Wednesday, 8:05 am

Buried in my bed sheets, my phone woke me with its incessant buzzing. I blindly reached for it without success and cursed as I reluctantly opened my eyes and began sorting through my blankets, looking for the damn thing. During the process, my phone stopped, which made it harder to find. The entire time, I had to remind myself where I was and what had happened over the last five days. Inheriting billions of dollars, buying a company, and fucking numerous hot women who threw themselves at you was something that most people could only dream about, so it took a bit of convincing that I had received a lap dance and blowjob from my ridiculously hot assistant last night.

I finally located my phone and glanced at it to see a missed call from Helen and a text:

‘Turn on the news. Doesn’t matter which network.’

I grabbed the remote, turned on the television, and scrolled through the channels till I found the first one that resembled a news network. A blonde, blue-eyed woman was in the middle of a report with a picture of my grandfather’s face superimposed next to her.

“...cause of death hasn’t been confirmed, but officials say that at this time, there is no indication of anything other than natural causes. What has much of the country on edge, though, is the burning question of who Gerrard left his estate to.”

“That’s right, Melody,” a man said, and then the camera panned to focus on him.

“For years, it’s been left up to speculation on who would inherit the Gerrard empire. It’s no secret that there was a rift between one of the wealthiest men in the US and his children.”

The screen cut away from the news reporter to show a clip from an old interview of Colin Gerrard speaking to an off-screen interviewer, “Have you decided who is going to take over your controlling shares at Gerrard Holdings?”

Colin leaned forward, his hands steepled in front of him and bushy eyebrows drawn low in consternation. “Well, I can sooner tell you who it won’t be,” Colin said. His voice had the raspiness of a man who had smoked most of his life.

“So, you don’t know?” the interviewer asked.

“‘I can’t say at this time’ would be more accurate,” Colin responded.

The screen cut back to the male reporter, “However, an anonymous source has confirmed with the Affiliated Outlet who is to receive the keys to the Gerrard kingdom.”

An image of my face flashed on the screen next to the newscaster, and I immediately sprung to my feet on the California King mattress.

“Oh fuck!”

“Marcus Leonard Upton has been named the sole heir of the Gerrard empire.”

“Shit!”

“The estate, which includes several companies across the entertainment, technological, hospitality, and fuel industries, makes this man one of the wealthiest in the United States.”

“What the fucking fuck!?”

I jumped off the bed and started searching for my clothes. My phone screen was already on Helen’s text, so I hit the call button.

“Economists estimate Marcus’ net worth to be around seven billion dollars.”

“Wait. What?”

“Hi, Marcus.”

Helen answered the phone without the usual husky tone in her voice. This was business Helen, which I needed.

“Helen, what the actual fuck?” I said, hopping around on one foot as I tried to throw on the pants from yesterday. Remaining in my underwear while I was being outed to the entire world as a billionaire felt too vulnerable.

“I don’t know, Marcus,” Helen said. I could hear her furiously typing away at a keyboard. We’re looking into it right now. The break-in and the leak both happening yesterday can’t be a coincidence. Someone obviously has it in for you. I know you didn’t want the news to spread, but that ship has sailed, so we should commit our resources to damage control and finding out who did this and why.”

There was a knock on my door and I snatched my shirt off the bed before going to answer it.

“Who is it,” I yelled through the door.

“Erin!” came a muffled response.

“Who is it?” Helen asked over the phone.

“It’s Erin,” I replied as I threw open the door.

Erin stood in the doorway looking completely different than she had last night. It was hard to do anything other than stand and gape. Her exotically colored hair had been pulled back in a loose bun that left strands of hair falling loose around her face in a subtly messy style. It looked more artistic than sloppy. A pair of thick-rimmed glasses framed her big, dark-brown eyes and magnified them slightly. Her makeup had been reapplied - a dark shade of lipstick, black eyeliner, and a bit of blush that gave her a hint of goth, while remaining on the correct side of looking professional. She wore a suit jacket left open to show a loose cream blouse underneath that showed off almost no cleavage and a pair of pants that did a magnificent job of accentuating her small, tight ass and hips. It was all complimented by a pair of heels that added an extra two inches to her height. She was the perfect blend of professional and sexy.

She didn’t look me up and down and give me the shit-eating grin she’d given me last night despite me being bare-chested. Instead, she pressed one of the two coffees she held in my free hand and brushed past me to enter the room.

“Good morning, sir. Hot latte with an extra shot, two pumps of cream, and one sugar… just how you like it.” She glanced at the phone pressed to my face, “Is that Helen?”

“Yeah,” I said, suddenly remembering I was on a call with my lawyer dealing with the fact that I’d barely been able to hang onto the biggest secret in my life for less than a week.

“Good,” she said, glancing over my shoulder at the open door to the bedroom. We could see the news on the TV from where we were standing. “I take it you’ve seen the news?”

I nodded.

“Has Erin seen the news?” Helen asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Good. Put her on speakerphone, please.”

“Alright. It’s done,” I said, laying the speaker on the bar nearby so I could finish getting dressed.

“Erin, I’m reaching out to some of our contacts at the Affiliated Outlet to see if we can get to the bottom of this, but I don’t think they would give up the source.”

Erin had already pulled out her phone and typed furiously, “Probably not.”

“Could you go ahead and start vetting private investigators?”

“Yep,” Erin said, “Helen, is the purchase of the Dunbar building or Marduke easily traceable?”

“No. We purchased them through one of Gerrard’s shell corporations,” Helen responded.

Erin looked at me, “Sir, I don’t know how long it’s going take someone to catch on that you’ve ordered a room here. I have a car downstairs. Since they covered the purchase of Marduke, we could get you there and out of the public eye pretty quickly.”

“I used to work there. You don’t think they’ll go snooping around?” I asked.

Erin shook her head, “I’m sure a few people will poke around looking for a story, but we can get rid of those pretty easily. No one will get to you here, but the longer you wait to leave, the more they’ll likely swarm outside the casino. Then you’ll be stuck in a siege. We can figure out what to do next once we get to the Dunbar building.”

“She’s right,” Helen said. “Dunbar’s security can let any investigators know you no longer work at Marduke. Billionaires don’t need to work as financial analysts.”

That all made perfect sense. “Okay. Let me just get my stuff.”

“Alright,” Helen said over the phone. “I’ll meet you at the Dunbar building, and we’ll go over a strategy to deal with all this.”

I heard her hang up the phone on her end as I ran back into the bedroom and grabbed my wallet and card key off the end table. I’d collected some of my belongings while at my apartment yesterday and considered taking them with me.

“I have this room for a week. I’ll be able to come back here, won’t I?”

Erin shrugged, “I don’t know, but if you need someone to come and get the rest of your stuff, I can always come back. Either way, I suggest we get going soon. This news is pretty fresh, but it’s not going to take them long to figure out where your apartment is, that it was trashed, and that you’ve been staying at this casino since it happened.”

Agreeing with her, I followed her out the door. Erin led the way with the help of someone from security through the kitchens to the back of the casino where the car we’d used yesterday was parked. We managed to get in and move away from the casino without any confrontation and headed toward Marduke.

Wednesday, 9:15 am

I’d gotten to Marduke without coming across a single reporter or paparazzi, which Erin said was incredibly lucky. Once there, we made a beeline through the lobby without looking anyone in the eye. Entering the elevator, we went straight to the top. Once in my office, Erin headed to her own office to work on finding a private investigator.

“I’d recommend staying off the phone,” she said. “Don’t call anyone. Don’t answer calls, texts, emails… nothing. Radio silence till we figure out a strategy.”

Assuring her that I understood, then she set to work, abandoning me to the silence of the office and my thoughts.

I leaned back in my chair and contemplated how all this could have happened. I had no real idea of knowing who was aware of my inheritance. Obviously, YPV’s team knew about my connection, as did a handful of people at my primary banks. The people in Marduke knew something had happened. There was Gina, who I’d fired right after officially taking over the Gerrard estate, but she had no way of knowing about the connection between my late grandfather and myself.

What about Bobbi?

She knew I’d come into a large sum of money. I’d told her as much, but I never mentioned where I’d gotten the money from. She had no way of connecting the dots, right? Had I left some paperwork at the hotel for her to find? I started second-guessing myself - Bobbi certainly would have had the motive to out me, but did she have the means? The more I thought about it, the more uncertain I was about my caution around Bobbi.

I reached for the phone and dialed Bobbi’s extension, hoping she had come in. On the second ring, she picked up and said, “Marduke Analytics. This is Bobbi Nanford.” Judging by her tone, you wouldn’t have thought she had just lost all her assets and had been blackmailed into being at my beck and call. She sounded completely normal.

“Hey, Bobbi,” I said. “Glad you made it in today.”

“Oh.” Her tone grew flat and disappointed. “What do you want?”

I had no idea how she could heat my temper so quickly. I was usually an even-keel guy, but Bobbi had this uncanny ability to know exactly the right thing to set me off. Until a few days ago, I’d responded by being intimidated. Now, I was just mad.

“Shut the fuck up, finish what you’re doing, and get the fuck up here. You have thirty minutes.” I hung up the phone, not waiting for a reply from her, and stewed on the fact that Bobbi had every reason to want me to suffer. The more I mulled over that fact and questioned whether or not I’d left something out that I shouldn’t have for Bobbi to see, the more convinced I was that she had leaked my business to the world.

My phone buzzed on the desk, and I glanced at it; it was my mom, calling for the third time within the past hour. I picked it up and hit decline, then scrolled through my notifications. Since the story broke this morning, I received calls from my mom, dad, Dillon, and four other close friends. There was a call from Natalie. I had five missed calls from my brother Jacob and two from my youngest brother Richie. There were a few more from more distant relatives and several I didn’t know. Strangely, the only immediate family member who hadn’t called was my older sister Emily. Since she and I had the closest relationship, I would have expected at least one call from her already.

I sighed and let my head fall back against the chair’s headrest. I would have to start talking to my family and fill them in on the situation. My missed call count was a statement of that fact. What should I tell them? Did I need to disclose how much actual money I had? That I owned the vast majority of a holding company that owned huge swaths of some of the most successful companies in the world? Should I tell them that it was just the tip of the iceberg of how much my grandfather actually controlled?

I closed my eyes and tried to center myself. Was this situation as bad as it seemed? Were Erin and Helen overreacting? What was the harm in simply embracing the status of a wealthy mega-corporation owner?

I heard the door to my office open before I had a chance to think about it too much. Assuming it was Bobbi, I snapped at her, “Shut the door behind you.”

“Rough day?”

My eyes flew open and I looked toward the door to see Helen closing the door behind her as she looked at me with a small smile. I smiled back at her and said, “You could say that.”

Helen nodded and approached me. “Understandable. I don’t think it’s going to get any easier.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting up in my seat. She approached me, and I got the same sort of feeling from her I usually did - a sexy professional in full control of any situation she was in, who was there to look out for me in all the ways she possibly could.

I reached for her, and she drew closer, sliding on my lap as I wrapped my arms around her waist. She snaked her arms around my neck, gave me a languid kiss, and played with the hair on the back of my head. After a few indulgent moments, she pulled back.

“Well, I don’t know who leaked the information,” she said, her lips tight in disappointment at her efforts.

“Shit. Really?”

She nodded, “It’s perplexing. The pool of people who know about your situation is small, yet I can’t find evidence of anyone leaking anything. I had our firm’s IT department and Andrew’s team scour email servers and look through phone records and cameras. We only identified five possible suspects, but all of them have been ruled out.”

“Which five?” I asked.

“One of them is a legal aid, but she works for a different department and isn’t even aware of your name. The next is the bank manager at First Colonial Bank, which is where we have a lot of your liquid assets parked. We couldn’t account for two and a half hours of her day, but it turned out she had to pick up her sick child from school and take her to the doctor. Gina could be a possibility. Erin might have a private investigator in mind who is going to track down that angle.”

“The other two?” I asked.

Helen waved a dismissive hand. “I wasn’t counting Gina. The others are Natalie, Bobbi, and Ashlee.”

Goddamn. Three - four, if you counted Gina - who were directly linked to my shenanigans. It sounded like I was the weak link.

“We’ve been able to rule out Ashlee and Natalie. Ashlee went missing for an hour when she met up with you. I’m not sure why she didn’t notify anyone where she was going during business hours, but it appears she went directly to the coffee shop and then back to the office. As for Natalie, Andrew confirmed she was in her office all day.”

“That leaves Bobbi,” I muttered, strengthening my suspicions. She had a motive. She also had opportunity, seeing as I left her to her own devices all day yesterday. The fact that the professionals had her on their shortlist was a very significant nail in the coffin.

Helen placed her hands on the sides of my face and directed my gaze to hers, “Marcus, don’t worry too much about it. If Bobbi did leak information, it’s only that you inherited the Gerrard company and name.”

“There’s also the other stuff,” I said, referring to the very rough and questionable encounter she and I had the night before last.

“That’s nothing. We can make that go away relatively easily, and if she’s a larger thorn in our side than we anticipated, we can always silence her.”

My eyes widened, “You mean… kill her?”

Helen’s eyes widened a fraction, “What? No. Pay her off! Jesus, Marcus! This is the real world! Not a bad novel!”

“Sorry. I just…”

“No one can blame you for the thought crossing your mind,” Helen said. “I’m sure more than half the analysts who worked with her have imagined shoving her out of a window.”

I grunted a response, still working through the implications of Bobbi going to the news.

“You won’t enjoy the anonymity you wanted so badly,” Helen said.

“Yeah.”

“How many calls have you received?”

“Twenty-two,” I said, then checked my phone. “Scratch that. Twenty-seven.”

Helen pulled my gaze back up to hers once more. I could feel her thumb brushing my cheek as we exchanged looks.

“Don’t worry about them. Listen to me. Just by inheriting the holdings from your grandfather, you are already culpable in several crimes.”

“What?”

I had to run her words through my brain’s processor several times to verify that I heard her correctly. Did she just tell me I’d inherited crimes as well as money, and she only thought to mention it now!?

Helen shook her head and dipped it down to capture my lips between her own. Neither of us said anything as the kiss continued, and my desire to want to know more wrestled with my lust for my beautiful, blonde, angel. Finally, she broke the kiss.

“It’s nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing that should ever concern you as long as you have a good team of lawyers on standby. I’m telling you that you’re involved in things that would get a normal person imprisoned for life. It comes with the territory of being the wealthiest man alive. And it’s mine and Erin’s job to prevent that from happening. Moving forward, you need to be cautious about what you say and do. You need to be careful of what you leave lying around, and you always need to make sure Erin, myself, and anyone else on your staff knows what they need to know in order to make sure we can do our job.”

It felt like Helen was reprimanding me, and I opened my mouth in protest. Sure… I probably could have made better decisions over the last few days, but had Helen given me this speech sooner, I might have.

However, as soon as I opened my mouth, there was a knock on the door. Erin peeked through the opening and her dark brown eyes took in the sight of Helen sitting in my lap. I glanced at her, feeling guilty, but Helen simply looked over her shoulder at my assistant, “Yes?”

“Sir,” Erin said, “Bobbi Nanford is here to see you?”

My stomach twisted in knots.

Helen slid off my lap and straightened the blouse she was wearing before walking around my desk to sit at one of the two chairs on the other side. I glanced at her, and she arched an eyebrow at me.

I cleared my throat and combed my fingers through my hair, “Go ahead and send her in, Erin.”

“Yes, sir.”

Erin disappeared from the partially opened door and was replaced a few minutes later by Bobbi as she entered the office and closed the door behind her. I immediately wanted to toss the paperweight on my desk at her head and had to restrain myself from doing it. I’m honestly not sure why I slept with her… or why part of me wanted to do it again. Sure, she was a smoke-show, but everything else about her was as palatable as paint thinner.

Bobbi looked as defiant and full of herself as ever, but I couldn’t help but notice the tension in her shoulders as she took stock of the room. The last time she’d been in the same room with Helen and me, I’d humiliated, blackmailed, and slapped her. Judging by her reaction when she spotted Helen, she remembered it too.

“Have a seat, Bobbi,” I said, nodding at the chair.

“No thanks,” she said, her tone clipped. She was trying hard to put on a tough exterior, but the way her eyes kept darting around as if looking for an escape, I could tell she was just as nervous as I was. That made me feel much better about the confrontation we were about to have.

“Fine. Where have you been?”

Any pretense of toughness evaporated, replaced entirely by a look of confusion, “At my desk. I’ve been there all morning.”

“Since I last saw you, stupid!”

“I told you!” she said with a tinge of panic in her voice, “I think the pill made me sick, so I stayed with my friend!”

“Who did you talk to?”

“I didn’t talk to-”

I stood up and rounded the desk, approaching her. I probably looked ready to punch a hole in the drywall. I certainly felt that way.

“Don’t you dare fucking lie to me,” I growled as I halted just inside her personal space.

“I…” she glanced at Helen, her eyes seeking solidarity from the only other woman in the office space. “I spoke to my sister! I told her what happened!”

“What did you tell her, exactly?” Helen asked as she stood up from her seat and joined me. The pair of us had her cornered against the door she’d just walked through.

She glanced between the two of us, looking genuinely scared now. It was almost shocking how helpless she looked after giving me so much grief. Why had I allowed her to walk over me so often over the past year?

“I just told her I was feeling bad. My friend too.”

“Mr. Upton,” Helen said, “You might want to go ahead and press charges against Miss Nanford immediately. She’s clearly saying things she shouldn’t.”

I glanced at Helen, unsure of what her game was. Catching a gleam in her eye, I picked up on what she was trying to do and immediately played along, “Alright, Mrs. VanCamp.”

I turned and reached for the phone on my desk.

“I told them I’d been kicked out of my house, alright!?” Bobbi was nearly hysterical at this point. “I blamed it on my roommates! I also told my sister that I was robbed by an ex and asked if she could loan me some money! She wouldn’t!”

Bobbi immediately buried her face in her hands and slid to the floor, sobbing.

After a few moments of the two of us standing over her huddled frame, Bobbi peered at us through her fingers, “I didn’t give any names! I didn’t say anything! I know better! Please, Marcus. I didn’t say anything to anyone. Please don’t call the police! I’ll do anything! My family can’t find out what I did! They already think I’m a fuck-up! Please!”

I just stared at the pitiful creature crumpled in the corner of my office. Her mascara liberally stained her fingers and cheeks; her hair hung like a wild curtain around her face. She looked distressed and lost… I couldn’t continue to torment this woman, could I?”

I felt Helen’s hand on my shoulder and glanced at her. She leaned close so her lips brushed my ear, “I know what you’re thinking, Marcus, but I’ve known too many women like her. She’s an entitled, vicious brat. If you don’t get her under control, she will be a liability.”

Moments passed and Bobbi’s sobbing began to calm as I watched her try to pull herself together, wondering what to do. I had no real reason to show Bobbi sympathy, but seeing those liquid grey eyes peering out from a tear-streaked face full of genuine panic… a small part of me wanted to put a blanket around her and tell her everything would be alright.

“Marcus,” Helen said, “This is a defining moment for you. Don’t let this woman set a precedent that will be your downfall. Especially not this one.”

A good man would have simply called the cops and prosecuted her. Or perhaps he would have forgiven her and tried to help her get her life back on track. I wasn’t a good man. I was just a regular guy who had been given an opportunity any other man would have killed for. I could have everything and anything… surely no one could blame me for continuing to take advantage of a situation… to find my own way of righting a wrong.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and walked over to Bobbi. Seeing me approach, she hid her face in her hands and pulled back into an even tighter fetal position. Reaching her, I crouched in front of the scared woman and placed my hand on hers. I gently tugged at her fingers until she surrendered, revealing her blotchy face to me.

“You’re scared.”

We stared at each other for several moments, the silence only broken by her stuttering gasps as she tried to recover from her breakdown.

“You didn’t tell anyone about me at all? You swear?”

She nodded. “I…” she swallowed and had to stifle another sob before continuing. “I… swear. I didn’t say anything. Y-you said you would have me a-arrested.”

“You want to stop being scared? You want to feel safe?”

Bobbi nodded.

“I can promise you safety, Bobbi.”

She simply stared at me. Another sob shuddered through her.

“You won’t have to worry about prison. You won’t have to worry about money. You won’t have to worry about a place to live. You’ll be well-cared for and provided for.”

Her face inched further into view with every promise, interest radiating in her bright eyes.

“Like I told you, I own you, Bobbi. All you need to do is everything I say. Can you do that? Can you continue to honor our agreement? I promise you, you won’t have to worry or be scared about anything again… except making me angry if you disobey me.”

I could feel Helen coming up behind me, but I ignored her. My attention was all on Bobbi as we kept our gazes locked on each other.

“This is your only chance though, Bobbi. I didn’t feel sincerity from you yesterday, so you can understand why I’m suspicious of you. So I’m going to make it very clear to you once more. You agree to my demands before you leave this room, and I’ll take care of you. You don’t, and I’ll make sure you never see the light of day, but there won’t be any forgiveness with me, Bobbi. You do what I say, when I say it. You don’t, and it’s over. You fuck me over, and I’ll make sure wherever you land is an absolute hell. This is your second and only chance.”

I offered my hand to her, palm up. “If you agree, take my hand. Do it, and I’ll believe you.”

For several moments, nothing happened. I could see her light grey eyes flicker from me, to what I assumed to be Helen behind her.

“No,” I growled. “You’re making this deal with me. I’m the only one that matters right now.”

She watched my hand through her wild mat of golden-brown hair as if it were a cobra, and literal minutes ticked by in complete silence.

Then she slowly reached out, wrapped her slender fingers around mine, and pulled my hand toward her trembling lips. I could feel her warm, wet kiss on my palm, and gave her a small smile of approval. I hadn’t asked her to do that, but I appreciated what she was trying to do.

“Good girl,” I whispered as I slipped my hand free of her grasp and used it to smooth the untamed hair on her head.

I stood up and held my hand out to her again, “Stand up.”

She hesitated, but finally obeyed, grasping my hand again in her own as she slowly stood. Her head hung, and she wouldn’t look directly at me; she sniffled and swiped at her nose.

“Strip and go sit on the desk, Bobbi. I’d like to taste you.”

Bobbi didn’t immediately move - she glanced at Helen, then back at me.

I glanced at Helen. Her beautiful blue eyes glowed, and she wore a small smile of approval.

“Helen, would you like to stay and watch?”

Helen’s smile grew into genuine delight. “Thank you, Marcus,” she purred. “I’d love to.”