Nerthus “How did you find me?” I shrug, scanning the room as we sit in a booth at a bar of the casino. “I’m dating the King, remember?” “I heard the King has long lost the castle as he was exiled,” he scoffs, taking a sip of the amber liquid of the new drink he got himself. Leaning in, I scrunch up my face. “Well, he is back. And we need your help. How much to save a King’s ass?” “Why me?” he asks, gulping. I shrug again, holding his gaze. “You mean business. You are loyal to your highest bidder. No morals, no games. We are ready to pay you any sum to get you onto our side. Also, we go a long way back, don’t we, Mikey?” “Yeah… What tells you that I would take a higher pay from your adversary to betray you?” He scrunches up his face, obviously not liking the pet name. I smile, leaning back. “Like I said. You mean business. And you wouldn’t be that stupid to throw away a nice challenge for a bit of money. Also, as I said, we will double any offer.” “I don’t know,” he says, pin
Nerthus I gulp painfully as I descend a set of stairs to what seems to be a bunker. Even if Arawn’s broad shoulders are perfectly reassuring, I feel a bit lost as we reach what should be Michelangelo’s main operating base. “Ready?” Arawn asks, making me nod. He clears his throat, lifting his hand to pound it against the secured door and a small screen on the right side lights up, showing Michelangelo’s smiling face. “You are late, Your Highness,” he says jokingly, making me chuckle. “Hurry up then,” Arawn growls and a click resounds. I pull my jeans jacket close as a cold wind blows up the stairs just as he opens the door, and we walk into a wide hall where we find Michelangelo, welcoming us with spread arms. “Welcome, it’s this way.” Arawn holds out his hand for me to take, and we follow him through the arched bows of the underground tunnels just as we reach a slightly bigger hall which was dismantled and is now filled with gigantic servers signaling their activity with bli
Nerthus I’m clasping my cup as I stare at the TV spellbound. The news anchor’s voice keeps fading out as I follow the huge letters of the breaking news running along the bottom of the big screen. The news channel switches on to the live feed of Feds coming out of the main offices of the Goldman Group, carrying boxes filled with documents and technical appliances. It took a few days until we saw the first effects rolling out from when the hackers had started working. But when it started showing, I couldn’t get through the day gasping enthusiastically at least once every hour. It was just perfect, and my malicious joy was having a field day. After they got into his systems and could ravage through his files as well as the client records, they planted fake documents perfectly. It didn’t take much longer to have them unfold their destructive potential as they got anonymously leaked to the closest business partners of Goldman, making them believe that they fell for a so-called Ponzi
Danny “Go make yourself an awesome night, please,” Amber looks at me pleadingly, and I lower my gaze to see the many hundred-dollar bills in my hand. My brain cells are already doing some kind of dance to celebrate this, making me miss what she says next, but as I hear Elia respond with a grunt, I know that it wasn’t directed toward me anyway. Just as I’m about to turn towards her again, telling her that I want to watch the game with Arawn, she closes the door in my face, making me jerk back. “Aw, man,” I groan, pushing the crumbled bills into the pocket of my jacket. Elia sighs, laying his hand over my shoulder. “What did you want to do?” “Actually, I wanted to watch the game with Arawn tonight,” I respond, as he steers me to the elevator. Two armed men remain standing at the entrance while we ride down with the third man who was positioned in the apartment to protect Amber. “Sometimes plans get interrupted, but a man always has to be happy when the other gets to change his p
Arawn “And the house in the Hamptons?” I ask while taking a pull from my cigarette. Roger grunts, declining that they got to it. “Michelangelo didn’t find it. He said that he would look into it once again, but he hasn’t called back yet.” I hum, looking back into the bedroom where Nerthus is sleeping peacefully. “But we got the family mansion in Connecticut, and the offices as well as the fancy business tower in the city, Boss. The boys did an awesome job. What should we do next?” he asks, and I let escape the smoke from my mouth. “Go home. And bring the boy home. I will talk to Michelangelo and let you know as soon as possible about what we will do next,” I instruct him. “Yes, Boss,” he says, and I end the call. After finishing my cigarette in peace, I walk back into the penthouse. I would want nothing more than to join Nerthus in bed, wrapping my arm around her to pull her close and breathe in her alluring perfume. But unfortunately, there are still things that have to be ta
Laurent “I don’t know what to tell you, Sir.” “That you are going to fucking solve this, that’s what you want to tell me,” I shout, sensing the bank clerk shrinking on the other side of the line. It’s been hours since I have been talking to assistants over employees over cashiers, but what makes my blood boil is that they never connect me with my personal banker, who is supposed to manage my entire portfolio. “Seeing the pending investigations, I’m afraid that I am not allowed to unfreeze any of your assets,” she says in a shy tone which angers me even more. “I don’t know why I’m talking to you anyway. Can one of you useless people finally connect me with the portfolio manager who is in charge of my accounts?” I hear her scroll through a bunch of papers before typing furiously into her keyboard. “I’m sorry, sir. But Mr. Miller is not available at the moment.” “This is bullshit,” I bark out, cutting the call. Pushing out a deep sigh, I hold my hand on my eyes. The limousine sha
Nerthus I gasp, turning towards Arawn as Goldman takes up on my invitation and walks towards us. “Can we ask him if Danny can keep the dog?” “No,” he chuckles, taking a sip of his drink. “And we are not keeping the dog.” I pout as I want to keep the dog as well. “But we would be saving him. Goldman wouldn’t have the funds to keep him anyway.” Arawn cracks up as Goldman reaches us and holds out his hand to greet him politely. “Hey, Goldman, so nice to see you again.” I smile, keeping my hands around my glass of champagne as I watch the men greeting each other. “Likewise,” he mumbles in response and pulls at his jacket but doesn’t proceed in introducing his company to us, so I guess she is bought company. He is probably regretting paying for her as he could use the money. Poor girl. “Well,” I say with a smile, putting my hand on Arawn’s arm. “We just had the most fantastic time in Sicily. Have you ever been in Italy, Laurent? It’s magical.” He distorts his face into a mask of
Arawn - A few days before I step up the last stairs to reach an impressive garden. Even if it is full of bushes, trees, and flowers, making it look as if the plants were growing rampant, I can recognize that it is taken good care of. I walk towards an old man, who is about to trim a bush of roses with a set of garden shears. “Apologies for this informal reception, but the sun is out rarely today, and I can’t risk them shrinking just because they think that I stopped caring for them,” he explains with a rough voice, taking his time to finish before turning to me and slipping off his gardening glove. I take my hand out of my pocket to shake his hand. “No worries, I’m glad that you found time for me on such short notice, Mr. Goldberg.” “Your friend surely knows how to be convincing. Why don’t we take a seat?” he chuckles, pointing towards a table and chairs sitting under a small pavilion. He lets himself slump into the chair with a groan as we sit down and as if on cue, a maid app