s remorse, less nit picking,” Dexter continued.

“It’s the cheap ones that cause the most problems,” Jace pointed out.

“God, did I learn that one.”

Jace smirked.

“So what’s up on your end?”

Jace leaned forward in his seat. “Okay, so we finally cashed out on the BXE merger.”

“Nice.”

“And we fucking killed it. I was anticipating an 80% annualized return and we’re somewhere north of 150%”

“Fuck yeah!”

“Yeah, so that covers us for the rest of the year on everything we have.”

“Dude, what month is it?”

“Exactly, so we gotta press hard, the rest is all profit.”

“I just bought about a billion dollars of unsecured debt. For dirt cheap. We’re going to see how this one pans out.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Thirty million buy in, three hundred million sell off.”

“Now that I really like.”

“Exactly, so on that note and my hard press note, I’m taking the rest of the week off, and the first few days of next week.”

Dexter laughed. “It’s good to be the boss.”

“Can’t argue that one. And you’re overdue for some time off too. Seriously, you’ll feel better and work better after taking a break.”

Dexter nodded. He was too wrapped up in things to take a break then, but it was nice knowing that the “boss” would support that, and soon enough insist.

“Going somewhere nice, I hope?” Dexter asked, pushing the focus back on Jace’s trip.

“Going to check out the final renovations for the house in Costa Rica.”

“I gotta get down there sometime.”

“Yeah, you do; Heather will fucking love it too. If everything goes well you guys should come down for the week. It’s fucking big enough, man. We don’t even have to see each other if we don’t want to.”

Dexter laughed. “All right, let’s see how next week pans out.”

“Pick your rock star and put him on point for whatever you have. If he fucks up, he fucks up.”

“Ehh, it’s not that.”

Jace looked puzzled. “How are things going with the wife?”

“Good man, really good.” Dexter looked off out the window, his mind wandering a bit.

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“Ehh, sometimes I just miss the way things used to be, you know. Like when did we get old, when did the party stop?”

“When did the party stop? How much fucking money did you make this year?”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean, I miss the days of out drinking all night, models in hotel suites, that kinda thing.”

“Yeah, I know. Believe me, dude, I was more into it than you were for a bit.”

Dexter smirked. “Yeah, you were.”

“Look, man. That shit will kill you in the long-term. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun for a time, but after a while it’s just poison. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I got out when I did.”

“Yeah,” Dexter said, unconvinced.

“Seriously. That’s why we do so well. If you were coked up all the time, you wouldn’t be able to run the boiler room or run all these accounts.”

“I beg to differ.” Dexter grinned.

“Not for long, at least.”

Dexter admittedly shrugged.

“Look, man, you know why Bert did so well?”

“Because he was old?”

“Exactly, he had his time in the limelight and stepped out. If you don’t, you end up like Mark.”

Dexter gave Jace the, “Oh God” face “Yeah, shit, you hear from him lately?”

“Last I heard he was out of rehab.”

“I can’t believe he blew through all of that money,” Dexter said, shaking his head.

“Believe it, man. Twenty grand a night adds up really fucking fast.”

“No shit.”

“Add to that a coke habit and three failed marriages. It just spells disaster. Let him be the example of what happens when you stay in the club scene for too long and don’t get out when you get married. I know in hindsight it looks pretty, but in reality, you would look like Mark.”

“Yeah, I guess after a while your body just can’t handle it.”

“Seriously, Dex, a night out of drinking and doing coke might fucking kill us at this age.”

Dexter laughed.

“Mark is forty-five, looks like he’s a thousand, and barely has any money left.”

“Is he really that broke, like seriously?” Dexter asked.

“Yeah, he was asking me to come on with us. I told him if he clocked a year of sobriety then we’d talk about it.”

“Damn, all that money.” Dexter shook his head and looked out the window.

“I mean he’s not
broke
broke, but for someone who once cleared eighteen million a year, he should be set up for life, and he’s not.”

“That’s a goddamn shame.”

“Yeah man, and even if he is sober, he’s still not going to be the same.”

Dexter shook his head.

“Once a substance rules your life, it always will, either in its presence or its absence.”

“Speaking of which—” Jace looked over his shoulder “—we need to restock your bar.”

Dexter smirked. “I was waiting for that.”

“Hey, if I thought either of us had a problem, things would be much different. Let the young guys handle the heavy partying, I’m good with Sundays on the yacht and a drink in my hand.”

“A-fucking-men.”

“We’re in our thirties now, fucking dinosaurs.”

Dexter laughed.

“Speaking of which, I think I’m buying one this weekend.”

“Do it man, you make enough fucking money. And even though it’s not a good investment, I promise, you’ll get a lot more enjoyment out of that yacht then you ever will spending that money at a club.”

Chapter 22

Jace tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair in the waiting room. He had never cared for the feel of a doctor’s office. Everywhere you looked there were signs of sickness. Do you have greenish discharge? Feeling uncomfortable, you need Geralex. Do you have an STI STD or UTI? You need Penicillin or Thepraxin, Levaquill, Pelvic exams. Want a healthy baby? Better take Flurenthall. The general aura of sickness and need in the waiting room was quite literally sickening.

It was almost as though they were banking on it. And as he sat daydreaming, it occurred to Jace that they were quite literally banking on it. This room wasn’t as bad as the ones he was accustomed to. He was just more sensitive to it due to the nature of it all. The constant reminder that something was wrong with you wasn’t as prevalent as it is in a general practitioner’s office. Jace supposed it was because they know that you’re going to be coming back. Not a whole lot of people are having kids without a doctor these days.

Maddy placed her hand on Jace’s tapping fingers, and he suddenly became conscious of his annoying habit and of the other people in the waiting room. She gripped his hand and he smiled at her. Then Jace gave an apologetic look to the other women awaiting their appointments.

“Madison,” the nurse said from the door. Maddy shot her a polite smile. A smile that was laced with the grimace of a name she did not care for.

The two of them stood up and went inside.

A few minutes later, they were holding hands as a shorter woman with the name “Ruth” adorned on her name tag was liberally applying gel on Maddy’s stomach.

“Okay, this might be cold,” the doctor warned her as she lathered her up, almost too late to be a warning at all.

Maddy smiled.

“Okay, let’s see if we can find the little one.” Doctor Ruth placed a thick remote-control-looking device on Maddy’s slightly swollen stomach and began moving it back and forth.

“Okay, there’s the heartbeat.” Maddy squeezed Jace’s hand and the two smiled.

“Annndd …. There…,” Doctor Ruth paused, letting her eyes pull away from the monitor and land on Jace and Maddy. “Do you guys want to know the sex?”

“Yes,” Jace said in dire anticipation.

“Yes,” Maddy said, considerably calmer than her husband.

“Well—” she glanced back down at the monitor as though checking to be sure “—it looks like you have a little boy on your hands.”

“Yes!” Jace cried out loud and threw his hand up to high-five Maddy. He was ecstatic. Although he continued to say all he wanted was a healthy child, it was quite evident that he had his heart set on a little boy. And he had just won the birth lottery as far as he was concerned. A young man to carry on his name.

She laughed and gave him the high-five he was so desperately waiting for. Jace continued to pace about the room as though his team had just scored a touchdown.

“I take it you had a preference?” Doctor Ruth jeered.

Jace broke from his victory dance and calmed his tone much like an actor would falling into character. “Well, not a preference per se.”

“Yes, we had a preference,” Maddy said.

“Well, then, congratulations,” Doctor Ruth said with a smile then glance back at the monitor as Jace continued his victory dance.

“He looks like a healthy bo—”

The doctor stopped and looked intrigued. Her head tilted like a dog who just heard a whistle for the first time. She studied the screen carefully, and her faint polite smile faded to a look of ominous concern. Jace broke from his victory dance and his expression of joy turned to a peer of intent as he studied the doctor’s face.

“There seems to be something…” The doctor moved the machine around on her abdomen. “There appears to be something on your pancreas.”

“My pancreas?” Maddy asked. She was not hooked up to a heart rate monitor, but she supposed that if she was they would hear her heartbeat begin to accelerate as her anxiety pushed the pedal to the floor. And in just that moment, she was reminded of the last time she had heard a heart rate monitor, and anxiety gave way to terror.

“Yes.” The doctor continued to maneuver the machine around her stomach, then more focused on her upper abdomen.

“Wha-What is it?”

“I’m not sure, you should definitely have it looked at, though.”

“Well, what do you think it is?” Jace asked with growing concern.

Doctor Ruth finally peeled her eyes off of the monitor. “That’s hard to say. Have you been experiencing abdominal pain?”

“Yes, but we figured it was just with the baby and it usually came around when I would eat.”

“Worse with spicy foods?”

“Yeah, we’ve stopped them all together,” Maddy responded innocently. Her mind was racing.
What could it be, and how would the baby react?

“What is it?” Jace asked sternly, his eyes fixed on Doctor Ruth.

“It looks like it might be a cyst or a tumor.”

“Oh, God.”