Two hours later, I wandered back into Derek’s apartment, positively lost and spent. I was whipped, tortured and defeated … and I never even touched Holly. I felt like I’d run a marathon.
I quickly found Derek and he looked at me with hopeful eyes but he also quickly took in my appearance. I had loosened my tie and been wringing my fingers through my hair so it was likely a mess. I left my suit jacket in the car and I had pulled my shirt out of my pants, needing to feel … less constricted.
“Dude, are you okay, you look like shit,” he asked.
I threw the file on the counter in front of him and just said, “she’s in, but do your own interviews from now on … I’m … taking the rest of the day off.”
Fast forward about three years … things with Maxwell were progressing rather well, Derek was able to scoop up some more stock and buy off another board member. Derek took us all on vacation to Hawaii last month, it was totally awesome. I mean who gets this kind of boss?I had no clue what I did right in my life to land this “job” but it really wasn’t even a job. I mean yeah there was a lot of actual work, and I was by Derek’s side 24/7 but he was really my brother at this point.He wanted us all to be close and he wanted us all to feel appreciated. That’s how you make a happy and loyal employee.Derek was about three months into dating a girl named Cassie, a stuck-up socialite from a wealthy family … personally hand picked by his mother. I was honestly sh
I went looking for my phone and texted Derek, “where you at?”He wrote back, “be home in ten you wanna order something?”“Yeah I’ll do it now, meet you in your kitchen in a few.”I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower then made my way upstairs. Derek was already there, sitting on a barstool.He gave me one look and said, “what happened … you look … ohh man who is she?”He laughed and looked at me impatiently.“Dude I … I don’t know what the hell just happened. I ... fucked Holly,” I said, sitting down.&ldq
The next day Derek dragged me to lunch with a rather unique friend of his, named Haven. She was in her early 40’s and even though she was gay, she ran a matchmaking service for mostly straight people. She hired me out here and there to vet employees for her and even a couple quirky clients.Derek had known her some years and had helped loan her some money to start her business. He would tell me stories every now and then from their gossip lunches, but I rarely went.We met up at a quiet Mexican place I’d never been to, and since I was still practically hung over I stayed away from getting a drink. But Derek, he got right back to it.“So Heath, nice to see you as always … interested in me fixing you up yet, huh huh huh,” Haven said.
Fourteen Months LaterIt had now been about five years since I began working for Derek, and I still felt like a lucky son of a bitch. I didn’t know how I got so lucky to get this job, and I didn’t take a day of it for granted. We were getting more certain that the takeover was going to happen roughly in the next year, but we were also up against another important deadline: Derek’s trust fund.If he didn’t get married by 30, he would forfeit any right to it and it would then pass to his children, should he be married and have them by 35. I was starting to get on board with his grandfather in the sense that he may want to just hurry up and marry any woman, just get her in a hell of a prenup.I mean, he had less than a year now to make this happen. How could you just sa
We ended up at the restaurant for about another hour, with Derek and Haven going back and forth some more. I had to admit I was kind of fascinated with his premise myself. I don’t think I could possibly have the self control not to look at a girl who might be my dream girl.I mean I’ve waited so damn long, and just had this image of her, if she were right in front of me I’d have to see her. There had been many women that I thought were perfect for me, and then in bed it was a mess. But, there had been vice versa as well.We had met with Haven on Tuesday, and she said she’d meet with Eve the next day. We were spending Wednesday and Thursday in New York for some meetings, but we were both on edge, dying to know what Eve would say.I wasn’t even trying to sleep with her b
~Derek’s Point of View~Friday night, I didn’t sleep at all. It took every possible ounce of restraint not to just call up Eve and ask to see her right then. I wished I had recorded our conversation, even though it was short, her voice was in my head and I couldn’t think about anything else.If there was any chance in hell she could be the one, I was going to grab her with both hands and not let go. If somehow, she wasn’t the one I was pretty sure I was just going to fucking give up.Of course to Eve at this point, I was likely just some rich asshole that had a kink to work out. I was desperate to know what she was thinking, how she felt about all this.Saturday night came and I got to the room really early, about 7
"Come up here baby girl.”She moved up to me and I laid her on my chest. I was still panting a bit but I was trying to calm down.Her little voice came from the dark, “is there a minibar by any chance, I could really use a water.”I smiled, “what are you reading my mind, I just thought the same.”I kissed her head and got up to feel my way over to the fridge. I got two bottles of water and came back, feeling for her hand.“Here baby, it’s really cold,” I said, connecting with her.I heard her shuffle around a bit, drinking her water and I really wanted to take her in the bath, I wanted
~Heath’s Point of View~Derek and I were at lunch, he had woken me up early as fuck this morning to rub his amazing night in my face. He was basically ready to propose and I told him to pump the breaks a bit.Eve was so young, she couldn’t possibly be ready for this crazy life. They didn’t even know anything about each other. But the more I thought about it, and saw the crazy change in him, I knew that if it were me finding my redhead, I would probably be doing the same. I just needed him to see the full gravity of what he was doing from her perspective.“Dude I just still can’t get past the fact that you didn’t turn on the light, you must have the willpower of a saint,” I said, stating the obvious.
~Heath’s Point of View~This is it, the day I’ve been waiting for my whole life. My perfect redhead, my dream girl. Only she’s not a dream, she’s real, and she loves me. She loves me and she’s giving me a baby.I couldn’t even wrap my head around it all still, and I just knew I’d cry at the wedding. I hated that my dad couldn’t be here, but it meant everything to me that we could speed things along for my mom’s sake.I’d had dinner sent to Liz’s room, Chinese food to honor our first night together. I had a special fortune cookie made for Beth with a slip of paper in it, asking her to marry me. Around the paper was an engagement ring.She wasn’t going to be allowed to come see me t
~Beth’s Point of View~I had started wondering when we might all go back home, but everyone seemed to be happy out here and I didn’t want to rock the boat or seem as if I didn’t like it. Heath really liked being able to see his family, and I did greatly enjoy his mom.There had been a couple times I caught everybody whispering like, hushed voices. They’d shut right up and move on once they saw me. I just thought it was stuff about Miss Reba, but I was starting to get annoyed.Heath better never keep stuff from me, and if he did, I’d punch him in the nuts!Heath’s sisters went on and on at dinner one night about some spa in town, and I didn’t care for that stuff. But as they went on I started to reckon that a m
~Eve’s Point of View~We had been out at the Jackson ranch through Christmas, and it was certainly a much more different Christmas than I would have imagined a month ago.I also wasn't thrilled to have my ankle in a cast but I was dealing with it. There was still total radio silence on Haven and her brother, but Derek still had everyone possible trying to track them down.At last count, his hackers were able to recover about $39 million of the ransom, which we all thought was pretty remarkable.It was great to meet Heath’s family, and they were the distraction that I think we all needed. They knew nothing about what had happened to Beth and I, and I was so glad for it. Being around our group would have given me nothing but sad, pitiful faces.
~Beth’s Point of View~“Ugh my momma keeps callin’, lemme see what she wants,” I said to Heath.I ran out of the hospital waiting room and into a stairwell.“Hey momma,” I said, answering the phone.“Bethany I have only talked to you twice in the past month, and now you’re onto only texting me all the time. Explain yourself young lady,” she said.Oh shit.“Well I did text you at least,” I said, lying.Heath had texted her from my phone since it was recovered when they found the car we were abducted in.I h
The cops were trying to get ahold of the landlord to ask about breaking out a wall or taking up the floor and I didn’t give a fuck about all that. I’d buy him a new goddamn building if wasn’t in on the scheme.About four hours went by and I was seriously losing any ounce of patience I had left.Heath had me on speakerphone in his pocket so I could roughly hear what was being said inside.I heard a guy in the crowd yell that he was the landlord and I immediately rushed him but Mick held me back.A cop went at him, “sir we believe there is a kidnapping victim being held here, is there a basement or a false wall anywhere?”“What, someone was kidnapped? You think they are here?”
~Derek’s Point of View~It had now been nearly two days since Beth was released and I was really close to losing my shit. There was just nothing more we could do, we were totally helpless.The kidnappers had been more than careful and if I hadn’t been so insaney furious I might have admired their work. They had to have slipped up at some point, we just had to catch a break.It was extremely illegal but Mick was running the photo we got of the driver from a street camera through the DMV. It was the middle of the night and everyone was half asleep or actually asleep.Heath and Beth had been holed up in his place and I didn’t want to bother them, not that I had any news.I was in the kitchen
*Warning, this chapter depicts an assault*~Eve’s Point of View~I guessed it to be about a day since they snatched Beth away from me. The whole speech I gave at first about us having a united front and not showing we were scared was pretty much going out the window.I didn’t know what the hell Derek was doing, did he not give them all the money? I had no clue. Since they took Beth nobody has come back. I don’t have much food left and I’m starting to have to fill up my water bottles in the sink.Maybe they’ll just leave me here to starve, I thought.No, they said they wanted me, they have to want me for something … sex? I mean they hadn’t so far t
~Derek’s Point of View~Our hackers were working non-stop to trace the money we already sent. As soon as it hit the bank it went to three other accounts and so on. It seemed like they were just trying to put it through so many places to keep it from being traced but we weren’t giving up.We had the FBI and different forensics teams monitoring the video they made the girls take, but we were getting nothing there.I was completely torn on whether or not to send the rest of the money … I didn’t care about the actual money of course but just the fact that I would be sending it with no guarantee of getting them.After some back and forth we went ahead and sent another 15 million, and decided to wait and see if they responded.
~Heath’s Point of View~All I could think about was how scared the girls had to be. My poor little Beth, my innocent little Beth. She’s never even remotely experienced something like this. I had a Bronze Star, I’d been shot down behind enemy lines. I’d known hand to hand combat, I’d know the terror of a real fight.I never wanted her to have to know anything like that.Derek was in full on control freak mode. This was supposed to be my domain, security. But everything seemed to be moving around me in slow motion, I couldn’t focus.The FBI was able to track down the car and in it was a note with instructions. They wanted 50 million dollars wired over ten different bank accounts.